A sign in Sylvester park in Olympia "they cut we bleed revenue is what we need. occupy the Capitol. -- that said things are QUIET in Olympia

(via Twitter)  Richard Thompson ‏ @kirotvsouth

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May Day in Olympia Washington State Wire

May Day 2012 collection

Feel free to add your posts to this collection through the outline feature or through comments.

I did not attend any 2009 May Day events in Oly, did you? Feel free to add to the Oly May Day compilation.

I'm not finding much online for 2009 other than the Semi-Spontaneous May Day 2009 Organizing Committee event notice (dead link) (source of my title quote) and a photo or two. 

Got plans for May Day 2010?

Direct Action can be a powerful act. It can provoke though, shift dynamics, empower and incite. It can also erode alliances, damage communities and bring harsh consequences. Direct Action is a powerful tool and it's use will always have a powerful response, be it positive or negative.

It is my opinion that there are two useful "yard sticks" with which to measure the effectiveness of any direct action, that is to say, there are two primary questions to ask yourself as you plan and engage in any action. Those would be "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" and "Does this action empower others to themselves take action?"

Using these questions as guides we can compare two recent actions from here in Olympia. First, the port actions of last November. For specificities sake, I'm talking about the road blockades, both human and physical. Held up to the first question, "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" I think the answer would be a pretty clear Yes. Blockading the path of military equipment is about as direct as you can get when it comes to confronting the war effort.

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