Occupy Seattle Joins Wave of Building Occupations
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 3, 2011, 10:43 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Last night, undeterred by the city's destruction of their original encampment, hundreds of Occupy Seattle supporters occupied a vacant warehouse slated for demolition and condo development. After entering, Occupiers erected barricades, held a General Assembly, and began plans to fix up the space for community use.
Using SWAT teams and a ladder truck, police swarmed the warehouse, making 20 arrests and setting an unsettling precedent for the escalating use of military-style tactics against nonviolent occupiers who are liberating public space.
Occupy Seattle is currently holding a jail solidarity action in front of the King County jail and are requesting all their supporters show up!
Like similar building occupations across the country and the globe, Seattle's occupation of the 10th and Union warehouse signals a new stage of the Occupy movement. Facing a coordinated crackdown on public encampments, occupiers are moving indoors. In the lead up to December 6th, the National Day of Action to Occupy Our Homes, Occupations from Los Angeles to Minneapolis to Atlanta to Boston are turning empty and unused buildings into commonly-held resources for our communities, and defending homes from foreclosure and forcible eviction.