Peter Bohmer's Web-Page

When Judge Wilcox asked me what happened on March 5th, I said the following:
1) Housing and shelter is a basic human right.
2) Olympia and Thurston County criminalize the poor and homeless.
3) That in response to this increased criminalization of homeless people and as someone who has organized to end homelessness, and in order to take action in solidarity with homeless people, I went onto the parking lot of the abandoned Fish and Wildlife Building on North Washington St. in Olympia on March 5th at about 6:15 P.M.
4) I saw the State Police on the property and heard their order to leave but decided to remain on the property to show my support for the on-site temporary shelter and the people there.

I think it is really important that we demand the U.S. government accept the victory of Maduro. His margin in the recent election was almost as big a margin as Obama in voting percentages in 2012.

He was a great man who has profoundly improved the lives of most Venezuelans, of millions and millions of Latin Americans in the present, and I am quite sure in the in the future for the better. Chávez totally connected with the popular classes of Venezuela …

I strongly oppose the proposed No Camping ordinances. There is a shortage of low-cost and affordable housing in Olympia. Banning camping near City Hall and on all city property will create further hardships for homeless people. It criminalizes people for being homeless rather than making available more affordable housing and other social services. …

PETER BOHMER AND THE OLYMPIA FILM SOCIETY ANNOUNCE:

A Benefit Screening of Anarchist History, Film Festival Hit “No God, No Master”

To Support the Imprisoned Olympia Grand Jury Resistors: Katherine “KteeO” Olejnik and Matt Duran.

With Director Terry Green doing a Q and A via skype moderated by T.E.S.C. Faculty: Peter Bohmer

Sunday December 9th, 2012, screening at 7:30 on beautiful 35mm! at the Historic Capitol Theater, home of the Olympia Film Society:
206 5th AVE. SE in Downtown Olympia, WA. Admission: Suggested Donation $5-15

Challenging the Myths About the Burden of the Government Debt. The U.S., State and Local Government Should Increase Government Spending. States and Local Government should raise taxes, the Federal Government Doesn’t have to.

I remember exactly one year ago today being at Sylvester Park on a Friday evening. It was the beginning of Occupy Olympia Movement. There was an open mike and I mentioned that the war against the Afghani people had begun 10 years ago and that we should continue to oppose it as part of Occupy Olympia and our activism. There was little reaction to my comment. There are protests against this continuing war, small, but happening all over the United States today. We are part of movements in the U.S. and beyond that are standing up, that are saying that we will not let this war in Afghanistan be invisible. Not in our name!

…

What kind of society do the U.S. soldiers come back to? One that you would not know about if you watched the Obama- Romney Presidential debate last Wednesday, one where over 100 million people are poor or near-poor, and where almost ½ of all Black and Latino children are below the official poverty line, where more than 50 million people don’t have any health insurance, over 2 million people are in prison, ½ of whom are African-American, and millions have lost their homes. Most soldiers are from working class families, many who enlisted had the alternative of unemployment; and face unemployment when they leave the military. …

We are living in a period of increased surveillance, especially electronic, and  the use of police at the local, State, and national level to limit protest and  resistance to an economic and social system that is broken and needs to be revolutionized, transformed. … Grand Juries, especially Federal Grand Juries, have been continually used as tools [...]

I am writing in strong support of the grand jury resistors who have been subpoenaed by the Federal Grand Jury in Seattle and to demand that the subpoenas be withdrawn, that all materials taken in the related raids be returned to their owners, and that the Grand Jury end. I thank the resistors for their courage in refusing to testify. This defeats one of the goals of politically-motivated Grand Juries which is to get us to inform and testify against each other—to show that solidarity can easily be broken. I am writing in strong support of the grand jury resistors who have been subpoenaed by the Federal Grand Jury in Seattle and to demand that the subpoenas be withdrawn, that all materials taken in the related raids be returned to their owners, and that the Grand Jury end. I thank the resistors for their courage in refusing to testify. This defeats one of the goals of politically-motivated Grand Juries which is to get us to inform and testify against each other—to show that solidarity can easily be broken. I am writing in strong support of the grand jury resistors who have been subpoenaed by the Federal Grand Jury in Seattle and to demand that the subpoenas be withdrawn, that all materials taken in the related raids be returned to their owners, and that the Grand Jury end. I thank the resistors for their courage in refusing to testify. This defeats one of the goals of politically-motivated Grand Juries which is to get us to inform and testify against each other—to show that solidarity can easily be broken. I am writing in strong support of the grand jury resistors who have been subpoenaed by the Federal Grand Jury in Seattle and to demand that the subpoenas be withdrawn, that all materials taken in the related raids be returned to their owners, and that the Grand Jury end. I thank the resistors for their courage in refusing to testify. This defeats one of the goals of politically-motivated Grand Juries which is to get us to inform and testify against each other—to show that solidarity can easily be broken.

A major problem has been how to build a movement that unites the 99% while simultaneously making central the concerns of the most oppressed–by not having our only talking point be the excess wealth and power of the 1%. How do we build a movement that includes immigrant rights, environmental justice, racial justice and racial inequality, LGBT and reproductive/women rights, anti-war and global justice? Most participants in Occupy are sympathetic to amnesty for undocumented immigrants and against U.S. wars; but these have not been principles of the movement nor put forth as demands. A major challenge of Occupy is how to be simultaneously broad, inclusive and principled.