A Bit of Activist History: Uncle Sam Carrying an Oil Barrel and a Dead Soldier

A Bit of History by John M Repp

This photo comes from the days of West Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice, a group that started organizing against the invasion of Iraq about six months before that war started in March 2003. West Seattle Neighbors was part of SNOW (Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War), a city-wide group that had “chapters” in many neighborhoods. Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation played a prominent role in organizing SNOW.

Steve Boncamp was a member of West Seattle Neighbors and a very good wood carver and artist. He dressed up as Uncle Sam, put an empty 55 gallon steel barrel on his back, and on top of the barrel, put a life-sized model of a dead American soldier that was very realistic. “Uncle Sam” used a walker. Steve was showing us in a very dramatic manner that oil was a key factor in the American invasion of Iraq.

In days of old, and now, critics of the movements against the American war on Vietnam and on Iraq liked to call the protestors “anti-American.” However, a strong case can be made that the protestors were like the Americans of 1776 who believed in the right of people to be independent of foreign invaders and occupiers. Of course, there was a massive contradiction in that the British settlers were themselves invaders of native societies that had lived in America for centuries.