Thoughts on some recent nonviolent occupations in Seattle, and a grand strategy for 2025-6

by John M Repp

Nonviolent occupation is one of the methods of nonviolent action, specifically number 173, that Gene Sharp mentioned in the second volume of his book The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston, Ma. Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973). He lists 198 methods that have been used throughout history and agrees that new ones can be created in the future.

In The Seattle Times of March 16, 2025, the headline on the front page told of a young man, Antonio Mays Jr., who was killed during the CHOP, Capitol Hill Organized (or Occupied) Protest of 2020. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, there was an occupation of an 8-block area on Capitol Hill from June 8 to July 1, 2020.  The young man was shot while he was in the occupied area. His murder has not been solved.

Quoting the article: “In its earliest days, CHOP’s “cop-free” blocks around the abandoned East Precinct felt like a respite from the nightly clashes with police, tear gas and blast balls that had enveloped Capitol Hill for more than a week”. We need to remember that the marches after George Floyd was killed were absolutely huge. It must have scared the establishment. But the marches and other actions were not coordinated by any committee; in fact, there was too much anarchy and libertarianism. CHOP was not a disciplined nonviolent occupation. But there was a feeling of liberation with music in the evening. I did not witness CHOP personally.

But then things changed and took a darker turn. The area started “attracting” guns, drugs, people with mental health problems. Did the police let them in or encourage them to go in? Was there an attempt by the people inside the occupation to keep order and not let illegal open drug use happen or weapons to be brandished, giving the police the incentive to re-occupy the area?

I remember Occupy Wallstreet in Seattle about 10 years before, where I did have first-hand experience. I was there with Mike Yarrow one night trying to get a sense of where this occupation was going.  We attended a meeting in a tent. Later in the week, the police encouraged drug dealers and homeless people to go to the area occupied.  We heard complaints by some of the organizers that rules for the occupation that were agreed to in a meeting were not enforced. Eventually, the occupied area was overrun and then the police could take it back.

I now think this is a method used by the police which they call a “disruption strategy.” If there is an area that is nonviolently occupied by a progressive movement, the police will encourage open illegal drug use and the invasion of homeless people to create chaos, so the police can reoccupy the area. Does the ruling class need homeless drug users to keep itself in power, showing people what happens if you don’t “shape up” i.e. behave according to the rules the oligarchy has laid down?

I remember that with many of the demonstrations and nonviolent actions of the last 25 years in Seattle, many protesting the invasion of Iraq, there was often a police liaison committee. An individual from that committee would meet with the police. The police do not want to be surprised, so in addition to getting a permit for a demonstration, the police learn what is planned so they are not surprised. This is part of the planning of a nonviolent action: some police liaison work.

This does not mean there cannot be a ”side action” that does surprise the police, but then the participants can expect to get arrested. Any “side action” must be part of sending a message to the public and there must be no violence. There must be people trained in nonviolent action to help keep discipline.

Discipline is as important in nonviolent strategy and methods as it is in military strategy. A central body is also as important in nonviolent action as it is in the military. These two ideas may seem contrary to the goal of nonviolent action which is to increase democracy and liberation.

We need to remember that nonviolent resistance, if done right, is more powerful, than violent resistance. And nonviolent action and strategy is just as complex as war. We just can’t organize a big demonstration in the middle of the city and wait and see what happens.

At this moment a website can act as a central body. There is theblop.org (Big Lists of Protests) website that posts demonstrations and actions to protest the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. It asks for the area in which you live and the dates of when you want to find an action to participate in.

Currently, we need to agree on a grand strategy to soundly defeat the ongoing coup by the new Trump administration and create a new progressive upsurge.

Broadly speaking, I envision a two-step process. 1) the first part would be huge nonviolent actions all over the country pushing just a few demands and attempting “to change the conversation.” One of the powers of the oligarchy now is their control of media and “the conversation”….

The demands could be something like a) we must deal with climate change, and we have all the money we need to fund a transition. The Federal government can create money it needs in an emergency (see Modern Monetary Theory) as was the case after collapse of the financial system in 2008-9 and during the Covid-19 pandemic , b) health-care for all and a good education which are human rights and we need them both to deal with the coming climate crisis, and c) we need a progressive Congress, House and Senate in the election of 2026 and we need to find more progressive candidates for Congress, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmin Crockett and Jamie Raskin in the House and for the Senate with candidates like Bernie Sanders, who will retire soon but who proved that with a progressive populist message a Presidential political campaign can be run on small donations.

So, again, a two-step process: a myriad of nonviolent actions beginning now and continuing throughout the year of 2026, followed by victory at the ballot for a progressive Congress in November 2026. The goal should be to establish a social democratic country like Denmark or Norway that will provide everyone with a job or enough income to live well while we prepare for climate change that is coming faster than even scientists a few years ago thought possible. We need hope that the future will be better. There is a way to survive climate change.