[Newspoetry] short news from seattle

[chyn at onthejob.net]

I have five minutes to write this.

Everyone is okay.  Kathy and Laura are in jail and have been since they
were tear gasses and swept up by the police wednesday around 5:30.  They
had joined a pre-planned steelworkers rally outside of the "no- protest"
zone in Seattle.  The rally turned into a March.  The marchers were
repeatedly and chased , tear gased, pepper-sprayed, and shot at with
rubber pellets.  Kathy and Laura were arrested as they were tryinbg to
avoid arrest - getting out of the way.

They seem to be okay.  We don't know when they will be released.  news is
that laura could leave but has decided to stay with them in solidarity.
kathy and laura are in different jails.  laura is in an old army base.
kathy in the county jail.  they took kathy's glasses away so she is having
a hard time seeing.  kathy hasn't been eating much because the food has
meat in it.

so far it looks as though molly will be staying behind until they get out.

please call the mayor of seattle to advocate for the release of all 500
(600?) who have been detained.

sky, becca, and mark were gassed badly on wednesday.  becca has a burn on
her cheek.  most of us were gassed mildly on tuesday -- the tear gas
carried down the narrow streets in the wind so it blew into our faces and
eyes.

many of us have been unable to participate in any of the remaining
workshops of the week which is a damn shame.  there is a city curfew at 7
PM each night but the busses seem to have stopped running from the
downtown earlier than that (Paul and I were caught downtown wednesday
night at 6:30 pm with  buses refusing to open their doors to let us on).
As of Wed night wthere were storm trooper police driving up and down the
streets although I'm told it has calmed down a lot.

everyone but molly, kathy, and laura (and possibly sky and becca who are
debating staying behind) will be returning this weekend.

we hope to report back to urbana at a  social forum organized event
thiscoming week. hopefully we can talk about the WTO then and not just all
the teargassspectacclestormtroopermilitarization

love,
--danielle