Seattle’s Westlake Center continues to be a very busy place this week as the site of several protests scheduled for tomorrow. Although the rallies are being held by separate groups, their messages are related.
Numerous anti-war groups plan to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan. The plan is to march late Friday afternoon from Seattle Central Community College on Capitol Hill down to Westlake Park. Groups will then stage a die-in, during which they will dramatize death by lying down in the street.
Westlake has been the site of the Occupy Seattle protest since last weekend. Jane Cutter with theanti-war group ANSWERsays the idea behind their march goes hand-in-hand with what’s happening at Occupy Seattle.
“We feel that it’s very much one cause. That they are expressing anger over the war. So we see it as very interconnected and the people we’ve talked to down there are very much in sympathy with what we’re doing.”
Cutter says the Afghan war has taken an extensive human toll. She also blames the high monetary cost of the war for limiting how much the U.S. can spend on health care, schools and job creation.
For their part, organizers of Occupy Seattle say they support the anti-war protest and intend to stand together.
