The PeaceWorks Park vigil was an anti-war protest action that occurred in Gasworks Park beginning Sunday, August 26, 1990 and carrying on through the end of the [Gulf War]. Throughout this period of over six months, including the cold of winter, there was a continuous 24-hour-a-day vigil in the park in opposition to the military buildup and the war itself.
The vigil arose out of a Peace Concert that had been held in the park the weekend before Labor Day. Don Glenn, organizer of the longstanding Peace Concert series (an outgrowth of his days with the Love Family) had addressed the crowd, expressing the irony of continuing the concert series as usual with a war looming. He called for people to stay after and discuss what to do; little did anyone know they would stay half a year.
Initially, the group gathered in and around the Seattle Portable Outdoor Theater (SPOT), a large, circuslike tent/stage that had been erected for the peace concert.
The group's first consensus statement already expressed what were to prove the themes of the vigil. Although the chief focus would be opposition to the Gulf War, it almost equally focused on the creation of a space for free-speech discussion. In keeping with the democracy movement that had so recently swept through the Communist Bloc, there was as much concern with means as with ends:
PeaceWorks Park is a free-speech forum for world peace. We are calling for an end to the U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf region. We are gathered in the center of Seattle's Gasworks Park, exercising our First Amendment rights to speak out: "You cannot simultaeously prevent and prepare for war."
One of the first institutions established were "silent circles" occurring every six hours: at midnight, 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. A flyer from early September announces, "We especially need people for the 6 a.m. circle. Come by on your way to work in the morning. Bring juice, coffee, breakfast rolls, etc."
Meetings typically occurred immediately after these silent circles.
Even the earliest communiques any flyers also reflected the difficulties of holding such an action in a public park. "Come join us. Come speak out!" they called, "Bring food, bring musical instruments," but also, "Please do not bring alcohol or other drugs."
From the start it was clear the the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation wanted the vigil out, and the vigilists were determined to run their vigil in such a manner as not to give them an excuse to kick them out. A September 3, 1990 story in the Seattle Times, about a week into the vigil, records, "Participants at first slept in the park. Friday afternoon they were asked by the Seattle Parks Department to move elsewhere after holding that night's midnight candlelight ceremony."
Although Gasworks was, at the time, a 24-hour-a-day park, there was a rule against "camping" overnight. The rule was written broadly enough that simply remaining in the park overnight, even wakefully, qualified as camping. However, it became clear that as long as people came and went, and no individual was in the park through the night, the continuous vigil was technically in compliance. For a period, the parks department held the vigilists to this absurd ritual; within weeks they relented, and while only few people actually slept in the park, the maintenance of a wakeful overnight vigil was tolerated.
That September 3 Seattle Times story represented a victory of sorts for the vigil: with a story like that in the paper, the vigil's profile was much higher and, hence, their tenure in the park much more assured. It was no accident: about a dozen of the people involved had scrambled like mad for a week to bring together a Sunday, Sept. 2 "Prepare for Peace" rally (speakers, music, etc.) in the midst of the vigil, and to get press coverage for it, in order to shore of the perception of the vigil as a legitimate political action, not just the extension (without permit) of a one-day, permitted concert.
Some of the character of the vigil, and the issues it had to deal with, can be gleaned from the various announced events during roughly the third through fifth weeks of the vigil:
- Saturday, Sept. 8 – "Join most of us at the peace march downtown!... Then come up and join our vigil to continue talking and working toward future actions. (We also need people who can sit the vigil during the march.)
- Sunday, Sept. 9 – 12 noon. Picnic, 2 p.m. Teach-in
- Wednesday, Sept. 12 – 8pm. WORKSHOP. "Consensus: What it means and how to achieve it"
- Thursday, Sept. 13 – 7pm. Open acoustic music (drums welcome till 10 p.m.)
- Friday, Sept. 14 – Sunset Drum Circle.
- Saturday, Sept. 15 – 12 noon. MEDITATION WORKSHOP: Instruction provided by Bemaraj, nephew of Shiva Bala Yogi. Come explore inner peace through meditation.
- Saturday, Sept. 15 – 2pm. Play on homelessness, by Seattle Public Theater
- Sunday, Sept. 16 – 12 noon. Picnic, with speakers from NORML, 2 p.m. teach-in "Our Native Lands"
- Tuesday, Sept. 18 – 8pm. WORKSHOP. "Racism: a poison inside and outside the peace movement"
- Wednesday, Sept. 19 – 8pm. WORKSHOP. "Consensus: What it means and how to achieve it. This workshop proved so popular last week that we are planning a review and a continuation"
- Friday, Sept. 21 – Sunset Drum Circle.
- Saturday, Sept. 22 – 12 noon. Free Speech Picnic
- Sunday, Sept. 23 – 12 noon: Picnic and concert: The Ducks, Venus Envy, Kuli Loach, Innocent Bystanders
- Tuesday, Sept. 25 – 7pm. WORKSHOP. "Drugs, Oil, and other addictions"
- Wednesday, Sept. 26 – 7pm. WORKSHOP. "The future of the vigil" The vigil is one month old. Where we stand and where we're going.
- Thursday, Sept. 27 – 8pm. Acoustic singalong.
- Friday, Sept. 28 – Sunset Drum Circle.
- Saturday, Sept. 29 – noon. ART-IN. All artists welcome. Display your work, create art inthe park... Please respect the Seattle Parks Code: do not attach your works to parks structures... Team projects, political art especially encouraged...
- Saturday, Sept. 29 – 5pm. Poetry: Ricardo Wang, Randy Thompson & others
- Also, a mid-September flyer announces women's meetings every Monday 8pm and every Thursday 2pm.