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TechnoratiTruckers Take Their Case to the Capitol
Truckers live in an alternative dimension, at least so I conclude when trying to figure out how to meet up with the convoy of trucks coming into to DC to protest high diesel fuel prices on Monday. JB, a k a Mike Schaffner, one of the organizers of the action, calls early in the morning to suggest various highway intersections, and I have to explain there's no way a pedestrian can be just standing on one of the superhighways around DC. We eventually settle on a spot in a desolate area of southeastern DC, but even so, I probably couldn't have made the connection without the genes of a grandfather who rode the rails. When I hear the honking, low and steady, and see the first trucks rising out from an underpass, I scramble up to a narrow walkway along their route and start waving frantically. Everyone waves back nicely, and about the fifth truck actually stops. It's JB and I leap aboard.
JB and I have become friends-by-phone in the weeks since I blogged about the first truckers' protests in the beginning of April, but all I knew about him as a physical presence is that he always wears a black cowboy hat. Its brim is turned down, locating him in the west of Larry McMurtry rather than John Wayne, and his eyes twinkle deeply when he smiles, which is pretty much all the time. Everything seems to delight him: being in DC for the first time, having 250 trucks behind him, the friendliness of the tourists on the street as we inch our way toward the Mall.
Since he hasn't been home in Texas since January 1, this -- the "bobtail" of a truck based in New Jersey -- is JB's world. There's a neatly made bed behind our seats and a laptop that can swivel into view while he's driving, as well, of course, as a GPS, a cellphone and CB radio. From this little control room, which is also a workplace and a living space, JB has helped assemble the hundreds of truckers and their families who are with us now. It's a life stripped bare: He ordinarily eats only one meal a day (nothing fried or from a buffet), sleeps rarely (just an hour and half last night) and drinks no coffee ("it leads to stops") but admits to an occasional Red Bull.
We circle the Mall, slowly, triumphantly, twice. It's hard to talk over the honking and the excited CB chatter, but JB wants to know if I've ever been at a demonstration in DC before. Ah, I explain, I go back to the '60s, but the most recent one was an antiwar demonstration organized by the women's group Code Pink. He laughs, making me think he finds the name amusing. But no, he shows me he has Code Pink in his cell phone. They had contacted him and will be joining us at the rally at the Capitol.
We are to park the trucks at the RFK Stadium and walk from there to the Capitol, giving us about a half an hour to mill around on foot in the parking lot first. There's a bobtail with "Truckin' for Jesus" painted on it and, under that, "Truckers and Citizens United." There are Operation Desert Freedom caps and a POW/MIA flag, as well signs indicting oil companies and "Wall Street speculators." I chat with members of the mostly African-American contingent of DC dump-truck drivers and with Belinda Raymond, a trucker's wife from Maine, who tells me that people in her area raised $9,000 to send a convoy of trucks down here, with the Knights of Columbus accounting for $2.500 of that. Whole families have come, and I see a boy carrying a sign saying "What about My Future?" A smartly dressed woman from New Jersey carries a sign asking, "Got Milk? Not Without a Truck."
If there's an ideology at work here I'd call it small-d democratic fundamentalism: We own the government, we pay for it, and now it better do something for us. In fact, JB is carrying hundreds of copies of the Code of Ethics for Civil Servants he's downloaded from the Internet to hand out at the Capitol and remind Congress of their duties. The only time I see his smile fade is when the protest's media coordinator -- contributed pro bono by the liberal think tank The Institute for Policy Studies -- lays down the ground rules for a meeting with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) scheduled for the afternoon. "But he works for us!" JB protests.
On the forty-five-minute march from the stadium to the Capitol, things degenerate toward the level of farce. No one had counted on the rain, which is back in force, or on the fact that, as one guy puts it to me, they're "truckers, not walkers." JB, I and a few others fall behind because JB insists on running back to his truck and changing into a shirt printed with the American flag and Constitution. Our little band includes Mike Groff, a heavily pierced twentysomething from Pennsylvania who is one of the original organizers of the protests, and his pregnant wife, Melissa. JB and Mike take turns pulling a wagon carrying batteries for the sound system that will be used at the rally. The rain turns into a torrent. We trudge through the ghetto, then on into a middle-class neighborhood sporting azaleas and Obama lawn signs, not entirely sure of our direction and soaked to the skin. Melissa reassures me that, if we pee our pants, which seems increasingly likely, no one will notice.
But things look up when we get the Capitol, thanks largely to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who arranges for the truckers to stage a press conference inside the Russell Building lobby and out of the rain. Three truckers -- two white and one black -- speak about their dwindling livelihoods and the need for immediate government action to push down fuel prices. I can't fight my way through the media to hear much of what they're saying, but one speaker mentions foreclosures. This is a wide-ranging cry from the strangled middle class -- or working class or whatever you want to call it -- and all I can think is: Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they are pouring out of their offices to show support for the truckers? And wouldn't have been wonderful if Obama had shown up? Because he's not going to make it unless he learns to channel the frustration of people like JB, Melissa and Mike.
That's just my concern though. The whole event has been strictly nonpartisan. The truckers are already focused on the May 1 Truckers and Citizens United protest in New York City (see theamericandriver.com.) That one, JB tells me, will be in solidarity with the San Francisco longshoremen's May Day actions against the war.
Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed (Owl), is the winner of the 2004 Puffin/Nation Prize.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
18 Comments so far
Show All"I used to think that I was cool running down the road on fossil fuel but now I see that what I'm doin' is runnin' down the road to ruin" James Taylor Roll brother trucker! peas in
Great piece by Barbara Ehrenreich here; if only the Big Media would pay more attention to this important story and stop wasting time on Rev. Wright.
What a contrast between this real demonstration by actual truckers and the fake 'count the votes' demonstration of 100 to 150 people staged in Washington yesterday supposedly by average Floridians who want their illegitimate primary votes for Hillary counted. My God, she's now taken a page from the Bush 2000 playbook by staging phony demonstrations by her campaign workers and her supporters in Congress and trying to pass them off as spontaneous events organized by angry voters. It's ludicrous: How many average Floridians, if they have a job, can afford to take the day off and go to Washington? For that matter, if they don't have a job, how could they afford it? But the BM aren't asking questions like that, except for Keith Olbermann.
Unfortunately, the Big Media barely covered the truckers while giving full play to the Hillary phonies. No wonder so many people refuse to vote.
I agree, Kathyodat (April 30th, 2008 1:53 pm), I think Obama should make a point of showing up on May 1st.
Frank1569 (April 30th, 2008 3:17 pm), good idea -- let's see who really wants to have a beer with the Average Joe -- bet it won't be many members of the exclusive Congressional club or the media likes of fake Everyman 'Morning Joe' Scarborough and his imaginary country. Our political and media elite would have them quietly cleared from the parking lot so that they can get drunk and make under-the-table deals in peace.
The trucks should be replaced with rail, and the freight volume knocked down by a factor of ten, and there should be a complete halt to freeway and road construction. Freight volume has become excessive because the capitalists manipulated the demand for freight. They did this by increasing the supply of fuel so that the fuel price would drop thus making the freight volume increase. This strategy of increasing supply violates the basic assumptions behind markets that Enlightenment thinkers settled on to achieve maximize benefits to the society.
The fuel producers kept their gross sales and net profits the same as the increased fuel volume made up for the decrease in fuel price. But the windfall went to everyone else - truck manufacturers, road construction, and all the increased economic activity that came with increased freight volume. A general increase in economic activity gives all of the capitalist, imperialist and militarist factions of the ruling class a bigger vat of milk to scoop the cream off - the whole planet ultimately. Keeping the people dependent on them is also an essential task.
We might expect the 18 wheel trucks to give way to smaller trucks with the perverted progression of increased economic activity, waste, and plunder, but for the "inconvenient truths" of peak oil and global melting/flooding. The basic lesson is not to depend on capitalists for anything. Everyone shift to localism, and make the long haul truck obsolete along with all of the capitalist's devious ideas.
Thank you Spinoza, above, for warning about peak oil. Supposedly, progressives are also in favor of "saving the environment," because "saving the environment" means, among other things, saving our health. If you google the words "diesel exhaust and health," you will find information from many scientific, public health, and other responsible researchers and organizations showing the relationship between diesel exhaust and serious lung diseases resulting from air pollution. Do the evil elites want eternal economic growth? Well, we in the working class must go along to get along to keep our jobs. Much of the air pollution in the Los Angeles basin and other large city areas comes from diesel exhaust from trucks. If we need trucks, we need Walmart, Exxon, Shell, McDonalds, and every other elite entity.
Yep, racom40, the greedy elite are selling us all to the dogs without a second thought. No doubt they mock us with contempt as well for our stupidity. Even if Paul Revere comes riding down our streets shouting, what good will it do if remain in a drunken stupor?
"Truckers live in an alternative dimension"
Anyone who drives long-distance has been in that alternate dimension, where cities are empty wastelands that you are not allowed to stop in and home is roadhouses along the highway where you can park and go to the bathroom.
Most of those truckers probably voted for Bush twice and are planning to vote for McCain.
"Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they are pouring out of their offices to show support for the truckers? And wouldn't have been wonderful if Obama had shown up?"
Indeed.
Obama...you listening?
The truckers are getting stiffed big time while the monied up people make a fortune in the commodities racket. The currency flow up to the wealthy has turned into a flood tide and we are rewarded with a $600 stimulus check paid with borrowed money, borrowed from us, the tax payers. Our congress is about to authorize another $170 billion for the illegal, immoral war of GWB and we have no health care, education program, jobs program, funds for the veterans programs, energy program. Had Enough Yet???
Go get em' boy's!
Hey, truckers, if y'all really wanna get attention, a little research will reveal our "leaders'" favorite DC restaurants and bars and such.
250 trucks in Georgetown during happy hour. Now that's fun.
Bet you my $600 Dubya-check he doesn't, -BeForKids-.
When that happens will people begin to drop some of their more silly and unfounded beliefs about Mr. Obama and the Democrats?
That would be helpful.
-matti.
In Argentina the truckers went on strike and the stores shelves quickly emptied. Hunger created anger: the President looked very worried when she asked the truckers to start their engines once more, appealing to their responsibilities to the people. In France, the truckers have more than once brought the nation to a standstill. If the independent truckers in the US want to make a difference, they need to make a HUGE statement and really affect the economy! Right now, they're still easy to ignore because there's too few of them taking a stand. I stand 100% behind their efforts, because even if their industry is not sustainable, they are small business owners and they are being seriously impacted by the greed and stupidity of the oligarchy.
I think it would do a lot for Obama's campaign if he showed up for that May 1st demonstration. Let people know who's side he's on.
kathyodat
Spinoza, Your point is well taken. Unfortunately we need to be brutally honest.
The rich should be the first to feel the end of cheap energy. That's where we must start getting honest. That is where the problem lies, not with the working poor.
I live directly across the bridge from Palm Beach. How long do you think those pljutocrats will sustain their lifestyle while others begin to move from the coastlines because of the climate change and the cost of gas and the fall of the dollar and the, and the, and the, and the.......Not one of them has a clue the extent of the damage outside of the bubble.
Good for the truckers. I agree that the actual process of long haul trucking is unsustainable in the shorter long term just like logging became unsustainable. Problem is the elites just find a new horror to substitute for their draws, i.e mountaintop removal tar sands, ethanol.
Lizard had a great post on another subject that said the people today are agressive and selfish. Good people are doing nothing. Something somewhere has got to unite them against the pure evil of the elite. Let it be the salt of the earth truckers and longshoreman.
In an era of peak oil, peak food, etc., it will be the working and the poor who will suffer first. And it will be the rich who will do whatever they can to protect their own interests at the expense of everyone else.
But that doesn't excuse people like the protesting truckers from having to learn the fundamentals about peak oil and the limits to growth. Let's be honest and admit that long-haul trucking is unsustainable and will become more so due to the fact that the days of cheap energy are almost certainly over. No amount of carping about the Constitution, corporations, speculators, etc., is going to change that.
Social justice must be one of our highest priorities, but so must intellectual honesty.
A friend of mine is an independent trucker and says he pays around $1,000.00 for diesel everytime he fills his 18 wheeler and says he cannot stay independent if things do not change.
Forget circling the mall. The truckers should park in front of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's office and short out the horn circuits on their trucks so the horns blow until quitting time.
Bernanke is lowering interest rates again today which will further devalue the US Dollar, making oil even more expensive. The lower rates will also provide speculators more cheap money to further drive the price of fuel and food up up up.