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Oakland Braces for 'Occupy' General Strike
OAKLAND -- From schools and downtown stores to the nation's fifth busiest port, Oakland is bracing for Wednesday's citywide general strike, a hastily planned and ambitious action called by Occupy protesters a day after police forcibly removed their City Hall encampment last week.
Occupy Oakland has since returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza, but the leaderless group is still asking workers and students in the city to take the day off to come downtown and protest economic inequality and corporate greed.
photo: George Kelly
Major goals will be protesting at banks or corporations that refuse to shut down for the day, then marching in the evening to the Port of Oakland to try to shut down the night shift.
Some employees and businesses downtown, where the core activities are scheduled, intend to participate, while others plan to carry on as normal - hoping there won't be a resumption of last week's violent clashes between protesters and police.
"The entire world is tired of the greedy corporations controlling everything, and now is the time that people are doing something about it," rapper Boots Riley, an organizer of the strike day, said Monday. "All over the world, people are looking to Oakland."
Unions supportive
While major labor unions in the city have voiced support, most workers cannot legally strike while under contract. But some said they plan to take the day off, participate during off hours or walk off the job spontaneously.
Rebecca Band, spokeswoman for the California Labor Federation, said union members will be participating in several ways, including a march to a Wells Fargo branch. They'll also be cooking from 4:30 to 8 p.m. for protesters.
Wells Fargo plans to "run our business on Wednesday the same way we run it any other day," said spokeswoman Holly Rockwell.
Occupy representatives said in a statement that they will hit the port to show "solidarity with longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Wash." EGT is a grain exporter.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union local units, which do most of the work at the port, expressed support for the Occupy protest while noting they haven't authorized a strike. But if enough protesters gather outside the port, union workers could deem it a community picket line and refuse to cross it for their 7 p.m. shift, one spokesman said.
"There have been seven community picket lines honored by our workers since 1985, the most recent one being last year," said Stan Woods, spokesman for the ILWU. "But it has to be a serious picket line with a serious number of people with goals that don't conflict with labor."
Port to remain open
Marilyn Sandifur, a spokeswoman for the Port of Oakland, said there were no plans to alter operations. Port security is handled by a variety of local, state and federal agencies.
The Port of Oakland was the site of an infamous 2003 clash that saw police injure antiwar activists and port workers with wood and rubber bullets.
City offices will stay open, although City Administrator Deanna Santana said in a memo that employees can use vacation or other paid time off if they want to participate in the walkout.
Mayor Jean Quan's office said the city will provide alerts to merchants and was "not urging businesses to close on Wednesday. Instead, we advise that they use common-sense precautions."
Mixed views on council
Although City Council members all say they support the cause, they have mixed views about Wednesday's strike.
Councilwoman Jane Brunner said she will join in the demonstration. Councilwoman Nancy Nadel said she will support it.
"This is aimed at big corporations," Brunner said. "We're not taking care of the 99 percent, but the 1 percent."
Others aren't as enthusiastic.
Council President Larry Reid said the encampment and Wednesday's strike were having a "devastating" effect on the city's image with business.
"We've worked hard to get this city on sound footing, to get the kinds of retailers that other cities have in their urban core," Reid said. "This sends the message to those that may have had an interest that we as a city of Oakland will allow these kinds of activities to take place. Nobody is going to open up businesses in downtown Oakland."
Great Oakland, a nonprofit at Jack London Square that advocates for parents on school issues, will close in support of the protesters, said Sara Nuno, community organizer there.
"A day like this calls attention, and that's what it takes to build a movement," Nuno said.
At a deli near City Hall on Monday, manager Elaine Hong said she wasn't sure whether to close and will make a decision today.
"I support the message, but do you really want to walk off your job?" Hong asked. "It's hard enough to get a job as it is."
Teachers union won't picket
Steve Neat, secretary of the Oakland Education Association, which represents 2,700 school district teachers, nurses, counselors and psychologists, said the union has voted to support Wednesday's action but will not stage picket lines.
"We want teachers to take whatever action at their sites they feel comfortable with," Neat said.
Many teachers are putting in for a day of unpaid leave, but a district spokesman said there were no plans to shut down any schools.
Chronicle staff writer Carolyn Said contributed to this report.
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59 Comments so far
Show AllTeachers must go on strike...January 1, 2012
Mayor Quan is an accessory to attempted murder. Why is she still walking the streets?
I am with you, Oakland, in heart and spirit. May you fill the town with your masses.
It's a fantasy, I know, but just imagine the ramifications (symbolic as well as practical) were the Oakland police union (http://www.opoa.org/) to awake and see that joining the general strike would be in their own interest as well...
Further to this, a very interesting message from the Oakland Police Union:
http://www.opoa.org/uncategorized/an-open-letter-to-the-citizens-of-oakland-from-the-oakland-police-officers%E2%80%99-association/
What is your understanding of that message, it sounds really confused to me.
I think that's exactly their point.
What I find encouraging is that they claim to be part of the 99%. ("We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.")
They're getting conflicting messages, and in all likelihood they feel quite conflicted about their orders and where they stand in this whole issue. After all, they are human and have more in common with the 99% than the 1%.
It's also obviously a political hot-potato, with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else. That's good for the 99%. It signifies there's a space of confusion that can widened to benefit the OWS.
I expect anyone involved in the police riot that injured Scott Olsen is shitting twinkies right now and is looking to distance themselves from the fallout by appearing to side with the occupiers. That in itself is an enormous symbolic victory.
Look past the bullshit, for god's sake. The Oakland PD is out for blood, and right now it's posturing. "We're so peaceful and with the people," they say, so that when they start shooting in earnest, everyone will believe they were so peace-loving after all.
I've always appreciated your cynicism, Corvo. It's well earned, and I generally agree with it. There's a good chance you're absolutely right.
On the other hand, sometimes sincerity exists.
I have no illusions about the Oakland PD. I lived in the area during the police riot at the docks in 2003, am aware of their assassination of Oscar Grant, and have a general awareness of their brutality and corruption.
However, given the circumstances, I expect the police are genuinely confused and are honestly expressing that confusion, while simultaneously passing the blame back to the mayor.
It's too early to say. There might be a real benefit in taking them at their word (just this one time until they prove otherwise), while nevertheless preparing for the worst that you (justifiably) foresee as inevitable. I don't think the police are ready to join hands with OWS and sing Kumbaya; but there really might be an opening that will allow the police to tentatively ally with the movement, and I think it would be enormously advantageous to approach it this way. After all, they do have more in common with the 99% than the 1%, as they acknowledge.
Once bitten twice shy, of course, but it would be far more beneficial to work towards a mutual alignment than pre-emptively shutting it off by expecting the worst, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You don't become a policeman in order to sympathize with protesters. You become a policeman for the opportunity to bash in their skulls.
So how do you explain what happened in Albany NY? I have been down in Oakland and was there last Tuesday night sucking gas with other Occupiers, but you also have to understand that the LEOs on the barricades doing the great majority of the mayhem were out of town cops. The ones that shot Olsen? Out of town. The perimeter around the Plaza on Broadway, 13th, 14th and 15th? Out of town. I believe this was a strategic move on "Mean Jean" Quan and the interim Chief's part so that when the gloves came off (as we knew they were going to when we saw them in riot gear with gas masks as soon as they arrived and since they were of course NOT from Oakland and therefore couldn't give a shit about ramifications of doing so), the OPD could credibly claim that it wasn't them. I was also at the port in 2003 and had the welts and blood to go along with our obeyed order to disburse. We were shot walking away per OPD orders in the fking back. OPD is under a consent decree from that, many of the weapons being used against us on Tuesday were out of their arsenal, they had no reason to use them because they fckng KNEW those other cops would bring them to the party. It by no means excuses the legion of abuses OPD has visited upon us here in Oakland, but In the case of the assault on us at Broadway and 14th it was the out of town cops that were the ones launching. So perhaps, even though they cynically set it up that way, there is some slim glimmer of credibility in the letter after all. The proof will be what happens at the banks and port tomorrow. I envision police lines at all parking lot and front door entrances to the banks and a huge presence at the port. if the ILWU and others truly mean what they say and the presence of Occupy is big enough they won't cross the line. The last thing the cops want is to tangle with a bunch of ILWU people - again.
Wow,
A first-hand report. Thank you for that. The Union leadership is no doubt, by now under huge pressure not to honor the OO (Ocuppy Oakland) General Strike. I hope the members encounter enough of you, that they go back home and take the telephone off the hook for a few days.
This is legal under Federal Labor Law, under some circumstances as a "labor activity" or "a job action" (at least it is under the Railway Labor Act.) : They do not need to strike, just to phuck things up, and say: "Silly me, I reported to the wrong warehouse, in the wrong city. Just what the phuck was I thinking? Oh, and my cel phone battery died, and I thought it was my day off:
SILLY ME!"
Best of Luck; America is with you bro.
TJ
Sorry Corvo, but your angry & extreme comments are becoming tiresome.
I do agree with you, the cops are having fun bashing skulls and bullying people, but you are getting too bazaar, maybe you should take a break, you are getting too upset! We are worried about you.
Grant was killed by BART police, not Oakland city police.
Oh, that's right. Thanks for the correction.
Lohmann et al:
Here is the email I sent to officers of the OPOA:
Dear Oakland Police Officers and Staff of OPOA:
As a follower of the #OWS and the Occupations generally, I just read with great interest your organization's open letter concerning the impending November 2nd general strike. I feel your letter was well thought-out and written with complete integrity. I did not notice any agenda beyond that one should ordinarily expect of a police force; i.e., to follow the orders assigned to it. From the face of it, I sense that your organization, its officers, and support staff have done precisely what your mayor instructed you to do. Your confusion comes across honestly and understandably.
I admit to being a full-hearted supporter of the Occupy movements as I identify with the 99% who feel unheard. I have been unemployed for over a year. A decade ago, my career was shipped overseas and I have not seen it ever since. I have taken various work since then, some of it quite beneath my skill level. I am sure you are well aware of the kinds of conditions that have driven myself and the millions of others to participate in, or otherwise support, the Occupation movement. I know that Oakland has suffered worse than many areas of this country for a very, very long time.
As my primary concern in all of this -- and always has been my primary concern -- is ensuring non-violent, peaceful demonstration. I will not hackney this point of constitutional right, as I am choosing to respect your intelligence. However, what I observed last week with the unnecessary abuse of a protester, particularly because he is a veteran of this country's military, was disturbing and makes it more difficult for the peaceful and well-meaning to reach out to our police forces, whom we actually consider part of the 99% we are defending! I hope a dignified and sincere apology will be presented to those who have been injured in these interactions.
I trust that this behavior will not be repeated, for it would be extremely foolish to carry on in this manner. For one thing, nearly everyone attending these rallies -- in Oakland, across America, and in many places worldwide -- are peaceful and only desire to bring attention to the plight of our 99% of the population: The people who work, retirees, students, young families, the ill, the unemployed, the underemployed, the overworked and underpaid. But arriving in riot gear, with paddy wagons, rubber bullets, tear gas, and other weapons, or merely taking an aggressive stance at all, demonstrates hostility toward these innocent crowds and an immediate unwillingness to cooperate with them.
Communities have police to protect them, not to hurt them. I propose that Oakland police -- and more generally, police everywhere around the globe -- take a peaceful and protective stance. This will signal organizers and participants that your presence is neutral other than to ensure the safety of all since the protesters need protection at least as much as the 1%. Moreover, by taking this neutral and protective stance (carrying out your constitutional oaths, including the right of the people to assemble peacefully), you can thereby relieve yourselves of the confusion that concerns you in your public letter. Now, no matter what the Mayor or anyone else in the chain of command orders, you will be always doing the right thing by following our nation's laws faithfully and serving the people who have chosen you to protect them. Cooperation always works better than antagonism, and democracy more than authoritarianism, particularly when established early in a process.
If you agree with me, I hope you will forward this approach to your fellow officers in other cities who are also, no doubt, grappling with these same confusing and often self-demoralizing instructions. There is honor in defending our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and for anyone to impede your ability to do so is unethical and ideologically anti-American. If you follow my suggestion, I am nearly certain that you will find mutual support from your colleagues, and I would favorably believe, the support of the Occupation itself since they are only defending democracy just as you are under oath to do. Please initiate a cooperative, coordinated, and democratic process with the Occupy movement, for the betterment of all of the 99%, which ultimately must include the police.
Sincerely yours,
Hal Goldfarb
Montgomery, AL
(writing for myself and not for Occupy Oakland or its affiliates or any other organization)
Hal, that was a superb letter: honest, heartfelt, intelligent, pointed and important. You've said all that needed to be said. If read by its recipients with honest receptivity and open minds and hearts it would surely hit its target.
Thank you for sending it. Indeed a letter like this ought to go viral.
Hi Hal.
Anticipating that it was ok with you (since you shared it publicly with us) I forwarded your message to the OPC to Occupy Marines (http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyMARINES/ ; http://occupymarines.org/), who seem to me best poised to help it go viral, should they choose to do so.
Great thinking, Lohmann. Thanks for taking the initiative. And thanks also to Hal. Your concerns and ideas sould, indeed, go viral.
Very well said!!!! Cheers!
What happens if this call for a strike is a failure? What does that say? This looks risky.
This is no time for Chicken Little's. There is no such thing as a failure. Participation is increasing and that's what's important.
_____________________________________________
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller
If they strike, they may fail. If they don't strike, THEY'VE ALREADY FAILED.
Now run along, little troll.
What a foolish statement Corvo. There are a lot of choices to make and there are a lot of actions that can be taken, not just a strike. A failure of the strike, which I think would be a low turn out, IS a failure and will be reported ad nauseum.
In addition, a general strike for one day is more or less meaningless execept for the state and federal funds that will be withheld from schools, the costs of the substitutes that will, by law, have to be hired to cover for the striking teachers, the cost of the replacement nurses and healthcare workers that will come in. The cost of the PTO for government employees that will take the day off. And so on.
The economic toll on corporations will be nothing since the money that would go to them on the strike day will go to them the day before or the day after.
The local shops that are already 40% low in sales since the beginning of the Occupy protest in Oakland will lose more. All the small service industries like lunch places and coffee shops will lose out.
Nice way to flail around and whack a lot of 99%ers in the nose.
Rather than a one day general strike, the protest equivalent of "I'll hold my breath till I turn blue and THEN you'll be sorry...", A MUCH better protest would be the targeted boycott of one or more corporations in one industry by EVERYONE for a month. Make a mark on their balance sheets.
For instance, boycott ALL gas companies except one since you probably need gas. Or all chain food stores for a month regardless of what you can't buy. Or Everyone stop cable for a month. There are targeted boycotts that can be very effective, but you really have to hurt the corporations not the little guys, the schools and the hospitals because they can't really afford your *help* of a general strike.
The November 5th withdraw funds from BofA protest will do MUCH more than this tanty in a teacup.
Worst of all is if only a couple thousand people show up to the strike, it is a real risk, a high cost (to schools and local businesses), and of no damage to the corporations.
Calling people with questions and well thought out positions cowards only makes you look like a reactionary idiot.
Pretty much the response I expected from you.
Condescending bitch! There is no getting along with you.
I'm not interested in getting along with you. :-)
Agreed. As Ian Welsh wrote on October 22nd:
"...power concedes nothing that matters to the powerful without a threat, it never did and it never will."
Last Saturday he wrote:
"I have said little about OWS, because there is little to say. OWS is necessary. People needed to try for peaceful redress, to make an attempt to convince elites to do the right thing, and see the response of the elites. The response was foreordained, but you can’t tell anyone anything, so they have to learn at the end of a nightstick, or while suffering from tear gas or pepper spray, or while being forced away from helping a critically injured man."
"This will continue to play out, as it must. It is necessary and insufficient, but it will produce the cadre of radicals who will go on to the next steps."
http://www.ianwelsh.net/
Little troll?, you may be more effective if you are not so overbearing and rude, we all know your anti-government attitude, but my god, you must have a horrible life, we enjoy your comments when you are not so angry, lighten up!
One can never think too big. Besides, they've already succeeded. Oakland leadership and big corps are on alert, anxious, and uncertain. That is a victory. The OWS started small and was deemed a failure. If the turn out is small tomorrow, who cares. All that Occupy Oakland needs to do is re-organize and build a better presence for the next GS. No matter what the outcome is tomorrow, this ain't over by a long long shot.
In all my years affiliation with the union, it was common belief that the general strike was a last resort. Nobody at present will reap great benefits form the strike. But, like in all union negotiations, the greatest beneficiary has been reserved for future generations. We do everything for the future.
Current reformist trade Unions with top down hierarchical structures, and overpaid "leaders" (much like corporations) have utterly lost the vision of of what real labor militancy means, so forgive me if I take the word of the most conservative entrenched Unions with a grain of salt. You should read some labor history about the general strikes called by the IWW around the turn of the 20th century. "Last resort," is code for too chickenshit to work hard for real change by a comfortable upper middle class Union leadership who lives in nice houses, and drives fancy cars, and thus sees themselves more aligned with the 1% than actual working people. Much like the Dim party they knee jerk support, mainstream Unions no longer resist the oligarchy, instead they are part of the oligarchy.
If you truly want your Union to be future oriented unambiguously support the general strike. If you do so then maybe you could start back down the long road of labor militancy blazed by your forefathers, and foresisters.
"This sends the message to those that may have had an interest that we as a city of Oakland will allow these kinds of activities to take place."
ALLOW THESE KINDS OF ACTIVITIES? This is what else we fight in this country - the ignorance and intolerance for the very democratic ideals these same "concerned politicians" and patriots spout about all the time. Businesses only want to do business where the people are shuttered and silenced in the public sphere? What will it take to wake people like this up? There are a lot of them.
The spark that sets fire to the system?
Direct democracy
Seriously? Spark that lights Oakland maybe but that's it and Oakland is really flamable at the best of times. How are those 1%ers in Alamo doing? Walnut Creek? Berkeley Hills? Hillsbourough? You think they are doing anything more than snickering?
Protests that hold the 99% hostage to the 99% are comedy for the 1%.
This is consensus building, it doesn't have to directly pull their chain. In a way it does though because it is a peaceful protest instead of an armed conflict and they won't make a profit from it. The benefits to the 99% will be better than a days pay if they use this solidarity to their advantage.
Yea, the 1% are laughing all the way to the bank. But do you think those protected in these exclusive neighborhoods are starting to wonder what might happen if all the little people decide to show up for Sunday dinner, with an appetite ? Maybe that thin blue line is getting stretched a little to thin. If I were Rich, and living in LA it wouldn't be brush fires or earthquakes I'd be worried about. The tsunami about to hit LA won't be made of seawater, it's going to be made of pure uncontrolled anger. When the music's over turn out the lights!
http://www.hillsborough.net/about/history.asp
HIllsborough has been the 1% for over a hundred years.
Since some are dwelling on a failure scenario, how about a wildly successful one: Police violence starts, gets out of hand, they call the National Guard, but unlike police who are fascist by choice, the Guard refuses to fight their brothers and sisters. Now the country realizes the 1% security is limited and easily downed. The revolution has suddenly escalated.
The Guard would fire upon their brothers and sisters, just as they did at Kent State. (Don't expect them to recognize the OWS protesters as "brothers and sisters"; "librul scum and parasites" is more like it. You heard it from the Patron Saint of Faux Progressives, Ron Paul himself: all they want is "handouts.") But really, do you want to go down with a (nonviolent) fight, or without even that much?
No, it's not at all like Kent State. According to polls, the students and SDS never had major mainstream support. In college towns like Kent the locals couldn't wait to be Guard so they could bash hippies. This is beyond a 60's student movement. There's popular widespread support. And the Guard don't have great jobs to go back to after their deployment ends. They're also part of the 99%. Totally different now. Totally.
Animation for the 99%: www.earthens.net
Meaningless statistics. That won't stop the Guard from doing what its members signed up to do.
Oakland will lead the way. The rest of the country will soon follow.
SHUT IT DOWN. SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN. Only medical and emergency services are exempt.
Sorry, I hit it twice.
How this is looked on as violent or not will depend on many things and how the media reports it. The media will be looking for blood because if it don't bleed it don't lead.
Since the protest will be marching in different locations it will be much more suseptable to trouble from anyone.
How it goes will mean a lot about the future of general strikes and how they are reported on.
I am interested in how those who have jobs that are effected will look at it.
Will the 99 percent back it after Thursday or will the 99 percent turn on each other?
I hope not... Well see.
I hope it is peaceful, because all revolutions risk violence when we don't want it.
Protesting police brutality and defending the right to protest, are even worth showing up for.
A really effective general strike requires a good deal of advance preparation and cooperation. Pick a date a month or so from now and really organize the 99%.
Stock up on staples, rice, beans, spuds, etc., candles or lamps, get lots of blankets ready for hunkering down. Stock up on those books you always wanted to have time to read.
On the day picked, everyone walks. Airlines don't fly, no crews, no passengers. same with trains. Leave the cars in the garage. Stores, no customers, no staff. If possible, "Blue Flu" in the PD's. Fire Departments respond to emergencies only. Ships tied up in the ports, no longshoremen to load/unload, no crews to sail with. Power goes down, no proles to man the stations, Water and sewage treatment goes down, no grunts there, either. No banking except to withdraw funds and close accounts.
When this starts, everyone hunkers down and maintains the General Strike until the 1% cry "Uncle" and release their paid servants (formally known as the US Government), and said paid servants revert to being representatives of the people, not the 1%.
Possibly the military refusing to fight. Emulate Chief Joseph and say, "I will fight no more, forever," then just stay in their barracks or tents. Bringing the Pentagon to heel and making it truly a defense force would release a much needed trillion or so back into the economy.
This will take a long time to resolve and there will doubtless be lives lost, but it could provide the housecleaning we need and, bring the 1% to heel, but it will need a great commitment from the 99% and they must be willing to sacrifice to attain the goal.
I disagree with both preparation and strong leader belief. Every time you diddle around and ad complexity and make elaborate plans, you give the Police-State empire time to respond and defuse it.
The power of OWS is its spontaneity. The Federal phucks and agent provocateurs never really know when and where it's going to hit next with peaceful protest as is our right under the First Amendment, the highest law in the land. They need time to phuck it up. Two day's notice is two too many, imho!
We need one hundred occupy USA's in one Hundred cities, striking without warning. This movement, so far, is incorruptible since they have no leaders.
Monkeywrench the Wall Street Empire, I say, until they are all out of a job, pushing paper and sending our jobs overseas. Blue Flu, and defaulting on all your obligations will absolutely bring these card-house banksters to their knees when the only thing they care about, the bottom line, goes South.
TJ
NATIONAL BOYCOTT
NATIONAL STRIKE