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Occupy Protesters Seek to Shut US West Coast Ports
Anti-Wall Street protesters up and down the US West Coast are joining an effort to blockade some of the nation's busiest ports from Alaska to California.
Demonstrators are scheduled to gather at 5:30 am to march on the Port of Oakland, which Occupy protesters successfully shut down in November. Marchers expect to descend even earlier on the sprawling port complex spanning Los Angeles and Long Beach as the work day begins. In Portland, Oregon, the protest will begin at 6 am.
Occupy groups in Seattle, Tacoma and the Canadian city of Vancouver are also planning blockades.
The protests being called action against "Wall Street on the waterfront" are perhaps the Occupy movement's most dramatic gesture since police raids in several cities sent most remaining protest camps scattering last month. Demonstrators began forming those camps around the US about two months ago to protest what they call corporate greed and economic inequality.
Organizers hope to draw thousands Monday to stand in solidarity with longshoremen and port truckers they say are being exploited.
"Taking on and blocking the one percent at the port is also taking on the global issue of exploitation by capitalism," said Occupy Oakland blockade organizer Barucha Peller. Protesters say they represent America's 99 percent and target the richest one percent.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents many thousands of longshoremen up and down the West Coast, has distanced itself from the shutdown effort. The union's president suggested in a letter to members that protesters were attempting to co-opt the union's cause to advance their own agenda. Protesters have cited a longstanding dispute between longshoremen at the Port of Longview in Washington and grain exporter EGT as a key reason for the blockades.
Shutdown supporters say they're not asking longshoremen to organize a work stoppage in violation of their contract but simply asking them to exercise their free speech rights and stay off the job, in keeping with the union's historic tradition of activism.
If protesters muster large enough numbers to block port entrances, arbitrators could declare unsafe working conditions, which would allow port workers to stay home.
Organized labor appears divided over the port shutdown effort. In Oakland, which saw strong union support for the 2 November general strike that culminated in the closing of the port, the city's teachers union is backing Monday's action, while the county's construction workers have come out against the shutdown, saying the port has provided jobs to many unemployed workers and apprentices.
The Port of Oakland has appealed to city residents not to join the blockade, which they say could hurt the port's standing among customers and cost local jobs.
"The port is going to do all that it can to keep operations going. Our businesses need to hear that. Our workers need to know that," said Port of Oakland spokesman Isaac Kos-Read.
Officials at West Coast ports say they have been coordinating with law enforcement agencies as they prepare for possible disruptions. Protesters say police violence against blockades in any city will trigger an extension of blockades in other cities as a show of resolve.
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Show AllI can see this developing into a hardhat vs. the hippies confrontation , Vietnam era style. The independent truckers that service these ports are some of the most exploited workers in the country, but they will see these blockades as keeping them from working and making their truck payments . They are a perfect example of workers being turned against each other, and not joining together to fight being exploited. Shame on the longshoreman's union for even hesitating in their support of the protest.
Although unions are not sanctioning the activities, many longshoreman and members of other unions will participate.
The Port of Oakland's assertion that local folks joining in will "hurt the Port's standing" is totally bogus since activities will occur at all West Coast ports, not just Oakland.
genicon
Excellent point. Though the hardhat-hippie split was unforgivable during the anti-Vietnam War protests, it was at least understandable given the kneejerk "patriotic" reaction to when the country is at war. You know, men wear hardhats and work while spoiled wussies go to college. The sad part is that more than 40 years later, it is so easy to resurrect those old wounds and divisions.
Even sadder, we have the utter refusal of organized labor to keep the spirit of activism going from one generation to the next to thank for the sorry position of all working people in this country. Union membership in the private sector has declined to 7-8%, the fascist corporate globalists have a constant jackboot on their collective necks, and they whine like worse wussies about the co-optation of their cause? WTF #*%$@
This can't be happening!!
Pretty much all the unions here dealing with the port are against the strike and only 200 people have shown up for the march. Since they are not effected workers, they are not an official picket line so the truckers are going to be able to go right through. This seems to be work mainly of the teacher's union, not any of the unions involved in the port.
Occupy is off its rockers at this point. The 1% of the 99% is telling everyone else what to do regardless of what is in their own best interests. No one likes to be told how to work or protest. This movement is alienating people left and right. The comments in the local papers were about 3:1 against Occupy. They are no more like 10:1.
Small, and 200 people is laughably small, strikes and actions that alienate thousands of laborers and general folks are going to result in absolutely NO support from the real 99%. This is becoming an opera buffa. First the "general strike" and now this. How sad. There was promise here and a cause and now it is just groups of children ranting against each other.
Comments in every mainstream newspaper that I have read are ALWAYS 10:1 against progressive views.
"Shutdown supporters say they're not asking longshoremen to organize a work stoppage in violation of their contract but simply asking them to exercise their free speech rights and stay off the job, in keeping with the union's historic tradition of activism."
That's a very hazy distinction. With the longshoremen taking all the risks. I am thinking this is not well thought out and misguided. It's sole purpose from where I sit is to incite.
"The Port of Oakland has appealed to city residents not to join the blockade, which they say could hurt the port's standing among customers and cost local jobs.
"The port is going to do all that it can to keep operations going. Our businesses need to hear that. Our workers need to know that," said Port of Oakland spokesman Isaac Kos-Read."
The bloodiest battles begin in the working pit. Don't bring your children, or you elderly mother, it is clear when you "strike" a blow to a vital part of the beast, the beast will bite.
The best workhouse strategy is to raise the fear of job and income loss. Makes it easier to grow goons that way. The battle stays within the confines of workers and out of the realm of actual change towards a more equitable future for all.
The best we can do now is what these folks are doing today, standing.
Sorry if I'm being dense, but what is the connection between occupying West Coast ports and resisting Wall Street's stranglehold on the economy and the lives of ordinary Americans? I heard a Republican critic of the original Occupy Wall Street, a marketing guy, say that one thing the movement needs to do is communicate so clearly and effectively that no one anywhere has any doubt about its critique and its objectives. That is a valid observation. So if I can't figure this out about the West Coast ports action, and I tend to be sympathetic to the movement, where does that leave observers who aren't already in sympathy? As Genicon says, this does have the potential for a hardhats vs. hippies conflict, and I've been there, and it doesn't turn out well.
Squirrel!!!
Why not shut down Walmart?
The connection is easy to figure out when you think about what comes into those ports. Goods from third world countries manufactured by slave labor that has destroyed the jobs of millions of Americans and decimated the middle class.
The OWS movements objectives are to shine a light on every facet of our society that has been degraded by the 1% . I could think of plenty of places to mount a protest and shine that light, ports are just one.
The media have been trying to do the impossible - find a mandate, common cause etc.and then critizing Occupy for not having one. They can't think outside the box. Occupy has had a mandate from day 1 - WE ARE PISSED OFF. Period.
For Occupy to take focussed actions that are going to further alienate the 99% of the 99% who haven't been involved on the street is not helpful. 80% of the worlds shipping lines are European, Chinese or South American owned. Those sea containers are arriving full, AND most of the time leaving full with products produced in the USA. I wonder what will happen to the 2000 cases of Fair Trade organic bananas from a small growers coop in Northern Peru I have sitting in Oakland? - people who have a gross family income of $3,328 a year maintaining their city block's worth of banana plants - and that's 40% more $$ than sales of "regular bananas" that arrive on our shores provide. Small growers, who represent the production of 90% of the produce imported by sea into the U.S. every week are on the same ships as the sweat shop products. Agitation that causes rifts amongst the 99% aren't effective. You wanna be effective? If NO ONE bought gas at Arco for a week, which anyone of the 99% can do, without getting out on the street, in their home towns across the country, then Wall Street would see just how PISSED OFF we all are.
Ya gotta Love it!
Q: How do you know OWS is hurting the bottom line of the Bank Empire?
A: The Shady Empire trolls are getting shrill around here! "OWS is not organized!" they say, "They have no Leaders, no CEO's, no shareholders..... bla bla bla"
Me thinks Goliath is stumbling after those last sling shots hit him in the eye!
GO OWS!!!!!
TJ
http://occupywallst.org/