Click on the headline to link to Occupy Oakland website for the latest from the Bay Area vanguard battleground in the struggle for social justice.
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An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend All The Occupation Sites And All The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Protesters Everywhere!
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Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize.
* Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough on organizing the unorganized and other labor-specific causes (example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio).
*End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! Hands Off The World!
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures!
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed. Labor and the oppressed must rule!
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Markin comment November 3, 2011:
We have won a tremendous victory in Oakland. No, no the big dent in the capitalist system that we are all looking for but the first step. And that first step is to put the words “general strike” in the political vocabulary in our fight for social justice. This is Liberation Day One. From now on we move from isolated tent encampments to the struggle in the streets against the monster, the streets where some of the battles will be decisively decided. Yes, our first day was messy, we took some casualties, we took some arrest, we made some mistakes but we now have a road forward, so forward. No Mas- The Class-War Lines Are Being Drawn- There Is A Need To Unite And Fight-We Take The Offensive-Liberation Day One-Defend The Oakland Commune-Drop All Charges Against The Oakland Protesters!
P.S. (November 4, 2011) I noted above some of the actions were messy in Oakland. This was so partly because it was seen as a celebration as much as demand-ladened, hard-nosed general strike started as a prelude to anything immediately bigger (like the question of taking state power and running things ourselves) but also because people are after all new at this way of expressing their latent power. 1946 in Oakland, and anywhere else, is a long political time to go without having a general strike in this country. Even the anti-war mass actions of the 1960s, which included school-centered general strikes, never got close to the notion of shutting down the capitalists where they live-places like the Port Of Oakland. There are some other more systematic problems that I, and others, are starting to note and I will address them as we go along. Things like bourgeois electoral politics rearing its ugly head, keeping the thing together, and becoming more organizationally cohesive without becoming bureaucratic. Later.
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Markin comment November 15, 2011:
The sisters and brothers in Oakland have it just right. If you cannot stay camped in their damn plaza then take to the streets. It is time to begin to think along the lines of the South African struggle of the 1980s-Make the Occupy Streets Labor and The Oppressed’s Streets! All Out On November 19th In Defense Of The Oakland Commune! Long Live The Oakland Commune!
Showing posts with label West Coast Port Shutdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Coast Port Shutdown. Show all posts
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Latest From The "West Coast Port Shut Down" Website-A Reply to Cal Winslow on the West Coast Port Shut Down
A Reply to Cal Winslow on the West Coast Port Shut Down
Submitted by admin on Sat, 12/10/2011 - 10:50
The following is a statement from an activist in Occupy Oakland. It is NOT an official statement of the General Assembly. This article was originally posted at the Occupied Oakland Tribune blog.
On December 5, Cal Winslow wrote a lengthy article in CounterPunch.org criticizing Occupy Oakland and the December 12 West Coast Port Shut Down. While he is clearly interested in building mass labor action and is a supporter of the Occupy movement, his critique is wrong-headed and littered with factual errors. He appears to be quite well-informed about the European labor movement and yet is at a loss for accurate details regarding actions organized just miles away from his workplace at UC Berkeley.
To begin with, the December 12 action was not called as a “General Strike” by Occupy Oakland, as Winslow insists. Had he taken the time to realize this he may have saved a substantial amount of time in criticizing it as such. Additionally, the march that left Scott Olsen seriously injured occurred on October 25, not September 27.
After misunderstanding these details, he continues by criticizing the November 2 action, which was called as a General Strike. “[I]t is well-known,” writes Winslow, “at least within the labor movement, that, routinely, from the fringe, the demand for a general strike is raised – whatever the circumstances. It’s almost always a one-size-fits-all rallying cry. ”
I initially approached the call for a General Strike on November 2 with the same skepticism, but the success of the event itself won me over. Academics will debate for years whether the Oakland General Strike was “real” or not but it is clear that the action was the most successful event in the Occupy movement thus far. Only a pedantic nit-picker could be so concerned about whether slapping the “General Strike” terminology onto the action was appropriate at this point.
Winslow continues to criticize the action, insisting that, “truth be told I’ve heard of not a single case of a worker striking that day, walking off the job in defiance of their employers, though to be sure many workers found their ways to the docks.”
In fact, twenty percent of Oakland teachers took a personal day on November 2, a fact that Winslow conveniently ignores, along with the fact that hundreds of students walked out of class and the day of action was endorsed in various ways by the Alameda County Labor Council, the Oakland Educators Association, the Berkeley Federation of Teacher, SEIU Local 1021 and Carpenters Local 713. Certainly, not everybody who participated did so by marching out of their workplace and chanting “strike!” but I would hope that Winslow could live with that. Everybody else did. Finally, the demonstration on November 2 did not begin at 5pm as Winslow states but at 9am—for those who took the day off from work, anyway.
Winslow also comments that Occupy Oakland “authorized the strike call [again, it was not a strike call] ‘unanimously’ at its November 18 General Assembly”, and continues, “I have to add here that I have been advised by reliable sources that the Oakland General Assembly and the anarchists at its core offer something much less than what is considered to be democratic.” On the one hand, this comment about anarchists is slanderous red-baiting and Winslow should know better. Anarchists, socialists and other radicals have always played a significant role in the American labor movement, which Winslow all but admits in his article. On the other hand, I don’t know how much more democratic you can get than 100% support. For my part, no sneaky anarchist coerced me into raising my hand in support at the General Assembly and I doubt that is the case for anybody else. Winslow might have made the trek down to 14th and Broadway to verify these things himself rather than discussing it with “reliable sources,” but his article is less reliable for not having done so.
What we do plan for December 12 is to organize community pickets at the ports along the West Coast in solidarity with ILWU workers in Longview fighting against EGT and in solidarity with port truck drivers. The ILWU has not endorsed this action and they did not endorse the previous one, but there is a long tradition of Bay Area activists setting up community pickets at the Port of Oakland, including actions in recent years against the war in Iraq and against an Israeli ship. However, we are not working against the ILWU but in support of it, and while it is true, as Winslow states, that “The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves,” and an action taken by the ILWU at the ports would be tremendous, community action is also part of a democratic impulse against inequality. The Port of Oakland ought to belong to the people of Oakland but instead the mass of wealth that is accumulated and distributed through it is left largely in the hands of the 1%. Our action may not be a “strike” but it will be a “blow” against the union-busting tactics of the 1% along the West Coast. The African-American families who stood in front of their homes in West Oakland and cheered us on as we marched to the Port of Oakland on November 2 sure thought so last time and I suspect the same will be true next Monday.
The labor movement is historically weak with unionization at an all-time low. Mass workers’ strikes in various industries would be a welcome development, but in the meantime rank-and-file members of the Teamsters, SEIU, Berkeley and Oakland teachers’ unions and many non-union workers are organizing for the West Coast Port Shut Down, as are at least twenty “Occupies” at ten different ports. With the current state of the labor movement, many militant actions may occur outside of union officialdom, but that does not make it the work of outside agitators who have no interest in workers’ democracy. In fact, many of us hope our actions, which have the active support of many rank-and-file union members, are a precursor toward a stronger union movement.
To paraphrase Winslow’s favorite philosopher, historians have merely interpreted the labor movement in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. The path to achieve this is not always obvious but labor activists all over the West Coast believe our action is a significant next step for both Occupy and labor. Winslow’s comment that we should “do this in coordination with the ILWU, or do it with the longshoremen themselves,” and that our action “suggests the opposite of democracy” are irresponsible, showing a lack of understanding of the nature of the action itself. This is not an action against the ILWU–anymore than the protests to shut down the WTO in Seattle in 1999 were against janitors and caterers working at the conference–but an action against the ports. I assure you we are not destroying workers’ democracy–in fact, Occupiers have already reached out to port workers about the upcoming action and found a very positive response. You can even watch a video of ILWU Local 21 President Dan Coffman telling Occupy Oakland that, “You cannot believe what you people did [on November 2] for the inspiration of my union members who have been on the picket line for six months.”
It is too bad that Cal Winslow did not come down to Oscar Grant Plaza to talk to us about the December 12 action. Unfortunately, he dismisses our action at precisely the time when the Port of Oakland has launched a campaign against it. Had he sought us out before writing his article, I suspect he would have had a different appreciation for the relevance and nature of the West Coast Port Shut Down.
Scott Johnson has been an activist in Oakland for over a decade. He currently writes for the Occupied Oakland Tribune and is an active supporter of Occupy Oakland and the December 12 West Coast Port Shut Down.
.
Submitted by admin on Sat, 12/10/2011 - 10:50
The following is a statement from an activist in Occupy Oakland. It is NOT an official statement of the General Assembly. This article was originally posted at the Occupied Oakland Tribune blog.
On December 5, Cal Winslow wrote a lengthy article in CounterPunch.org criticizing Occupy Oakland and the December 12 West Coast Port Shut Down. While he is clearly interested in building mass labor action and is a supporter of the Occupy movement, his critique is wrong-headed and littered with factual errors. He appears to be quite well-informed about the European labor movement and yet is at a loss for accurate details regarding actions organized just miles away from his workplace at UC Berkeley.
To begin with, the December 12 action was not called as a “General Strike” by Occupy Oakland, as Winslow insists. Had he taken the time to realize this he may have saved a substantial amount of time in criticizing it as such. Additionally, the march that left Scott Olsen seriously injured occurred on October 25, not September 27.
After misunderstanding these details, he continues by criticizing the November 2 action, which was called as a General Strike. “[I]t is well-known,” writes Winslow, “at least within the labor movement, that, routinely, from the fringe, the demand for a general strike is raised – whatever the circumstances. It’s almost always a one-size-fits-all rallying cry. ”
I initially approached the call for a General Strike on November 2 with the same skepticism, but the success of the event itself won me over. Academics will debate for years whether the Oakland General Strike was “real” or not but it is clear that the action was the most successful event in the Occupy movement thus far. Only a pedantic nit-picker could be so concerned about whether slapping the “General Strike” terminology onto the action was appropriate at this point.
Winslow continues to criticize the action, insisting that, “truth be told I’ve heard of not a single case of a worker striking that day, walking off the job in defiance of their employers, though to be sure many workers found their ways to the docks.”
In fact, twenty percent of Oakland teachers took a personal day on November 2, a fact that Winslow conveniently ignores, along with the fact that hundreds of students walked out of class and the day of action was endorsed in various ways by the Alameda County Labor Council, the Oakland Educators Association, the Berkeley Federation of Teacher, SEIU Local 1021 and Carpenters Local 713. Certainly, not everybody who participated did so by marching out of their workplace and chanting “strike!” but I would hope that Winslow could live with that. Everybody else did. Finally, the demonstration on November 2 did not begin at 5pm as Winslow states but at 9am—for those who took the day off from work, anyway.
Winslow also comments that Occupy Oakland “authorized the strike call [again, it was not a strike call] ‘unanimously’ at its November 18 General Assembly”, and continues, “I have to add here that I have been advised by reliable sources that the Oakland General Assembly and the anarchists at its core offer something much less than what is considered to be democratic.” On the one hand, this comment about anarchists is slanderous red-baiting and Winslow should know better. Anarchists, socialists and other radicals have always played a significant role in the American labor movement, which Winslow all but admits in his article. On the other hand, I don’t know how much more democratic you can get than 100% support. For my part, no sneaky anarchist coerced me into raising my hand in support at the General Assembly and I doubt that is the case for anybody else. Winslow might have made the trek down to 14th and Broadway to verify these things himself rather than discussing it with “reliable sources,” but his article is less reliable for not having done so.
What we do plan for December 12 is to organize community pickets at the ports along the West Coast in solidarity with ILWU workers in Longview fighting against EGT and in solidarity with port truck drivers. The ILWU has not endorsed this action and they did not endorse the previous one, but there is a long tradition of Bay Area activists setting up community pickets at the Port of Oakland, including actions in recent years against the war in Iraq and against an Israeli ship. However, we are not working against the ILWU but in support of it, and while it is true, as Winslow states, that “The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves,” and an action taken by the ILWU at the ports would be tremendous, community action is also part of a democratic impulse against inequality. The Port of Oakland ought to belong to the people of Oakland but instead the mass of wealth that is accumulated and distributed through it is left largely in the hands of the 1%. Our action may not be a “strike” but it will be a “blow” against the union-busting tactics of the 1% along the West Coast. The African-American families who stood in front of their homes in West Oakland and cheered us on as we marched to the Port of Oakland on November 2 sure thought so last time and I suspect the same will be true next Monday.
The labor movement is historically weak with unionization at an all-time low. Mass workers’ strikes in various industries would be a welcome development, but in the meantime rank-and-file members of the Teamsters, SEIU, Berkeley and Oakland teachers’ unions and many non-union workers are organizing for the West Coast Port Shut Down, as are at least twenty “Occupies” at ten different ports. With the current state of the labor movement, many militant actions may occur outside of union officialdom, but that does not make it the work of outside agitators who have no interest in workers’ democracy. In fact, many of us hope our actions, which have the active support of many rank-and-file union members, are a precursor toward a stronger union movement.
To paraphrase Winslow’s favorite philosopher, historians have merely interpreted the labor movement in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. The path to achieve this is not always obvious but labor activists all over the West Coast believe our action is a significant next step for both Occupy and labor. Winslow’s comment that we should “do this in coordination with the ILWU, or do it with the longshoremen themselves,” and that our action “suggests the opposite of democracy” are irresponsible, showing a lack of understanding of the nature of the action itself. This is not an action against the ILWU–anymore than the protests to shut down the WTO in Seattle in 1999 were against janitors and caterers working at the conference–but an action against the ports. I assure you we are not destroying workers’ democracy–in fact, Occupiers have already reached out to port workers about the upcoming action and found a very positive response. You can even watch a video of ILWU Local 21 President Dan Coffman telling Occupy Oakland that, “You cannot believe what you people did [on November 2] for the inspiration of my union members who have been on the picket line for six months.”
It is too bad that Cal Winslow did not come down to Oscar Grant Plaza to talk to us about the December 12 action. Unfortunately, he dismisses our action at precisely the time when the Port of Oakland has launched a campaign against it. Had he sought us out before writing his article, I suspect he would have had a different appreciation for the relevance and nature of the West Coast Port Shut Down.
Scott Johnson has been an activist in Oakland for over a decade. He currently writes for the Occupied Oakland Tribune and is an active supporter of Occupy Oakland and the December 12 West Coast Port Shut Down.
.
The Latest From The "West Coast Port Shut Down" Website-Honolulu solidarity action!
Honolulu solidarity action!
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 07:47
Action: Rally in Solidarity with the West Coast Port Shut Downs
Website: deoccupyhonolulu.org
Other Info: Meet-up at Thomas Square, Ward and Beretania corner 6AM to carpool to Sand Island, banner drop and hold signs crossing the cross walk at Sand Island 6:30am.
Further Info:
December 12th West Coast Port Shut Down led by the Occupy Movement
Who, What, When, Where, Why?
The Occupy Movements of the U.S. west coast have called for the shut down of all west coast ports on December 12th. The goal is to disrupt commerce to make the 1%, who own the shipping, business, and goods going through the ports, pay for their global austerity attack on working people.
The action is in solidarity with ILWU rank and file workers at the Port of Longview who have been under attack from EGT, a global conglomerate that broke a contract with them to bring in scab labor to move grain to their port. Further, the action is in solidarity with L.A. Port truckers who are fighting for the right to unionize, against Goldman Sachs, which owns a large segment of all SSA ports.
Do the Unions Support the Action?
There have been statements of support for the Occupy movement from the ILWU, a union with a record of protesting injustice and supporting community pickets. The ILWU shut down west coast ports in 2008 to protest the Iraq War. But now, some in the union leadership are coming out against the port shut down. This however is not representative of the ILWU rank and file. In the post World War II period, much legislation (like Taft-Hartley) has limited the right of American workers to strike, and the government and business have brought union management closer to them to enforce what they call "labor peace." In this situation, union bureaucrats must operate as police toward their own workers, to prevent rank and file militancy. But this "peace" has continued as wages, benefits, pensions, and union membership have been slashed.
Why should Occupy worry about the Ports? Isn't that the ILWU's job?
Occupy is shutting down the ports in solidarity with port workers. Remember also that the Occupy Movement is "the 99%." This is another way of saying the working class, as opposed to the 1%, or owning/ruling class. Longshoreman Clarence Thomas explained in a recent interview that "Fifty-one percent of Stevedoring Services of America is owned by Goldman Sachs. EGT is a multinational conglomerate trying to control the distribution of food products around the world. The face of Wall Street is in the ports." So the ports are an issue for all working class people, not just the tiny percentage of unionized workers, or the even smaller group of port and longshore workers. Alliances can be formed between all these groups of workers.
Boots Riley of the West Coast hip hop group "The Coup" put it this way: "They coordinated attacks against us [Occupy encampments], we're gonna respond back with a coordinated attack against the 1%.
On December 12th shut down all west coast ports. Not only make a statement, but cause a lot of profit loss."
What's the point? Does it matter?
The process by which capitalists make a buck is the same process by which they rip us off! By identifying production and the market as the points where we are exploited and alienated, as points of a class struggle, we clarify the terrain on which we must fight. When we strike we contest the ownership of the means of production by which we create our very lives. When we occupy we challenge the privatization of life by reclaiming space and using it for our own needs and those of the community. When we shut down commerce, we disrupt the process by which our bosses realize the fruits of our labor as their profit.
Action: Rally in Solidarity with the West Coast Port Shut Downs
Meet us at: Thomas Square, Ward and Beretania corner
Time: 6AM carpool to Sand Island - 6:30AM banner drop and hold signs crossing the cross walk
Bring: signs, literature, passion, solidarity
.
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 07:47
Action: Rally in Solidarity with the West Coast Port Shut Downs
Website: deoccupyhonolulu.org
Other Info: Meet-up at Thomas Square, Ward and Beretania corner 6AM to carpool to Sand Island, banner drop and hold signs crossing the cross walk at Sand Island 6:30am.
Further Info:
December 12th West Coast Port Shut Down led by the Occupy Movement
Who, What, When, Where, Why?
The Occupy Movements of the U.S. west coast have called for the shut down of all west coast ports on December 12th. The goal is to disrupt commerce to make the 1%, who own the shipping, business, and goods going through the ports, pay for their global austerity attack on working people.
The action is in solidarity with ILWU rank and file workers at the Port of Longview who have been under attack from EGT, a global conglomerate that broke a contract with them to bring in scab labor to move grain to their port. Further, the action is in solidarity with L.A. Port truckers who are fighting for the right to unionize, against Goldman Sachs, which owns a large segment of all SSA ports.
Do the Unions Support the Action?
There have been statements of support for the Occupy movement from the ILWU, a union with a record of protesting injustice and supporting community pickets. The ILWU shut down west coast ports in 2008 to protest the Iraq War. But now, some in the union leadership are coming out against the port shut down. This however is not representative of the ILWU rank and file. In the post World War II period, much legislation (like Taft-Hartley) has limited the right of American workers to strike, and the government and business have brought union management closer to them to enforce what they call "labor peace." In this situation, union bureaucrats must operate as police toward their own workers, to prevent rank and file militancy. But this "peace" has continued as wages, benefits, pensions, and union membership have been slashed.
Why should Occupy worry about the Ports? Isn't that the ILWU's job?
Occupy is shutting down the ports in solidarity with port workers. Remember also that the Occupy Movement is "the 99%." This is another way of saying the working class, as opposed to the 1%, or owning/ruling class. Longshoreman Clarence Thomas explained in a recent interview that "Fifty-one percent of Stevedoring Services of America is owned by Goldman Sachs. EGT is a multinational conglomerate trying to control the distribution of food products around the world. The face of Wall Street is in the ports." So the ports are an issue for all working class people, not just the tiny percentage of unionized workers, or the even smaller group of port and longshore workers. Alliances can be formed between all these groups of workers.
Boots Riley of the West Coast hip hop group "The Coup" put it this way: "They coordinated attacks against us [Occupy encampments], we're gonna respond back with a coordinated attack against the 1%.
On December 12th shut down all west coast ports. Not only make a statement, but cause a lot of profit loss."
What's the point? Does it matter?
The process by which capitalists make a buck is the same process by which they rip us off! By identifying production and the market as the points where we are exploited and alienated, as points of a class struggle, we clarify the terrain on which we must fight. When we strike we contest the ownership of the means of production by which we create our very lives. When we occupy we challenge the privatization of life by reclaiming space and using it for our own needs and those of the community. When we shut down commerce, we disrupt the process by which our bosses realize the fruits of our labor as their profit.
Action: Rally in Solidarity with the West Coast Port Shut Downs
Meet us at: Thomas Square, Ward and Beretania corner
Time: 6AM carpool to Sand Island - 6:30AM banner drop and hold signs crossing the cross walk
Bring: signs, literature, passion, solidarity
.
Tokyo General Union Supports West Coast Port Shutdown
Tokyo General Union Supports West Coast Port Shutdown
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 10:34
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Tokyo General Union supports the upcoming West Coast Port Shutdown and the Occupy Movement. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters taking such a courageous action to end this system that brings untold riches to the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
We are the largest foreigner-led multinational union in Japan. We know that only through international unity and democracy can we bring about real change.
Let's not just reach across borders. Let's crush the national borders and all things that divide workers around the world. Let's not talk their talk. Let's change the parameters of the debate. Let's have the courage to ask real questions about our society, like the need for nations, companies, money and other trappings of our modern society.
We stand with you.
Tel 090-9363-6580
Fax 050-3488-6734
ZeTokyo General Union Executive President Louis Carlet
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 10:34
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Tokyo General Union supports the upcoming West Coast Port Shutdown and the Occupy Movement. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters taking such a courageous action to end this system that brings untold riches to the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
We are the largest foreigner-led multinational union in Japan. We know that only through international unity and democracy can we bring about real change.
Let's not just reach across borders. Let's crush the national borders and all things that divide workers around the world. Let's not talk their talk. Let's change the parameters of the debate. Let's have the courage to ask real questions about our society, like the need for nations, companies, money and other trappings of our modern society.
We stand with you.
Tel 090-9363-6580
Fax 050-3488-6734
ZeTokyo General Union Executive President Louis Carlet
The Latest From The "West Coast Port Shut Down" Website-More of Hawaii's Standing in Solidarity With West Coast Port Shutdown!
More of Hawaii's Standing in Solidarity With West Coast Port Shutdown!
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 11:39
UPDATE: Occupy Maui, Occupy Honolulu, and Occupy Hilo are participating in direct action blockades of their ports tomorrow. The local ILWU leadership has agreed that union members will not cross picket lines, and rank-and-file are on board. This is an immense statement, as over 70% of Hawai'ian food and material resources are imported to the remote island-chain state, and underscores to the people's desire for a re-emergence of self-sustainable agriculture and goods production on the islands.
Occupy Hilo (Big Island of Hawaii) will be standing in solidarity with the West Coast Port Shutdown at Hilo Terminal from 12p-3p on Monday 12/12. Occupy Waimea and Occupy Kona will also be waving signs and standing in solidarity with the port shutdown on Monday.
This joins Occupy Maui's call for solidarity a few days ago!
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 11:39
UPDATE: Occupy Maui, Occupy Honolulu, and Occupy Hilo are participating in direct action blockades of their ports tomorrow. The local ILWU leadership has agreed that union members will not cross picket lines, and rank-and-file are on board. This is an immense statement, as over 70% of Hawai'ian food and material resources are imported to the remote island-chain state, and underscores to the people's desire for a re-emergence of self-sustainable agriculture and goods production on the islands.
Occupy Hilo (Big Island of Hawaii) will be standing in solidarity with the West Coast Port Shutdown at Hilo Terminal from 12p-3p on Monday 12/12. Occupy Waimea and Occupy Kona will also be waving signs and standing in solidarity with the port shutdown on Monday.
This joins Occupy Maui's call for solidarity a few days ago!
The Latest From The "West Coast Port Shut Down" Website-West Coast Port shutdown pledged despite union rejection
Submitted by solidarity on Sat, 2011-12-10 13:04. Docks | San Francisco Bay Area | Solidarity Campaigns | Solidarity Campaigns | Texts
West Coast Port shutdown pledged despite union rejection By MARCUS WOHLSEN,
Associated Press Thursday, Decembers, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/08/state/nl20819S78.DTL
(12-08) 16:52 PST Oakland, Calif. (AP) -
" Occupy Wall Street protesters want to shut down ports up and down the West Coast on Monday in a bid to gum up theengines of global commerce.
But organizers who are partly billing this effort as a show of solidarity with longshoremen have not won the support of the powerful union representing thousands of dock workers.
The tension between the century-old International Longshore and Warehouse Union and a still-young protest movement has complicated an ambitious effort by Occupiers to build an identity that is bigger than their recently dismantled tent camps. Without the support of workers who make the docks run, the protesters will be forced to rely on sheer numbers and their own devices to blockade sprawling ports from San Diego to Alaska.
Longshoremen spearheaded San Francisco's iconic 1934 general strike that ended with two strikers gunned down by police and a stronger contract for waterfront workers.
Any action on behalf of longshoremen should also be led by the workers themselves, the union's current president said.
"Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another," Robert McEllrath wrote in a Dec. 6 letter to ILWU locals.
The key issue for targeting the ports is a longstanding dispute between longshoremen and grain exporter EGT at the Port of Longview along the Columbia River in Washington. The protesters say companies like EGT represent "Wall Street on the waterfront" and believe rank-and-file longshoremen support the shutdown, regardless of what union leaders say.
Occupy groups in cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Portland, Ore., Tacoma, Wash., Seattle, Anchorage and Vancouver plan to blockade their local ports.
But under the terms of the ILWU contract, West Coast longshoremen cannot simply walk off the job en masse to support the shutdown, though individual union members can choose to exercise their First Amendment rights and not show up at the hiring hall that day.
From its roots in the San Francisco general strike, the ILWU has a strong history of taking a stand on issues of the day, from civil rights to the Iraq War to apartheid in South Africa. One union member cited that tradition in calling for members to support the shutdown.
"We don't cross community picket lines," longshoreman Clarence Thomas, a member of Oakland's Local 10 and a longtime community activist, said in an interview posted on the port shutdown website. "When people begin to do so, they have completely turned their backs on the ILWU's 10 guiding principles," one calling on longshoremen to respect every picket line "as though it were our own."
Organizers say the shutdowns are meant to highlight what they see as abuses inflicted by wealthy companies taking place well beyond Wall Street itself. They also hope to show that Occupy activists can still muster a major national protest despite the scattering of their camps by police raids.
"Even though there's not an encampment, there's still a huge movement," said Barucha Peller, who is part of the Oakland Occupy group that launched Monday's planned blockade and successfully forced a shutdown of the Port of Oakland in November,
But Dan Coffman, president of ILWU Local 21, which represents the Longview longshoremen, said the movement does not speak for him and his workers. Blockade organizers in press releases and a video posted online have featured Coffman's appearance at an Occupy Oakland rally. Coffman said his trip to California was mainly to thank longshoremen there for sending money to support their picket lines in the EGT dispute,
"As far as the shutdown of the ports, we have no involvement with that whatsoever — none," Coffman said.
If longshoremen still come to work, Occupiers could have a tough time bringing commerce to a halt, since most major West Coast ports appear too big to completely block.
Oakland could prove the exception: with one major entrance and exit, demonstrators already showed last month that they could close down one of the nation's busiest shipping centers. The Port of Oakland has taken out ads urging city residents not to support the shutdown, which port officials said would steer traffic to other ports and hinder its job-creation initiatives.
In Southern California, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handle more than twice as much shipping container traffic as any other U.S. port. Rather than trying to shut down the entire complex along several miles of waterfront, protesters will target the shipping terminal of SSA Marine Inc., which is partly owned by an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs.
Protesters accuse the company of exploiting port truckers by classifying them as independent contractors instead of regularemployees.
Company spokesman Bob Watters said SSA leases trucks that meet the port's strict emissions to drivers who could not otherwise afford them.
Support of the shutdown among the rank-and-fiie may not be put to the test in some cities if sizeable protests erupt. Under the terms of the longshoremen's contract, union officials say blockades by protesters could result in the declaration of unsafe working conditions, which would exempt workers from having to show up.
The overnight shutdown of the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2 resulted from such a declaration.
Whether or not Monday's protest draws enough participants to have that kind of impact could depend on how much backing the blockade effort gets from other unions. The November march on the Port of Oakland included a strong contingent from organized labor, and the day's general strike was publicly supported by Oakland's teachers union and the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union.
SEIU Local 1021 has not said whether it will support Monday's port shutdown effort. Oakland teachers have voted to get behind it, said Oakland Education Association President Betty Olson-Jones, who added that she hopes the Occupy movement and organized labor can figure out how to join forces in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
"Now the hard work starts," she said.
West Coast Port shutdown pledged despite union rejection By MARCUS WOHLSEN,
Associated Press Thursday, Decembers, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/08/state/nl20819S78.DTL
(12-08) 16:52 PST Oakland, Calif. (AP) -
" Occupy Wall Street protesters want to shut down ports up and down the West Coast on Monday in a bid to gum up theengines of global commerce.
But organizers who are partly billing this effort as a show of solidarity with longshoremen have not won the support of the powerful union representing thousands of dock workers.
The tension between the century-old International Longshore and Warehouse Union and a still-young protest movement has complicated an ambitious effort by Occupiers to build an identity that is bigger than their recently dismantled tent camps. Without the support of workers who make the docks run, the protesters will be forced to rely on sheer numbers and their own devices to blockade sprawling ports from San Diego to Alaska.
Longshoremen spearheaded San Francisco's iconic 1934 general strike that ended with two strikers gunned down by police and a stronger contract for waterfront workers.
Any action on behalf of longshoremen should also be led by the workers themselves, the union's current president said.
"Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another," Robert McEllrath wrote in a Dec. 6 letter to ILWU locals.
The key issue for targeting the ports is a longstanding dispute between longshoremen and grain exporter EGT at the Port of Longview along the Columbia River in Washington. The protesters say companies like EGT represent "Wall Street on the waterfront" and believe rank-and-file longshoremen support the shutdown, regardless of what union leaders say.
Occupy groups in cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Portland, Ore., Tacoma, Wash., Seattle, Anchorage and Vancouver plan to blockade their local ports.
But under the terms of the ILWU contract, West Coast longshoremen cannot simply walk off the job en masse to support the shutdown, though individual union members can choose to exercise their First Amendment rights and not show up at the hiring hall that day.
From its roots in the San Francisco general strike, the ILWU has a strong history of taking a stand on issues of the day, from civil rights to the Iraq War to apartheid in South Africa. One union member cited that tradition in calling for members to support the shutdown.
"We don't cross community picket lines," longshoreman Clarence Thomas, a member of Oakland's Local 10 and a longtime community activist, said in an interview posted on the port shutdown website. "When people begin to do so, they have completely turned their backs on the ILWU's 10 guiding principles," one calling on longshoremen to respect every picket line "as though it were our own."
Organizers say the shutdowns are meant to highlight what they see as abuses inflicted by wealthy companies taking place well beyond Wall Street itself. They also hope to show that Occupy activists can still muster a major national protest despite the scattering of their camps by police raids.
"Even though there's not an encampment, there's still a huge movement," said Barucha Peller, who is part of the Oakland Occupy group that launched Monday's planned blockade and successfully forced a shutdown of the Port of Oakland in November,
But Dan Coffman, president of ILWU Local 21, which represents the Longview longshoremen, said the movement does not speak for him and his workers. Blockade organizers in press releases and a video posted online have featured Coffman's appearance at an Occupy Oakland rally. Coffman said his trip to California was mainly to thank longshoremen there for sending money to support their picket lines in the EGT dispute,
"As far as the shutdown of the ports, we have no involvement with that whatsoever — none," Coffman said.
If longshoremen still come to work, Occupiers could have a tough time bringing commerce to a halt, since most major West Coast ports appear too big to completely block.
Oakland could prove the exception: with one major entrance and exit, demonstrators already showed last month that they could close down one of the nation's busiest shipping centers. The Port of Oakland has taken out ads urging city residents not to support the shutdown, which port officials said would steer traffic to other ports and hinder its job-creation initiatives.
In Southern California, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handle more than twice as much shipping container traffic as any other U.S. port. Rather than trying to shut down the entire complex along several miles of waterfront, protesters will target the shipping terminal of SSA Marine Inc., which is partly owned by an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs.
Protesters accuse the company of exploiting port truckers by classifying them as independent contractors instead of regularemployees.
Company spokesman Bob Watters said SSA leases trucks that meet the port's strict emissions to drivers who could not otherwise afford them.
Support of the shutdown among the rank-and-fiie may not be put to the test in some cities if sizeable protests erupt. Under the terms of the longshoremen's contract, union officials say blockades by protesters could result in the declaration of unsafe working conditions, which would exempt workers from having to show up.
The overnight shutdown of the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2 resulted from such a declaration.
Whether or not Monday's protest draws enough participants to have that kind of impact could depend on how much backing the blockade effort gets from other unions. The November march on the Port of Oakland included a strong contingent from organized labor, and the day's general strike was publicly supported by Oakland's teachers union and the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union.
SEIU Local 1021 has not said whether it will support Monday's port shutdown effort. Oakland teachers have voted to get behind it, said Oakland Education Association President Betty Olson-Jones, who added that she hopes the Occupy movement and organized labor can figure out how to join forces in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
"Now the hard work starts," she said.
The Latest From The "West Coast Port Shut Down" Website-Support Occupy Call for Dec. 12 Coast Shutdown
Support Occupy Call for Dec. 12 Coast Shutdown
Occupy Movement and Ports Workers: SAME STRUGGLE, SAME FIGHT!
NOVEMBER 28 - On November 2, some 30,000 demonstrators marched on the Port of Oakland, shutting it down on the evening shift in response to a call by Occupy Oakland for a "general strike." One of the declared aims of the powerful march was to show solidarity with longshore workers facing a vicious union-busting attack by the EOT grain conglomerate in Longview, Washington. ILWU officials had scuttled calls by some rank and file longshoremen in the hiring hall that morning to stop work all day.
Now several Occupy groups have issued a call for a West Coast Port Blockade for Dec. 12. Once again they are highlighting the attack on the Longview ILWU, as well as that on the port truckers' union organizing drive in Los Angeles/Long Beach, by the notorious anti-union SSA, majority-owned by Goldman Sachs. The Wall Street banksters and PMA are also pushing a robotics contract provision to cut longshore jobs to the bone in the largest port in the country. Occupy Seattle aims to shut down the port to protest Democrat governor Gregoire's budget cuts.
30,000 marched on the Port of Oakland in response to call by Occupy Oakland, Nov. 2, shutting it down in solidarity with Longview longshoremen.
Waterfront workers from Longview to Long Beach and beyond are facing a frontal attack threatening the future of our jobs and our unions. What's needed to defeat these employer assaults is a solid union action, shutting down the Coast. The call by the populist Occupy movement to blockade ports should be welcomed as supplementary support for labor's struggle. President McEllrath, on Oct. 5 publicized his "solidarity with Occupy Wall Street" statemenUBut now, the ILWU International officers are contradicting themselves, undermining unity with Occupy and saying the unionwants nothing to do with the Dec. 12 blockade.
This is more than a ritual CYA declaration. The voice of the maritime bosses, the Journal of Commerce, (23 November) noted that the union leaders were making clear that they were hostile to the Occupy initiative. The ILWU Coast Committee issued a Nov. 21 memo slamming "outside groups intent on driving their own agendas." The next day it followed up with a press statement "clarifying" its stand on "third-party protests." These shameful statements go against the grain of ILWU's militant record of solidarity actions and don't represent the rank and file's sentiments. ILWU is bottom up not top down.
The Coast Committee said that a community demonstration or picket is not a picket line, as defined by the longshore contract. This flies in the face of "ILWU's 10 Guiding Principles", which say:
"Unions have to accept the fact that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called sanctity of the contract."
Occupy's enemies, EGT and SSA, are ILWU's enemies too.
Occupy Movement and Ports Workers: SAME STRUGGLE, SAME FIGHT!
NOVEMBER 28 - On November 2, some 30,000 demonstrators marched on the Port of Oakland, shutting it down on the evening shift in response to a call by Occupy Oakland for a "general strike." One of the declared aims of the powerful march was to show solidarity with longshore workers facing a vicious union-busting attack by the EOT grain conglomerate in Longview, Washington. ILWU officials had scuttled calls by some rank and file longshoremen in the hiring hall that morning to stop work all day.
Now several Occupy groups have issued a call for a West Coast Port Blockade for Dec. 12. Once again they are highlighting the attack on the Longview ILWU, as well as that on the port truckers' union organizing drive in Los Angeles/Long Beach, by the notorious anti-union SSA, majority-owned by Goldman Sachs. The Wall Street banksters and PMA are also pushing a robotics contract provision to cut longshore jobs to the bone in the largest port in the country. Occupy Seattle aims to shut down the port to protest Democrat governor Gregoire's budget cuts.
30,000 marched on the Port of Oakland in response to call by Occupy Oakland, Nov. 2, shutting it down in solidarity with Longview longshoremen.
Waterfront workers from Longview to Long Beach and beyond are facing a frontal attack threatening the future of our jobs and our unions. What's needed to defeat these employer assaults is a solid union action, shutting down the Coast. The call by the populist Occupy movement to blockade ports should be welcomed as supplementary support for labor's struggle. President McEllrath, on Oct. 5 publicized his "solidarity with Occupy Wall Street" statemenUBut now, the ILWU International officers are contradicting themselves, undermining unity with Occupy and saying the unionwants nothing to do with the Dec. 12 blockade.
This is more than a ritual CYA declaration. The voice of the maritime bosses, the Journal of Commerce, (23 November) noted that the union leaders were making clear that they were hostile to the Occupy initiative. The ILWU Coast Committee issued a Nov. 21 memo slamming "outside groups intent on driving their own agendas." The next day it followed up with a press statement "clarifying" its stand on "third-party protests." These shameful statements go against the grain of ILWU's militant record of solidarity actions and don't represent the rank and file's sentiments. ILWU is bottom up not top down.
The Coast Committee said that a community demonstration or picket is not a picket line, as defined by the longshore contract. This flies in the face of "ILWU's 10 Guiding Principles", which say:
"Unions have to accept the fact that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called sanctity of the contract."
Occupy's enemies, EGT and SSA, are ILWU's enemies too.
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