Markin comment:
A general strike only, as witness the latest actions in Greece, poses the question of power. We have to go on from there to take it and create that new society we have all been fighting for so long. Today in Oakland we go on the offensive, praise be, and like I stated in the headline-let's win this one for good this time.
1946: The Oakland General Strike, by Stan Weir
Submitted by libcom on Nov 22 2005 10:53
tags: North AmericaStan WeirUSA1940saccountsCaliforniageneral strikesOaklandstrikesworkplace activity
An account of the General Strike in Oakland, California.
The Oakland (California) General Strike was an extension of the national strike wave. It was not a 'called' strike. Shortly before 5 a.m., Monday, December 3, 1946, the hundreds of workers passing through downtown Oakland on their way to work became witness to the police herding a fleet of scab trucks through the downtown area. The trucks contained commodities to fill the shelves of two major department stores whose clerks (mostly women) had long been on strike. The witnesses, that is, truck drivers, bus and streetcar operators and passengers, got off their vehicles and did not return. The city filled with workers, they milled about in the city's core for several hours and then organised themselves.
By nightfall the strikers had instructed all stores except pharmacies and food markets to shut down, Bars were allowed to stay open, but they could serve only beer and had to put their juke boxes out on the sidewalk to play at full volume and no charge. 'Pistol Packin' Mama, Lay That Pistol Down', the number one hit, echoed off all the buildings. That first 24-hour period of the 54-hour strike had a carnival spirit. A mass of couples danced in the streets. The participants were making history, knew it, and were having fun. By Tuesday morning they had cordoned off the central city and were directing traffic. Anyone could leave, but only those with passports (union cards) could get in. The comment made by a prominent national network newscaster, that 'Oakland is a ghost town tonight,' was a contribution to ignorance. Never before or since had Oakland been so alive and happy for the majority of the population. It was a town of law and order. In that city of over a quarter mil lion, strangers passed each other on the street and did not have fear, but the opposite.
Before the second day of the strike was half over a large group of war veterans among the strikers formed their own squads and went through close-order drills. They then marched on the Tribune Tower, offices of the anti-labour OAKLAND TRIBUNE, and from there marched on City Hall demanding the resignation of the mayor and city council. Sailor's Union of the Pacific (SUP) crews walked off the three ships at the Oakland Army base loaded with military supplies for troops in Japan. By that night the strikers closed some grocery stores in order to conserve dwindling food supplies. In all general strikes the participants are very soon forced by the very nature of events to themselves run the society they have just stopped. The process in the Oakland experiment was beginning to deepen. There was as yet little evidence of official union leadership in the streets. The top local Teamster officials, except one, were not to be found; the exception would be fired five months later for his strike activity. International Teamster President Dave Beck wired orders 'to break the strike' because it was a revolutionary attempt 'to overthrow the government'. He ordered all Teamsters who had left their jobs to return to work. (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, December 5, 1946)
A number of the secondary Oakland and Alameda County union leaders did what they could to create a semblance of straight trade-union organisation. The ranks, unused to leading themselves and having no precedent for this sort of strike in their own experience, wanted the well-known labour leaders in the Bay Area to step forward with expertise, aid, and public legitimisation. The man who was always billed as leader of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, ILWU President Harry Bridges, who was then also State CIO President, refused to become involved,, ,just as he did 18 years later during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement struggles. The rank-and-file longshoremen and warehouse- men who had been drawn to the street strike were out there on their own. No organised contingents from the hundreds available in the warehouse and longshore hiring halls were sent to help, No CIO shops were given the nod to walk out or 'sick-out'. Only through CIO participation could significant numbers of blacks have been drawn into this mainly white strike. The ILWU and other CIO unions would honour picket lines like those around the Tribune Tower or at the Oakland Army Base, but otherwise they minded their own business. Bridges had recently committed himself to a nine-year extension of the wartime no-strike pledge.
The one major leader of the San Francisco General Strike who would come to Oakland was the SUP's Secretary Treasurer, Harry Lundeberg. On the second night of the strike he was the principal speaker at the mass meeting in the overflowing Oakland Auditorium. He had been alerted when the strike was less than three hours old via a call from an old-time member at a pay phone on an Oakland street. By noon there were contingents composed mainly of Hawaiians acting as 'flying squads', patrolling to find any evidence of strike-breaking activity. They enlarged Upon their number by issuing large white buttons to all seamen or persons on the Street that they knew. The buttons contained the words ' Brotherhood of the Sea', They represented the first officially-organised activity on the street, They did not attempt to run the entire strike or take over. It takes a time for seamen to get over the idea that they are somehow outsiders, The feeling is all the stronger among Hawaiian seamen ashore or residing in the States. They limited their activity to trouble-shooting. They won gratitude and respect. When Lundeberg spoke at the meeting, he had no program of action beyond that of the Oakland AFL leaders. But he got a wild response. He did not approach the microphone reluctantly. His demeanour reflected no hesitancy. Unlike the other speakers, he bellowed with outrage against the city council on behalf of the strikers. In a heavy Norwegian accent he accused: 'These finky gazoonies who call themselves city fathers have been taking les sons from Hitler and Stalin. They don't believe in the kind of unions that are free to strike.' All true, but whether he knew it or not, by focusing on the City Council and no more, he was contributing to the undercutting of the strike, Instead of dealing with the anti-labour employers and city officials through the medium of the strike, plans were already being formulated to deal with the crisis in the post-strike period by attacking the City Council through use of the ballot box. The top Alameda County CIO officials were making hourly statements for the record that they could later use to cover up their disloyalty, The AFL officials couldn't get them to come near the strike, but they could be expected to participate in post-strike electoral action.
The strike ended 54 hours old at 11 a.m. on December 5. The people on the street learned of the decision from a sound truck put on the Street by the AFL Central Labour Council. It was the officials' first really decisive act of leadership. They had consulted among themselves and decided to end the strike on the basis of the Oakland City Manager's promise that police would not again be used to bring in scabs. No concessions were gained for the women retail clerks at Kahn's and Hastings Department Stores whose strikes had triggered the General Strike; they were left free to negotiate any settlement they could get on their own. Those women and many other strikers heard the sound truck's message with the form of anger that was close to heartbreak, Numbers of truckers and other workers continued to picket with the women, yelling protests at the truck and appealing to all who could hear that they should stay out. But all strikers other than the clerks had been ordered back to work and no longer had any protection against the disciplinary actions that might be brought against them for strike-caused absences, By noon only a few score of workers were left, wandering disconsolately around the now-barren city, The CIO mass meeting that had been called for that night to discuss strike 'unity' was never held.
In the strike's aftermath every incumbent official in the major Oakland Teamsters Local 70 was voted out of office. A United AFL-CIO Political Action Committee was formed to run candidates in the race for the five open seats on the nine-person City Council. Four of them won, the ballot listed the names of the first four labour challengers on top of each of the incumbents, but reversed the order for the fifth open office, It was felt that the loss was due to this trick and anti-Semitism. The fifth labour candidate's name was Ben Goldfarb. Labour's city councilmen were regularly outvoted by the five incumbents; however, the four winners were by no means outspoken champions of labour. They did not utilise their offices as a tribune for a progressive labour-civic program. They served out their time routinely, and the strike faded to become the nation's major unknown general strike.
The Oakland General Strike was related to the 1946 Strike Wave in time and spirit, and revealed an aspect of the tem per of the nation's industrial-working-class mood at war's end. Labour historians of the immediate post-war period have failed to examine the Oakland Strike, and thus have failed to consider a major event of the period and what it reveals about the mood of that time. In developing their analyses they have focused almost entirely on the economic demands made by the unions that participated in the Strike Wave. These demands were not unimportant. But economic oppression was not the primary wound that had been experienced daily during the war years.
The 'spontaneous' Oakland General Strike was a massive event in a major urban area with a population similar to that of all major World War II defence-industry centres, Thousands had come to the Bay Area from all corners of the nation-rural and urban-in the early war years, and had stayed. Every theatre of war was represented among armed-forces veterans returning to or settling in this largest of Northern California's central city cores. The Oakland General Strike revealed fundamental characteristics of a national and not simply a regional mood. Its events combined to make a statement of working-class awareness that World War II had not been fought for democracy. Or, more pointedly, it was a retaliation for the absence of democracy that the people in industry and the armed forces had experienced while 'fighting to save democracy in a war to end all wars'. The focus of people's lives was still on the war. They hadn't fought what they believed to be 'a war against fascism' to return home and have their strikes broken and unions housebroken.
Emotionally, their war experiences were still very real, and yet they were just far enough away from those experiences to begin playbacks of memory tapes. The post-war period had not yet achieved an experiential identity. The Oakland Key System bus drivers, streetcar conductors, and motormen who played a leading role in the strike wore their Eisenhower jackets as work uniforms, but the overseas bars were still on their sleeves. Like most, they had lost four years of their youth; and while they would never complain about that loss in those terms, there were other related grievances over which resentment could be expressed.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Fighters Standing In Solidarity Today, November 2, 2011, With The Oakland General Strike-We Take the Offensive- The International Working Class Anthem “The Internationale”
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of a performance of the classic international working class song of struggle, The Internationale.
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
***********
The Internationale [variant words in square brackets]
Arise ye workers [starvelings] from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
And spurn the dust to win the prize.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
And give to all a happier lot.
Each [those] at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.
________________________________________
L'Internationale
Debout les damnés de la terre
Debout les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère
C'est l'éruption de la fin
Du passe faisons table rase
Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout
C'est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain (bis)
L'Internationale
Sera le genre humain
Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud
L'état comprime et la loi triche
L'impôt saigne le malheureux
Nul devoir ne s'impose au riche
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux
C'est assez, languir en tutelle
L'égalité veut d'autres lois
Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle
Egaux, pas de devoirs sans droits
Hideux dans leur apothéose
Les rois de la mine et du rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose
Que dévaliser le travail
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande
Ce qu'il a crée s'est fondu
En décrétant qu'on le lui rende
Le peuple ne veut que son dû.
Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
Appliquons la grève aux armées
Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs
S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales
A faire de nous des héros
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
Sont pour nos propres généraux
Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grand parti des travailleurs
La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes
L'oisif ira loger ailleurs
Combien, de nos chairs se repaissent
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours
Un de ces matins disparaissent
Le soleil brillera toujours.
________________________________________
Die Internationale
Wacht auf, Verdammte dieser Erde,
die stets man noch zum Hungern zwingt!
Das Recht wie Glut im Kraterherde
nun mit Macht zum Durchbruch dringt.
Reinen Tisch macht mit dem Bedranger!
Heer der Sklaven, wache auf!
Ein nichts zu sein, tragt es nicht langer
Alles zu werden, stromt zuhauf!
Volker, hort die Signale!
Auf, zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale
Erkampft das Menschenrecht
Es rettet uns kein hoh'res Wesen
kein Gott, kein Kaiser, noch Tribun
Uns aus dem Elend zu erlosen
konnen wir nur selber tun!
Leeres Wort: des armen Rechte,
Leeres Wort: des Reichen Pflicht!
Unmundigt nennt man uns Knechte,
duldet die Schmach langer nicht!
In Stadt und Land, ihr Arbeitsleute,
wir sind die starkste Partei'n
Die Mussigganger schiebt beiseite!
Diese Welt muss unser sein;
Unser Blut sei nicht mehr der Raben
und der machtigen Geier Frass!
Erst wenn wir sie vertrieben haben
dann scheint die Sonn' ohn' Unterlass!
________________________________________
(The English version most commonly sung in South Africa. )
The Internationale
Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
`Tis a better world in birth.
Never more traditions' chains shall bind us
Arise ye toilers no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We are naught but we shall be all.
Then comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race.
________________________________________
(Zulu) i-Internationale
n'zigqila zezwe lonke
Vukan'ejokwen'lobugqili
Sizokwakh'umhlaba kabusha
Siqed'indlala nobumpofu.
lamasik'okusibopha
Asilwise yonk'incindezelo
Manj'umhlab'unesakhiw'esisha
Asisodwa Kulomkhankaso
Maqaban'wozan'sihlanganeni
Sibhekene nempi yamanqamu
I-Internationale
Ibumb'uluntu lonke
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
***********
The Internationale [variant words in square brackets]
Arise ye workers [starvelings] from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
And spurn the dust to win the prize.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
And give to all a happier lot.
Each [those] at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.
________________________________________
L'Internationale
Debout les damnés de la terre
Debout les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère
C'est l'éruption de la fin
Du passe faisons table rase
Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout
C'est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain (bis)
L'Internationale
Sera le genre humain
Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud
L'état comprime et la loi triche
L'impôt saigne le malheureux
Nul devoir ne s'impose au riche
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux
C'est assez, languir en tutelle
L'égalité veut d'autres lois
Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle
Egaux, pas de devoirs sans droits
Hideux dans leur apothéose
Les rois de la mine et du rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose
Que dévaliser le travail
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande
Ce qu'il a crée s'est fondu
En décrétant qu'on le lui rende
Le peuple ne veut que son dû.
Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
Appliquons la grève aux armées
Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs
S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales
A faire de nous des héros
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
Sont pour nos propres généraux
Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grand parti des travailleurs
La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes
L'oisif ira loger ailleurs
Combien, de nos chairs se repaissent
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours
Un de ces matins disparaissent
Le soleil brillera toujours.
________________________________________
Die Internationale
Wacht auf, Verdammte dieser Erde,
die stets man noch zum Hungern zwingt!
Das Recht wie Glut im Kraterherde
nun mit Macht zum Durchbruch dringt.
Reinen Tisch macht mit dem Bedranger!
Heer der Sklaven, wache auf!
Ein nichts zu sein, tragt es nicht langer
Alles zu werden, stromt zuhauf!
Volker, hort die Signale!
Auf, zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale
Erkampft das Menschenrecht
Es rettet uns kein hoh'res Wesen
kein Gott, kein Kaiser, noch Tribun
Uns aus dem Elend zu erlosen
konnen wir nur selber tun!
Leeres Wort: des armen Rechte,
Leeres Wort: des Reichen Pflicht!
Unmundigt nennt man uns Knechte,
duldet die Schmach langer nicht!
In Stadt und Land, ihr Arbeitsleute,
wir sind die starkste Partei'n
Die Mussigganger schiebt beiseite!
Diese Welt muss unser sein;
Unser Blut sei nicht mehr der Raben
und der machtigen Geier Frass!
Erst wenn wir sie vertrieben haben
dann scheint die Sonn' ohn' Unterlass!
________________________________________
(The English version most commonly sung in South Africa. )
The Internationale
Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
`Tis a better world in birth.
Never more traditions' chains shall bind us
Arise ye toilers no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We are naught but we shall be all.
Then comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race.
________________________________________
(Zulu) i-Internationale
n'zigqila zezwe lonke
Vukan'ejokwen'lobugqili
Sizokwakh'umhlaba kabusha
Siqed'indlala nobumpofu.
lamasik'okusibopha
Asilwise yonk'incindezelo
Manj'umhlab'unesakhiw'esisha
Asisodwa Kulomkhankaso
Maqaban'wozan'sihlanganeni
Sibhekene nempi yamanqamu
I-Internationale
Ibumb'uluntu lonke
From The "Occupy Oakland" Website- All Out In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland Today-We Take The Offensive-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity!
Click on the headline to link to Occupy Oaklandand information on a march to close down the Port Of Oakland on November 2, 2011.
Markin comment:
All Out On November 2, 2011 In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland today, November 2, 2011, we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
Markin comment:
All Out On November 2, 2011 In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland today, November 2, 2011, we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Fighters Standing In Solidarity Today With The Oakland General Strike, November 2, 2011-We Take the Offensive- Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up”
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Bob Marley performing his classic song of struggle, Get Up, Stand Up.
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment October 30, 2011:
All honor to those arrested defending Occupy Denver Ya, they got up, they stood up. Defend The Occupy Denver Site! Defend The Occupation! Defend The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against Those Who Defended Occupy Denver Now!
******
Markin comment October 26, 2011:
This having to send solidarity messages almost daily is getting too redundant, way too redundant. Forget this notion of each occupation site being a separate operation. We had better unite to fight nationally (and internationally) or they (and you know who the "they" is) will pick us off one by one like they are doing now. It is the same struggle, same fight! An injury to one is an injury to all!
******
Bob Marley Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/get+up+stand+up_20021743.html ]
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah! )
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight! (yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Don't give up the fight! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! /fadeout/
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment October 30, 2011:
All honor to those arrested defending Occupy Denver Ya, they got up, they stood up. Defend The Occupy Denver Site! Defend The Occupation! Defend The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against Those Who Defended Occupy Denver Now!
******
Markin comment October 26, 2011:
This having to send solidarity messages almost daily is getting too redundant, way too redundant. Forget this notion of each occupation site being a separate operation. We had better unite to fight nationally (and internationally) or they (and you know who the "they" is) will pick us off one by one like they are doing now. It is the same struggle, same fight! An injury to one is an injury to all!
******
Bob Marley Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/get+up+stand+up_20021743.html ]
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah! )
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight! (yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Don't give up the fight! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! /fadeout/
From #Occupied Boston (#TomemonosBoston)-Day Thirty-Four- An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend All The Occupation Sites And All The Occupiers!–No Mas- The Class-War Lines Are Being Drawn- There Is A Need To Unite And Fight-All Out Today November 2, 2011 In Solidarity With Occupy Oakland’s General Strike!-We Take The Offensive-This Is Our John Brown Moment –Light The Spark!
Click on the headline to link to updates from the Occupy Boston website.Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011. I will post important updates as they appear on that site.
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
#TomemonosBoston
Somos la Sociedad conformando el 99% -Dewey Square, Cercerde South Station
#Tomemonos Boston se reuniarin en el Dewey Square en Downtown Boston a discutir cambios que la ciudadania puede hacer en el gobierno que afecte un cambio social positivo.
************
Markin comment October 29, 2011:
As noted in the headline the Occupy movement cannot continue to take defeats like those imposed by the police raids and brutality in Oakland (and elsewhere). The general strike called for November 2, 2011 by Occupy Oakland is the start of our push-back. All Oakland labor, beginning with the powerful long-shore workers at the Port of Oakland, must shut down business as usual that day. All out students, workers, and oppressed peoples of Oakland. And the rest of us should shut down what we can in solidarity. This is our John Brown moment. They don’t come often to the downtrodden and oppressed as history shows- so we had better strike the blow now.
**********
Markin comment October 30, 2011
I swear the footage from Denver of peaceful marchers being trampled by the Cossacks (oops, police) reminds me of scenes from-January 9, 1905 in Russia. If you are not familiar with that date and those events, see Wikipedia.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
******
Press Release: Resounding Silence, General Strike Over Marine Injured by Oakland Police
October 27th, 2011
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 27, 2011*
Contacts: OccupyBostonMedia@gmail.com
Twitter: @occupyBOS_media
MEDIA BLACKOUT ENTERS SECOND DAY AS IRAQ VETERAN SCOTT OLSEN REMAINS IN SERIOUS CONDITION, OCCUPY OAKLAND CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE NOVEMBER 2
Scott Olsen, 24—a former member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and a veteran of two tours in Iraq—remains in serious condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland with a fractured skull and brain swelling. Riot police fired a projectile into Olsen’s face on Tuesday before throwing flash grenades at his fellow protesters while they attempted to move him to safety. Despite the severity of Olsen’s injuries, local and national media have largely ignored the story. As of Thursday morning, The Boston Herald and FOX 25 had no definite plans to cover the incident, nor had Oakland’s citizen review board opened an official inquiry.
Videos posted to YouTube depicting a member of the riot police throwing a flash grenade at protesters attempting to help the injured Olsen have stirred international outrage, but coverage remains minimal.
Last night, thousands marched to retake Oscar Grant Plaza for Occupy Oakland before calling for a general strike on November 2, saying:
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city-wide general strike and we propose that we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city. All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.
********
Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with Scott Olsen and with Occupy Oakland as we continue our peaceful pursuit of international economic justice. We are the 99%, and we are no longer silent.
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
#TomemonosBoston
Somos la Sociedad conformando el 99% -Dewey Square, Cercerde South Station
#Tomemonos Boston se reuniarin en el Dewey Square en Downtown Boston a discutir cambios que la ciudadania puede hacer en el gobierno que afecte un cambio social positivo.
************
Markin comment October 29, 2011:
As noted in the headline the Occupy movement cannot continue to take defeats like those imposed by the police raids and brutality in Oakland (and elsewhere). The general strike called for November 2, 2011 by Occupy Oakland is the start of our push-back. All Oakland labor, beginning with the powerful long-shore workers at the Port of Oakland, must shut down business as usual that day. All out students, workers, and oppressed peoples of Oakland. And the rest of us should shut down what we can in solidarity. This is our John Brown moment. They don’t come often to the downtrodden and oppressed as history shows- so we had better strike the blow now.
**********
Markin comment October 30, 2011
I swear the footage from Denver of peaceful marchers being trampled by the Cossacks (oops, police) reminds me of scenes from-January 9, 1905 in Russia. If you are not familiar with that date and those events, see Wikipedia.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
******
Press Release: Resounding Silence, General Strike Over Marine Injured by Oakland Police
October 27th, 2011
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 27, 2011*
Contacts: OccupyBostonMedia@gmail.com
Twitter: @occupyBOS_media
MEDIA BLACKOUT ENTERS SECOND DAY AS IRAQ VETERAN SCOTT OLSEN REMAINS IN SERIOUS CONDITION, OCCUPY OAKLAND CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE NOVEMBER 2
Scott Olsen, 24—a former member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and a veteran of two tours in Iraq—remains in serious condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland with a fractured skull and brain swelling. Riot police fired a projectile into Olsen’s face on Tuesday before throwing flash grenades at his fellow protesters while they attempted to move him to safety. Despite the severity of Olsen’s injuries, local and national media have largely ignored the story. As of Thursday morning, The Boston Herald and FOX 25 had no definite plans to cover the incident, nor had Oakland’s citizen review board opened an official inquiry.
Videos posted to YouTube depicting a member of the riot police throwing a flash grenade at protesters attempting to help the injured Olsen have stirred international outrage, but coverage remains minimal.
Last night, thousands marched to retake Oscar Grant Plaza for Occupy Oakland before calling for a general strike on November 2, saying:
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city-wide general strike and we propose that we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city. All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.
********
Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with Scott Olsen and with Occupy Oakland as we continue our peaceful pursuit of international economic justice. We are the 99%, and we are no longer silent.
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Solidarity Statements In Support Of The Oakland General Strike-November 2, 2011
You are browsing the archive for Solidarity Statements - Occupy Oakland.
by Liberate Oakland
U.C. UAW Local Support of General Strike
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
UAW 2865 Resolution in Support of Occupy Oakland General Strike
Whereas UAW 2865 witnesses firsthand how the 1% (in the form of UC Regents and top UC executives) conspire to steal ever more from students and workers through repeated tuition hikes, reduced services, layoffs, increased workloads, outsourcing and other austerity measures; and
Whereas we stand for the rights of all people to living wage jobs with affordable health care, quality education, a voice on the job, fair housing and a well-funded public sector, and
WHEREAS: Unemployment is the highest it has been since the Great Depression, and people are staying unemployed longer now than in the Great Depression, 1/3 of California homes are underwater, 1/5 of the foreclosures nation-wide are in California, and San Franciscans alone have lost almost $6 billion in home value costing their city over $74 million, and
WHEREAS: Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and the Wisconsin protests earlier this year, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future, and
WHEREAS: the Occupy Wall Street has galvanized public sentiment and a broad-based movement protesting the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations, and
WHEREAS: the National AFL-CIO and Change to Win coalitions have endorsed Occupy Wall Street, a growing number of trade union activists have joined this movement, both as individual workers, and as part of an increasing number of International and Local union contingents connecting their own fights to the larger demands of the movement for economic justice and fairness, and
WHEREAS: Union and Community organizations together have been working in coalition since the crash of the economy to force Banks to pay for public services and to renegotiate predatory loans with home owners, governments, and non-profit agencies, and
WHEREAS: public safety officers have used excessive force against peaceful protesters at Oscar Grant (Frank Ogawa) Plaza and violated their first amendment rights when more than 500 public safety officers with firearms aimed at the occupiers, tore down their tents in a predawn raid on October 25; and
WHEREAS: public safety officers on the evening of Oct. 25 again used excessive force injuring and endangering the lives of demonstrators when they marched on the evening of October 25th to protest the violence against the occupiers that morning;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this union will encourage its members and allies to act in support of Nov. 2 actions and honors as a “Sanctioned Union Strike Line” OccupyOakland and Occupy Wall Street, encourages union members and Local unions to participate in the movement, will actively support any unionized or non-unionized worker who refuses to break up, “raid,” or confiscate the belongings of protesters, and calls on unions representing DPW workers to not participate in such activity, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this union and its allies stand with our sisters and brothers of Occupy Wall Street, OccupyOakland, and cities and towns across the country who are fed up with an unfair economy that works for 1% of Americans while the vast majority of people struggle to pay the bills, get an education, and raise their families, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UAW 2865 recognizes that protest movements, like strike lines and organizing campaigns, do not have curfews, are not 9-5 activities, and in doing so UAW 2865 recognizes and will work to protect the right for OccupyOakland to protest 24 hours a day, on-site and with proper protection including food, medical supplies, water, and tents, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UAW 2865 has endorsed and will continue to endorse and turn-out members to OccupyOakland rallies and events, to provide in-kind donations like tents and food, and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that UAW 2865 joins its sister unions in the UC Berkeley Labor Coalition in forwarding this resolution for adoption to other local unions and central labor bodies.
No Comments »
by Bruce Paul
Alameda Central Labor Council endorses Nov 2
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
Sisters & Brothers,
Excitement is continuing to build nationally and worldwide for the “Occupy Movement”! Workers, students, unemployed, homeless, seniors, those who have lost their homes to foreclosures and those who have lost their jobs — the 99% — are standing up and fighting back against the 1%!
We are experiencing the results of a failed economy and inability of the richest nation in the world to provide for the 99%. We know that the 1% is only getting greedier and richer. But, things are changing and this movement is catching fire.
Inspired by the spirit of the fight against Wall Street, the Alameda Labor Council urges all union members and your families to join us as we stand in solidarity with Occupy Oakland on Wednesday, November 2. This Day of Action on November 2 will be a public demonstration of support for the right to peaceably assemble without interference, and against the growing wealth and income inequality created by Wall Street and the actions of the richest 1%.
Individual unions and your members are encouraged to express solidarity in whatever form you find appropriate. These are some options for Nov. 2:
1. At your worksite. Before work or during lunch, come together to talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Wear We are the 99% stickers.
2. Noon Bank action. Meet at Oakland City Hall and join a Wells Fargo Bank action.
3. Mobilization at 5 pm. Labor’s focus will be to turn out for this mobilization. We will converge at the Frank Ogawa Plaza at City Hall to join with Occupy Oakland.
Wear your union shirts and be visible so Occupy Oakland knows that labor is standing with them.
At 7 pm the Alameda Labor Council with our affiliates will be hosting a “cook out” and serving dinner to all in attendance.
What can your union do to support this effort?
Contribute to the “cook out”. We expect to feed 1,000s at 7 pm on November 2. A detailed budget will be sent out tonight. Volunteer monitors needed for 5 pm mobilization. If your local can round up 4-10 monitors, that would be great. Contribute to fund a lead “occupy” organizer. The occupy movement requires experience, time and commitment to build good relationships. We will be setting up a dedicated fund to resource this level of organizing. If your local has staff you can reassign to this effort, let’s talk.
Please see the labor flyer attached and spread the word to all your families, friends and networks! To donate and/or volunteer, call 510-632-4242 x226 OR email: weareone@alamedalabor.org.
We are the 99%!
Josie Camacho
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Alameda Labor Council
29 21share51
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Phillipine Airline Workers Back Oakland General Strike Call of Occupy Oakland
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
PALEA Backs Oakland General Strike Call of Occupy Oakland
Letter From Philippine Airline Employees Association
To the Occupy Oakland protesters:
We express our solidarity with the Oakland general strike planned on November 2
especially the blockade of the Port of Oakland. The general strike and port blockade will reveal the truth that the 99% creates the wealth that the 1% now monopolizes. Such forms of mass actions will also show the way forward for the occupy protest movement now surging in the US and other countries.
We likewise salute the Occupy Oakland protesters who bravely faced violent eviction last
October 25 even as we condemn the police for their brutal attack.
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the union of the ground staff
of Philippine Airlines, stands shoulder to shoulder with the Occupy Oakland protesters. We too struggle against corporate greed and capitalist globalization with its destructive impact on the workers and the youth. Truly the movement against corporate greed and capitalist globalization is international in scope.
More than a thousand PALEA members are presently occupying areas outside the
international airports of Manila and Cebu, the two biggest cities in the Philippines, for a month
reposted from: http://transportworkers.org/
38 1share39
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Berkeley Federation of Teachers Calls On Teachers to participate in the Wednesday, November 2nd Day of Action
October 30, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
BFT Calls on All Members to Mobilize November 2nd at Occupy Oakland
BFT stands in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and its advocacy on behalf of the 99%. Occupy Oakland and the Worldwide Occupy Movement are fighting to restore sanity to our economy and to oppose growing wealth inequality.
We call upon all BFT members to participate in the November 2nd Day of Action at Occupy Oakland. It is incredibly important that teachers and union members take part in this historic mobilization.
We are encouraging our members to participate in the Wednesday, November 2nd Day of Action in the following ways:
1) Wear your BFT t-shirt on Wednesday in solidarity with Occupy Oakland. Wear the “We Are the 99%” sticker that you will be offered by your site rep.
2) Attend the Occupy Oakland late afternoon action. We are asking BFT members to meet between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the State Building at 1515 Clay Street. Bring signs and wear your BFT t-shirt. If you come after 5:00 p.m. please look for the BFT banner and join our group.
3) Look for ways to incorporate information and activities about the history of organizing efforts against economic injustice into your lessons on Wednesday. If possible, also look for ways members can come together on this day, maybe at lunch, to talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
4) Attend the solidarity barbecue hosted by the Alameda Labor Council at 7:00 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
BFT is aware that Occupy Oakland has called for a General Strike, as well as a Day of Action, on November 2nd. We have a no strike clause in our contract, so BFT is attempting to reach an agreement with BUSD to allow members to use personal leave, as long as there is adequate sub coverage, to attend ALL Occupy Oakland events on November 2nd. We will update members and site reps as soon as we have news on that effort.
Please note that the Occupy movement is very fluid. We will do our best to keep members updated.
If you need a BFT t-shirt (or button) please call the BFT office at 549-2307 and we will get one to you.
In Unity,
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite A
Berkeley, CA 94702
31 2share33
Comments Off
by Liberate Oakland
Oakland Teachers Union OEA Executive Board endorsed Occupy Oakland’s November 2 “General Strike/Mass Day of Action”
October 30, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
Occupy Oakland General Strike November 2, 2011
In a unanimous vote on 10/28/11, the OEA Executive Board endorsed Occupy Oakland’s November 2 “General Strike/Mass Day of Action” and is urging members to participate in a variety of ways, including taking personal leave to join actions at Frank Ogawa Plaza, doing informational picketing at school sites, and holding teach-ins on the history of general strikes and organizing for economic justice.
Faced with growing class sizes and dwindling resources, school closures, and the ongoing attempts of charter management companies to entice Oakland schools to convert to charters, it is critical that we link our struggles with those of the 99% of Americans fighting for social and economic justice. It is simply wrong that banks and corporations are bailed out and continue to reap huge profits, while schools and social services suffer.
Join us on November 2nd, in solidarity with Occupy Movements across the globe!
WE ARE THE 99%!
Betty Olson-Jones
OEA President
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQ’s- Nov. 2nd strike questions – OEA responses
Thank you to OEA members who responded to the email blast with questions!
MEMO: Won’t the loss of ADA adversely affect our school budget? Children are required to be at school in order to maintain ADA for that day. If parents choose to bring their children to school in the morning and then take them out at some point, that is their choice.
Q: Jennifer Dunn asked: “What is the OEA stance on this (General Strike) right now?”
A: Oakland Education Association supports the General Strike and encourages OEA members to participate in a variety of ways on Nov. 2nd.
Q: Rasheeda Turner asked: “What is the purpose (of the General Strike)?” “What are we hoping will change as a result of this one day strike?”
A: Teachers in Oakland teach the 99%, and are themselves part of the 99%. This is evident in the cuts to education, healthcare, services, home foreclosures, etc. that we witness in Oakland on an ongoing basis. Part of teaching is advocating for our students in the broader context. We hope that linking our struggle to this movement that is getting worldwide attention will force policy changes that will benefit all of us.
Q: Samia Khattab: “Why would we strike? Is it to show solidarity? Is it to protest the heavy handed response from the OPD? Or are we striking because of recent board decision?”
Q: Kamila Weaver: “@ Foster I feel like this is happening very quickly and I don’t fully understand why we would be striking and what we hope to accomplish by it.”
Q: Daniel Crew asked: “I personally think it is quite a pull to get all of us to agree to a strike without it being explicit to our contract. Is it even legal?”
A: Although Oakland Education Association is strike legal, OEA is not calling a strike action against OUSD. OEA is supporting the Occupy Oakland call for a mass action and support this call by encouraging our members to participate.
Q: Dennis asked: “What are potential employment consequences for wildcatters?”
A: Unauthorized striking may result in no pay for that day, and possible discipline. OEA would work through any problems employees encounter with the district. OEA has met with OUSD on this particular action, and OUSD said they will recognize use of personal days to support this action, provided a substitute teacher is secured.
Q: Katie @ Skyline: “How is the message getting to each school so that we have an impact??”
A: In a variety of ways. The message has gone out to OEA site reps via cluster calls. There will be constant contact messages, auto dialer messages, and information will be posted on the website as well as on our Twitter feed.
Q: Tessa Strauss asked: “What do we tell our students’ families? Should they be sending their kids to school that day?”
A: School is in session on Nov. 2nd. Every OEA member who plans to take Personal Leave to participate in the General Strike is responsible to ensure a substitute or alternative classroom coverage to supervise students. OEA members participating in the General Strike should request a sub ASAP, or by the end of the school day on Monday, Oct. 31st. OEA members should inform parents that school is in session on Nov. 2nd and inform parents of your individual plan (have a sub, have another teacher cover your class) and recommend parents make the personal decision whether to send their child to school or not on Nov. 2nd.
Q: Perry asks: “Has OEA talked about putting out a call for teach-ins at all? If the strike doesn’t pass, I think it would be a great way for us to participate on Wednesday.”
A: Yes, there is a tremendous educational opportunity here and by all means it shouldn’t be squandered.
Q: Jennifer Dannenberg: “What precautions against violent action by protestors and/or police can be taken?”
A: OEA has been working with labor council, faith based and community groups and have met with the Mayor and Chief of Police to try to ensure safety. Occupy Oakland protestors have been working to ensure peaceful and productive demonstrations.
Q: Tessa Strauss @ Ascent asks: “I’m wondering what our rights and protections are—I know most contracts have strike clauses. Would we be organizing teachers to take personal days together, have to get our principal on board and have all teachers agree to strike together and take the risk, etc—“
Q: Carrie Anderson asks: What are the technicalities of not being at work? Take a sick day or what? What do we tell our principal?
A: By all means, let your principal know that you intend to take a personal day and assure him or her that you have made arrangements with a substitute teacher. This needs to be put in writing by Monday. As for us having all teachers agree to strike together, we’re happy to hear it.
Every member must make a personal decision about Wednesday. Staff should reach consensus about coverage and site plan.
Q: Alykhan@EOSA: “How do we integrate students? Can they come with us?”
Q: Fatima@EOSA: “Will it be a walk-out for students, or a no-show for students who are participating in the strike?”
A: We can integrate students by educating them about the occupy movements and recent events that have occurred locally and nationally. OEA members cannot and should not take students to the General Strike as a field trip. OEA has not organized with secondary students to implement a student walk-out or student no-show. OEA is not aware of any potential students to organize these types of actions.
Q: I don’t want to use my personal leave, can I take a sick day?
A: NO! THAT IS FRAUD. Take personal leave or leave without pay. Do not take sick leave!
29 2share32
Comments Off
by johnreimann1
Carpenters Local 713 endorses General Strike
October 30, 2011 in Announcements, Open Mic, Solidarity Statements
UBC Local 713 Endorses Call For 11/2 General Strike
Carpenters Local 713 represents 3,000 mostly private sector construction workers in Alameda County, California and passed the following motion tonight (Thurs October 27th,2011) by a standing vote with an overwhelming majority.
Local 713 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. We support the right of all working people to organize and peacefully assemble to demand their rights.
We further agree that the 1% should not continue to go untaxed while the 99% face layoffs, pay and benefit cuts, foreclosures and the closing of our children’s schools and our public services.
We further strongly condemn the police brutality used against the Occupy Oakland movement and the devastating injury inflicted on Iraq veteran Scott Olsen.
We further resolve to support the call of the 2,000 Oaklanders at Occupy Oakland for a one-day strike in Oakland for Wednesday November 2nd, 2011, to protest our country’s rising inequality and the brutal actions of the police in the city of Oakland, California.
To be sent to Mayor Jean Quan and the Oakland Police Department
16 2share19
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Week 1 Endorsements
October 29, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
MILLION WORKER MARCH SUPPORTS OCCUPY WALL STREET
October 17, 2011
The Million Worker March (MWM) organizers and activists call upon all workers organized and unorganized and the unemployed to join and defend the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. We extend the call to anti-war, immigration rights, environmental and social justice activists to join this movement which could replicate the “Arab Spring” here at home.
The MWM, initiated by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 on October 17, 2004 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., advanced the slogan “mobilizing in our own name” independent of the two Wall Street controlled political parties to address the economic crisis of working people in which the vast majority are under siege financially.
All important social movements, which occurred in this country, were started from the bottom up (rank and file/grass roots) and not from the top down. The MWM’s mission statement speaks to how “. . . a handful of the rich and powerful corporations have usurped our government. A corporate and banking oligarchy changes hats and occupies public office to wage class war on working people. They have captured the State in their own interests.” They represent what the OWS activists call the 1%., otherwise known as the ruling class.
Like the MWM, the OWS has emerged at a time when the two corporate controlled political parties are preparing for the presidential election; a smokescreen where billions is spent to promote a top down and false ceremony of democracy.
Like the MWM, the OWS will be criticized for having demands that are too broad. However, after more than 50 years of a corporate assault on working people, social services, jobs, wages, pensions, health care, public education, and housing. The pursuit of endless wars, the lack of a comprehensive immigration policy and the erosion of the environment in pursuit of corporate greed makes it impossible to address all of these issues in a sound bite. Yet one thing is crystal clear, OWS conveys a definite anti-capitalist message. It is being expressed to the entire world at the “temple” of American Capitalism, Wall Street. The OWS, while now a major protest movement against the capitalist elites must continue to deepen, expend and become a direct challenge to corporate power. Class warfare demands fighting on multiple fronts and it all leads back to Wall Street. While the officialdom of labor has given verbal support to OWS, the rank and file possesses the real power of the labor movement. It is only through rank and file unity that labor’s true power can be realized in this OWS movement. Workers can take action at the point of production and service as well as put people in the streets.
We must be mindful of attempts to co-opt this movement. Let us not forget the action of the Democratic Party and it surrogates within AFL-CIO to pressure Wisconsin unions not to initiate any General Strike actions in opposition to Governor Scott Walker’s plans to eliminate collective bargaining for State workers. Wisconsin workers were limited to circulating petitions to recall targeted State republican elected officials. This took away labor’s only real power, the ability to withhold its labor in defense of collective bargaining.
ILWU Local 10’s Executive Board has adopted a Resolution to join and defend the OWS and called for other longshore locals to do the same. More importantly, Local 10 is connecting the OWS movement with the Pacific Northwest Dockers struggle with EGT in Longview, Washington. (EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture long shore jurisdiction.) The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD., a leading agribusiness and food company, which reported $2.4 billion in profits in 2010. This company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on union workers.
On October 12th, the vice-president and secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 21 in Longview, WA, who are engaged in battle with EGT, were allowed to speak by the organizers of “Foreclosure on Wall Street West”. They explained their struggle to several hundred people attending the rally that took place in the San Francisco financial district. This is an important and strategic show of solidarity between labor and OWS.
It was Black trade unionists that conceived and launched the MWM. Black workers and other workers of color should play an integral role in expanding the power and influence of OWS. The Black unemployment rate is 24% and growing. This needs to be a part of the discussion of the peoples’ assemblies as it concerns empowering this peoples’ movement.
Working people need to have a political expression of our own which is an alternative to the U.S. corporate sector that both the Democrats and the Republicans represent. The timing of the MWM in Washington was to prepare the beginning of a fight-back precisely because the agendas of two political parties, acting as one, the corporate agenda of permanent war, destruction of all social services, Jim Crow and a relentless assault upon working people.
This is an opportune moment for rank and file working people to forge a mass movement for fundamental change. Rarely has the importance of unity in struggle been more compelling along an axis of class independence.
Only by our own independent mobilization of working people (99%) across America, can we open the way to addressing a peoples’ agenda. The MWM and OWS are both about building grass roots and rank and file anti-racist unity “forging the fight-back” on all governmental and corporate policies influenced and or directed by Wall Street.
Let’s take it to the corporate state, Let the 1% take the weight
Clarence Thomas
Leo Robinson
Chris Silvera
ILWU Local 10, Executive Board
ILWU Local 10 Retired
IBT Local 808, Sec-Treasurer
Co-Chair MWM
National Convener
Co-Convener MWM East Coast
Saladin Muhammad
Gabriel Prawl
Black Workers for Justice
ILWU Local 52
Convener MWM Southern Region
Convener MWM Pacific Northwest
Jerry Lawrence
Debby Springfellow
ILWU Local 8
ILWU Local 8
Website: www.millionworkermarch.org
Email: www.east@yahoo.com
10/10/11
Statement of Support for the “Occupy Wall Street” movement:
The Berkeley Federation of Teachers endorses the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Occupy Wall Street, and its local iterations, represent the legitimate response of the 99% of us adversely affected by growing wealth and income inequality in America. The richest one percent of the population has doubled its share of the nation’s income over the past twenty years. Yet during this time the wealthy received massive tax cuts, a major cause of public budget shortfalls that hurt students, make our streets less safe, and harm the health of children and seniors.
Instead of investing its newfound wealth in productive enterprises in the United States, the top 1% moved it offshore or into financial speculation, which ultimately crashed the economy. The 1% also took large amounts of this money and poured it into a public relations effort to blame teachers and other public servants for the economic problems the 1% created.
Occupy Wall Street redirects the attention of the public to the actual causes and parties responsible for the economic crash and recession. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers embraces the call of Occupy Wall Street to restore higher taxes on the rich, to re-regulate the banks, and to enact a financial speculation tax. We encourage our members to participate in the OWS actions in the East Bay. These actions will help restore public budgets for schools and other vital services, and set our state and our country back on the right path.
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite A
Berkeley, CA 94702
10/10/2011
Oakland Education Association Backs 4 p.m. City Hall ‘Occupy Oakland’ Rally Demanding Economic Justice
OAKLAND – Oakland Unified educators will join a 4 p.m. “Occupy Oakland” rally at city hall today after the Oakland Education Association Executive Board voted to support the national grass-roots “Occupy Wall Street” movement against corporate greed that began last month in New York.
The OEA has long advocated for a fair tax structure that would require corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share to sustain the society from which they profit,” said Betty Olson-Jones, President of the Oakland Education Association. “Schools, programs for the elderly and disabled, health care for the poor and for children, and other vital public services have all been cut drastically in the past three years. This fight is about economic justice and protecting the poor and middle class. The Occupy Wall Street movement demonstrates that the American public understands how important people like teachers, firefighters and nurses are to society.”
The OEA joins the Occupy Wall Street movement in demanding that those who have not felt the bite of the recession—despite the fact that their actions played a large part in causing it—pay their fair share to fund recovery, Olson-Jones said. “We also believe that corporations should be held accountable. It is wrong that some banks pay little to no income tax while schools and other public services are mercilessly cut. It is unacceptable that oil companies are permitted to take oil out of our ground in California without paying any tax or fee while California ranks 43rd in per-pupil spending and state cuts continue to hurt our students and schools.”
WHAT: Oakland educators will join other unions and other members of the community in a rally against corporate greed to support the national “Occupy Wall Street” grass-roots movement.
WHEN: 4 p.m. today, Monday, Oct. 10.
WHERE: In front of city hall, in Frank Ogawa Plaza at 14th and Broadway, Oakland.
The Oakland Education Association is affiliated with the 325,000-member California Teachers Association and the 3.2 million-member National Education Association
Statement of Support from the SF Bay branch of IWW
10/10/2011
The Bay Area General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World enthusiastically welcomes the “Occupation” movement to Oakland and elsewhere in the SF Bay area. The economic crisis that is hitting across the country is nothing new to Oakland, especially within its black and Latino communities. We not only have high unemployment, but we also have police repression and outright murder by police, the closing of schools and libraries, and strikes by workers including nurses and others.
The means of protest of recent decades have been legalistic picket lines and protests. These have not worked. The Occupation movement is taking things to a new level – mass and open disruption and defiance of the system. From the successful strikes of the last century to the revolt of black people in the 1960s, this was what produced the goods.
The Occupation movement is drawing in all sorts of new layers of workers and young people. It is part of a global revolt against the “free” market and the capitalist system. The IWW fights for a world in which production is based on the needs of people and of the Earth itself, not on private profit.
Now is the time to fight back.
Download the IWW statement on their letterhead
2 0share2
No Comments »
by Torok
Alameda Central Labor Council Supports Occupy Oakland/Wall Street
October 29, 2011 in Announcements, Open Mic, Solidarity Statements
Support the Occupy Wall Street Oakland Movement
ALAMEDA LABOR COUNCIL
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF OCCUPY WALL STREET AND OCCUPY OAKLAND
Whereas, the Occupy Wall Street protest and its Oakland counterpart is an action opposed to the income inequality, the unfair tax structure, the bank bailouts, and the undue corporate influence and greed that has created America’s current economic malaise, undermined its social contract, and laid to waste its ideals, and;
Whereas, the negative effects of this elemental economic injustice are borne by middle class working families and the poor, while the financial racketeers most responsible for it are not only not held accountable but are allowed to continue to extract outrageous profits from it, and;
Whereas, in a nation where 25 million people are out of work, where 50 million people have no access to health care, and where 1 in 5 children grow up in poverty without adequate access to food, clothing and shelter, where funding for public education is gutted, where infrastructure is left to decay, and where millions of Americans have lost their homes due to a flawed and sometimes fraudulent process of foreclosure, causing misery and hardship and lost tax revenue, and;
Whereas, the salaries and bonuses of corporate executives continue to skyrocket while real wages for most workers have stagnated for the last 30 years during which period the gains in the economy have accrued almost entirely to the top 1% who now control at least 40% of the nation’s wealth, and where the top 400 Americans control more wealth than the bottom 180 million, and;
Whereas, in a nation where corporations are treated as people and money as speech, exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited spending on elections to vault corporate influence to a new extreme and gaining further advantage over an already tilted political system, a system which now threatens to reduce the voice of the people to irrelevance, and;
Whereas, the rights of working people have been routinely attacked by the same unfair corporate power structure that led to new era of robber baron income inequality. Such attacks include illegal interference with right to form or join a union and have used the economic crisis in both the public and private sectors as a pretext for rolling back benefits, cutting wages, and limiting the rights of unions, and;
Whereas, the Alameda Labor Council has for more than 100 years supported the rights of workers and protesters to peaceably assemble and engage in non-violent demonstrations to expose economic and social injustice and attempt to adjust inequality and discrimination in any form, now;
Therefore be it resolved, that the Alameda Labor Council shares the outrage, frustration and resolve of the protesters, commits to the fight, and goes on record in support of the Occupy Oakland and the entire Occupy Wall Street movement, and;
Therefore be it further resolved, that the Alameda Labor Council supports the right of the protesters to peaceably assemble and opposes any effort to unreasonably evict protesters based on unsupported claims of public safety, and, in light of last night’s eviction calls on the City of Oakland to release the arrested, drop the charges, restore the occupation or otherwise reverse the silencing of the voice of the majority of Americans by providing continuous forum for this message and;
Therefore be it further resolved, that Mayor Quan and the City Council are on the wrong side of history. It is clear that what occurred in Snow Park and Frank Ogawa Plaza this morning is nothing but silencing the voices and stomping out the rights of Americans. Participants of Occupy Wall Street are now in their ninth week of declaring that “we are the 99%” because our system is desperately, decisively out of whack—the top 1% is pocketing massive profits and dominating our politics while everyone else struggles to make ends meet. It is shocking that Mayor Quan and the City Council feel that this is a message that needs to be silenced. The Alameda Labor Council stands with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% of Americans just trying to level the massively unequal playing field.
Therefore be it finally resolved
, that the Alameda Labor Council supports the non-violent efforts of the protesters to seek a more democratic and equitable society and repeats the demand for an economy that works for all Americans.
_______________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Alameda Labor Council
Where: Sixth and Washington, Oakland CA
When: 11:30 am, Oct. 25th, 2011
The Alameda Labor Council condemns the eviction of the Occupy Oakland protesters
Early this morning hundreds of police from all over the Bay Area surrounded Frank Ogawa Plaza in an unprovoked raid on peaceful protesters. Police then evicted protesters at Snow Park. In a nation where 25 million people are out of work, where 50 million people have no access to health care, and where 1 in 5 children grow up in poverty without adequate access to food, clothing and shelter, where funding for public education is gutted, where infrastructure is left to decay, and where millions of Americans have lost their homes due to foreclosure, this outrageous act to silence the voices of the protesters puts Mayor Quan and the City Council on the wrong side of history. At a time when resources are stretched in Oakland it is shameful that City funds are expended to silence the voices of the people. The Alameda Labor Council stands with the 99% in supporting the right of the protesters to peaceably assemble. We oppose the eviction and call on the City of Oakland to release the arrested, drop the charges, restore the occupation or otherwise reverse this silencing of the voice of the majority of Americans.
Contact: Josie Camacho, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, 510 632 4242 office, 510 502 1454, cell. Jean Cohen, Political Director, 408-206-6880 cell.
by Liberate Oakland
U.C. UAW Local Support of General Strike
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
UAW 2865 Resolution in Support of Occupy Oakland General Strike
Whereas UAW 2865 witnesses firsthand how the 1% (in the form of UC Regents and top UC executives) conspire to steal ever more from students and workers through repeated tuition hikes, reduced services, layoffs, increased workloads, outsourcing and other austerity measures; and
Whereas we stand for the rights of all people to living wage jobs with affordable health care, quality education, a voice on the job, fair housing and a well-funded public sector, and
WHEREAS: Unemployment is the highest it has been since the Great Depression, and people are staying unemployed longer now than in the Great Depression, 1/3 of California homes are underwater, 1/5 of the foreclosures nation-wide are in California, and San Franciscans alone have lost almost $6 billion in home value costing their city over $74 million, and
WHEREAS: Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and the Wisconsin protests earlier this year, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future, and
WHEREAS: the Occupy Wall Street has galvanized public sentiment and a broad-based movement protesting the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations, and
WHEREAS: the National AFL-CIO and Change to Win coalitions have endorsed Occupy Wall Street, a growing number of trade union activists have joined this movement, both as individual workers, and as part of an increasing number of International and Local union contingents connecting their own fights to the larger demands of the movement for economic justice and fairness, and
WHEREAS: Union and Community organizations together have been working in coalition since the crash of the economy to force Banks to pay for public services and to renegotiate predatory loans with home owners, governments, and non-profit agencies, and
WHEREAS: public safety officers have used excessive force against peaceful protesters at Oscar Grant (Frank Ogawa) Plaza and violated their first amendment rights when more than 500 public safety officers with firearms aimed at the occupiers, tore down their tents in a predawn raid on October 25; and
WHEREAS: public safety officers on the evening of Oct. 25 again used excessive force injuring and endangering the lives of demonstrators when they marched on the evening of October 25th to protest the violence against the occupiers that morning;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this union will encourage its members and allies to act in support of Nov. 2 actions and honors as a “Sanctioned Union Strike Line” OccupyOakland and Occupy Wall Street, encourages union members and Local unions to participate in the movement, will actively support any unionized or non-unionized worker who refuses to break up, “raid,” or confiscate the belongings of protesters, and calls on unions representing DPW workers to not participate in such activity, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this union and its allies stand with our sisters and brothers of Occupy Wall Street, OccupyOakland, and cities and towns across the country who are fed up with an unfair economy that works for 1% of Americans while the vast majority of people struggle to pay the bills, get an education, and raise their families, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UAW 2865 recognizes that protest movements, like strike lines and organizing campaigns, do not have curfews, are not 9-5 activities, and in doing so UAW 2865 recognizes and will work to protect the right for OccupyOakland to protest 24 hours a day, on-site and with proper protection including food, medical supplies, water, and tents, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UAW 2865 has endorsed and will continue to endorse and turn-out members to OccupyOakland rallies and events, to provide in-kind donations like tents and food, and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that UAW 2865 joins its sister unions in the UC Berkeley Labor Coalition in forwarding this resolution for adoption to other local unions and central labor bodies.
No Comments »
by Bruce Paul
Alameda Central Labor Council endorses Nov 2
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
Sisters & Brothers,
Excitement is continuing to build nationally and worldwide for the “Occupy Movement”! Workers, students, unemployed, homeless, seniors, those who have lost their homes to foreclosures and those who have lost their jobs — the 99% — are standing up and fighting back against the 1%!
We are experiencing the results of a failed economy and inability of the richest nation in the world to provide for the 99%. We know that the 1% is only getting greedier and richer. But, things are changing and this movement is catching fire.
Inspired by the spirit of the fight against Wall Street, the Alameda Labor Council urges all union members and your families to join us as we stand in solidarity with Occupy Oakland on Wednesday, November 2. This Day of Action on November 2 will be a public demonstration of support for the right to peaceably assemble without interference, and against the growing wealth and income inequality created by Wall Street and the actions of the richest 1%.
Individual unions and your members are encouraged to express solidarity in whatever form you find appropriate. These are some options for Nov. 2:
1. At your worksite. Before work or during lunch, come together to talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Wear We are the 99% stickers.
2. Noon Bank action. Meet at Oakland City Hall and join a Wells Fargo Bank action.
3. Mobilization at 5 pm. Labor’s focus will be to turn out for this mobilization. We will converge at the Frank Ogawa Plaza at City Hall to join with Occupy Oakland.
Wear your union shirts and be visible so Occupy Oakland knows that labor is standing with them.
At 7 pm the Alameda Labor Council with our affiliates will be hosting a “cook out” and serving dinner to all in attendance.
What can your union do to support this effort?
Contribute to the “cook out”. We expect to feed 1,000s at 7 pm on November 2. A detailed budget will be sent out tonight. Volunteer monitors needed for 5 pm mobilization. If your local can round up 4-10 monitors, that would be great. Contribute to fund a lead “occupy” organizer. The occupy movement requires experience, time and commitment to build good relationships. We will be setting up a dedicated fund to resource this level of organizing. If your local has staff you can reassign to this effort, let’s talk.
Please see the labor flyer attached and spread the word to all your families, friends and networks! To donate and/or volunteer, call 510-632-4242 x226 OR email: weareone@alamedalabor.org.
We are the 99%!
Josie Camacho
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Alameda Labor Council
29 21share51
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Phillipine Airline Workers Back Oakland General Strike Call of Occupy Oakland
October 31, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
PALEA Backs Oakland General Strike Call of Occupy Oakland
Letter From Philippine Airline Employees Association
To the Occupy Oakland protesters:
We express our solidarity with the Oakland general strike planned on November 2
especially the blockade of the Port of Oakland. The general strike and port blockade will reveal the truth that the 99% creates the wealth that the 1% now monopolizes. Such forms of mass actions will also show the way forward for the occupy protest movement now surging in the US and other countries.
We likewise salute the Occupy Oakland protesters who bravely faced violent eviction last
October 25 even as we condemn the police for their brutal attack.
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the union of the ground staff
of Philippine Airlines, stands shoulder to shoulder with the Occupy Oakland protesters. We too struggle against corporate greed and capitalist globalization with its destructive impact on the workers and the youth. Truly the movement against corporate greed and capitalist globalization is international in scope.
More than a thousand PALEA members are presently occupying areas outside the
international airports of Manila and Cebu, the two biggest cities in the Philippines, for a month
reposted from: http://transportworkers.org/
38 1share39
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Berkeley Federation of Teachers Calls On Teachers to participate in the Wednesday, November 2nd Day of Action
October 30, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
BFT Calls on All Members to Mobilize November 2nd at Occupy Oakland
BFT stands in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and its advocacy on behalf of the 99%. Occupy Oakland and the Worldwide Occupy Movement are fighting to restore sanity to our economy and to oppose growing wealth inequality.
We call upon all BFT members to participate in the November 2nd Day of Action at Occupy Oakland. It is incredibly important that teachers and union members take part in this historic mobilization.
We are encouraging our members to participate in the Wednesday, November 2nd Day of Action in the following ways:
1) Wear your BFT t-shirt on Wednesday in solidarity with Occupy Oakland. Wear the “We Are the 99%” sticker that you will be offered by your site rep.
2) Attend the Occupy Oakland late afternoon action. We are asking BFT members to meet between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the State Building at 1515 Clay Street. Bring signs and wear your BFT t-shirt. If you come after 5:00 p.m. please look for the BFT banner and join our group.
3) Look for ways to incorporate information and activities about the history of organizing efforts against economic injustice into your lessons on Wednesday. If possible, also look for ways members can come together on this day, maybe at lunch, to talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
4) Attend the solidarity barbecue hosted by the Alameda Labor Council at 7:00 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
BFT is aware that Occupy Oakland has called for a General Strike, as well as a Day of Action, on November 2nd. We have a no strike clause in our contract, so BFT is attempting to reach an agreement with BUSD to allow members to use personal leave, as long as there is adequate sub coverage, to attend ALL Occupy Oakland events on November 2nd. We will update members and site reps as soon as we have news on that effort.
Please note that the Occupy movement is very fluid. We will do our best to keep members updated.
If you need a BFT t-shirt (or button) please call the BFT office at 549-2307 and we will get one to you.
In Unity,
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite A
Berkeley, CA 94702
31 2share33
Comments Off
by Liberate Oakland
Oakland Teachers Union OEA Executive Board endorsed Occupy Oakland’s November 2 “General Strike/Mass Day of Action”
October 30, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
Occupy Oakland General Strike November 2, 2011
In a unanimous vote on 10/28/11, the OEA Executive Board endorsed Occupy Oakland’s November 2 “General Strike/Mass Day of Action” and is urging members to participate in a variety of ways, including taking personal leave to join actions at Frank Ogawa Plaza, doing informational picketing at school sites, and holding teach-ins on the history of general strikes and organizing for economic justice.
Faced with growing class sizes and dwindling resources, school closures, and the ongoing attempts of charter management companies to entice Oakland schools to convert to charters, it is critical that we link our struggles with those of the 99% of Americans fighting for social and economic justice. It is simply wrong that banks and corporations are bailed out and continue to reap huge profits, while schools and social services suffer.
Join us on November 2nd, in solidarity with Occupy Movements across the globe!
WE ARE THE 99%!
Betty Olson-Jones
OEA President
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQ’s- Nov. 2nd strike questions – OEA responses
Thank you to OEA members who responded to the email blast with questions!
MEMO: Won’t the loss of ADA adversely affect our school budget? Children are required to be at school in order to maintain ADA for that day. If parents choose to bring their children to school in the morning and then take them out at some point, that is their choice.
Q: Jennifer Dunn asked: “What is the OEA stance on this (General Strike) right now?”
A: Oakland Education Association supports the General Strike and encourages OEA members to participate in a variety of ways on Nov. 2nd.
Q: Rasheeda Turner asked: “What is the purpose (of the General Strike)?” “What are we hoping will change as a result of this one day strike?”
A: Teachers in Oakland teach the 99%, and are themselves part of the 99%. This is evident in the cuts to education, healthcare, services, home foreclosures, etc. that we witness in Oakland on an ongoing basis. Part of teaching is advocating for our students in the broader context. We hope that linking our struggle to this movement that is getting worldwide attention will force policy changes that will benefit all of us.
Q: Samia Khattab: “Why would we strike? Is it to show solidarity? Is it to protest the heavy handed response from the OPD? Or are we striking because of recent board decision?”
Q: Kamila Weaver: “@ Foster I feel like this is happening very quickly and I don’t fully understand why we would be striking and what we hope to accomplish by it.”
Q: Daniel Crew asked: “I personally think it is quite a pull to get all of us to agree to a strike without it being explicit to our contract. Is it even legal?”
A: Although Oakland Education Association is strike legal, OEA is not calling a strike action against OUSD. OEA is supporting the Occupy Oakland call for a mass action and support this call by encouraging our members to participate.
Q: Dennis asked: “What are potential employment consequences for wildcatters?”
A: Unauthorized striking may result in no pay for that day, and possible discipline. OEA would work through any problems employees encounter with the district. OEA has met with OUSD on this particular action, and OUSD said they will recognize use of personal days to support this action, provided a substitute teacher is secured.
Q: Katie @ Skyline: “How is the message getting to each school so that we have an impact??”
A: In a variety of ways. The message has gone out to OEA site reps via cluster calls. There will be constant contact messages, auto dialer messages, and information will be posted on the website as well as on our Twitter feed.
Q: Tessa Strauss asked: “What do we tell our students’ families? Should they be sending their kids to school that day?”
A: School is in session on Nov. 2nd. Every OEA member who plans to take Personal Leave to participate in the General Strike is responsible to ensure a substitute or alternative classroom coverage to supervise students. OEA members participating in the General Strike should request a sub ASAP, or by the end of the school day on Monday, Oct. 31st. OEA members should inform parents that school is in session on Nov. 2nd and inform parents of your individual plan (have a sub, have another teacher cover your class) and recommend parents make the personal decision whether to send their child to school or not on Nov. 2nd.
Q: Perry asks: “Has OEA talked about putting out a call for teach-ins at all? If the strike doesn’t pass, I think it would be a great way for us to participate on Wednesday.”
A: Yes, there is a tremendous educational opportunity here and by all means it shouldn’t be squandered.
Q: Jennifer Dannenberg: “What precautions against violent action by protestors and/or police can be taken?”
A: OEA has been working with labor council, faith based and community groups and have met with the Mayor and Chief of Police to try to ensure safety. Occupy Oakland protestors have been working to ensure peaceful and productive demonstrations.
Q: Tessa Strauss @ Ascent asks: “I’m wondering what our rights and protections are—I know most contracts have strike clauses. Would we be organizing teachers to take personal days together, have to get our principal on board and have all teachers agree to strike together and take the risk, etc—“
Q: Carrie Anderson asks: What are the technicalities of not being at work? Take a sick day or what? What do we tell our principal?
A: By all means, let your principal know that you intend to take a personal day and assure him or her that you have made arrangements with a substitute teacher. This needs to be put in writing by Monday. As for us having all teachers agree to strike together, we’re happy to hear it.
Every member must make a personal decision about Wednesday. Staff should reach consensus about coverage and site plan.
Q: Alykhan@EOSA: “How do we integrate students? Can they come with us?”
Q: Fatima@EOSA: “Will it be a walk-out for students, or a no-show for students who are participating in the strike?”
A: We can integrate students by educating them about the occupy movements and recent events that have occurred locally and nationally. OEA members cannot and should not take students to the General Strike as a field trip. OEA has not organized with secondary students to implement a student walk-out or student no-show. OEA is not aware of any potential students to organize these types of actions.
Q: I don’t want to use my personal leave, can I take a sick day?
A: NO! THAT IS FRAUD. Take personal leave or leave without pay. Do not take sick leave!
29 2share32
Comments Off
by johnreimann1
Carpenters Local 713 endorses General Strike
October 30, 2011 in Announcements, Open Mic, Solidarity Statements
UBC Local 713 Endorses Call For 11/2 General Strike
Carpenters Local 713 represents 3,000 mostly private sector construction workers in Alameda County, California and passed the following motion tonight (Thurs October 27th,2011) by a standing vote with an overwhelming majority.
Local 713 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. We support the right of all working people to organize and peacefully assemble to demand their rights.
We further agree that the 1% should not continue to go untaxed while the 99% face layoffs, pay and benefit cuts, foreclosures and the closing of our children’s schools and our public services.
We further strongly condemn the police brutality used against the Occupy Oakland movement and the devastating injury inflicted on Iraq veteran Scott Olsen.
We further resolve to support the call of the 2,000 Oaklanders at Occupy Oakland for a one-day strike in Oakland for Wednesday November 2nd, 2011, to protest our country’s rising inequality and the brutal actions of the police in the city of Oakland, California.
To be sent to Mayor Jean Quan and the Oakland Police Department
16 2share19
No Comments »
by Liberate Oakland
Week 1 Endorsements
October 29, 2011 in Solidarity Statements
MILLION WORKER MARCH SUPPORTS OCCUPY WALL STREET
October 17, 2011
The Million Worker March (MWM) organizers and activists call upon all workers organized and unorganized and the unemployed to join and defend the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. We extend the call to anti-war, immigration rights, environmental and social justice activists to join this movement which could replicate the “Arab Spring” here at home.
The MWM, initiated by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 on October 17, 2004 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., advanced the slogan “mobilizing in our own name” independent of the two Wall Street controlled political parties to address the economic crisis of working people in which the vast majority are under siege financially.
All important social movements, which occurred in this country, were started from the bottom up (rank and file/grass roots) and not from the top down. The MWM’s mission statement speaks to how “. . . a handful of the rich and powerful corporations have usurped our government. A corporate and banking oligarchy changes hats and occupies public office to wage class war on working people. They have captured the State in their own interests.” They represent what the OWS activists call the 1%., otherwise known as the ruling class.
Like the MWM, the OWS has emerged at a time when the two corporate controlled political parties are preparing for the presidential election; a smokescreen where billions is spent to promote a top down and false ceremony of democracy.
Like the MWM, the OWS will be criticized for having demands that are too broad. However, after more than 50 years of a corporate assault on working people, social services, jobs, wages, pensions, health care, public education, and housing. The pursuit of endless wars, the lack of a comprehensive immigration policy and the erosion of the environment in pursuit of corporate greed makes it impossible to address all of these issues in a sound bite. Yet one thing is crystal clear, OWS conveys a definite anti-capitalist message. It is being expressed to the entire world at the “temple” of American Capitalism, Wall Street. The OWS, while now a major protest movement against the capitalist elites must continue to deepen, expend and become a direct challenge to corporate power. Class warfare demands fighting on multiple fronts and it all leads back to Wall Street. While the officialdom of labor has given verbal support to OWS, the rank and file possesses the real power of the labor movement. It is only through rank and file unity that labor’s true power can be realized in this OWS movement. Workers can take action at the point of production and service as well as put people in the streets.
We must be mindful of attempts to co-opt this movement. Let us not forget the action of the Democratic Party and it surrogates within AFL-CIO to pressure Wisconsin unions not to initiate any General Strike actions in opposition to Governor Scott Walker’s plans to eliminate collective bargaining for State workers. Wisconsin workers were limited to circulating petitions to recall targeted State republican elected officials. This took away labor’s only real power, the ability to withhold its labor in defense of collective bargaining.
ILWU Local 10’s Executive Board has adopted a Resolution to join and defend the OWS and called for other longshore locals to do the same. More importantly, Local 10 is connecting the OWS movement with the Pacific Northwest Dockers struggle with EGT in Longview, Washington. (EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture long shore jurisdiction.) The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD., a leading agribusiness and food company, which reported $2.4 billion in profits in 2010. This company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on union workers.
On October 12th, the vice-president and secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 21 in Longview, WA, who are engaged in battle with EGT, were allowed to speak by the organizers of “Foreclosure on Wall Street West”. They explained their struggle to several hundred people attending the rally that took place in the San Francisco financial district. This is an important and strategic show of solidarity between labor and OWS.
It was Black trade unionists that conceived and launched the MWM. Black workers and other workers of color should play an integral role in expanding the power and influence of OWS. The Black unemployment rate is 24% and growing. This needs to be a part of the discussion of the peoples’ assemblies as it concerns empowering this peoples’ movement.
Working people need to have a political expression of our own which is an alternative to the U.S. corporate sector that both the Democrats and the Republicans represent. The timing of the MWM in Washington was to prepare the beginning of a fight-back precisely because the agendas of two political parties, acting as one, the corporate agenda of permanent war, destruction of all social services, Jim Crow and a relentless assault upon working people.
This is an opportune moment for rank and file working people to forge a mass movement for fundamental change. Rarely has the importance of unity in struggle been more compelling along an axis of class independence.
Only by our own independent mobilization of working people (99%) across America, can we open the way to addressing a peoples’ agenda. The MWM and OWS are both about building grass roots and rank and file anti-racist unity “forging the fight-back” on all governmental and corporate policies influenced and or directed by Wall Street.
Let’s take it to the corporate state, Let the 1% take the weight
Clarence Thomas
Leo Robinson
Chris Silvera
ILWU Local 10, Executive Board
ILWU Local 10 Retired
IBT Local 808, Sec-Treasurer
Co-Chair MWM
National Convener
Co-Convener MWM East Coast
Saladin Muhammad
Gabriel Prawl
Black Workers for Justice
ILWU Local 52
Convener MWM Southern Region
Convener MWM Pacific Northwest
Jerry Lawrence
Debby Springfellow
ILWU Local 8
ILWU Local 8
Website: www.millionworkermarch.org
Email: www.east@yahoo.com
10/10/11
Statement of Support for the “Occupy Wall Street” movement:
The Berkeley Federation of Teachers endorses the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Occupy Wall Street, and its local iterations, represent the legitimate response of the 99% of us adversely affected by growing wealth and income inequality in America. The richest one percent of the population has doubled its share of the nation’s income over the past twenty years. Yet during this time the wealthy received massive tax cuts, a major cause of public budget shortfalls that hurt students, make our streets less safe, and harm the health of children and seniors.
Instead of investing its newfound wealth in productive enterprises in the United States, the top 1% moved it offshore or into financial speculation, which ultimately crashed the economy. The 1% also took large amounts of this money and poured it into a public relations effort to blame teachers and other public servants for the economic problems the 1% created.
Occupy Wall Street redirects the attention of the public to the actual causes and parties responsible for the economic crash and recession. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers embraces the call of Occupy Wall Street to restore higher taxes on the rich, to re-regulate the banks, and to enact a financial speculation tax. We encourage our members to participate in the OWS actions in the East Bay. These actions will help restore public budgets for schools and other vital services, and set our state and our country back on the right path.
Cathy Campbell
President, Berkeley Federation of Teachers
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite A
Berkeley, CA 94702
10/10/2011
Oakland Education Association Backs 4 p.m. City Hall ‘Occupy Oakland’ Rally Demanding Economic Justice
OAKLAND – Oakland Unified educators will join a 4 p.m. “Occupy Oakland” rally at city hall today after the Oakland Education Association Executive Board voted to support the national grass-roots “Occupy Wall Street” movement against corporate greed that began last month in New York.
The OEA has long advocated for a fair tax structure that would require corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share to sustain the society from which they profit,” said Betty Olson-Jones, President of the Oakland Education Association. “Schools, programs for the elderly and disabled, health care for the poor and for children, and other vital public services have all been cut drastically in the past three years. This fight is about economic justice and protecting the poor and middle class. The Occupy Wall Street movement demonstrates that the American public understands how important people like teachers, firefighters and nurses are to society.”
The OEA joins the Occupy Wall Street movement in demanding that those who have not felt the bite of the recession—despite the fact that their actions played a large part in causing it—pay their fair share to fund recovery, Olson-Jones said. “We also believe that corporations should be held accountable. It is wrong that some banks pay little to no income tax while schools and other public services are mercilessly cut. It is unacceptable that oil companies are permitted to take oil out of our ground in California without paying any tax or fee while California ranks 43rd in per-pupil spending and state cuts continue to hurt our students and schools.”
WHAT: Oakland educators will join other unions and other members of the community in a rally against corporate greed to support the national “Occupy Wall Street” grass-roots movement.
WHEN: 4 p.m. today, Monday, Oct. 10.
WHERE: In front of city hall, in Frank Ogawa Plaza at 14th and Broadway, Oakland.
The Oakland Education Association is affiliated with the 325,000-member California Teachers Association and the 3.2 million-member National Education Association
Statement of Support from the SF Bay branch of IWW
10/10/2011
The Bay Area General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World enthusiastically welcomes the “Occupation” movement to Oakland and elsewhere in the SF Bay area. The economic crisis that is hitting across the country is nothing new to Oakland, especially within its black and Latino communities. We not only have high unemployment, but we also have police repression and outright murder by police, the closing of schools and libraries, and strikes by workers including nurses and others.
The means of protest of recent decades have been legalistic picket lines and protests. These have not worked. The Occupation movement is taking things to a new level – mass and open disruption and defiance of the system. From the successful strikes of the last century to the revolt of black people in the 1960s, this was what produced the goods.
The Occupation movement is drawing in all sorts of new layers of workers and young people. It is part of a global revolt against the “free” market and the capitalist system. The IWW fights for a world in which production is based on the needs of people and of the Earth itself, not on private profit.
Now is the time to fight back.
Download the IWW statement on their letterhead
2 0share2
No Comments »
by Torok
Alameda Central Labor Council Supports Occupy Oakland/Wall Street
October 29, 2011 in Announcements, Open Mic, Solidarity Statements
Support the Occupy Wall Street Oakland Movement
ALAMEDA LABOR COUNCIL
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF OCCUPY WALL STREET AND OCCUPY OAKLAND
Whereas, the Occupy Wall Street protest and its Oakland counterpart is an action opposed to the income inequality, the unfair tax structure, the bank bailouts, and the undue corporate influence and greed that has created America’s current economic malaise, undermined its social contract, and laid to waste its ideals, and;
Whereas, the negative effects of this elemental economic injustice are borne by middle class working families and the poor, while the financial racketeers most responsible for it are not only not held accountable but are allowed to continue to extract outrageous profits from it, and;
Whereas, in a nation where 25 million people are out of work, where 50 million people have no access to health care, and where 1 in 5 children grow up in poverty without adequate access to food, clothing and shelter, where funding for public education is gutted, where infrastructure is left to decay, and where millions of Americans have lost their homes due to a flawed and sometimes fraudulent process of foreclosure, causing misery and hardship and lost tax revenue, and;
Whereas, the salaries and bonuses of corporate executives continue to skyrocket while real wages for most workers have stagnated for the last 30 years during which period the gains in the economy have accrued almost entirely to the top 1% who now control at least 40% of the nation’s wealth, and where the top 400 Americans control more wealth than the bottom 180 million, and;
Whereas, in a nation where corporations are treated as people and money as speech, exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited spending on elections to vault corporate influence to a new extreme and gaining further advantage over an already tilted political system, a system which now threatens to reduce the voice of the people to irrelevance, and;
Whereas, the rights of working people have been routinely attacked by the same unfair corporate power structure that led to new era of robber baron income inequality. Such attacks include illegal interference with right to form or join a union and have used the economic crisis in both the public and private sectors as a pretext for rolling back benefits, cutting wages, and limiting the rights of unions, and;
Whereas, the Alameda Labor Council has for more than 100 years supported the rights of workers and protesters to peaceably assemble and engage in non-violent demonstrations to expose economic and social injustice and attempt to adjust inequality and discrimination in any form, now;
Therefore be it resolved, that the Alameda Labor Council shares the outrage, frustration and resolve of the protesters, commits to the fight, and goes on record in support of the Occupy Oakland and the entire Occupy Wall Street movement, and;
Therefore be it further resolved, that the Alameda Labor Council supports the right of the protesters to peaceably assemble and opposes any effort to unreasonably evict protesters based on unsupported claims of public safety, and, in light of last night’s eviction calls on the City of Oakland to release the arrested, drop the charges, restore the occupation or otherwise reverse the silencing of the voice of the majority of Americans by providing continuous forum for this message and;
Therefore be it further resolved, that Mayor Quan and the City Council are on the wrong side of history. It is clear that what occurred in Snow Park and Frank Ogawa Plaza this morning is nothing but silencing the voices and stomping out the rights of Americans. Participants of Occupy Wall Street are now in their ninth week of declaring that “we are the 99%” because our system is desperately, decisively out of whack—the top 1% is pocketing massive profits and dominating our politics while everyone else struggles to make ends meet. It is shocking that Mayor Quan and the City Council feel that this is a message that needs to be silenced. The Alameda Labor Council stands with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% of Americans just trying to level the massively unequal playing field.
Therefore be it finally resolved
, that the Alameda Labor Council supports the non-violent efforts of the protesters to seek a more democratic and equitable society and repeats the demand for an economy that works for all Americans.
_______________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Alameda Labor Council
Where: Sixth and Washington, Oakland CA
When: 11:30 am, Oct. 25th, 2011
The Alameda Labor Council condemns the eviction of the Occupy Oakland protesters
Early this morning hundreds of police from all over the Bay Area surrounded Frank Ogawa Plaza in an unprovoked raid on peaceful protesters. Police then evicted protesters at Snow Park. In a nation where 25 million people are out of work, where 50 million people have no access to health care, and where 1 in 5 children grow up in poverty without adequate access to food, clothing and shelter, where funding for public education is gutted, where infrastructure is left to decay, and where millions of Americans have lost their homes due to foreclosure, this outrageous act to silence the voices of the protesters puts Mayor Quan and the City Council on the wrong side of history. At a time when resources are stretched in Oakland it is shameful that City funds are expended to silence the voices of the people. The Alameda Labor Council stands with the 99% in supporting the right of the protesters to peaceably assemble. We oppose the eviction and call on the City of Oakland to release the arrested, drop the charges, restore the occupation or otherwise reverse this silencing of the voice of the majority of Americans.
Contact: Josie Camacho, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, 510 632 4242 office, 510 502 1454, cell. Jean Cohen, Political Director, 408-206-6880 cell.
From The "Occupy Oakland" Website-The Latest Poster Art For The November 2, 2011 General Strike
Click on headline to link to the Occupy Oakland website for a view of some great poster art for the November 2, 2011 General Strike. We need art, music, and other forms of cultural expression as well as the arduous political struggle as well.
An Update From Occupy Oakland-Scott Olsen Cannot Talk, General Strike Nov. 2nd!
Scott Olsen Cannot Talk, General Strike Nov. 2nd!
by Steven Argue
(No verified email address) 30 Oct 2011
Key unions are on board and will shut down construction sites and the Port of Oakland
Scott Olsen Cannot Talk Due to the Brain Injury Caused by Police Violence
General Strike and Mass Protest on Weds. Nov. 2nd!
Drop the Charges Against All Occupy Protesters!
By Steven Argue
On October 25, at about 5:00 AM, over 500 and cops including the Oakland Police and cops from 16 other jurisdictions attacked peaceful protesters at the Occupy Oakland encampment on 14th and Broadway. They moved in with armored vehicles and full riot gear and viciously attacked the Occupy Oakland protesters. Through the day the number of protesters grew to about 3,000 people despite continued police violence with protests moving to a number of locations. The protests were repeatedly attacked by the police, who clubbed demonstrators, fired concussion grenades, fired tear gas at least four different times, and shot protesters with wooden slugs, bean bag canisters, and possibly rubber bullets. Eighty five people were arrested.
Scott Olsen, a 24 year-old Iraq War veteran and member of Iraq War Veterans Against the War, was shot in the head by the police with a projectile. Scott was seriously injured and was knocked out in critical condition with swelling on his brain. He has now woken up, but cannot talk due to the brain injury caused by police violence. He has sustained an injury to the speech center of his brain.
Police forces across the country have been carrying out repression against the Occupy protesters with brutality and arrests in New York, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Oakland, and elsewhere. Unarmed protesters have been repeatedly beaten, maced, tear gassed, and arrested for exercising their right to free speech. Meanwhile, armed Tea Party protesters who have pushed an extreme rightwing agenda of austerity for the working class have showed up at protests armed, but are not touched by the police.
There is no question that there has been a brutal response by America’s rulers to working class people and students demanding change to benefit the majority. It is a mass movement has emerged because people are fed up with a society run by and for the wealthy. We are fed up with a society where a CEO’s salary is 475 times higher than the wages of the average worker, where unemployment has gone through the roof with official figures a lie and the real numbers at 17%, where the Democrats and Republicans are spending trillions of dollars on imperialist wars and dictators that are terrorizing the people of the world, where the Republicans are blaming Social Security and Medicare instead of war for the debt and Obama goes along with it putting “everything on the table” for cuts, everything that is except the war budget, a society where much of the working class is without health care and without a job, where Wall Street is bailed out but Obama waits for a Republican controlled congress and a looming election to unveil a half ass jobs program that now predictably has not passed, where youth who go to college face a depressingly downwardly mobile future, where U.S. corporations are making record profits at a projected 1.6 trillion dollars this year but the majority does not benefit, where the planet is in a deep crisis with climate change but Obama and the Republicans are easing environmental restrictions and not even considering the actions needed to save our world, where innocent people like Troy Davis are put to death, where Bradley Manning sits in prison for allegedly exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, and where the average person has absolutely no voice in mainstream politics and the mainstream media.
The capitalist government’s response to the protests? Typical violence and repression. At the heart of the capitalist system is a police force whose job it is to abuse labor, people of color, the poor, the homeless, and leftists. It is their job as professional thugs to protect Wall Street from the 99%. The hierarchies of police forces have purposely protected and promoted the most brutal police with the least connection to humanity in order to have a police force that is always loyal to the capitalist government and capitalist class at times like this. They work for the wealthy 1%, not us.
General Strike and Mass Protest on November 2nd
In response to the Oakland violence, on Wednesday October 26, 2011 nearly 2,000 people reclaimed the square that police violence drove them from, renamed it Oscar Grant Plaza, and voted for a general strike and mass demonstration to be held on November 2nd.
Oscar Grant square is a fitting name. Oscar Grant was a working class Black man and father of a young daughter who was handcuffed and executed by an Oakland Bart cop while laying face down in 2009. The BART cop who murdered Oscar Grant is named Johannes Mehserle. It was only due to cell phone footage and mass protests that Mehserle was finally charged with murder. Yet, the criminal injustice system, which is routinely unfair to people who aren’t rich, unfair to people of color, and unfair to people who are leftists, let Johannes Mehserle off the hook despite overwhelming evidence murder. Mesherle was given a slap on the wrist and convicted of “involuntary man slaughter”. He did lose his job, which is unusual in cases of police violence, but he walks free today.
At renamed and retaken Oscar Grant Square 1607 people voted on the resolution for a general strike and mass protest on November 2nd. The vote tallies were 1484 in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained, and 46 voted against it. This passed the proposal with 96.9% voting in favor. The Oakland General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor and with abstaining votes removed from the final count.
Some claimed this was not the decision of a union so it had little meaning. Yet, with polls showing the current popularity of the Occupy movement at 37% combined with the shock and anger caused by police brutality and repression, this call for a general strike was far more than some empty gesture. Unions are indeed taking it seriously.
Backing the call for the general strike is the 3,000 member Carpenters Local 713 that voted to join the strike and join protests at Oscar Grant Square. They passed a resolution that ends by saying they “resolve to support the call of the 2,000 Oaklanders at Occupy Oakland for a one-day strike in Oakland for Wednesday November 2nd, 2011, to protest our country’s rising inequality and the brutal actions of the police in the city of Oakland, California.”
Also supporting the strike are key leaders of the ILWU and IBU in the Bay Area who put out a statement titled, “Defend Occupy Oakland with the Power of Organized Labor”. They state, “As a first step, in defending our union and others against economic and political repression, we need to mobilize our members to participate in the rally and occupation November 2 in Oscar Grant Plaza. Shut it down!”
That ILWU / IBU statement also denounces other police violence including a 2003 Oakland Police attack on anti-war protesters using the same potentially lethal munitions as were just used. That police attack injured six longshoreman including Billy Kepo’s.
“Local 10 longshoreman Billy Kepo’o was hit in the hand by a police tear gas canister causing a bloody mess. Now, Iraqi war vet, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head with a police projectile, causing a fracture and putting him in critical condition in Highland Hospital. This is exactly what killed one of the strikers in Seattle in the Big Strike of 1934. That history of police violence against strikers is why our Local 10 Constitution bans cops from membership in our union.”
Further strengthening the coming strike on the Port of Oakland is a resolution passed unanimously by the Occupy Oakland strike assembly on Friday October 29 that calls for a march to blockade of the Port of Oakland. The statement reads:
“On Wednesday, November 2nd as part of the Oakland General Strike, we will march on the Port of Oakland and shut it down. We will converge at 5pm at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift.
“We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital on the day of the General Strike, as well as to show our commitment to solidarity with Longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Washington. EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction. The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD, a leading agribusiness and food company which reported 2.4 billion dollars in profit in 2010; this company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers.
“The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it. The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% – their wealth only exists because the 99% creates it for them.”
A shut down of the ports by the ILWU and IBU will be a powerful step in defense of democratic rights against the brutality being dished out by the Oakland Police and Mayor Jean Quan. The Port of Oakland is the fourth largest port in the United States and its shut down will be costly for the capitalists. In addition, this is an opening shot of proletarian power versus the repression of the capitalists and their state. The capitalists and their government want to avoid this type of action. Those in power would prefer the proletariat continue to feel helpless under a police state and two party system rather than begin to feel our power by shutting down production and transport.
It is no coincidence that after the General Assembly voted for a general strike Mayor Jean Quan tried to make an apology for her actions to an Occupy Oakland meeting the next day. She said, "Ultimately, it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," and then claimed: "We can change America, but we must unite and not divide our city. I hope we can work together." Obviously she is feeling the pressure, but the fact she was willing to use police violence in the first place to shut down the constitutional rights of protesters indicates that she is a representative of the wealthy 1% who feels threatened by the Occupy movement. She was rightly booed out of Oscar Grant Square by people demanding she “resign!”
California Nurses Association Treasurer Martha Kuhl, an Oakland RN, rightly denounced this Democrat Party mayor saying, “This unwarranted attack on peaceful protesters places Oakland Mayor Jean Quan in shameful company with mayors like Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and other cities whose response to public expression of protest is repression rather than respect for the rights of free speech and assembly.”
On November 2nd we will teach the ruling capitalists and their government that needed respect by shutting them down. Join the general strike and mass march November 2nd.
Shut Down the 1%
General Strike & Mass Day of Action called for by Occupy Oakland
Everyone to the Streets!
No Work! No School!
Mass gatherings at 14th & Broadway:
9:00am • 12 noon • 5:00pm
5:00pm start at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift
All banks and corporations must close down for the day or we will march on them
Liberation News joins the Oakland Occupy General Assembly in Demanding:
• Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement
• End Police Attacks on Our Communities
• Defend Oakland Schools & Libraries
• Against an economic system built on inequality & corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism & the destruction of the environment
And Liberation News adds the additional demand:
Drop The Charges Against All Occupy Protesters!
Read About the 1934 San Francisco General Strike
The Big Strike, by Mike Quin
http://www.archive.org/details/bigstrike00quinrich
Making a Gas Mask
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/29/18695901.php
This is an article of Liberation News, subscribe free.
by Steven Argue
(No verified email address) 30 Oct 2011
Key unions are on board and will shut down construction sites and the Port of Oakland
Scott Olsen Cannot Talk Due to the Brain Injury Caused by Police Violence
General Strike and Mass Protest on Weds. Nov. 2nd!
Drop the Charges Against All Occupy Protesters!
By Steven Argue
On October 25, at about 5:00 AM, over 500 and cops including the Oakland Police and cops from 16 other jurisdictions attacked peaceful protesters at the Occupy Oakland encampment on 14th and Broadway. They moved in with armored vehicles and full riot gear and viciously attacked the Occupy Oakland protesters. Through the day the number of protesters grew to about 3,000 people despite continued police violence with protests moving to a number of locations. The protests were repeatedly attacked by the police, who clubbed demonstrators, fired concussion grenades, fired tear gas at least four different times, and shot protesters with wooden slugs, bean bag canisters, and possibly rubber bullets. Eighty five people were arrested.
Scott Olsen, a 24 year-old Iraq War veteran and member of Iraq War Veterans Against the War, was shot in the head by the police with a projectile. Scott was seriously injured and was knocked out in critical condition with swelling on his brain. He has now woken up, but cannot talk due to the brain injury caused by police violence. He has sustained an injury to the speech center of his brain.
Police forces across the country have been carrying out repression against the Occupy protesters with brutality and arrests in New York, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Oakland, and elsewhere. Unarmed protesters have been repeatedly beaten, maced, tear gassed, and arrested for exercising their right to free speech. Meanwhile, armed Tea Party protesters who have pushed an extreme rightwing agenda of austerity for the working class have showed up at protests armed, but are not touched by the police.
There is no question that there has been a brutal response by America’s rulers to working class people and students demanding change to benefit the majority. It is a mass movement has emerged because people are fed up with a society run by and for the wealthy. We are fed up with a society where a CEO’s salary is 475 times higher than the wages of the average worker, where unemployment has gone through the roof with official figures a lie and the real numbers at 17%, where the Democrats and Republicans are spending trillions of dollars on imperialist wars and dictators that are terrorizing the people of the world, where the Republicans are blaming Social Security and Medicare instead of war for the debt and Obama goes along with it putting “everything on the table” for cuts, everything that is except the war budget, a society where much of the working class is without health care and without a job, where Wall Street is bailed out but Obama waits for a Republican controlled congress and a looming election to unveil a half ass jobs program that now predictably has not passed, where youth who go to college face a depressingly downwardly mobile future, where U.S. corporations are making record profits at a projected 1.6 trillion dollars this year but the majority does not benefit, where the planet is in a deep crisis with climate change but Obama and the Republicans are easing environmental restrictions and not even considering the actions needed to save our world, where innocent people like Troy Davis are put to death, where Bradley Manning sits in prison for allegedly exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, and where the average person has absolutely no voice in mainstream politics and the mainstream media.
The capitalist government’s response to the protests? Typical violence and repression. At the heart of the capitalist system is a police force whose job it is to abuse labor, people of color, the poor, the homeless, and leftists. It is their job as professional thugs to protect Wall Street from the 99%. The hierarchies of police forces have purposely protected and promoted the most brutal police with the least connection to humanity in order to have a police force that is always loyal to the capitalist government and capitalist class at times like this. They work for the wealthy 1%, not us.
General Strike and Mass Protest on November 2nd
In response to the Oakland violence, on Wednesday October 26, 2011 nearly 2,000 people reclaimed the square that police violence drove them from, renamed it Oscar Grant Plaza, and voted for a general strike and mass demonstration to be held on November 2nd.
Oscar Grant square is a fitting name. Oscar Grant was a working class Black man and father of a young daughter who was handcuffed and executed by an Oakland Bart cop while laying face down in 2009. The BART cop who murdered Oscar Grant is named Johannes Mehserle. It was only due to cell phone footage and mass protests that Mehserle was finally charged with murder. Yet, the criminal injustice system, which is routinely unfair to people who aren’t rich, unfair to people of color, and unfair to people who are leftists, let Johannes Mehserle off the hook despite overwhelming evidence murder. Mesherle was given a slap on the wrist and convicted of “involuntary man slaughter”. He did lose his job, which is unusual in cases of police violence, but he walks free today.
At renamed and retaken Oscar Grant Square 1607 people voted on the resolution for a general strike and mass protest on November 2nd. The vote tallies were 1484 in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained, and 46 voted against it. This passed the proposal with 96.9% voting in favor. The Oakland General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor and with abstaining votes removed from the final count.
Some claimed this was not the decision of a union so it had little meaning. Yet, with polls showing the current popularity of the Occupy movement at 37% combined with the shock and anger caused by police brutality and repression, this call for a general strike was far more than some empty gesture. Unions are indeed taking it seriously.
Backing the call for the general strike is the 3,000 member Carpenters Local 713 that voted to join the strike and join protests at Oscar Grant Square. They passed a resolution that ends by saying they “resolve to support the call of the 2,000 Oaklanders at Occupy Oakland for a one-day strike in Oakland for Wednesday November 2nd, 2011, to protest our country’s rising inequality and the brutal actions of the police in the city of Oakland, California.”
Also supporting the strike are key leaders of the ILWU and IBU in the Bay Area who put out a statement titled, “Defend Occupy Oakland with the Power of Organized Labor”. They state, “As a first step, in defending our union and others against economic and political repression, we need to mobilize our members to participate in the rally and occupation November 2 in Oscar Grant Plaza. Shut it down!”
That ILWU / IBU statement also denounces other police violence including a 2003 Oakland Police attack on anti-war protesters using the same potentially lethal munitions as were just used. That police attack injured six longshoreman including Billy Kepo’s.
“Local 10 longshoreman Billy Kepo’o was hit in the hand by a police tear gas canister causing a bloody mess. Now, Iraqi war vet, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head with a police projectile, causing a fracture and putting him in critical condition in Highland Hospital. This is exactly what killed one of the strikers in Seattle in the Big Strike of 1934. That history of police violence against strikers is why our Local 10 Constitution bans cops from membership in our union.”
Further strengthening the coming strike on the Port of Oakland is a resolution passed unanimously by the Occupy Oakland strike assembly on Friday October 29 that calls for a march to blockade of the Port of Oakland. The statement reads:
“On Wednesday, November 2nd as part of the Oakland General Strike, we will march on the Port of Oakland and shut it down. We will converge at 5pm at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift.
“We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital on the day of the General Strike, as well as to show our commitment to solidarity with Longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Washington. EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction. The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD, a leading agribusiness and food company which reported 2.4 billion dollars in profit in 2010; this company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers.
“The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it. The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% – their wealth only exists because the 99% creates it for them.”
A shut down of the ports by the ILWU and IBU will be a powerful step in defense of democratic rights against the brutality being dished out by the Oakland Police and Mayor Jean Quan. The Port of Oakland is the fourth largest port in the United States and its shut down will be costly for the capitalists. In addition, this is an opening shot of proletarian power versus the repression of the capitalists and their state. The capitalists and their government want to avoid this type of action. Those in power would prefer the proletariat continue to feel helpless under a police state and two party system rather than begin to feel our power by shutting down production and transport.
It is no coincidence that after the General Assembly voted for a general strike Mayor Jean Quan tried to make an apology for her actions to an Occupy Oakland meeting the next day. She said, "Ultimately, it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," and then claimed: "We can change America, but we must unite and not divide our city. I hope we can work together." Obviously she is feeling the pressure, but the fact she was willing to use police violence in the first place to shut down the constitutional rights of protesters indicates that she is a representative of the wealthy 1% who feels threatened by the Occupy movement. She was rightly booed out of Oscar Grant Square by people demanding she “resign!”
California Nurses Association Treasurer Martha Kuhl, an Oakland RN, rightly denounced this Democrat Party mayor saying, “This unwarranted attack on peaceful protesters places Oakland Mayor Jean Quan in shameful company with mayors like Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and other cities whose response to public expression of protest is repression rather than respect for the rights of free speech and assembly.”
On November 2nd we will teach the ruling capitalists and their government that needed respect by shutting them down. Join the general strike and mass march November 2nd.
Shut Down the 1%
General Strike & Mass Day of Action called for by Occupy Oakland
Everyone to the Streets!
No Work! No School!
Mass gatherings at 14th & Broadway:
9:00am • 12 noon • 5:00pm
5:00pm start at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift
All banks and corporations must close down for the day or we will march on them
Liberation News joins the Oakland Occupy General Assembly in Demanding:
• Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement
• End Police Attacks on Our Communities
• Defend Oakland Schools & Libraries
• Against an economic system built on inequality & corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism & the destruction of the environment
And Liberation News adds the additional demand:
Drop The Charges Against All Occupy Protesters!
Read About the 1934 San Francisco General Strike
The Big Strike, by Mike Quin
http://www.archive.org/details/bigstrike00quinrich
Making a Gas Mask
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/29/18695901.php
This is an article of Liberation News, subscribe free.
From The "Occupy Oakland" Website- All Out In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland Novemebr 2, 2011- We Take The Offensive-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity!
Click on the headline to link to Occupy Oaklandand information on a march to close down the Port Of Oakland on November 2, 2011.
Markin comment:
All Out On November 2, 2011 In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity
******
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
Markin comment:
All Out On November 2, 2011 In Oakland To Block The Port Of Oakland-Close All The West Coast Ports In Solidarity With Oakland And The Longview, Washington Longshoremen-Shut Down The Gulf And East Coast Ports In Solidarity
******
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Fighters Standing In Solidarity With The Oakland General Strike, November 2, 2011-We Take the Offensive- Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up”
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Bob Marley performing his classic song of struggle, Get Up, Stand Up.
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment October 30, 2011:
All honor to those arrested defending Occupy Denver Ya, they got up, they stood up. Defend The Occupy Denver Site! Defend The Occupation! Defend The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against Those Who Defended Occupy Denver Now!
******
Markin comment October 26, 2011:
This having to send solidarity messages almost daily is getting too redundant, way too redundant. Forget this notion of each occupation site being a separate operation. We had better unite to fight nationally (and internationally) or they (and you know who the "they" is) will pick us off one by one like they are doing now. It is the same struggle, same fight! An injury to one is an injury to all!
******
Bob Marley Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/get+up+stand+up_20021743.html ]
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah! )
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight! (yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Don't give up the fight! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! /fadeout/
Markin comment:
In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
*****
Markin comment October 30, 2011:
All honor to those arrested defending Occupy Denver Ya, they got up, they stood up. Defend The Occupy Denver Site! Defend The Occupation! Defend The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against Those Who Defended Occupy Denver Now!
******
Markin comment October 26, 2011:
This having to send solidarity messages almost daily is getting too redundant, way too redundant. Forget this notion of each occupation site being a separate operation. We had better unite to fight nationally (and internationally) or they (and you know who the "they" is) will pick us off one by one like they are doing now. It is the same struggle, same fight! An injury to one is an injury to all!
******
Bob Marley Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/get+up+stand+up_20021743.html ]
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah! )
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight! (yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Don't give up the fight! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! /fadeout/
From #Occupied Boston (#TomemonosBoston)-Day Thirty-Three- An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend All The Occupation Sites And All The Occupiers!–No Mas- The Class-War Lines Are Being Drawn- There Is A Need To Unite And Fight-All Out November 2, 2011 In Solidarity With Occupy Oakland’s General Strike!-This Is Our John Brown Moment –Light The Spark!
Click on the headline to link to updates from the Occupy Boston website. Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011. I will post important updates as they appear on that site.
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
#TomemonosBoston
Somos la Sociedad conformando el 99% -Dewey Square, Cercerde South Station
#Tomemonos Boston se reuniarin en el Dewey Square en Downtown Boston a discutir cambios que la ciudadania puede hacer en el gobierno que afecte un cambio social positivo.
************
Markin comment October 29, 2011:
As noted in the headline the Occupy movement cannot continue to take defeats like those imposed by the police raids and brutality in Oakland (and elsewhere). The general strike called for November 2, 2011 by Occupy Oakland is the start of our push-back. All Oakland labor, beginning with the powerful long-shore workers at the Port of Oakland, must shut down business as usual that day. All out students, workers, and oppressed peoples of Oakland. And the rest of us should shut down what we can in solidarity. This is our John Brown moment. They don’t come often to the downtrodden and oppressed as history shows- so we had better strike the blow now.
**********
Markin comment October 30, 2011
I swear the footage from Denver of peaceful marchers being trampled by the Cossacks (oops, police) reminds me of scenes from-January 9, 1905 in Russia. If you are not familiar with that date and those events, see Wikipedia.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
******
Press Release: Resounding Silence, General Strike Over Marine Injured by Oakland Police
October 27th, 2011
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 27, 2011*
Contacts: OccupyBostonMedia@gmail.com
Twitter: @occupyBOS_media
MEDIA BLACKOUT ENTERS SECOND DAY AS IRAQ VETERAN SCOTT OLSEN REMAINS IN SERIOUS CONDITION, OCCUPY OAKLAND CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE NOVEMBER 2
Scott Olsen, 24—a former member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and a veteran of two tours in Iraq—remains in serious condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland with a fractured skull and brain swelling. Riot police fired a projectile into Olsen’s face on Tuesday before throwing flash grenades at his fellow protesters while they attempted to move him to safety. Despite the severity of Olsen’s injuries, local and national media have largely ignored the story. As of Thursday morning, The Boston Herald and FOX 25 had no definite plans to cover the incident, nor had Oakland’s citizen review board opened an official inquiry.
Videos posted to YouTube depicting a member of the riot police throwing a flash grenade at protesters attempting to help the injured Olsen have stirred international outrage, but coverage remains minimal.
Last night, thousands marched to retake Oscar Grant Plaza for Occupy Oakland before calling for a general strike on November 2, saying:
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city-wide general strike and we propose that we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.
********
Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with Scott Olsen and with Occupy Oakland as we continue our peaceful pursuit of international economic justice. We are the 99%, and we are no longer silent.
********
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
********
#TomemonosBoston
Somos la Sociedad conformando el 99% -Dewey Square, Cercerde South Station
#Tomemonos Boston se reuniarin en el Dewey Square en Downtown Boston a discutir cambios que la ciudadania puede hacer en el gobierno que afecte un cambio social positivo.
************
Markin comment October 29, 2011:
As noted in the headline the Occupy movement cannot continue to take defeats like those imposed by the police raids and brutality in Oakland (and elsewhere). The general strike called for November 2, 2011 by Occupy Oakland is the start of our push-back. All Oakland labor, beginning with the powerful long-shore workers at the Port of Oakland, must shut down business as usual that day. All out students, workers, and oppressed peoples of Oakland. And the rest of us should shut down what we can in solidarity. This is our John Brown moment. They don’t come often to the downtrodden and oppressed as history shows- so we had better strike the blow now.
**********
Markin comment October 30, 2011
I swear the footage from Denver of peaceful marchers being trampled by the Cossacks (oops, police) reminds me of scenes from-January 9, 1905 in Russia. If you are not familiar with that date and those events, see Wikipedia.
*****
Markin comment November 1, 2011:
Whether we can successfully close down Oakland on November 2, 2011 we have taken the offensive, maybe a long- term offensive, but an offensive reflecting our new-found understanding that the actions of the past few weeks have shown us that unless we are willing to fight, and fight hard, we will get nothing from the bourgeoisie, or their hangers-on. Call November 2nd Liberation Day One and that will put things proper prospective. Many of we older leftist militants did not think we would live long enough to hear the words- General Strike-uttered in more than some old-time historical sense. And yet here we are. Stay calm and steady-All out November 2, 2011 in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike! This is our John Brown moment! Light the spark! Forward!
******
Press Release: Resounding Silence, General Strike Over Marine Injured by Oakland Police
October 27th, 2011
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 27, 2011*
Contacts: OccupyBostonMedia@gmail.com
Twitter: @occupyBOS_media
MEDIA BLACKOUT ENTERS SECOND DAY AS IRAQ VETERAN SCOTT OLSEN REMAINS IN SERIOUS CONDITION, OCCUPY OAKLAND CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE NOVEMBER 2
Scott Olsen, 24—a former member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and a veteran of two tours in Iraq—remains in serious condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland with a fractured skull and brain swelling. Riot police fired a projectile into Olsen’s face on Tuesday before throwing flash grenades at his fellow protesters while they attempted to move him to safety. Despite the severity of Olsen’s injuries, local and national media have largely ignored the story. As of Thursday morning, The Boston Herald and FOX 25 had no definite plans to cover the incident, nor had Oakland’s citizen review board opened an official inquiry.
Videos posted to YouTube depicting a member of the riot police throwing a flash grenade at protesters attempting to help the injured Olsen have stirred international outrage, but coverage remains minimal.
Last night, thousands marched to retake Oscar Grant Plaza for Occupy Oakland before calling for a general strike on November 2, saying:
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city-wide general strike and we propose that we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.
********
Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with Scott Olsen and with Occupy Oakland as we continue our peaceful pursuit of international economic justice. We are the 99%, and we are no longer silent.
***From The Archives-The Struggle To Win The Youth To The Fight For Our Communist Future-From Young Spartacus, September 1978- Voices From The Ivory Tower: Genovese's Anti-Marxist Persepctives
Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Professor Eugene Genovese, the named subject of the polemic in this post.
Markin comment on this series:
One of the declared purposes of this space is to draw the lessons of our left-wing past here in America and internationally, especially from the pro-communist wing. To that end I have made commentaries and provided archival works in order to help draw those lessons for today’s left-wing activists to learn, or at least ponder over. More importantly, for the long haul, to help educate today’s youth in the struggle for our common communist future. That is no small task or easy task given the differences of generations; differences of political milieus worked in; differences of social structure to work around; and, increasingly more important, the differences in appreciation of technological advances, and their uses.
There is no question that back in my youth I could have used, desperately used, many of the archival materials available today. When I developed political consciousness very early on, albeit liberal political consciousness, I could have used this material as I knew, I knew deep inside my heart and mind, that a junior Cold War liberal of the American For Democratic Action (ADA) stripe was not the end of my leftward political trajectory. More importantly, I could have used a socialist or communist youth organization to help me articulate the doubts I had about the virtues of liberal capitalism and be recruited to a more left-wing world view. As it was I spent far too long in the throes of the left-liberal/soft social-democratic milieu where I was dying politically. A group like the Young Communist League (W.E.B. Dubois Clubs in those days), the Young People’s Socialist League, or the Young Socialist Alliance representing the youth organizations of the American Communist Party, American Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.) respectively would have saved much wasted time and energy. I knew they were around but not in my area.
The archival material to be used in this series is weighted heavily toward the youth movements of the early American Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S). For more recent material I have relied on material from the Spartacus Youth Clubs, the youth group of the Spartacist League (U.S.), both because they are more readily available to me and because, and this should give cause for pause, there are not many other non-CP, non-SWP youth groups around. As I gather more material from other youth sources I will place them in this series.
Finally I would like to finish up with the preamble to the Spartacist Youth Club’s What We Fight For statement of purpose:
"The Spartacus Youth Clubs intervene into social struggles armed with the revolutionary internationalist program of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. We work to mobilize youth in struggle as partisans of the working class, championing the liberation of black people, women and all the oppressed. The SYCs fight to win youth to the perspective of building the Leninist vanguard party that will lead the working class in socialist revolution, laying the basis for a world free of capitalist exploitation and imperialist slaughter."
This seems to me be somewhere in the right direction for what a Bolshevik youth group should be doing these days; a proving ground to become professional revolutionaries with enough wiggle room to learn from their mistakes, and successes. More later.
*******
Markin comment on this article:
With the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its off-shoots this fall (2011) it seems that every academic leftist professor of the past forty years, or those with pretensions to leftism, has come out of the woodwork, or rather the treacherous, if comfortable, groves of academia to give the "kids" advise about how it was back in the day (the 1960s or 1970s, as the case may be). This article kind of puts such "experts" in perspective, especially those who have been laying low, very low, in the weeds all these years. Hell, Professor Genovese and the others mentioned in this article seem like Bolsheviks (even if they would cringe at such a designation) compared to some hoary voices that I have heard spouting forth of late.
***********
From Young Spartacus,September 1978- Voices From The Ivory Tower: Genovese's Anti-Marxist Persepctives
'The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it"
-K. Marx
'An anonymous wit reflecting on the revolutionary upheavals of our age, has parodied that Marxists have hitherto merely changed the world, whereas the point is to interpret it. Fair enough, so far as it goes."
—E. Genovese
*********
"We seek to revitalize Marxist thought"—with this modest ambition a group of university professors in the United States announced to the world the appearance of their new journal, Marxist Perspectives. In an editorial statement penned by Eugene D. Genovese (the editor and the chairman of the Department of History at the University of Rochester), the very first issue (Spring 1978) proclaims that the editors have taken upon their thin shoulders a rather herculean task: no less than the resolution of what they call the "crisis" of Marxism.
No ordinary journal this, its goal is nothing less than to salvage the left from the "deformities in ideology" which, we are told, "no honest Marxist, whatever his political tendency, can any longer defend." Far be it, needless to say, from these fine gentlemen to soil their hands with the living struggles of the working class and the political battles to forge a genuinely revolutionary party; the authors inform us that, "the painful history of those revolutions and parties needs no review here." What follows is an unabashed display of academics reveling in their university sinecures.
The editors of Marxist Perspectives cast an admiring glance at William Appleman Williams, the University of Wisconsin historian, who served as their mentor when they were his graduate students in the 1960's. Since that time, however, many of the journal's contributors were drawn into active political movements around the issues of civil rights and the Vietnam war. For these academic Marxists the demise of the New Left was the signal for a complete retreat into the universities. Having made no substantive political decisions other than furthering their own careers, they of course place the blame upon the left: "Marxism, like all philosophies and world views, is in crisis."
These academics and cast-off from the New Left are no doubt witnessing a crisis—but it is their own, not that of communists. It is not we who are thrown into a tizzy by the sight of Stalinists engaged in a criminal nationalist border war between "Socialist Vietnam" and "Democratic Kampuchea"; not we that equate the rise of petty-bourgeois nationalist regimes in Angola and Mozambique or the jackboot of Stalinist repression in Eastern Europe with the Bolshevik-led Russian proletariat's conquest of Soviet power in 1917; nor we that find the social-democratization of Western European Communist Parties under the catchphrase "Euro-communism" intriguing.
A recent article by an associate of Marxist Perspectives, the renowned British historian E.J. Hobsbawm, expresses precisely this confusion. Titled, appropriately enough, "Should the Poor Organize?" Hobsbawm's dark picture of despair captures well the sentiments currently being bantered about academia's armchairs:
"Once upon a time, say from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, the movements of the left whether they called themselves socialist, communist, or syndicalist— like everybody else who believed in progress, knew just where they wanted to go and just what, with the help of history, strategy, and effort, they ought or needed to do to get there. Now they no longer do
"Neither capitalism nor its designated graved diggers are any longer what they were in 1914 or even in 1939. The historical forces and mechanisms on which socialists relied to produce an increasingly militant proletariat and increasingly vulnerable ruling class are not working as they were supposed to. The great armies of labor are no longer marching forward, as they once seemed to, growing, increasingly united, and carrying the future with them."
New York Review of Books,
23 March 1978
So, buoyed by such cynicism, Marxist theory is to be revitalized!
Not only are there no "perspectives" to be found here, but the editors reject outright the revolutionary core of Marxism. Genovese's brazen editorial statement asserts, "We are not a partisan political journal. Those who thrive on political polemics will have to publish elsewhere." Lest there be any misunderstanding, Genovese continues, "We shall not entertain ill-mannered polemics; factional attacks; holier-than-thou treatises; or accusations of revisionism, dogmatism, adventurism, tailism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Bernsteinism, rotten liberalism, or any of those other wonderful devices for avoiding reasoned response to honest arguments."
The irony of this statement is that in this journal entitled Marxist Perspectives Marx himself would not fit the criteria for publication. Would Genovese undertake to edit out the polemical "excesses" of Capital, the Communist Manifesto, the Critique of the Goths Program or Engels' Anti-Duhring! What Marxist Perspectives cannot fathom is that revolutionaries engage in polemics because the substance of the political debate matters. Marx, Lenin and Trotsky spent much of their time writing polemics in the process of trying to forge political organizations capable of changing the world. For those that cannot stomach "ill-mannered polemics," the prospect of making the world "rise on new foundations" must simply be beyond the realm of thought.
In 1915, Lenin wrote that, "Strong ideas are those that shock and scandalize, evoke indignation, anger, and animosity in some and enthusiasm in others." Judged in this light, Marxist Perspectives offers only a series of weak ideas. With the exception of Genovese's editorial and an amusing piece by Gore Vidal on the American Bicentennial, this new journal contains virtually unreadable tracts ranging from Hobsbawm's article on religion and the rise of socialism to an insipid review of Yves Saint Laurent's latest fashions!
The pity is that many of these same scholars have published very valuable and thought-provoking material elsewhere, including: Hobsbawm's Primitive Rebels and (under the pseudonym Francis Newton) The Jazz Scene, Christopher Lasch's insightful New York Review of Books essay "Narcissist America"; and Genovese's perceptive works on slavery, as well as his fine polemics (ill-mannered or not) against the fairy tale history books of Communist Party hack Herbert Aptheker and divers black nationalists. While these works are not to be slighted, collectively these people add up to far less than their individual academic contributions.
This is hardly surprising. Implicit in Marxist Perspectives' magnanimous
recognition of "many Marxisms" is abhorrence for the inescapable programmatic conclusions of Marxism leading to the battle for the dictatorship of the proletariat (the term itself is anathema to most academics). Marxism provides the worldview to interpret and change the existing society: it cannot exist independently of communist politics and communist organization. Lenin neatly summarized this position in the second edition of State and Revolution (December 1918):
"It is often said and written that the main point in Marx's theory is the class struggle. But this is wrong. And this wrong notion very often results in an opportunist distortion of Marxism and its falsification in a spirit acceptable to the bourgeoisie. For the theory of the class struggle was created not by Marx, but by the bourgeoisie before Marx, and generally speaking, it is acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Those who recognize only the class struggle are not yet Marxists; they are to be found still within the bounds of bourgeois thinking and bourgeois politics. To confine Marxism to the theory of the class struggle means curtailing Marxism, distorting it, reducing it to something acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is what constitutes the most profound distinction between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeoisie. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism should be tested!"
Nor was this new to Lenin. Marx made exactly the same point in a well-known 1852 letter to Joseph Weydemeyer: "And now as to myself, no credit is due to me for discovering the existence of classes in modern society or the struggle between them. Long before me bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this class struggle and bourgeois economists, the economic anatomy of the classes. What 1 did was to prove: (1) that the existence of class is only bound up with particular, historical phases in the development of production, (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, (3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society."
To recognize their honesty, the editors grudgingly accept, at least halfheartedly, the gulf that separates them from Marxism. One of the more boldfaced statements in Genovese's introduction to Marxist Perspectives is a comment on Marx's famous dictum in his Theses on Feuerbach dealing with the need to change the world. Genovese in turn tells us, "An anonymous wit reflecting on the revolutionary upheavals of our age, has parodied that Marxists have hitherto merely changed the world, whereas the point is to interpret it. Fair enough, so far as it goes."
Marxist Perspectives is only a prestigious publication aimed at capitalizing on the increased "respectability" of this brand of "Marxism" in bourgeois academia. The journal graciously offers bourgeois opponents a regular column, "From the Other Shore," and even the New York Times has praised both the journal's "intellectual seriousness" and its "sound understanding of the market economy" (i.e., its commercial profitability).
But the rejection of revolutionary Marxism has its own logic—even for these self-styled "interpreters." Not only have the two issues to date prominently featured articles on behalf of Euro-communism, but a Marxist Perspectives-sponsored New York symposium on "The Communist Experience in America" in May of this year proved to be little more than a platform for right-wing social democrats of the Michael Harrington ilk. For these scholars who reject revolution and the Leninist party but who wish to apply aspects of Marxism or to be known as Marxists, the best thing would be simply to stay out of politics. Much better if Genovese, Lasch and Hobsbawm would stick to their own scholarly researches rather than dabble in the cynical anti-Marxism of the Marxist Perspectives editorial statement. Academic Marxism, insofar as it organizes itself as a tendency, can only become part of the periphery of social democracy—the defender of a comfortable status quo.
The fact that much of our critique of Marxist Perspectives can be drawn from
quotes of Marx and Lenin is far from accidental. The attempt of academic
leftists to decry revolutionary struggles in the name of "revitalization" is hardly a new phenomenon. Trotsky best summed this up in a 1923 speech at Sverdlov University on the "Tasks of Communist Education" (reprinted in Problems of Everyday Life). More than half a century later it retains its full applicability to today's academics
Marxists:
"Academicism in the sense of the belief in the self-contained importance of theory is doubly absurd for us a revolutionaries. Theory serves collective humanity; it serves the cause of revolution.
"It is true that in certain periods of our social development, there were attempts to separate Marxism from revolutionary action. This was during the time of the so-called legal Marxism in the 1890's. Russian Marxists were divided into two camps: Legal Marxists from the journalistic salons of Moscow and Petersburg; and the underground fraternity—imprisoned, in penal exile, emigrated, illegal.
"The legalists were as a general rule more educated than our group of young Marxists in those days. It is true that there was among us a group of broadly educated revolutionary Marxists, but they were only a handful. We, the youth, if we are honest with ourselves, were in the overwhelming majority pretty ignorant. We were shocked sometimes by some of Darwin's ideas. Not all of us, however, even had occasion to get so far as to read Darwin. Nevertheless, I can say with certainty that when one of these underground, young, 19- or 20-year-old Marxists happened to meet and collide head-on with a legal Marxist, the feeling invariably sprang up among the young people that, all the same, we were more intelligent. This was not simply puerile arrogance. No, The key to this feeling is that it is impossible to genuinely master Marxism if you do not have the will for revolutionary action. Only if Marxist theory is combined with that will and directed toward overcoming the existing conditions can it be a tool to drill and bore. And if this active revolutionary will is absent, then the Marxism is pseudo-Marxism, a wooden knife which neither stabs nor cuts. And this is what it was under the direction of our legal Marxists. They were gradually transformed into liberals.
"The willingness for revolutionary action is a precondition for mastering the Marxist dialectic. The one cannot live without the other. Marxism cannot be academicism without ceasing to be Marxism, i.e. the theoretical tool of revolutionary action."
Markin comment on this series:
One of the declared purposes of this space is to draw the lessons of our left-wing past here in America and internationally, especially from the pro-communist wing. To that end I have made commentaries and provided archival works in order to help draw those lessons for today’s left-wing activists to learn, or at least ponder over. More importantly, for the long haul, to help educate today’s youth in the struggle for our common communist future. That is no small task or easy task given the differences of generations; differences of political milieus worked in; differences of social structure to work around; and, increasingly more important, the differences in appreciation of technological advances, and their uses.
There is no question that back in my youth I could have used, desperately used, many of the archival materials available today. When I developed political consciousness very early on, albeit liberal political consciousness, I could have used this material as I knew, I knew deep inside my heart and mind, that a junior Cold War liberal of the American For Democratic Action (ADA) stripe was not the end of my leftward political trajectory. More importantly, I could have used a socialist or communist youth organization to help me articulate the doubts I had about the virtues of liberal capitalism and be recruited to a more left-wing world view. As it was I spent far too long in the throes of the left-liberal/soft social-democratic milieu where I was dying politically. A group like the Young Communist League (W.E.B. Dubois Clubs in those days), the Young People’s Socialist League, or the Young Socialist Alliance representing the youth organizations of the American Communist Party, American Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.) respectively would have saved much wasted time and energy. I knew they were around but not in my area.
The archival material to be used in this series is weighted heavily toward the youth movements of the early American Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S). For more recent material I have relied on material from the Spartacus Youth Clubs, the youth group of the Spartacist League (U.S.), both because they are more readily available to me and because, and this should give cause for pause, there are not many other non-CP, non-SWP youth groups around. As I gather more material from other youth sources I will place them in this series.
Finally I would like to finish up with the preamble to the Spartacist Youth Club’s What We Fight For statement of purpose:
"The Spartacus Youth Clubs intervene into social struggles armed with the revolutionary internationalist program of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. We work to mobilize youth in struggle as partisans of the working class, championing the liberation of black people, women and all the oppressed. The SYCs fight to win youth to the perspective of building the Leninist vanguard party that will lead the working class in socialist revolution, laying the basis for a world free of capitalist exploitation and imperialist slaughter."
This seems to me be somewhere in the right direction for what a Bolshevik youth group should be doing these days; a proving ground to become professional revolutionaries with enough wiggle room to learn from their mistakes, and successes. More later.
*******
Markin comment on this article:
With the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its off-shoots this fall (2011) it seems that every academic leftist professor of the past forty years, or those with pretensions to leftism, has come out of the woodwork, or rather the treacherous, if comfortable, groves of academia to give the "kids" advise about how it was back in the day (the 1960s or 1970s, as the case may be). This article kind of puts such "experts" in perspective, especially those who have been laying low, very low, in the weeds all these years. Hell, Professor Genovese and the others mentioned in this article seem like Bolsheviks (even if they would cringe at such a designation) compared to some hoary voices that I have heard spouting forth of late.
***********
From Young Spartacus,September 1978- Voices From The Ivory Tower: Genovese's Anti-Marxist Persepctives
'The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it"
-K. Marx
'An anonymous wit reflecting on the revolutionary upheavals of our age, has parodied that Marxists have hitherto merely changed the world, whereas the point is to interpret it. Fair enough, so far as it goes."
—E. Genovese
*********
"We seek to revitalize Marxist thought"—with this modest ambition a group of university professors in the United States announced to the world the appearance of their new journal, Marxist Perspectives. In an editorial statement penned by Eugene D. Genovese (the editor and the chairman of the Department of History at the University of Rochester), the very first issue (Spring 1978) proclaims that the editors have taken upon their thin shoulders a rather herculean task: no less than the resolution of what they call the "crisis" of Marxism.
No ordinary journal this, its goal is nothing less than to salvage the left from the "deformities in ideology" which, we are told, "no honest Marxist, whatever his political tendency, can any longer defend." Far be it, needless to say, from these fine gentlemen to soil their hands with the living struggles of the working class and the political battles to forge a genuinely revolutionary party; the authors inform us that, "the painful history of those revolutions and parties needs no review here." What follows is an unabashed display of academics reveling in their university sinecures.
The editors of Marxist Perspectives cast an admiring glance at William Appleman Williams, the University of Wisconsin historian, who served as their mentor when they were his graduate students in the 1960's. Since that time, however, many of the journal's contributors were drawn into active political movements around the issues of civil rights and the Vietnam war. For these academic Marxists the demise of the New Left was the signal for a complete retreat into the universities. Having made no substantive political decisions other than furthering their own careers, they of course place the blame upon the left: "Marxism, like all philosophies and world views, is in crisis."
These academics and cast-off from the New Left are no doubt witnessing a crisis—but it is their own, not that of communists. It is not we who are thrown into a tizzy by the sight of Stalinists engaged in a criminal nationalist border war between "Socialist Vietnam" and "Democratic Kampuchea"; not we that equate the rise of petty-bourgeois nationalist regimes in Angola and Mozambique or the jackboot of Stalinist repression in Eastern Europe with the Bolshevik-led Russian proletariat's conquest of Soviet power in 1917; nor we that find the social-democratization of Western European Communist Parties under the catchphrase "Euro-communism" intriguing.
A recent article by an associate of Marxist Perspectives, the renowned British historian E.J. Hobsbawm, expresses precisely this confusion. Titled, appropriately enough, "Should the Poor Organize?" Hobsbawm's dark picture of despair captures well the sentiments currently being bantered about academia's armchairs:
"Once upon a time, say from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, the movements of the left whether they called themselves socialist, communist, or syndicalist— like everybody else who believed in progress, knew just where they wanted to go and just what, with the help of history, strategy, and effort, they ought or needed to do to get there. Now they no longer do
"Neither capitalism nor its designated graved diggers are any longer what they were in 1914 or even in 1939. The historical forces and mechanisms on which socialists relied to produce an increasingly militant proletariat and increasingly vulnerable ruling class are not working as they were supposed to. The great armies of labor are no longer marching forward, as they once seemed to, growing, increasingly united, and carrying the future with them."
New York Review of Books,
23 March 1978
So, buoyed by such cynicism, Marxist theory is to be revitalized!
Not only are there no "perspectives" to be found here, but the editors reject outright the revolutionary core of Marxism. Genovese's brazen editorial statement asserts, "We are not a partisan political journal. Those who thrive on political polemics will have to publish elsewhere." Lest there be any misunderstanding, Genovese continues, "We shall not entertain ill-mannered polemics; factional attacks; holier-than-thou treatises; or accusations of revisionism, dogmatism, adventurism, tailism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Bernsteinism, rotten liberalism, or any of those other wonderful devices for avoiding reasoned response to honest arguments."
The irony of this statement is that in this journal entitled Marxist Perspectives Marx himself would not fit the criteria for publication. Would Genovese undertake to edit out the polemical "excesses" of Capital, the Communist Manifesto, the Critique of the Goths Program or Engels' Anti-Duhring! What Marxist Perspectives cannot fathom is that revolutionaries engage in polemics because the substance of the political debate matters. Marx, Lenin and Trotsky spent much of their time writing polemics in the process of trying to forge political organizations capable of changing the world. For those that cannot stomach "ill-mannered polemics," the prospect of making the world "rise on new foundations" must simply be beyond the realm of thought.
In 1915, Lenin wrote that, "Strong ideas are those that shock and scandalize, evoke indignation, anger, and animosity in some and enthusiasm in others." Judged in this light, Marxist Perspectives offers only a series of weak ideas. With the exception of Genovese's editorial and an amusing piece by Gore Vidal on the American Bicentennial, this new journal contains virtually unreadable tracts ranging from Hobsbawm's article on religion and the rise of socialism to an insipid review of Yves Saint Laurent's latest fashions!
The pity is that many of these same scholars have published very valuable and thought-provoking material elsewhere, including: Hobsbawm's Primitive Rebels and (under the pseudonym Francis Newton) The Jazz Scene, Christopher Lasch's insightful New York Review of Books essay "Narcissist America"; and Genovese's perceptive works on slavery, as well as his fine polemics (ill-mannered or not) against the fairy tale history books of Communist Party hack Herbert Aptheker and divers black nationalists. While these works are not to be slighted, collectively these people add up to far less than their individual academic contributions.
This is hardly surprising. Implicit in Marxist Perspectives' magnanimous
recognition of "many Marxisms" is abhorrence for the inescapable programmatic conclusions of Marxism leading to the battle for the dictatorship of the proletariat (the term itself is anathema to most academics). Marxism provides the worldview to interpret and change the existing society: it cannot exist independently of communist politics and communist organization. Lenin neatly summarized this position in the second edition of State and Revolution (December 1918):
"It is often said and written that the main point in Marx's theory is the class struggle. But this is wrong. And this wrong notion very often results in an opportunist distortion of Marxism and its falsification in a spirit acceptable to the bourgeoisie. For the theory of the class struggle was created not by Marx, but by the bourgeoisie before Marx, and generally speaking, it is acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Those who recognize only the class struggle are not yet Marxists; they are to be found still within the bounds of bourgeois thinking and bourgeois politics. To confine Marxism to the theory of the class struggle means curtailing Marxism, distorting it, reducing it to something acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is what constitutes the most profound distinction between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeoisie. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism should be tested!"
Nor was this new to Lenin. Marx made exactly the same point in a well-known 1852 letter to Joseph Weydemeyer: "And now as to myself, no credit is due to me for discovering the existence of classes in modern society or the struggle between them. Long before me bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this class struggle and bourgeois economists, the economic anatomy of the classes. What 1 did was to prove: (1) that the existence of class is only bound up with particular, historical phases in the development of production, (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, (3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society."
To recognize their honesty, the editors grudgingly accept, at least halfheartedly, the gulf that separates them from Marxism. One of the more boldfaced statements in Genovese's introduction to Marxist Perspectives is a comment on Marx's famous dictum in his Theses on Feuerbach dealing with the need to change the world. Genovese in turn tells us, "An anonymous wit reflecting on the revolutionary upheavals of our age, has parodied that Marxists have hitherto merely changed the world, whereas the point is to interpret it. Fair enough, so far as it goes."
Marxist Perspectives is only a prestigious publication aimed at capitalizing on the increased "respectability" of this brand of "Marxism" in bourgeois academia. The journal graciously offers bourgeois opponents a regular column, "From the Other Shore," and even the New York Times has praised both the journal's "intellectual seriousness" and its "sound understanding of the market economy" (i.e., its commercial profitability).
But the rejection of revolutionary Marxism has its own logic—even for these self-styled "interpreters." Not only have the two issues to date prominently featured articles on behalf of Euro-communism, but a Marxist Perspectives-sponsored New York symposium on "The Communist Experience in America" in May of this year proved to be little more than a platform for right-wing social democrats of the Michael Harrington ilk. For these scholars who reject revolution and the Leninist party but who wish to apply aspects of Marxism or to be known as Marxists, the best thing would be simply to stay out of politics. Much better if Genovese, Lasch and Hobsbawm would stick to their own scholarly researches rather than dabble in the cynical anti-Marxism of the Marxist Perspectives editorial statement. Academic Marxism, insofar as it organizes itself as a tendency, can only become part of the periphery of social democracy—the defender of a comfortable status quo.
The fact that much of our critique of Marxist Perspectives can be drawn from
quotes of Marx and Lenin is far from accidental. The attempt of academic
leftists to decry revolutionary struggles in the name of "revitalization" is hardly a new phenomenon. Trotsky best summed this up in a 1923 speech at Sverdlov University on the "Tasks of Communist Education" (reprinted in Problems of Everyday Life). More than half a century later it retains its full applicability to today's academics
Marxists:
"Academicism in the sense of the belief in the self-contained importance of theory is doubly absurd for us a revolutionaries. Theory serves collective humanity; it serves the cause of revolution.
"It is true that in certain periods of our social development, there were attempts to separate Marxism from revolutionary action. This was during the time of the so-called legal Marxism in the 1890's. Russian Marxists were divided into two camps: Legal Marxists from the journalistic salons of Moscow and Petersburg; and the underground fraternity—imprisoned, in penal exile, emigrated, illegal.
"The legalists were as a general rule more educated than our group of young Marxists in those days. It is true that there was among us a group of broadly educated revolutionary Marxists, but they were only a handful. We, the youth, if we are honest with ourselves, were in the overwhelming majority pretty ignorant. We were shocked sometimes by some of Darwin's ideas. Not all of us, however, even had occasion to get so far as to read Darwin. Nevertheless, I can say with certainty that when one of these underground, young, 19- or 20-year-old Marxists happened to meet and collide head-on with a legal Marxist, the feeling invariably sprang up among the young people that, all the same, we were more intelligent. This was not simply puerile arrogance. No, The key to this feeling is that it is impossible to genuinely master Marxism if you do not have the will for revolutionary action. Only if Marxist theory is combined with that will and directed toward overcoming the existing conditions can it be a tool to drill and bore. And if this active revolutionary will is absent, then the Marxism is pseudo-Marxism, a wooden knife which neither stabs nor cuts. And this is what it was under the direction of our legal Marxists. They were gradually transformed into liberals.
"The willingness for revolutionary action is a precondition for mastering the Marxist dialectic. The one cannot live without the other. Marxism cannot be academicism without ceasing to be Marxism, i.e. the theoretical tool of revolutionary action."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)