Salon.com > Emily Loftis

Port of Oakland shut down

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Monday’s 5:30 a.m. march to shut down the Port of Oakland was cold, wet and dark, but adrenaline was high for the day of action coordinated over the past few weeks with hours of debate, outreach and planning. More than Occupy Wall Street camps — mostly between Anchorage and San Diego, but also in Denver, Houston, New York City and others -- demonstrated in solidarity with the Longview, Wash., longshoremen’s six-month battle with multinational grain transporter EGT and L.A. port truck workers who suffer low wages and union-busting practices.

The crowd was mostly, but not limited to, the young core organizers who have been involved since the beginning. There were also a mother strapped with a child, a clergyman, workers and teachers. While union leaders had voiced opposition to the action, there were plenty of union members in the crowd. At around 10 a.m., protesters got word that the port was officially closed after the arbiter had deemed it an unsafe workplace. Marchers left the port, many holing up for afternoon naps and meals. Those who still had energy, along with day workers who couldn’t make the “morning shift,” rallied at Occupy Oakland's original site, Frank Ogawa Plaza, to hear organizers, union leaders and veteran activist Angela Davis speak.

Occupy vs. Big Labor

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:20:00 +0000

As Occupy Wall Street groups stretching from San Diego to Anchorage mobilize for a multi-port shutdown of the North American West Coast, union members are finding the mobilization offers more than just support against union busting and unfair contracts. Activists and rank-and-file workers say the movement is teaching them what the bureaucratic infrastructure of organized labor has made them forget: collective power.

On Dec. 12, general assemblies (the decentralized governing bodies of OWS) in Los Angeles, Oakland, Calif., Tacoma, Wash., Santa Barbara, Calif., Portland, Ore., Seattle, Longview, Wash., San Diego, Anchorage, California's Port Hueneme region, and dozens of smaller camps plan to blockade ports and halt commerce for a day. There is a combined Dallas-Houston effort to demonstrate at the port in Houston. Japanese rail workers, who are sympathetic to longshoremen, who work a partner company of Bunge -- the company Occupy is protesting -- will be demonstrating in Japan.

Pancho’s Message to the 100%

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:54:00 +0000

An undocumented Oakland occupier arrested earlier this week was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Thursday after his supporters bombarded ICE, local officials and Rep. Barbara Lee with demands for his release. Francisco "Pancho" Ramos-Stierle, a Mexican-born former graduate student in astrophysics turned community activist, became a cause celebre among his fellow demonstrators after he was arrested Monday while meditating during the police dismantling of the Occupy Oakland Camp in Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza.

"This is totally the revolution of the human spirit," he told friends in a conference call after his release, "and this is such a pleasure to be surrounded with all of you."

ICE can still recall Ramos-Stierle for a deportation hearing at any time but supporters are claiming victory for the man they call Pancho and vindication for the message of "restorative justice." While critics may wonder what the immigration issue has to do with Occupy Wall Street’s over-arching message of political and economic inequality, Pancho’s friends have no trouble connecting the dots.

Spiritual leaders arrested at Occupy Oakland

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:11:00 +0000

At least a dozen spiritual leaders were arrested in the evacuation of Occupy Oakland on Monday morning as they sat in a candlelit circle in front of the camp's interfaith tent. They were among 32 people arrested by riot police, according to news reports.

"They wanted to hold the sacred space and be a peaceful presence," said Jon Jackson, deacon at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, a camp participant who chose not to be arrested. According to witnesses, the arrested included Kurt Khuwald, a professor at the Starr King seminary in Berkeley, Father Joseph Vitale, who has been arrested many times before, and Marcus Leifert, a seminary student at Starr King.

“The Occupy movement wants to make people aware of the gross disparity, which is what Jesus and many other religious leaders want,” Jackson said. Jesus, he noted, “was opposed to government hierarchy” and was always talking about the oppression of the poor.

Oakland militants talk back

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:01:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. -- This working-class city has a history of aggressive civil and labor rights action. From the 1946 General Strike to the emergence of the Black Panthers in the 1960s, to Occupy Oakland today, this is a city that has not shied from confrontation with the powers that be. There is a strain of civic pride that is infused with memories of resistance in the face of oppressive circumstances.

Last week's intensive media coverage of clashes between police and demonstrators by Salon and others was certainly not the first time that the aggressive actions of Oakland protesters have overshadowed their message. But reporters who have done more than sit on the edge of the camp in news vans, sipping lattes, and waiting to be cued by flash-bang grenades, know that the ideology behind the “violence” -- a term that makes most Occupy Oaklanders bristle -- is more nuanced than is usually presented in mainstream news coverage.

Occupy Oakland shuts down port

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:24:00 +0000

What began as a relatively peaceful day of demonstrations in Oakland on Wednesday ended in tear gas, rubber bullets and sound grenades being fired on occupiers. The Oakland Police Department arrested dozens of protesters who had taken over an abandoned building near the Oscar Grant plaza where the occupiers have an encampment.

The confrontation came at the end of a long day of festivities around a General Strike and a mass march on the Oakland Port. The Critical Mass bike activists led the march to the Bay, cycling in swirling formations in intersections along the way as they waited for the crowd to catch up. A bus took people who couldn’t walk the distance to the port, and teachers marched in solidarity with neon green T-shirts. By 9 o'clock Wednesday evening, the port, one of the largest in the country, was effectively shut down.

“Whose ports? Our ports?” the crowd chanted in the catch-all occupation meme.

Many protesters I spoke with had never been involved with direct action before Wednesday. Some had been edgy about coming to the march after last week’s raid and subsequent attacks on the Occupy Oakland camp that ended with several people injured and one cracked skull. Andrea, who has not been camping at the Plaza, said she was nervous, but that, “It’s important to make them know we’re not afraid. That mentality keeps people bound up in the lives they’re living.”