OAKLAND, Calif. -- Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters escalated their tactics beyond marches, rallies and tent camps Wednesday and moved to disrupt the flow of goods at the nation's fifth-busiest port.
Protesters were arrested as they held a sit-in at the headquarters of cable giant Comcast in Philadelphia. Military veterans marched in uniform in New York, angry at their dim job prospects. And parents and their kids, some in strollers, formed a "children's brigade" to join the Oakland, Calif. rallies.
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"There's absolutely something wrong with the system," said Jessica Medina, a single mother who attends school part time and works at an Oakland cafe. "We need to change that."
In Los Angeles, New York and other cities, demonstrators planned their own rallies in solidarity with the Oakland protesters, who called for Wednesday's "general strike" after the city became a rallying point last week when an Iraq War veteran was injured in clashes with police.
Protesters, city officials and business leaders were optimistic the strike would be peaceful. There was little to no visible police presence all day. At a briefing, officials described the protests as peaceful and orderly and said no arrests had been made.
Potentially minimizing any significant disruptions at the port, leaders of the longshoremen's union said they could not call for members to join the protests under their contract with the port.
Organizers say they want to stop the "flow of capital." The port sends goods primarily to Asia, including wine as well as rice, fruits and nuts, and handles imported electronics, apparel and manufacturing equipment, mostly from Asia, as well as cars and parts from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.
On Wednesday morning, the port was operating as normal and most longshoremen had shown up for work, according to port and union officials.
Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said its members were not being called to strike, but that they supported the protesters.
The members "are supporting the concerns raised by Occupy Oakland and the Occupy movement to speak up for the 99 percent and against the corporate greed that is wrecking America," Merrilees said.
Elsewhere, police in Philadelphia arrested nine protesters who staged a sit-in inside the Comcast lobby. Officers handcuffed them and led into police vans as supporters cheered.
One protester, Bri Barton, said she was there because the gleaming Comcast tower represents excessive wealth in a city with many blighted neighborhoods. "It's hard for me to see this and that existing in the same city," she said.
In New York, about 100 military veterans marched in uniform and stopped in front of the New York Stock Exchange, standing in loose formation as police officers on scooters separated them from the entrance. On the other side was a lineup of NYPD horses carrying officers with nightsticks.
"We are marching to express support for our brother, (Iraq war veteran) Scott Olsen, who was injured in Oakland," said Jerry Bordeleau, a former Army specialist who served in Iraq through 2009.
The veterans were also angry that returned from war to find few job prospects.
"Wall Street corporations have played a big role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Bordeleau, now a college student. He said private contractors have reaped big profits in those countries.
In Boston, college students and union workers marched on Bank of America offices, the Harvard Club and the Statehouse to protest the nation's burgeoning student debt crisis.
They say total outstanding student loans exceed credit card debt, increase by $1 million every six minutes and will reach $1 trillion this year, potentially undermining the economy.
"There are so many students that are trying to get jobs and go on with their lives," said Sarvenaz Asasy of Boston, who joined the march after recently graduating with a master's degree and $60,000 in loan debt. "They've educated themselves and there are no jobs and we're paying tons of student loans. For what?"
The day's events in Oakland began with a rally outside City Hall that drew more than 3,000 people who spilled into the streets and disrupted the downtown commute. Protesters hung a large black banner that read: "Occupy Everything, DEATH TO CAPITALISM."
The crowd included students, families with young children and many people wearing labor union T-shirts. "Shut down the 1 percent. We are the 99 percent," they chanted.
Oakland let city workers use vacation or other paid time to take part, and officials said about 5 percent took the day off. About 360 Oakland teachers didn't show up for work, or roughly 18 percent of the district's 2,000 teachers, officials said. The district has been able to get substitute teachers for most classrooms, and where that wasn't possible children were sent to other classrooms, he said.
"I came here because the schools are in the (same) boat as everyone else," said Steve Neat, a fifth-grade teacher.
"We have five schools being closed here in Oakland. We have class sizes skyrocketing. We have cuts, cuts, cuts, just like everyone else. And the 1 percent, their share of the wealth is growing, and it's time for that to stop. It's time for some of that wealth to be shared out to all of society," he said.
Some protesters broke off from the rally to picket at nearby banks. All three banks located within blocks of the plaza were closed, though that didn't stop protesters from chanting and waving signs outside.
At a Citibank branch, more than a dozen protesters blocked the entrance, some with fake $100 bills taped across their faces. They held signs with messages such as "Share the Billions with the Millions." About 200 people chanted outside a Wells Fargo branch, where graffiti was scrawled on the wall. The messages read "The 1 percent won't back down" and "Who's robbing who?"
Further away from the rally, vandals shattered a Chase bank branch and splattered ink all over an ATM. Someone later taped a note to the shattered glass that read: "We are better than this. ... Sorry, the 99 percent."
In front of the Oakland Public Library, about three dozen parents brought toddlers and school-age children for a stroller march in a "children's brigade." Demonstrators handed out signs written as if in a children's crayon that read "Generation 99% Occupying Our Future." People attached the signs to their baby backpacks and their strollers.
By the time the group made its way to the main rally, it numbered about 200 adults with their children.
Like others, Marisol Curiel, an Oakland residents who brought her two sons, ages 2 and 4, in a double stroller, said there was a need to tax the wealthy to benefit families and schools and to make sure there are opportunities and jobs for children when they grow up.
"Normally I would be the type of person who would watch it from the sidelines," she said. "But being able to have a presence and also a chance to be more educated seemed really important. All of this will affect not just now, but our future."
___
Associated Press writers Garance Burke and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Beth Duff-Brown in San Francisco, Mark Pratt in Boston, JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia, Jon Fahey and Verena Dobnik in New York and Christina Hoag in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Watch live video from Occupy Oakland: Latest Updates On HuffPost's Live Blog: Report: Bridge Shut Down To Port
| @ indeformable : RT @CLeg5: ABC 7 Oakland... bridge is shut down to port #GeneralStrike #15M #20N #15O |
| @ EastBayExpress : Back at port, huge stream of ppl w/ no end in sight. Most diverse crowd yet: babies to seniors, all races, peruasions. #OO #generalstrike |
From HuffPost's Robin Wilkey:
Organizers are splitting up movements to block different gates. Occupy SF is blocking one gate, vets blocking another. Occupy Oakland is leading half of the remaining march to middle harbor shoreline. General strike is leading other half to maritime.
Unity Between Occupy Oakland And Occupy SF| @ HuffPostSF : March being divided between gates. #OccupySF blocking one gate, #occupyoakland moving to the next #OO |
| @ occupyoakland : #occupysf now blocking the second gate of the #oakland #port #generalstrike #occupyoakland |
HuffPost's Jason Cherkis spoke to Dottie Guy, an Iraq War veteran who is participating in the Oakland strike.
"Right now," she said. "I'm blocking the police at the port of Oakland."
Guy said 30 other vets have joined her in the blockade. "For the first time since becoming a veteran, I'm proud to serve my county," she said. They are staring down the police. "And more are coming right now."According to Guy, they have the entire road blocked. Seven cops cars are idling. She estimates there are at least 10,000 activists marching tonight.
Port Workers Sympathetic To General Strike| @ EastBayExpress : Workers driving semi trailers honking, giving thumbs up in support of protesters as they leave the port on shift change #generalstrike #OO |
| @ abc7newsBayArea : Officials say there's about 4,500 people participating in the #occupyoakland #generalstrike today. City workers told to head home early. |
HuffPost's Tyler Kingkade reports:
WASHINGTON -- Occupy DC protesters marched from their camp in McPherson Square to the Department of Justice headquarters on Wednesday afternoon to show support not just for their Occupy comrades in Oakland, Calif., where police have clashed with protesters, but for others in a dozen different U.S. cities.
Around 50 protesters marched on the same day as the General Strike in Oakland to protest the controversial reaction by police which has left dozens arrested and one military vet in the hospital with serious injuries. Upon reaching the Justice Department, however, demonstrators named off other cities such as New York, Atlanta, Austin and other locations where police have made mass arrests of Occupy protesters.
After the march to the Justice Department, protesters met with Communications Workers Association members at Freedom Plaza to march on the Verizon Center. The telecommunications giant has faced 45,000 of its employees striking over contract disputes. The CWA union brought signs which read "Verizon workers at the 99 percent, executives are the 1 percent."
Occupy DC stopped traffic during its downtown march and faced a mixture of embraced responses by passers-by, as well as critics.
To read more, click here.
Oakland Port Rumors AddressedHuffPost just checked in with Craig Merrilees, the spokesperson for the longshoreman's union in Oakland. He says that the latest rumors of at least a partial shutdown at the Oakland port is false. Whatever container backlog exists has nothing to do with the general strike.
"If the protesters come," Merrilees says, "folks coming to work at 7 will have to decide whether it's safe." Merrilees said that "there will probably be an arbitrator called" if enough workers are concerned. "There's a process to straighten this out," he adds.
--Jason Cherkis
Photos From A Citizen JournalistGrace Prentice works at 20th and Harrison in downtown Oakland, where she was able to see the Oakland general strike outside a Chase bank from overhead. She sent OfftheBus the following image:
Prentice said the protest she saw was "very peaceful" and had a "jovial atmosphere". She noted the diversity of the crowd, which included "people representing the Nurses's union, engineers, librarians, students, etc."
Here are more photos from the general strike from Prentice.
Courtesy of http://missionlocal.org/2011/10/game-time-the-occupy-movement-survival-quiz/: The Occupy Movement Survival Quiz.
New March Launching In Oakland| @ occupyoakland : Anti-Capitalist march happening in 45 min @ 2PM. Bdwy & Telegraph. #occupyoakland |
HuffPost's Janell Ross reports:
While weatherworn protesters continue to demonstrate in Zuccotti Park and prepare for winter, one arm of the Occupy Wall Street movement is debating a far larger concern: the architecture of an alternative financial system they say could be inclusive, stable and fair.
Read the whole thing here.
Morning On-The-Scene Report From Occupy OaklandOn Wednesday morning, thousands of demonstrators crowded Frank Ogawa Plaza to join Occupy Oakland in a general strike. Among the attendees was San Francisco mayoral candidate Terry Baum and famed political activist Angela Davis, who spoke to the crowd over a PA system.
"Our unity must be complex," said Davis. "It must not be simplistic. We do not consent to corporate inequality; we do not consent to police brutality. We occupy Oakland, but we say no to the occupation of Palestine. We do consent to community, to education, to free education, to health care, to free health care." Davis closed her address a famed Civil Rights quote: "As June Jordan said, 'we are the ones we have been waiting for.'"
In solidarity with the protesters, dozens of elementary, middle, high school and college students missed class on Wednesday to join the Occupy Oakland strike. Twins, Isadora and Bianca Stone (14) of Berkeley High School, marched in solidarity with their father. "We're here because this is important."
17-year-old Alyssa Hopper of San Leandro High School marched with protesters, as well. "It's important for young people to get involved with this movement," she told The Huffington Post. "Everything that's happening now will have an even bigger impact on our future."
Following several speakers, protesters took to the streets, marching to the state building and the local banks, chanting, "We are the 99 percent." Marching bands led the group, and a flash mob danced to "I Will Survive." Protesters stopped outside of the federal building, chanting and singing.
Due to the highly publicized nature of the strike, most of the downtown businesses had closed in preparation. However, Occupiers found Comerica Bank on 12 Street and Broadway open, and quickly surrounded the doors, forcing the branch to close. Protesters then moved on to a nearby Bank of America, forcing that branch to close, as well.
As of 12:30 p.m., the Oakland protest remained peaceful with no police in sight, while more and more demonstrators joined the marches. Organizers announced plans to march to the Port of Oakland at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. in an attempt to shut down the port and disrupt the flow of commerce. The organizers originally announced that the port had closed in solidarity with the strike on Wednesday morning, but those reports turned out to be false.
Thousands of protesters are expected to join the marches to the port on Wednesday night. At the daytime march, organizers read the phone number to the Occupy Oakland legal team over a loudspeaker, encouraging protesters to copy it in case of arrest.
--Robin Wilkey
East Bay Express: Bank of America Shut Down| @ EastBayExpress : Bank of America has been shut down. #occupyoakland #oo #generalstrike |
Kristyna Wentz-Graff, a photojournalist with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, was taking pictures of arrests at Occupy Milwaukee when she was also taken into custody by police.
She joins journalists in New York and Nashville who have also been arrested while covering Occupy events. ""It was clear they were planning arrests because they brought a van," reported from the Hill today:
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) acknowledged that the Occupy movement could help advance legislation they rolled out designed to "squeeze ... volatility out of the market."'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Joined by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Populist Caucus, Harkin and DeFazio introduced the Targeted Wall Street Trading Tax bill. It would levy a tax equivalent to three cents for every $100 on transactions like stock trades, credit swaps and derivatives that were largely blamed for the mortgage market meltdown and financial crisis of 2008 that plunged the economy into recession.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/occupy-oakland-strike_n_1072768.html
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