Occupy Oakland Plans Port Blockade

Occupy Oakland is expanding its plans for an upcoming citywide strike November 2nd.

According to the Occupy Oakland blog, demonstrators will not just be staying home from work and school November 2nd. They will also attempt to block The Port of Oakland and shut it down. Here’s what the blog’s statement says:

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.

Whether or not the November 2nd strike helps get more Oaklanders involved in the Occupy movement remains to be seen. So far, it seems like general support may not translate into large strike numbers. The Mercury News reports:

So far, both a nurses association and an Oakland teachers union have come out strongly in support of the Oakland protest’s goals, but have fallen short of giving their full endorsement for a general strike. Some teachers have expressed support for the strike, but said they would not bring students along for reasons of “legal liability.”

“However energetic we are about the cause, we also are law-abiding organizations that are very cautious,” said Matthew Goldstein, president of the Peralta Federation of Teachers. ”A general strike on the order of the 1946 general strike in Oakland is an ambitious goal, especially in just a few days,” Goldstein said. “It requires groundwork to be laid. There is still much to be determined.”