Posted on 11/18/2011 6:13:36 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The second week of November was a week of demonstrations in California’s Bay Area with the Occupy Movement throwing its weight behind student, staff and faculty fighting assaults on public education.
Occupy Oakland Resurgent
The week began with a wee-hours defense of Occupy Oakland. Three unionists from FSP responded to a call to amass at “Oscar Grant” Plaza where the encampment was threatened with another police raid. There, our trio joined other labor activists to form a picket line in the street in front of the tents—a first line defense. Present were unionists from Oakland Education Association, ILWU, SEIU, AFT, the UC Berkeley unions of UPTE and CUE-Teamsters, and AFSCME. The head of the Alameda County Labor Council was also present.
While the crowd was not able to stop the tear-down, the labor picket played a key role in preventing the police from rioting as they had two weeks ago.
Two FSPers were shown on the national news speaking out for united front defense of the Occupy Protests!
The day after their camp was destroyed, Occupy Oakland held a general assembly and decided to reclaim their camping spot. What a sight, seeing thousands stream back into the plaza! Despite attempts by the city and the media to portray the camp as a squalid, dangerous place filled with shady characters and rats, a good chunk of the 99% showed their support for this vibrant movement. Now, local media are exposing the business forces behind the evictions: the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and two Oakland business groups.
This Saturday, November 19 Occupy Oakland and Bay Area Labor are calling for a Mass Rally and March. The demands are
•Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement •End police attacks on our communities •Defend Oakland schools and libraries •Housing for all, no more foreclosures •Against a capitalist system built on inequality & corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism, and the destruction of the environment
FSP will be there doing an ad hoc teach-in on Marxist economics similar to those done in NYC.
In an effort to avoid constant evictions, Occupy Oakland is now looking to move a few blocks away to a vacant lot next to a park.
UC Berkeley Strikers form Occupy Cal
Last week a fledgling UC Berkeley Occupy (Occupy Cal) was torn down and the cops brutalized protesters, dragging a professor by the hair and arresting several dozen students. In response, the students called for a general strike on Tuesday, November 15. In reality it was a day of “Open University” student-led teach-ins and rallies supported by thousands of students, professors and staff. Classes were canceled or held outdoors in support of the day of action, which was primarily organized by graduate students in UAW 2865 along with undergraduates and union activists with the Public Education Coalition on campus. That evening, a general assembly of some 10,000 decided to establish a new encampment in Sproul Plaza, UCB’s designated free speech zone. Up went the tents. The encampment lasted two days before Campus police bulldozed the site.
Never lacking in creativity, students then made a gigantic banner reading “Our Space!” which flew aloft held by a mass of helium balloons with two tents in tow. The airborne encampment hovered over Sproul Plaza in an act of defiance.
Students and Occupy SF pitch a tent in the lobby of Bank of America
The next day, Wednesday, November 16, was supposed to feature a protest of the University of California’s Board of Regents. The protest had been scheduled months ago when UC President Yudof announced a proposal to further raise tuition by 82% over the course of four years and to increase cuts to employee pensions and institute a two- tier benefit plan. But, at the last moment, the regents cancelled their meeting “for fear of violence.”
A rally scheduled in San Francisco for the afternoon brought students from all over California and from the three higher education systems in the state. Those of us there heard how Dick Blum, a regent and the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, made his fortune off the University of California system. A fiery Latino student speaker called for a new civil rights movement and a new affirmative action plan to go farther than those of the past. We made sure to get him a copy of the FS.
Then the group of a thousand or so headed to the financial district. Several regents have stakes in banks in the state and the goal was to point out their padded purses while costs for education continue to skyrocket. When they reached the Bank of America, suddenly those at the front of the march surged into the lobby. They sat on teller counters and a group from UC Santa Cruz actually pitched a tent in the lobby. Those outside stood on the sidewalk blocking the doors so police could not get inside. A phalanx of cops in riot gear pushed their way into the crowd. One person carrying an FSP sign managed to get out of the way but not before a cop stomped on her foot. Some 75 people, mostly students, were evicted and arrested.
Occupy SF will hold a March this Saturday, November 19 in defense of public education. We will be there, holding a teach-in on Marxist economics. Two weeks ago, Radical
Women held a very successful workshop on Multi-racial, Feminist Organizing.
Labor organizing in support of the 99%
In addition to shutting down the Port of Oakland during the November 2 General Strike, labor unions in the Bay Area are joining the Occupy movement and demanding an end to budget cuts, layoffs, foreclosures and privatization. A statewide labor- community coalition called ReFund California has helped build the Bay Area Occupy protests and developed demands to make Wall Street banks pay for destroying jobs and neighborhoods with their greedy and predatory business practices.
Activists from Bay Area International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) called a community meeting on November 16 to organize defense against the unionbusting of Local 21 in Longview, Washington. The unionists announced that they will organize to shut down west coast ports with the possibility of the East Coast and South going out in solidarity. If this happens, it will be the first nationwide port shut down. In addition to the shutdown, the Committee to Defend the ILWU is coordinating a caravan to Longview within the month with the goal of hooking up with other ILWU/labor and Occupys in the Pacific Northwest. The ILWU is also working with Occupys to build support. Local 21 was inspired by the Oakland Port shutdown in solidarity with their struggle.
FSP members will also attend and participate in a “Tax the Rich!” conference on November 19 in Oakland. The conference’s goal is to build a campaign at the local, state and federal level to tax the 1% and halt the attacks on working people, and is endorsed by the Oakland Educators Association, United Educators of San Francisco, United Teachers of Richmond, SEIU Local 21, and many other left and community groups.
These “occupy” sewers are just a sneak peek at what the communists want all of America to look like.
The “Freedom Socialist Party”. LOL! That’s got to be the mother of all oxymorons. Freedom and socialism are not compatible.
It’s never been a grassroots movement.
If these morons love Communism so much Id like to challenge them all to spend 1 year in Venezuela, see how they like living under Communist rule, I bet dollars for donuts they come back here and kiss the ground!
Agreed.
It would be physically impossible for me to ingest enough psychotropic drugs to take these people seriously, and live.
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