MEDIA ROOTS — Felipe Messina of Media Roots speaks with Vaquous of Occupy Montreal to get an international perspective of the global Occupy Wall Street Movement, find out what Canadians are saying and doing as they participate, and what lessons they can share with their international counterparts about what can be done toward socioeconomic justice through collective action and the taking of the public square around the world, physically and digitally.

We apologise for the audio quality wherever distortion occurs.  We feel these stories from the ground are worth being shared even without slick production or bells and whistles.  Media Roots is a collaborative independent media project and not corporate-funded, so we rely on your contributions.  If you would like to support this type of fiercely independent, unembedded, journalism bringing you real stories of substance toward socioeconomic justice, please contribute whatever you can to help Media Roots bring you the highest quality content possible.

MR

MEDIA ROOTS — On Saturday, November 19, 2011, Occupy Oakland (OO) held another mass day of action after the nationwide crackdowns against the Occupy Movement days before.  In response to the coordinated Federalised repression, the OO General Assembly voted unanimously for a coordinated West Coast Port Shutdown, for which ILWU leaders have announced support, even urging a simultaneous East Coast port shutdown.  This would be the first nationwide port shutdown in U.S. history. 

Thousands vigorously took to the streets and jubilantly marched through downtown Oakland and around Lake Merritt before tearing down a fence around an empty lot at 19th & Telegraph to establish another OO encampment.  The uptown location draws attention to the ongoing gentrification in Oakland, as public schools are being closed whilst charter schools are opening.

The demonstrators held a huge dance party in the streets despite the pouring rain, as over thirty tents were set up by occupiers.  Although not enough people held the space overnight to prevent a third raid by Oakland PD the next morning, 11/20, the Occupy Movement continues undeterred.  Even as the long-standing OO encampment a few blocks away at Snow Park was forced out by police, 11/21, OO persisted with at least eight more tents sprouting later that evening “in a West Oakland lot at 18th and Linden streets.”

Messina

***

Abby Martin of Media Roots covers Occupy Oakland’s Day of Action Saturday, November 19, 2011.

***

On Friday, November 18, 2011, Jack Hayman, of ILWU Local 10, spoke with Steve Zeltzer of Work Week Radio on Pacifica Radio’s “The Morning Mix with Project Censored.”  They discussed the burgeoning solidarity between labour, particularly ILWU, and the Occupy Movement in the wake of the historic Occupy Oakland General Strike earlier this month, the new call for a West Coast shut down of ports, as well as urging East and Gulf Coast ports to also shut down next month.  -Messina

***

PROJECT CENSORED

Dr. Peter Phillips (27:56):  “The Occupy Movement certainly is a nuisance to the 1% and increasingly more so, as they worry and coordinate nationally the repression of that.  And we’re just coming back stronger.”

Steve Zeltzer:  “That’s right.  That is a fear that they have.  The other thing is this week the President of ILWU Local 21, Dan Coffman, was here in San Francisco and he spoke last night to ILWU Local 10.  They are under attack by the same repressive forces in Longview, Washington where they brought in, union people are scabbing on their jobs, IUOE 701 [International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701].  But there was a meeting last night.  Jack Hayman is a retired Member of ILWU Local 10 and he’s joining us this morning to talk about the meeting [with] Dan Coffman and a formation of a new committee, the Committee to Defend ILWU.  Welcome, Jack, to the show.”

Jack Hayman:  “Hello.”

Steve Zeltzer:  “I wanted to ask you about a report about what’s happening, of the visit of Dan Coffman.  What’s going on with this Committee to Defend the ILWU.”

Jack Hayman (29:03):  “Well, Dan spoke at the Longshore Clerks Hall first, Local 34, to their union meeting.  And then he came over to address the Local 10 Membership.  And it was quite an event because we’ve all been waiting with bated breath to get a report on what’s happening up in Longview.  And he gave a tremendous talk to our Membership.  We hadn’t quite heard a report like this in a while.  It was very inspiring.  And the key point was that this multinational bank consortium, EGT, that they’re fighting up there is gonna be bringing in a big ship within the next month, he said.  And a call is going to go out to all ports on the West Coast to shut down because what this is about is about union-busting.  And they’re taking on probably the most militant union in the country.  It’s not just a small local up in Longview of 200 people.  It’s a challenge to all of the ILWU.  And, in fact, what Dan said, a call will also go out to the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports to ask longshoremen there to shut down as well.  So, if this happens, it’ll be the first ever nationwide strike of all the ports.  And he got a tremendous standing ovation for that.  The Members were really, really inspired, fired up.”

Steve Zeltzer:  “The ILWU has supported the [Occupy] Movement and maybe you can talk about the march that’s gonna happen this coming Saturday [11/19/11], tomorrow at 2pm.  And Dan will probably be speaking at that march.”

Jack Hayman:  “That’s right.  Dan spoke about the march tomorrow.  But he first mentioned the November 2^nd Port Shutdown here in Oakland that was led by Occupy Oakland.  And he said they watched it on television.  And it sent thrills down the spines of their membership.  There was a collective shot in the arm for the entire Membership up there to see thousands of people pouring into the Port of Oakland in solidarity with the Longview longshore workers and shutting the Port down.  I mean, he’s never seen anything like that, he said.  And you could see it in his face, his expression.  So, yeah, they have their union banner, he and Byron Jacobs, the Secretary Treasurer of Local 21 in Longview, will be marching.  The Occupy Oakland march begins at 2pm, 14^th & Broadway.  They’ll be up front on the demonstration march.  But he’s also gonna be speaking tonight, if the listeners out there are interested.  There’s an Occupy Oakland General Assembly at 6pm and then we’ll be addressing that Assembly.  So, I’d encourage listeners to come out to both of those, the General Assembly tonight at 6pm at Oscar Grant Plaza, formerly Frank Ogawa Plaza, and tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm, 14^th & Broadway.” 

Steve Zeltzer:  “Now, also there’s a committee that was recently formed at your union hall, Local 10.  It’s gonna be meeting this coming Tuesday at 7 o’clock, the Committee to Defend the ILWU.  You can reach it at [email protected].  What exactly is this committee?”

Jack Hayman (32:39):  “It’s a committee to build rank and file support within the longshore unions and the labour movement in general.  One of the activities it will be involved in is organising a caravan from the [S.F.] Bay Area up to Longview [in Washington state].  And that will be led by the ILWU Members.  We’ll have motorcycles and cars and buses.  And when we get the call from Longview, we’ll be heading up there in a caravan.  And we just kind of bounced it around a little bit in a discussion last night with Dan and he seems to think that’s a great idea.  Maybe they’ll have a caravan coming in from Portland and Seattle.  And the idea is that if we can show that kind of support when this ship comes in, there’s a good possibility that Occupy Portland and Occupy Seattle will do the exact same thing that we did down here on November 2^nd and shut the ports down.”

Steve Zeltzer (33:46):  “Well, that sounds like a powerful response to the attack on your Members in Longview, Washington and also the attack on all workers.  I was gonna discuss on the other segment there are many workers who don’t have a contract, Oakland Education Association, United Airline Mechanics, American Airlines.  The Railroad Workers are working without a contract nationally.  They wanna impose a contract.  All these workers have the power.  They’re not even without a contract.  But it would mean fighting and breaking the law, though, to actually go out in some of these cases.”  

Jack Hayman (34:17):  “Well, yeah, what we’re looking at here is a first ever shutdown of all the ports in this country.  And that’s gonna have an inspiring effect on other unions and people that are not unionised.  That’s exactly what happened in the ‘30s when with these convulsive militant strikes by workers occupying plants, mass-picketing.  And that’s what made the Labour Movement grow.  People saw they could challenge the power of capital.  And they organised millions and millions into the trade union movement.”

Steve Zeltzer (34:59):  “I wanna thank you, Jack for joining us.  We have to go on, but hopefully people can, if they are interested, come to the rally tonight and tomorrow at 2pm.  And also on Tuesday night at 7 o’clock, they’ll be a meeting of the Committee [to Defend ILWU] at 400 North Point, ILWU.  So, thanks for joining us this morning.”

Jack Hayman (35:18):  “Alright, thank you, Steve.  And thank you to everybody out there.”

Transcript by Felipe Messina

MEDIA ROOTS – Felipe Messina: On Thursday, November 17, 2011, I spoke with Russia Today TV (RT) about the violent mass arrests by militarised platoons of local police, as they waged a coordinated national campaign to crush the Occupy Movement.  Images of bloodied protesters flashed on the screen, as OWS 99-percenters chanted, “Show me what a police state looks like!  This is what a police state looks like!!”  Even journalists, such as RT’s Lucy Kafanov, caught some NYPD fury against First Amendment freedom of the press. 

Yet, Obama is nowhere to be found; his campaign promises withering in the shadow of the absurdity of his future 2012 promises.  The Obama presidency has been a complete disaster thus far, as he has betrayed virtually every promise made on the campaign trail.  Those who wept with joy at his inauguration were likely unaware he was put in office by banksters and Wall Street, or that he’d soon stuff his cabinet with them.  To date, Obama has received more money from the financial sector than any other 2012 presidential candidate combined. 

And what about his piddly Jobs Bill?  Did it drown in a Democrat-controlled Senate on a technicality?  Obama’s not trying to sell that noise anymore; not that it was a New Deal for the 21^st Century, anyway.  Obama is not, and never will be, an ally of the Occupy Movement.  It is on his watch the U.S. is witnessing the most egregious police state repression against First Amendment activity. 

As I mentioned Scott Olsen on RT, left with a fractured skull after being shot by rioting Oakland cops, a man named Brendan Watts was seen around the world bloodied by NYC cops with a fractured skull.  However, at the moment both Obama and Biden are essentially MIA, as police state repression unfolds across the U.S.   

In conversation with RT, I pointed out the Federalised character of the coordinated crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.  Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had recently admitted in a radio interview that she was on a teleconference call with many other mayors across the country coordinating their crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.  Once the Federal Government is involved, people can no longer ignore the Obama Administration in this national travesty against the First Amendment.  So much for hope and change, indeed.

On Tuesday (11/15), Mike Ellis of the Minneapolis Examiner reported:

“According to [one Justice Department] official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.”

By Wednesday (11/16), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) worked on damage control claiming worries over Federal involvement in the crackdowns were overblown.  Yet, DHS admitted taking an official role in at least one Portland, Oregon crackdown.  And, of course, this admission may be attributable to the fact that DHS agents of the Federal Protective Service variety were photographed in action at Occupy Portland, Terry Schrunk Plaza, on October 31, 2011.  So, it’s conceivable other DHS agents may have been involved elsewhere. 

It’s interesting to note how in Oakland the ostensibly liberal Mayor Quan, initially tried to co-opt Occupy Oakland through photo-ops on October 15 with establishment activists of MoveOn.  But faced with the horizontal principles of the Occupy Movement equalising Quan’s position of authority to genuine cooperation, feeling snubbed or assenting to pressure from above, gave the green light, before conveniently skipping town (in similar fashion to Obama’s trip to the Pacific Rim), to the militarised police state platoon raids and crackdowns.

It’s also striking how celebratory and supportive Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are about democracy movements abroad and yet draconian against grassroots pro-democracy activism toward socioeconomic justice within the U.S.  It’s even more striking how little awareness we’ve had of Federal involvement in the crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.

Last month, Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, was asked by Keith Olbermann about her rights being violated, as she described the Orwellian involvement of Homeland Security in First Amendment repression at OWS’ Liberty Plaza:  “Did the Department of Homeland Security have anything to do with this?”

Naomi Wolf:  “Well, I have no idea if they had anything to do with this phalanx of 30 or 40 police officers surrounding me and my partner, and taking us in when we were peacefully not breaking any laws on the sidewalks.  But I do know that something very disturbing happened after we were put into a police van. We were supposed to be taken to the First Precinct and, that’s the one that governs what happens on Hudson Street where we were arrested.

“But they got a call that the protesters had gone to the First Precinct with the lawyers of the National Lawyers Guild, who were gonna help us and meet us and represent us.  And so they detoured, the police detoured, across town to the Seventh Precinct and misled the protesters about our whereabouts, which is very disturbing.  Because in America, you know, prisoners, even for a little while, are not supposed to be unaccountable.  Disappear. 

“Even more disturbing, we learned that, when the protesters arrived at Ericsson Street where the First Precinct is, it was blocked off.  And they said, ‘What’s going on?’  They didn’t let any protesters or lawyers through, but let people in business suits through.  And NYPD said, ‘Homeland Security has frozen Ericsson Street.’

“So, to me as an American, as a New Yorker, this is very big news for reasons I don’t have to explain to you.  A Federal agency can, because two middle-aged, you know, couch-potato intellectuals get arrested for not disobeying the law?  They can freeze a New York City street?”

Keith Olbermann:  “But even if they weren’t freezing it and the name was merely invoked, that’s its own problem.  If a city police department is invoking this shadowy, national entity, that becomes its own threat to the First Amendment and freedom of assembly and all the rest.”

Naomi Wolf:  “Keith, you’re completely right.  And what baffles me is:  Where is The New York Times investigating this?  Where are our local newspapers?  Where is the national newspaper?  Because you block, you let Homeland Security block off, or even say Homeland Security’s blocked off one street, they could cordon off downtown Chicago tomorrow.  And it’s not, like, weapons of mass destruction or a natural disaster.  It’s, you know, two random people standing on the sidewalk being the excuse to close down our civil society. 

“So, there’s another really scary thing, if you want me to keep scaring you, but this is scary for all of us.  It’s not; it is not what happened to me and to my partner that is the worrying thing, the thing I’m distressed about.  It’s that people have got to understand that this could happen to absolutely anyone.  For four or five years I’ve been saying, ‘You start with Guantanamo; history shows they start with the other. It gets closer and closer and someday they come for you when you were innocent and you have no recourse.’

“When they were releasing us, the guy said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna let you go this time with a summons.  But if you go down and rejoin your friends, the protesters, and you get arrested, it’ll be a real arrest next time. Here’s the camera.’  He pointed to a camera, ‘It’ll take your photograph. Here’s the fingerprint machine. We’ll take your fingerprints. It’ll go into that database, a Federal database. And it’ll follow you forever.’

“And then I said, ‘But officer, I got arrested tonight when I was obeying the law. How do I avoid getting arrested in the future?’  And he didn’t dispute that I was obeying the law.  He said, ‘Well, the officers decided it was a safety issue.’  And I said, ‘But, then, what prevents any situation from being called a safety issue and trumping the law and how people are obeying the law?’  And he didn’t answer, but referred me to a section of the criminal code.  But that, too, is very scary.”

Keith Olbermann:  “Of course.  We’ve given them the right to make up the law as they go along.”

Naomi Wolf:  “You know, it’s interesting, we haven’t given them, well, we’ve given it to them by sleeping on the job.”

Today, the 99% is waking up to the totalitarian nightmare the Obama Administration is deepening after eight years of the Bush regime shredding the Constitution, preceded by eight years of the Clinton Administration’s neoliberalism and financial deregulation, which laid much of the foundation for the economic collapse we are witnessing today.  Under Obama, we have witnessed similar grotesquely regressive politics, which have defined our national body politic since at least 1981 with Reagan.  Some of my friends will undoubtedly set the marker further back declaring Kennedy the last legitimate U.S. President.  And, of course, few of my Native American friends would accord much legitimacy to any U.S. President. 

Up until the ‘70s, when there was still something of a labour shortage and wages still provided some modicum of working-class dignity, so many U.S. citizens didn’t much mind U.S. imperialism, racism, corporate greed, or the U.S. imposing its will around the world.  It hadn’t hit them yet.  But corruption left unchecked eventually comes home to roost.

At some point, the stink of graft in U.S. politics becomes inescapable.  Never mind Citizens United.  That was just the final nail in the coffin.

Take your pick.  Democrat or Republican, one ends up with the same corporate, one-percenter, puppet-masters behind whichever candidate one chooses to head the two-party dictatorship.  And the same applies to Congressional Democrats and Republicans.  It’s time to expand the two-party system to include alternatives.

The real test for the Occupy Movement will be whether or not its supporters can maintain its momentum and integrity long enough to impact the 2012 Presidential Election and usher in a new consciousness capable of toppling the two-party dictatorship with a powerful left party challenge.  Some of my friends will argue, even if that were to happen that third-party would somehow get corrupted.  Well, then, don’t allow that to happen, I’d say.  Stay involved, because the alternative to that would be much more radical.  For those who are, have at it.  But I just don’t see that at this stage of development for the U.S. consciousness.  Before OWS, it was pretty safe to say progressives would either vote for Obama or not vote at all, with less than five percent voting third-party.  But with the mass consciousness-raising effect of the Occupy Movement, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a huge upset may await Obama.  No small wonder, then, why he’d quietly be allowing the nation’s worst police state repression of peaceful First Amendment activity. 

I put more faith in the electoral system, provided the people do what nobody is stopping them from doing.  People must vote their conscience rather than for the least worst, as people have done in 2008 and as far back as we can remember. 

As the Occupy Movement is teaching us, change won’t just be electoral.  It will come from the 99% taking their destiny into their own hands with horizontalist vigour on the local and national level.

Only then will we see more desirable crackdowns, those on corporate and banker fascism and police state repression itself.

Written by Felipe Messina for Media Roots

Image by flickr user Donkey Hotey

MEDIA ROOTS — Los Angeles-based Margot Paez of Insight Out News continues to bring you unembedded, grassroots news that matters to the people, as the corporate media seeks to smear the Occupy Movement and its plain and sincere demands for socioeconomic justice on various levels. 

After marching in solidarity Monday and Tuesday against the, apparently Federalised, anti-First Amendment police state crackdowns on the Occupy Movement from NYC to Oakland, Occupy LA and ReFund California Coalition demonstrators attempted a sit-in at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach yesterday morning.  Something of a tug-of-war ensued between cops shielding the Chancellor’s Office and demonstrators demanding a hearing of their grievances when a door frame warped causing a glass door to break.  Insight Out News provides detailed analysis of the incident dispelling allegations of protester violence.

Messina

***

Margot Paez of Insight Out News reports on this morning’s incident at the CSU Chanellor’s Office in Long Beach.

 

Photo by flickr user Dignidad Rebelde

MEDIA ROOTS — On Monday, November 14, 2011, Abby Martin of Media Roots went to Occupy Oakland (OO) at 4 am to cover the second police state raid on the peaceful OO encampment.  Under direct orders from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, over 500 riot cops in another coordinated, increasingly fascistic, multi-police agency operation stormed the peaceful OO encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza (aka Frank Ogawa Plaza) in an attempt to crush the OO movement once and for all. 

Mayor Quan’s legal adviser resigned at 2 am in protest to the heavy police repression at OO.  Quan’s Deputy Mayor also resigned in protest a few hours later.

Media Roots documents the intensity in the air leading up to the police raid, as the peaceful protesters brace themselves for another show of force by the heavily militarised riot platoons.  This footage evidences the insane level of militarised police presence, which showed up to crackdown and destroy the camp in yesterday’s predawn raid. 

Meanwhile, similar raids occurred this weekend with mass arrests against Occupy Movement encampments across the nation.  This morning in another predawn raid, Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in NYC was ordered cleared under the pretext of sanitation concerns.  Mass arrests were carried out at OWS, involving police beating arrestees with batons and the use of pepper spray.  And now, OWS protesters have been told they will not be allowed to return with tents or tarps as the winter chill approaches. 

One may wonder if notions of America, land of the free, still carry any meaning in Obama’s post-P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act/anti-First Amendment political climate.  If they do anywhere in the U.S., it’s at the fiercely idealistic Occupy encampments across the nation.

Messina

***

Abby Martin of Media Roots covers the latest police state raid against Occupy Oakland.