MEDIA ROOTS — On November 30, 2011, at the Arlene Francis Center for Spirit, Art, and Politics in Santa Rosa, CA, Alternative Radio founder David Barsamian gave a talk entitled “Media, Propaganda, and Censorship.”
The event was sponsored by Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored, and Media Roots.
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Photo by Shannonyeh Photography
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.”
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Abby Martin of Media Roots covers Occupy Oakland’s Day of Action Saturday, November 19, 2011.
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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
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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 2nd 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, 14th & 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, 14th & 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 2nd 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 – On Thursday, November 17, 2011, Media Roots correspondent Felipe Messina 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. He 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.
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Felipe Messina, Media Roots Correspondent, is interviewed in this RT segment.
RUSSIA TODAY – The latest demonstrations spanning the entire country come as the movement marks its two-month mark on November 17. What began as a small occupation of a small park near Wall Street turned into a nationwide movement, and soon after spread across the globe, from Toronto to Tokyo. Cities across the planet have embraced in the will to deliver a strong message of frustration with corporate greed, inequality and spreading poverty, while the very few people in control of this system impose their will.
Felipe Messina, a correspondent for the independent Media Roots news organization, believes police are purposely going beyond the call of duty to nip the protests in the bud.
“Clearly, what we are seeing here is the attempt to really crush the Occupy Wall Street movement,” he told RT. “Clearly, they’ve tried to hit the protests with the ‘shock and awe’ and tried to devastate them – that backfired. So now they are trying to find different pretexts.”
The correspondent points out that protesters have learnt from past mistakes, and the present tactics of peaceful demonstrations are proving to be effective.
“I think that in the United States, with the WTO battle in Seattle situations, the protesters have really learnt a lesson about non-violent direct action. And it’s really very effective,” he said.
“And Port of Oakland – it’s really sent a message to the political establishment that, you know, people are really seeing the two party dictatorship, and they are really fed up with it, and they are just not going to stand for it anymore.”
© 2011 [RT] Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2011
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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.
In conversation with RT, I described 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.
Felipe Messina
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MEDIA ROOTS – On Thursday, November 17, 2011, Abby Martin of Media Roots spoke with Russia Today TV about the violent mass arrests by militarised platoons of local police, as they wage a coordinated national campaign to crush the Occupy Movement. Abby reminds viewers that the banks are costing the City of Oakland far more than the justified civil disobedience of the Occupy Oakland Movement. Indeed, civil disobedience is the only way to go for the Occupy Movement nationwide and around the world.
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Abby Martin, Media Roots Founder, is interviewed in this RT segment.
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RUSSIA TODAY – Violent arrests have taken place in New York during a huge anti-Wall Street rally. RT correspondents as well as independent commentators bring the latest from the scene.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has marked its two month anniversary with coast to coast protests. Activists flooded US cities in what they called “A Day of Action”, all this as part of the protest against economic inequality.
In New York, the heart of the movement, tens of thousands of activists marched across the city, literally occupying streets.
All that was accompanied by brutal crackdowns and violent arrests, with almost 300 arrests being made in New York alone.
RT’s Marina Portnaya, reporting from New York, has said that an eyewitness told RT the police attacked one of the activists – whether the police were or were not provoked is not clear. According to the witness, five or more police officers jumped on a young activist and started to beat him.
Independent journalist Abby Martin, talking to RT from Oakland, does not agree that the police’s general approach has been helping to restore public order. Though she admits the rallies could cause some anger of the public, the response and support for the movement is stronger than annoyance by inconveniences.
“Civil disobedience is the only way to go. People are waking up to the fact that the police are now militarized, and these absurd methods of crowd control – tear gas into thousands of people if one person throws a bottle – [take place]. All this could potentially cause some anger as people are trying to get to work, but overall I think it’s a great response we are not going to take it anymore and we are not going to step back. If the cops kick us out of Zuccotti Park and outside downtown Oakland, we are going to reconvene and show up stronger”.
Martin also draws attention to the fact that, as she says, banks are actually costing the city more money than the OWS protests.
“If you look at the amount it has cost the broke city of Oakland for this heavy-headed police response, upward to US$ 500 000 for the latest raid. What’s costing the city so much? Banks were exempt US$7 million from taxes just last year.”
© 2011 [RT] Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2011
MEDIA ROOTS — Abby Martin of Media Roots was interviewed on The Bob Tuskin Radio Show for 1 1/2 hours to discuss an array of issues including the Occupy Wall Street Movement, Occupy Oakland and the “Black Bloc”, Project Censored and the role of citizen journalism.
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