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You are here: Home / Open Threads / I cover the waterfront

I cover the waterfront

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Those hippies in Oaktown shut down the port for the day, but happily things stayed peaceful:

Thousands of Occupy Oakland protesters expanded their anti-Wall Street demonstrations on Wednesday, marching through downtown, picketing banks and swarming the port. By early evening, port authorities said maritime operations there were effectively shut down.

“Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so,” port officials said in a statement, asking marchers to “allow your fellow 99% to get home safe to their families.”

Despite the disruption of work, the crowd at the port was peaceful.

Protesters had called for a citywide general strike on Wednesday, and asked other demonstrators in cities across the country to do the same, after violent clashes with the police here last week that included tear gas barrages and injuries involving both police officers and protesters.

While the city was not shut down by the protest, many businesses chose to remain closed Wednesday. Some that stayed open posted signs declaring their support for the marchers.

Also, let’s make this a late night OWS open thread.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  2. 2.

    hhex65

    Sounds like it went ok, was afraid you might have led with: “People turned away. So far away, so far away.”

  4. 4.

    AA+ Bonds

    You ever notice how nowadays, completely unlike the 1960s, everyone in America is behind the hippie demonstrators, especially the Teamsters

  9. 9.

    AA+ Bonds

    David Brooks has a lot of genuine Care for OWS, which he expresses by writing columns week after week about how he doesn’t care at all about OWS for reasons a, b, a, a, b, c,

  12. 12.

    AA+ Bonds

    I personally hope David Brooks never shuts up about OWS. He is probably the best possible advertisement for OWS. Slap his column over a picture of his face, mail it out to people, you’ll get some donations for tents. Otherwise, no one will know, because no one reads the goddamn New York Times anymore. Not even you, even if you get it delivered to your house. Don’t lie to yourself or to us.

  13. 13.

    Shinobi

    Apparently a driver drove into a group of protesters. Twitter reports that one of them has died. Not so peaceful after all. :-(

  15. 15.

    magurakurin

    @Jenny: sounds like they were outrage about “losing a day’s pay,” as if anyone did.

    “Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so,” port officials said in a statement, asking marchers to “allow your fellow 99% to get home safe to their families.”Despite the disruption of work, the crowd at the port was peaceful.

    I wonder if they won’t get paid even though they are on the job. I’m thinking that they’re gonna get paid for the day

    Merrilees says several dozen out of a workforce of more than 300 did not show up for work in the morning but that most are on the job as usual.

  17. 17.

    dollared

    I love that quote from the Port. Just illustrates how the 99% meme has really caught on, and how it has acted to unify more than to divide.

    it gives a guy just a bit of hope…

  19. 19.

    AA+ Bonds

    @magurakurin:

    Yeah, I’m really suspicious of this bunk alternate universe story. Clearly the port workers identified with the demonstrators enough to say so in their statement.

    “Dock workers don’t like demonstrators” really doesn’t work as a story to sell Democrats in 2011, wouldn’t you agree? Seems to indicate a lack of awareness of what the left looks like nowadays.

  20. 20.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    @Jenny: Why would a supposed leftist constantly tear down a leftist popular movement?

    The longshoreman themselves don’t seem to have much complaint, so why do you?

  21. 21.

    magurakurin

    @AA+ Bonds: indeed. I think I’m a bit “to the right” of you in this regard overall judging from past dialogues I have followed here, but that was a pretty silly comment about them “losing pay.” The entire OWS movement has to be seen as a positive in the big picture. I suppose where we might differ is as to whose name they pull down on in the ballot box (I say just pull the big D at the top, but I understand opinions differ on the best electoral strategy) but I’m pretty sure nearly all of us here can agree that this is going to raise political awareness and increase electoral participation. And that is good thing. Well, it is a really bad thing for the Rethugs…

  22. 22.

    burnspbesq

    End of an era. Arguably the best American footballer of all time pulls off the gloves for the last time.

    Thank you, Kasey Keller.

  24. 24.

    suzanne

    The horrible whites-only voucher-tastic high-SES private school* that my daughter attends has her doing full research papers and PowerPoints in third fucking grade, so guess what I’ve been doing for the past three evenings. If I don’t get an A, I’ll be PISSED.

    *Only in FourLoko’s mind. It’s really a neighborhood public school gifted program.

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    @suzanne:

    PowerPoints in third fucking grade

    Bill Gates is definitely going to Hell. PowerPoint has killed far more brain cells than alcohol.

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    @Shinobi:

    I’m not seeing anything on Bay Area TV or newspaper websites. Has this been corroborated? (I’m hoping it’s just a rumor.)

  27. 27.

    Jenny

    @magurakurin:: I don’t know. I read one article that said truckers wouldn’t get paid, because they get paid when they complete their run, so this is one day where they don’t get to make a haul.

    I’m all for the movement. If truckers are cool with sacrificing a day’s pay, then hats off to them. But it should be voluntary.

  28. 28.

    suzanne

    @burnspbesq: LMAO. I already gave her the GET ALL THOSE DAMN WORDS OFF YOUR SLIDES BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS TO READ ALL THAT SHIT HERE HAVE SOME MORE PICTURES lecture.

  29. 29.

    Cris (without an H)

    @burnspbesq: I saw a guy in my office pasting an Excel spreadsheet onto a PowerPoint slide. That was it; no other additional presentation. He said that’s the only way the executives would look at it.
    It’s some kind of weird boardroom totem.

  30. 30.

    uila

    Has anyone switched over to the new Gmail interface? They provide some kind of explanatory video featuring a nerdling who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ross Douthat.

    Needless to say I didn’t watch it. (It’s fucking email for chrissake!) Though I will say, the new layout is… chunky.

  33. 33.

    Cris (without an H)

    @suzanne: Next give her the Do not read your fucking slides to the audience lecture.

    I’ll show you a guy who gets PowerPoint: Jeremy Keith. His slides are humorous, parsimonious, illustrative, and most important, supplemental. If only the countless middle managers in my org understood this.

  34. 34.

    goblue72

    @Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: More than not having a complaint, the ILWU (Longshoreman’s union) announced yesterday that while they were not going to strike (their hands being legally tied by Taft-Hartley), they indicated – *wink wink nudge nudge* – that if some DFHs should happen to, I don’t know, organize a picket line, like, oh, at the Port for example, then the longshoreman would honor the picket line. Hypothetically speaking of course.

    West Coast longshoreman know whose side they are on.

  36. 36.

    The Spy Who Loved Me

    I wonder if the workers at the Whole Foods Store that was vandalized and had to shut down will get their full shift pay?

  37. 37.

    Cris (without an H)

    @goblue72: West Coast longshoreman know whose side they are on.

    I have this unfortunate affliction where “which side are you on, boys, which side are you on” segues into “pistol packin’ mama.” I can’t make it stop.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    @uila:

    I am uncomfortable finding myself coming dangerously close to recommending defending Outlook, but having an e-mail client program go and get my mail from Gmail and bring it to me is a good thing. I hate the “raw” Gmail interface.

    Anyone have any experience with Thunderbird? Or any other freeware/cheapware e-mail client?

  45. 45.

    suzanne

    @Suffern ACE:

    I could not believe the number of graphic designers seeking his his autograph.

    Are you kidding? Tufte is a GOD to us graphic nuts. “Envisioning Information” should be in the hands of every college freshman.

  46. 46.

    Rathskeller

    @trollhattan: The Oakland Tribune has a frequently updated blog here, touching on the story.

    http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_19247017

    Also, some of the earlier contention between OWS-Oakland and truckers was more fine-grained & personal, as in, “I got here at 4am, I worked a full day, you must let me go home now.”

    As with the Whole Foods assault today (about 500 yards from my house), I don’t like a lot of the smaller stories I’m hearing about this crowd. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend were called yuppies when they walked by the camps, for no obvious reason. They’re both working class folks.

  47. 47.

    Redshift

    @Steeplejack: I’ve been using Thunderbird for several years at work (ever since Outlook locked up and after I killed it and restarted, it wouldn’t open its PST file and lost all my mail.) I like it pretty well. I’m using it with IMAP, a bunch of folders and filters for sorting mail. Search is good, as you’d expect (way better than Outlook’s was when I last used it.)

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @Redshift:

    Thanks for the info. I have been Thunderbird-curious for a while, haven’t gotten around to trying it. I use Outlook because I have Office on my machines and I have used it at various jobs and freelance gigs over the last 10 years. It is powerful but clunky and frustrating, sort of like a “40-pound wristwatch.” (That was some critic’s memorable–and apt–description of Spielberg’s 1941. But I digress.) I have configured Outlook to do a lot of useful stuff, as far as sorting and storing mail in different folders, etc. And I like having the subset of Word for composing messages.

    But . . . I do fantasize about a program with a cleaner, and cleaner-looking, interface, one that would do what I want it to do but without all the extra baggage. Guess I should take a look at Thunderbird.

  50. 50.

    goblue72

    @Rathskeller: Unfortunately, there is a vocal minority contingent of anarchists (mostly white, mostly not from Oakland) that come out to these sorts of protests here in Oakland. They played a significant role, for example, in turning the Oscar Grant protests into the Oscar Grant riots. Many of the OWS-Oakland folks have been trying all day to keep these anarchists douche-bags under control – including with the Whole Foods vandalism.

    The media does a piss poor job of getting down into the weeds and reporting the granular details. In this case, its an important one – a lot of us progressives here in Oakland are sick and tired of these a-holes coming into town hiding behind their bandana masks and using these events as an excuse to get their kicks smashing windows.

  54. 54.

    AA+ Bonds

    @suzanne:

    “Envisioning Information” should be in the hands of every college freshman.

    At many good schools it’s there, or at sophomore- or junior-level courses.

    However, in professional communications courses in business and other schools, students are taught the “pitchbook” as the new standard: a long-form document converted into PowerPoint® slides, not to present as a slideshow, but instead printed and bound.

  56. 56.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @AA+ Bonds: I’ll take that as a “Yes, I don’t live in the Bay Area”. If you lived in the Bay Area and were familiar with protests here, AT ALL, you would know that there is a small number of dedicated ratfuckers who show up to practically anything to cause trouble.

  57. 57.

    goblue72

    @AA+ Bonds: Whatever douchebag. I live in Oakland. I’m active in the progressive movement out here working on behalf of impoverished and working class communities of color – and similar to Kay, I actually spend my time at all the boring ass shite that is involved in actually moving progressive issues forward – spending countless boring hours at meeting, organizing, doing outreach, etc. I’d certainly rather be doing more interesting things with my time.

    The douchebag anarchist kids getting their kicks on smashing windows are just that – douchebags. And they ARE a minority. Unfortunately, a minority that smears the rest of us.

  58. 58.

    Jebediah

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    there is a small number of dedicated ratfuckers who show up to practically anything to cause trouble

    I am hoping that they come up with some peaceful strategy to discourage their shit. It would be less than ideal if it came to “take off the bandanna or take a beatdown.”

  59. 59.

    goblue72

    @Jebediah: There’s a small part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing the Berkeley anarchists kids dealt with in that fashion, if only to explain to them how we roll here in Oaktown. We got way too many years of real blood on the streets with mamas burying their sons and OPD acting like an occupying army to put up with some white punks getting their rocks off playing radical chic revolutionary.

  60. 60.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @AA+ Bonds: Oh, for fuck’s sake. @goblue72 made a verifiable factual statement, and you don’t get it, despite this having been explained many times here. There are the thousands of legitimate Occupy Oakland/OWS protesters, and then there are the few bandanna’d, violent, thrill-seeking shitheads who hide among them so they can smash stuff for kicks. We see them at every protest in Oakland, Berkeley, or SF, no matter the cause, because they don’t care about the cause – they care about an opportunity for indulging in mindless violence without consequences. When the assholes started breaking windows today, the rest of the protesters grabbed them and stopped them as best they could, but it’s pretty hard to control people who are armed with big sticks and fuck-you attitudes and who really want to see the situation go to hell when you yourself are unarmed and pushing a stroller. Karl Rove has nothing to do with this. Educate yourself.

  61. 61.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @goblue72:

    There’s a small part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing the Berkeley anarchists kids dealt with in that fashion, if only to explain to them how we roll here in Oaktown.

    I’m sorry to say that that small part of me is getting bigger with every window broken in downtown Oakland. Our community is too precarious already for this crap. I didn’t go the march today in part because I seriously doubt my own ability to remain non-violent in the face of this kind of thuggish idiocy.

  62. 62.

    goblue72

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Thanks Comrade. I had forgotten to mention it but you did – that these punks show up to these events ARMED with the premeditated intent to rampage. Its not about the cause for these kids. Like you said – its about indulging in mindless violence.

  64. 64.

    Lysana

    The fucking cops are doing it AGAIN. Tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper paintball. And they don’t have the resources to pursue burglaries.

  67. 67.

    OzoneR

    @Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:

    Why would a supposed leftist constantly tear down a leftist popular movement?

    because they’re not accomplishing anything and the country is turning against then and with it, our agenda.

    Where was OWS when Denver voted on paid sick leave on Tuesday? A vote that ended up failing? Where are they on the proposed constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United that was introduced this week?

    Marching and chanting is fine to get attention, but this is turning out just as I had feared it would on day one, a nuisance movement that is just getting in the way of the lives of people it claims to be fighting for. Now Americans are just going to roll their eyes and walk away.

  68. 68.

    anthony

    @OzoneR
    You’ve misquoted the Baron, he was actually quoting someone else regarding their misplaced and inaccurate concern for longshoremen, who were supporting the action.

    Really, could we not turn this into the old will-you-condemathon, where we trundle out other things they could be doing. Where were you? Where was someone else? Why don;t you go dwon to one and let them know about the proposed constitutional amendment I’m sure they’d be happy to hear about it.

    What part of getting attention is an anathema to political causes? Which Americans are going to roll their eyes? The ones that had made their mind up on day one or one’s you’ve actually asked. What’s the standard for ‘getting in the way’? Enough to get annoyed and drive a car over a couple of people?

    Got time for protesting? Great. Involved in community work? Brilliant. Able to craft great letters to politicians? Tops. I wish we could be a bit less goldilocks about this and realise there are lots of different ways to move forward and we need them all.

  69. 69.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937

    The evening national news was interesting. Was the Oakland port closed or not? A union guy said that the union leaders and company owners did not support the work stoppage but that the rank and file did. Apparently enough rank and file said ‘screw all the bosses’ and enough stayed home to cause a serious slow down. Then the anchor reported whatever the PR flacks wrote down for him. The workers said one thing, the bosses said another. It was cognitive dissonance at its finest.

  71. 71.

    John X.

    The problem is simple. The protestors aren’t carrying Obama signs and “Hope” placards. The die-hard Democrats are trying to kill this, because it makes them look ineffectual and compromised.

  72. 72.

    OzoneR

    @anthony:

    I wish we could be a bit less goldilocks about this and realise there are lots of different ways to move forward and we need them all.

    Except all we got is people marching in circles and starting fires.

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