How the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy

This is an interesting piece from Naomi Wolf linking the police, the state, banks and corporations as a unified whole in the capitalist offensive.

Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy

 by Naomi Wolf

New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

 

 Police used teargas to drive back protesters following an attempt by the Occupy supporters to shut down the city of Oakland. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.

The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations' knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).

As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, put it, the documents show that from the start, the FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a "terrorist threat":

"FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) … reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat … The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country."

Verheyden-Hilliard points out the close partnering of banks, the New York Stock Exchange and at least one local Federal Reserve with the FBI and DHS, and calls it "police-statism":

"This production [of documents], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement … These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America."

The documents show stunning range: in Denver, Colorado, that branch of the FBI and a "Bank Fraud Working Group" met in November 2011 – during the Occupy protests – to surveil the group. The Federal Reserve of Richmond, Virginia had its own private security surveilling Occupy Tampa and Tampa Veterans for Peace and passing privately-collected information on activists back to the Richmond FBI, which, in turn, categorized OWS activities under its "domestic terrorism" unit. The Anchorage, Alaska "terrorism task force" was watching Occupy Anchorage. The Jackson, Mississippi "joint terrorism task force" was issuing a "counterterrorism preparedness alert" about the ill-organized grandmas and college sophomores in Occupy there. Also in Jackson, Mississippi, the FBI and the "Bank Security Group" – multiple private banks – met to discuss the reaction to "National Bad Bank Sit-in Day" (the response was violent, as you may recall). The Virginia FBI sent that state's Occupy members' details to the Virginia terrorism fusion center. The Memphis FBI tracked OWS under its "joint terrorism task force" aegis, too. And so on, for over 100 pages. 

Jason Leopold, at Truthout.org, who has sought similar documents for more than a year, reported that the FBI falsely asserted in response to his own FOIA requests that no documents related to its infiltration of Occupy Wall Street existed at all. But the release may be strategic: if you are an Occupy activist and see how your information is being sent to terrorism task forces and fusion centers, not to mention the "longterm plans" of some redacted group to shoot you, this document is quite the deterrent.

There is a new twist: the merger of the private sector, DHS and the FBI means that any of us can become WikiLeaks, a point that Julian Assange was trying to make in explaining the argument behind his recent book. The fusion of the tracking of money and the suppression of dissent means that a huge area of vulnerability in civil society – people's income streams and financial records – is now firmly in the hands of the banks, which are, in turn, now in the business of tracking your dissent.

Remember that only 10% of the money donated to WikiLeaks can be processed – because of financial sector and DHS-sponsored targeting of PayPal data. With this merger, that crushing of one's personal or business financial freedom can happen to any of us. How messy, criminalizing and prosecuting dissent. How simple, by contrast, just to label an entity a "terrorist organization" and choke off, disrupt or indict its sources of financing.

Why the huge push for counterterrorism "fusion centers", the DHS militarizing of police departments, and so on? It was never really about "the terrorists". It was not even about civil unrest. It was always about this moment, when vast crimes might be uncovered by citizens – it was always, that is to say, meant to be about you.

• This article originally referred to a joint terrorism task force in Jackson, Michigan. This was amended to Jackson, Mississippi at 4pm ET on 2 January 2012

West, Texas explosions. An act of terror.

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444 retired

We don’t know much about the two people authorities claim are responsible for the Boston bombings.  We do know that two disturbed individuals have so far killed three innocent people and injured close to 200, many of them critically.  Such acts of individual terrorism have to be unconditionally condemned.  As of this writing, one suspect has been killed and the other arrested. Both of the suspects are immigrants from Chechnya, a member of the Russian Federation situated between the Caspian and Black Seas.

In response to the bombings there have already been attacks on Muslims or perceived Muslims.  The Muslim community along with Sikhs, Arabs and people of Middle Eastern descent in general are on edge.  No one knows why these crazed individuals did what they did but already Obama was criticized for not referring to it as an act of “terror” quickly enough.  As a terrorist act, the full force of the state and the numerous laws that have been added to the books since the inception of the “War on Terror” will fall in to place. The response from the state and intelligence forces has been intense and the city of Boston was put on lock down. We are expected to get used to this.

Acts of extreme violence are almost an everyday occurrence in the US.  Mass killings, family annihilations, we read about them constantly.  Placing incidents like Monday’s bombing in the “War on Terror” category though will increase the state’s powers of surveillance and its attacks on civil liberties.  Thrown in with all the patriotic and religious phrases (Obama and most politicians here in the US repeatedly quote the Christian Bible) is the promise that that they will travel to the ends of the earth to find the culprits which means bombing whichever sovereign state is deemed suspect. At times like these, the general public is asked to support the curtailing of our rights in the interests of security; but security for whom?  How can we be more secure by knowing less? 

A friend of mine said she was brought to tears by the events, the thought of a small child dying like that.  She is a good person; I know she is.  But I have never heard her utter one word of sympathy for the victims of the US war on terror, of the countless Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani children that have died as victims of Obama’s drone war.  She has never commented on the 500,000 or so Iraqi women and children who died due to the US enforced sanctions after Saddam Hussein fell out of favor with his friends in the US Congress and the Pentagon. Then US Secretary of State Madeline Albright said on US television at the time that these deaths were “worth it.”  It is most likely my friend is oblivious to this, has no idea it occurred.  Where’s the outrage?

While I have sympathy with my friend and a certain tolerance for her ignorance of what US foreign policy is and the brutality it inflicts on people, I have none for the politicians of the rich and other mouthpieces of capitalism who are orchestrators of it when in response to the Boston bombings they talk of us all being one family and how horrified they are etc. When it comes to violence and brutality, the US ruling class excels.  I am not talking about the victims of US foreign policy alone. At the same time as the Boston events, an even more violent and destructive event took place in West Texas when a deadly explosion erupted at a fertilizer plant.  As of Friday afternoon according to the Huff Post, there are 14 deaths and 60 people unaccounted for and a neighborhood has been flattened. This will be described as an accident. But it was not an accident.  The war against workers and the lack of regulation on industrial activity and business are both greater in Texas than most other states, we might call it a “free” state in the sense that capital is fairly  “free” of government and Union interference.  The fertilizer plant, (we all know fertilizer can be used in bomb making) was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1985.  1985!  That’s over a quarter century ago. Officials at the plant had previously told the Environmental Protection Agency and local authorities that the factory presented no risk of explosion, according to the Dallas Morning News.

When I was still at work and a Union steward I would often make the point at our safety meetings that were obligatory events aimed at covering the bosses’ ass, that OSHA has 10 investigators for 2 million workplaces.  I just threw these numbers out to make a point as anyone that has called OSHA for a safety violation knows no one will be able to come out before the job is finished. OSHA comes out after workers have been killed.

But I wasn’t far wrong.  “OSHA increasingly lacks the manpower to perform as many on-site inspections as it used to.” , the Washington Post points out on Friday and that there has been a steady decline in staff.  (see graph).  Government agencies are never meant to ensure worker safety.  OSHA was introduced due to pressure from environmental groups and Unions representing workers in the oil and chemical industries like OCAW, the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers’ Union.  OSHA was opposed by the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufactures.  These organizations are composed of individuals and led by very powerful members of the capitalist class---these prominent capitalists are terrorists. To their shame but as expected, many of the top leaders of the AFL-CIO also did nothing to get such legislation passed. In 1985, "OSHA fined the West, Texas facility in question just $30 “for a serious violation for storage of anhydrous ammonia.” according to the Wash Post adding that "The maximum fine for a serious violation is $7,000." This gives us some idea of how serious the authorities take safety when it comes to workers and our communities.

Today there are 2200 OSHA inspectors for 8 million workplaces this is a conscious decision by human beings, it is not an accident these figures are the way they are. In addition, within many of our communities (working class and poor) there are businesses that work with or produce extremely hazardous material. We are never informed about these.

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was also not an accident.  The Minerals Management Service, the agency of the Interior Department that was supposed to regulate deep water drilling left the regulation up to the industry itself.. The New York Times pointed at the time that an Interior Dept. investigation revealed “Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week. The report said that investigators "could not discern if any fraudulent alterations were present on these forms."

These are just a couple of examples of the violence inflicted on the US population by capitalism and its adherents.  The death and destruction from Katrina and other disasters are disasters brought about by market forces rather than so-called "natural" ones.  Then there are the thousands of injuries and deaths in the workplaces and the thousands who die from inadequate health care.  These are the product of conscious decisions.  There will be no massive manhunt for the individuals responsible for the BP spill and the deaths of 11 workers and the communities destroyed by this criminal negligence.  No one is in prison for a conscious decision that caused untold environmental damage.  There will be no 24/7 media coverage about the lies the fertilizer plant bosses told OSHA and their conscious decision to put their employees and their community at risk. There will be no promises to the victim’s families of hunting those responsible to the ends of the earth to make them pay.

I am not laying blame here on OSHA inspectors, who, like social workers are so overwhelmed they can’t possibly protect the lives of young children.  They are overwhelmed because the resources they need are refused them.  I am merely pointing out that the public display of horror and sympathy by government officials and the 1%’s media at an act of terrorism by foreign nationals doesn’t merit much respect when we consider the terrorism waged on US workers by these same forces.

There is no doubt that there are individuals like those responsible for the two disasters I raise here who are terrorists as much as these two young men that carried out the Boston bombing are, assuming the individuals in question are the perpetrators. It goes beyond individuals though. Inequality in the US is at an all time high. The gap between the rich and the poor, the CEO’s and bankers, has become a chasm and will widen as US capitalism is forced to spend more and more maintaining its influence in the world and putting its own working class on rations to pay for it.

As the previous blog points out, the massive police and military presence used in Boston to go after a couple of teenager bombers is but a dress rehearsal for the future, getting the US population used to this increased police repression in the interests of security.  Our Unions, our democratic rights, our struggle against racism and equality, all were met by fierce repression from the state and the US ruling class recognizes that workers will not be driven to pre-1930’s conditions without a fight.

As US workers rise to oppose capitalism’s austerity agenda we will see the “terrorism” label and so-called terrorist laws applied more often domestically against workers on strike, and youth that protest in the streets and universities. As we pointed out in a previous blog, there will be an estimated 20,000 drones in the skies above US cities in the next decade; these are part of the weaponry aimed at suppressing the working class offensive that lies ahead.  The brutal repression and violence used against the Occupy Movement was but a dress rehearsal for the future.

Message from SYRIZA to Chicago anti-NATO protests

Reprinted from Links

By Antonis Davanellos and Sotiris Martalis, members of the coordinating secretariat of SYRIZA
May 20, 2012

Dear comrades, dear brothers and sisters of the anti-war movement

We salute your mobilisations against the NATO Summit [in Chicago] and we send you our solidarity from Greece.

We don’t need to say much about the reasons to raise our voices against NATO. Millions of people are familiar with its record or crimes over the last years in the Balkans, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya to name just a few.

And if we look further back, NATO has provided nothing but wars, dictatorships and terror around the globe, from the day it was founded, and during all the years of its existence.

In summits like the one here in Chicago, they are planning the creation of a “new kind of NATO”, even more ruthless, aggressive and dangerous. Under the guise of the so-called “global war on terror”, NATO wants to act as the global watchdog against anyone resisting the imperialist interests of Western powers. We have seen how they label people or movements as “terrorist” in order to target whole countries in the Middle East, but also anti-war activists in the West. In a previous summit in Lisbon, NATO named a new challenge it will deal with: they call it “political turbulence in member states” and it’s a direct threat to social and political movements in the West.

Here in Greece, the struggle against NATO has always been important and the demand to exit the war machine, and shut down its military bases in Greece had always been central for the Greek left since the '70s.

More recently, we still remember that the foundations for the emergence of the radical left, SYRIZA, that today is on the rise, are back at the anti-war movement of 2003 against the invasion in Iraq. And today, the country that is most hardly hit by the crisis and austerity, maintains military presence to Afghanistan, it supported actively the war on Libya, it deploys its navy in Somalia and Lebanon. Greek governments, in their competition with the Turkish state about which power can act best as the“military bully” of the area, had been spending billions of euros in a frenzy of constant armaments. And the military spending continues even now, at the time of the most severe austerity that threatens public schools and hospitals with collapse. We know that the same is happening with your government in the USA, and the trillions of dollars that are spent on wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and not in education, health care and jobs.

Today, fighting against NATO is also a fight in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Arab world who revolt against their dictators. The Arab revolutions are under threat and NATO is the sword and shield of the counter-revolution. The anti-war movement in the member states of the war machine has the duty, and the power, to block any attempts to derail or crush the revolt of the Arab peoples. We face this task more than ever before here, as Greece has established a strategic alliance with the Zionist State of Israel, becoming its no.1 ally in the eastern Mediteranean. This is against the will of the Greek people, who have traditionally been pro-Palestinian, and we pledge to do our best to break this alliance. We know that the same goes with the US, that what the White House and the Pentagon are doing is against the will of the American people. And we are happy to learn about demonstrations like the one you are staging today, where the “other America” speaks, where ordinary people can shout “not in our name”.

The struggle against NATO, against imperialist wars, against occupations and dictatorships, in defence of the Arab revolution, in solidarity with Palestine, in defence of the right of every people to self-determination is a global one. But you comrades and friends in the US are the ones who are struggling in the “belly of the beast”. It is a hard struggle, but it is a struggle worth fighting. The anti-war movement in the US is the one that can stop the leading force of the war machine.
For these reasons, you have our deep and sincere respect for all your efforts, and our solidarity to your struggle. Today’s demonstration in Chicago is exciting news, and we are sure that your presence in the streets is really bad news for the warmongers. The press in Europe said the previous days that “NATO is preparing for war in Chicago”. You should all be proud for being out there.
There is this slogan we use in Greece, it doesn’t rhyme in English but today it’s dedicated to all of you demonstrating in the US: “From New York to Palestine – workers' struggles, internationalism, peace”.

In these times of severe economic crisis, their war machine is more dangerous than ever, threatening with holocausts in Iran or in the eastern Mediterranean, just to protect their profits. And in such times of austerity, it becomes even more important to organise and fight for our needs and not more fuel to the war machine. And we can achieve that. In the US, in Greece, and in every country waging and sponsoring wars abroad while ruining the lives of the working people and the poor inside them, its important more than ever, to remember and realise an old slogan back from the 1960s and the movement against the war on Vietnam: “Bring the war home!”.

Occupy Homes Minnesota fighting foreclosures and winning

Occupy Homes Minnesota has been having some success in their struggle against foreclosures. From what we understand, Occupy Homes MN goes door to door to find homeowners threatened with foreclosure building solidarity with the community in order to make a successful refusal to vacate a home possible. The example in this video is one example of a recent victory the group had. This report is reprinted from Socialist Alternative.

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Occupy Homes Protest Forces Delay of Sheriff Sale
By Ty Moore 

US Bank buckles under pressure, delaying sale of veteran John Vinje's home until May 29th

After a week of escalating pressure demanding US Bank postpone the sheriff’s sale of John and Lucinda Vinje’s home, Occupy Homes won another 11th hour victory today. John Vinje led a contingent of 50 Occupy Homes MN supporters into the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Civil Division where the sale was to take place at 11:00am this morning.

Speeches, chants, and song filled the marbled hallways in the ground floor of city hall. No potential buyers were seen entering the courtroom the entire time, and just after 11:30am it was announced that US Bank had delayed the sale to May 29th. Following the victory, John said: “This shows that the power is now with the people, and not with large, monolithic corporations, like US Bank.

Homeowners throughout Minnesota facing foreclosure, facing sheriff's sales, should get together with their community and demand a postponement and renegotiation. They should get connected with Occupy Homes because we can save homes throughout the state of Minnesota when we all work together.” Today’s action followed a week of escalating pressure on US Bank, including a national call-in campaign aimed to VP Tom Joyce, and a march on US Bank CEO Richard Davis’ mansion on April 7th. Ty Moore, an organizer with Occupy Homes explained: “We’ve got the banks scrambling already, but this fight is just beginning. John’s victory, following Monique and Bobby’s victories, is sending a message. Minnesota homeowners aren’t going to leave their homes quietly and in shame anymore. It’s the banks and CEOs like Richard Davis who should be ashamed!”

Occupy Homes MN achieved national media attention after winning Bobby Hull’s foreclosed home back after US Bank bought his property at a sheriff sale, and repeatedly delaying the eviction of Monique White, who also received her original mortgage through US Bank. John and Lucinda Vinje are among a growing number of homeowners joining together through Occupy Homes to fight back against the unjust and illegal banking practices behind the foreclosure crisis. John and Lucinda Vinje bought their home in 2008, the first house either of them had ever owned. John is an Air Force veteran now working as a security guard, and Lucinda has worked a government job for ten years.

But when financial difficulties caused them to fall behind on payments by just two months, US Bank refused their request to repay their arrears in installments and immediately began foreclosure proceedings. Meanwhile, Lucinda has been forced into "medical retirement" due to a chronic condition, adding financial strain on the family. If US Bank would renegotiate their mortgage to current market value as the Vinje’s request, they could afford the payments. After six months of delays, in March US Bank offered them a measly $97 less on their monthly payments. Both John and Lucinda have worked their entire lives, but now stand to lose the only home they have ever owned.

Tea Party in desperate straits: steals Occupy Movement's slogan

This is what comes in to my spam folder once in a while.  It's much longer than this but I just wanted to give some of our readers abroad (or here) a little glimpse of these so-called revolutionaries. It appears that the tea baggers' bright light has been eclipsed somewhat by the Occupy Wall Street Movement and I notice below they are oh so quietly importing the hated Occupy Movement's slogan with their donate 99 cents a day to stop socialism.  A coincidence? I think not.

Don't think we don't see that they are sneaking class based slogans in to their public pronouncements.  These pro-market right wingers see that the mood among the real 99% is not particularly conservative and significantly to the left of the Obama "socialists". More below the graphic.

 







Time to stop the Obamites. The Government will run our homes, education, families and lives, UNLESS you become the resistance. With your help of only .99 cents per day  (my added emphasis) the Tea Party and America will have a fighting chance!

For less than a cup of coffee, you can have a voice. Will 29.11 recurring pledge break your bank?

...or will the socialist regime break our spirit?





Yes, I will Help the continued work of the Tea Party on behalf of our beloved nation.

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TEA PARTY IS STOPPING SOCIALISM

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Only in the US could an administration like Obama's be accused of being socialist.  A party financed by Wall Street waging predatory wars all over the globe and assassinating anyone that it can pass off as a member of the nebulous al Qaeda.  The Democrats, don't forget, is the only political party in human history to have dropped nuclear bombs on civilian populations.

Still, the politicians in this political party of the former slave owners must be wringing their hands with glee at the possible although unlikely chance one of the tea bagger's main hopefuls, Rick Santorum might get the Republican nomination, an easy sweep for Obama. As Dorothy Rabinowitz pointed out in this week WSJ, Santorum's public statements do not exactly match public sentiment.  John F Kennedy's "landmark" 1960 speech "dedicated" to the separation of church and state was so distasteful poor Santorum "almost threw up", he told a New Hampshire crowd last October.

Santorum's views on contraception, that it is "harmful to women".......not a big winner either. Of course, many methods of contraception are harmful to women but that's not what Santorum was referring to; he means if they have sex a baby must be the result, no blockages for those little sperms.

Santorum's a bit more to the left when it comes to gays.  "I have no problem with homosexuality" he says, "I have a problem with homosexual acts." A remark  Ms Rabinowitz says, "..will require some translation in a campaign year.  Good luck with that."I would hazard a guess that Ms Rabinowitz is a Republican given that she is a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board.  For wealthy Republican women, or the wealthy new rich, such views are not welcome.  Where do they find these guys?  Rick Perry of Texas is the governor of a state larger than most countries, another moron who makes the imbecile Bush appear erudite.

As someone pointed out on FB, Santorum, whose a lawyer and millionaire too, has home schooled all seven of his children, so there's at least 7 kids who don't know anything about evolution. He can afford to keep pumping them out.

This crisis in the Republican Party is an indication of the crisis the US is facing that is not simply economic but also the deep quagmire that US politics is in.  There is a hatred of politicians in this country that continues to grow and keep folks from participating in the electoral process as there is basically one party with two wings when it comes to the economic issues in particular.  Given that you're going to suffer a decline in your living standards no matter which party is in power, those that do vote vote their moral/social issues: guns, abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools etc.  When your going to earn $8 an hour and the politicians are all going to screw you on that, there's only social/moral issues left if you bother to vote at all.

Santorum and Perry and the other members of the imbecile club (Dan Quayle) learned a lot from Bush's 8 years. Perhaps the most important being when Bush informed the American people that "The French don't have a word for entrepreneur."

Poor and rich and Romney's foot and mouth disease.

I see where Romney has put his foot in his mouth again. Now he says he does not care about the poor. Previously he said he likes firing people. These statements by Romney are not so much because he is stupid. Even though I am not sure he is that bright. But they are because he has a tin ear for the class nature of society. He has hundreds of millions in wealth. Apparently he has already given $100 million to his sons and evaded paying tax on this. He has lived an extremely pampered life since he was born. So he has no idea how bad it sounds to poor and working class people to hear a multi millionaire say he does not care about the poor. Of course this is what his class, the 1%, all believe but most of them have the understanding not to say it in public.

Romney's statements remind me of a man I worked with when i was young and lived back in Ireland. He was a bricklayer and I labored to him. He had this question he would always play with and turn over and over in his mind and ask me to consider. Looking back now I can see he was educating me in the class nature of society but in a subtle way. He would say. "Tell me this young fella? How does this come about? That they say that to make a poor man or woman work harder they have to be paid less and this will be an incentive to them. But they then say that to make a rich man or woman work harder they have to be paid more.? It is just a mystery to me."

This is the con trick we are indoctrinated with in this country by the bosses mass media and academia and education system. The poor and working class people must get less to make the system work and the rich must get more to make the system work. Long live the Occupy movement which is rejecting this indoctrination.

Sean.

Occupy Oakland battles cops but winning workers is what will scare the 1%

The video above is from the events surrounding Occupy Oakland’s attempts to take over an empty public building. The cops used tear gas and other weaponry to prevent the comrades from taking over the Henry J Kaiser Convention center and making it the OO headquarters. Occupy folks were also kettled at the YMCA where many were arrested and others brutalized.  Another group also got in to City Hall as well. From what I can gather, some 400 people were arrested last night.

This blog has defended the Occupy Movement from criticism from the right and from the left including an article in the International Socialist Organization’s paper that basically blamed the Occupy Movement’s “mistakes” for an attack on a discussion panel it organized about the ILWU and the Longview WA events. The meeting was broken up by right wing thugs under direction from the ILWU International, who, like every member of the AFL-CIO executive board are terrified of the influence the OWS movement might have on the ranks of organized Labor.

We have pointed out the great achievement of the Occupy Movement in shifting the debate in the US on the nature of the crisis and who is to blame for it.  OWS has put Wall Street and its two political parties on the defensive and forced the politicians of the 1% to debate the nature of the system publicly to the shame of the heads of organized Labor who say next to nothing and offer Barack Obama and the Democrats as a way forward. The OWS movement has shown through the courage and tenacity of its activists that defiance of the law and direct mass action------ an example of the best traditions of the US working class----- is how we throw back the attempts of the 1% and its armed thugs to put the US working class on rations.

However, we have not been without criticism.  We commented in a blog on November 20^th that. “….if the movement does not reach out to the millions of workers and our families, if it does not raise high on its banner demands that speak to the needs that ordinary working people face, the state will isolate the OSW movement. We have approached this question on numerous occasions including here and here. 

This battle cannot be won without political struggle. It cannot be won by relying on direct action on the streets alone. And it definitely will not be won without drawing in to the struggle a huge section of the working class in this country, the millions of organized and unorganized workers, the immigrant workers who are among the most abused section of our class and the “heavy battalions” of the working class in industry. Union members and the unorganized must be united in action with the occupy movement against the 1%.

In the numerous reports and videos I have seen, participants have stated how proud they are of Oakland referring to last night’s battle with the cops and have praised Oaklanders in general.  But if you look at the individuals battling the cops they are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male. This is not an issue in and of itself and does not detract from their courage and the correctness of their ideals.  But I lived in Oakland for almost 20 years when I first came to this country.  I worked in the streets of this great city for almost 30 years as a public utility worker. I lived in East Oakland not far from Eastmont Mall, a working class community, primarily black folks when I first came here but not exclusively so. There are many Latinos and Tongans, Samoans, South East Asians that also live there.

I lived in this community because it was the only place I could afford a house. It was a great community and my son was born and bred there as they say. I never moved to it as a white liberal in an effort to prove how much I support diversity and developed the accent of an urban black youth that some liberals do.  I never if ever saw white people except for cops.  I was new here in the US and it seemed strange at first that I would see white people at work then go home and they would disappear to somewhere else.

My point is this; not that much has changed in the last 30 years. The vast majority of working class people in Oakland are people of color. I could say with some humor that perhaps the folks that battled the cops last night were form the Rockridge and Montclair districts which are overwhelmingly white and more affluent. If so, it’s positive that they are involved in the OWS movement although I tend to think that the vast majority was not from Oakland at all.  This too is not bad in itself.  All are welcome in this movement and all need to be in it to make it successful and take the levers of society and its wealth out of the hands of the 1%.

However, the danger that is becoming more apparent to me is that the movement is not drawing in to it the 99% in all its diversity and this therefore increases the likelihood that the state will be able to isolate and crush it.  Where are the 30,000 or so that came to the general strike on Dec 12^th and shut down the docks? I’ll say this; the women with children, the disabled in their wheelchairs and on crutches, the working class families of Oakland and the Bay Area that came to shut down the docks will be kept away by continual battles with the police that are not about issues that directly affect them.

Imagine how difficult it would be for the 1% and its media to undermine the OWS movement if any conflict with the authorities was around getting a single mom with her kids back in her apartment or a homeowner back in their home or getting a group of workers their back pay or better pay and benefits, or supporting a small community business in its struggle with the corporations and the 1%? I realize there is some of this going on but it does not seem to be the main focus of the movement as I think it has to be if we are to be successful. 

We have stressed the need of the movement as a whole to direct its attention to the workplaces, the foreclosure movement, against the slumlords, banks, low waged and non-Union and to raise demands openly on its banner, demands that correspond to what working people are thinking about every day of their lives.   I mention Rockridge and Montclair, two more affluent communities of Oakland somewhat tongue in cheek but there is no doubt there are people facing foreclosure or losing their homes in these communities also. One of the reason the OWS movement has the support it does is that the present crisis has savaged those who thought they did everything right. It has cut the ground from beneath the feet of the so-called middle class.

The resolve and determination of the 1% that own the wealth and direct the forces that protect their ownership of it should not be underestimated.  The slogan “We are the 99%” as opposed to the 1% is a class based slogan, a crude one but one that points out the class nature of society nevertheless. But those that have publicly referred to last night’s events as the people of Oakland fighting back or portrayed them as speaking and acting for the people of Oakland are grossly mistaken.   Such a mistaken analysis of the forces at work here can cost the movement dearly if it does not seek to include the 99% by turning to them in a more determined, programmatic and organized way.  This would include running candidates for local political offices candidates rooted in the movement and the working class that can use these positions as a means to build the movement further and present to the working class an alternative to the ideology of the 1%. 

This means turning the movement overwhelmingly to the day-to-day attacks on working people and organizing a fight back against these attacks. This means raising demands related to these attacks:

No foreclosures, nobody leave their homes.

A $20 minimum wage or a $5.00 per hour wage increase which ever is the greater.

A guaranteed job for all (including immigrant workers documented or not) through a shorter working week with no loss in pay and a program of public works at union rates and benefits to build schools, hospitals, roads and the infrastructure in general.

Free health care and education.

An end to all wars and occupations and make the 1% pay for this.

End the incarceration of our youth jobs not incarceration.

These demands should be fought for through mass direct action, occupations, sit ins, strikes and street actions. However they also have to be fought for politically and this means that out of these mass direct actions candidates are run for office and by pulling these together build a  mass workers political party which can break the 1%'s monopoly over politics and open up the road to a democratic socialist society in which the majority make the decisions.  

ILWU and EGT still negotiating

 Reprinted from TDN.com

EGT labor settlement postpones NLRB hearing on illegal picketing

Negotiators are staying mum on how many jobs at the Port of Longview's EGT grain terminal will be filled by union longshoremen, but a tentative settlement has already compelled the longshore union and EGT to push back a key labor hearing at the heart of the dispute.

The National Labor Relations Board postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday on whether the International Longshore and Warehouse Union engaged in illegal picketing during last summer's protests, according to Frank Randolph, Port of Longview attorney.

The first day of the hearing, expected to last at least a month, has been rescheduled for Feb. 6. According to the labor board, the Pacific Maritime Association also is listed as a party because of the lost time incurred by shippers due to longshore walkouts in Longview, Seattle and Tacoma in September in protest of EGT's hiring policies.

Attorneys for EGT, the ILWU and the Port of Longview are discussing ways to modify the company's lease and the port's working agreement with the ILWU to create the legal framework to get union workers in the terminal, Randolph said Tuesday, adding that the parties are also trying to settle a federal lawsuit filed a year ago over the staffing of the terminal.

"It sounded like everyone was excited to move forward," said Randolph, who is not directly involved in the discussions.

Meanwhile, negotiators for the company and the union are expected to hammer out the final details of the tentative agreement, which was announced Monday by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. The final version must then be ratified by a vote of all ILWU members on the West Coast. Both sides have declined to comment on contract details before a final agreement has been reached.
The original talks broke down almost exactly one year ago, with both sides later saying they had conducted almost no real bargaining.

A few key disagreements emerged last January that will need to be resolved:
• EGT's central control room: Company officials had insisted that their own management staff run what they term a state-of-art control room, which monitors the terminal's grain unloading systems, conveyor belts, the 140-foot tall silos and other operations. ILWU officials demanded that at least one longshoreman staff the control room to ensure the safety of workers in the terminal, citing the union's 80-year history working in West Coast grain terminals.

• Overtime pay: ILWU officials objected to an EGT proposal to structure 12-hour shifts over two weeks without paying overtime to workers on the job for more than eight hours a day. A longshore union rule requires overtime pay whenever an employee exceeds eight hours on a shift. Company officials said they wanted to operate 12-hour shifts to run the terminal as efficiently as possible.

• Number of shift jobs: According to the union, EGT last year offered the ILWU seven jobs per shift for two, 12-hour shifts, which the union said was insufficient without an agreement to work in the control room. The two parties also have yet to announce whether contractor General Construction would still have unionized operating engineers working in the terminal.

The ILWU and EGT had been locked in a protracted dispute over jobs at the terminal, which hit an abrupt cease fire Monday with Gregoire's announcement. The union has maintained that its contract with the Port of Longview requires EGT to hire Longview-based Local 21 longshore labor on the 35-acre site the company leases from the port.

EGT had disagreed and instead retained General Construction, which employed members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701, based in Gladstone, Ore., for the 25 to 35 jobs at the terminal.

Port of Longview Commissioner Lou Johnson, a marine clerk and ILWU member, said Tuesday he thinks an agreement will help soothe tensions between the port and longshoremen.
"It's going to start a healing process. It's probably not going to be instantaneous. As far as Local 21 and the port goes, that process has already started," he said.

Read more: http://m.tdn.com/news/local/egt-labor-settlement-postpones-nlrb-hearing-on-illegal-picketing/article_ce58bac6-4700-11e1-8a86-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1kVDy3jxN

Police arrests at San Francisco protests

Occupy Oakland resolution to support ILWU Local 21 Longview

Passed by Occupy Oakland GA 1.15.12 (Also passed by Occupy Portland and Occupy Longview)

 Resolution of Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland: A Call to InterOccupy Action

WHEREAS, Longshore workers' jurisdiction is under an unprecedented attack; and,

WHEREAS, West Coast dockworkers fought and died to establish that jurisdiction; and,

WHEREAS, Longshore workers have always been at the forefront in the struggle for social justice and better working conditions for all; and,

 WHEREAS, Longshore workers have inspired working people across North America and around the world; and,

WHEREAS, EGT is engaged in a race-to-the-bottom that works to destroy a long history of good family wage jobs throughout the region and around the world; and,

WHEREAS, it is also known that Bunge, Ltd., a multinational conglomerate and majority shareholder of EGT, with direct ties to Wall Street, has used its power in the grain trade to manipulate global grain prices, to evade taxes in Argentina, to terrorize the people of the Amazon through deforestation, to force Brazilian workers into near slave conditions while their indigenous populations are starved out over soybean pricing, and to violate the Clean Air Act, among other offenses; and,

WHEREAS, Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland recognize the blatant union-busting tactics of EGT and its parent company Bunge, as well as its attack on the Longshore workers, who are powerful allies for workers around the world; and,

WHEREAS, according to Longshore workers the empty grain ship will be escorted by armed U.S. Coast Guard vessels and helicopters to the Port of Longview, Washington on the Columbia River; and,

WHEREAS, this is the first known use of the U.S. military to intervene in a labor dispute on the side of management in 40 years; and,

WHEREAS, the U.S. Armed Forces, which have been oppressing other nations for the interests of the 1%, is now being used against the same workers whose tax money sponsors those forces;  therefore be it

RESOLVED, that Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland call on EGT to immediately cease its attacks on our communities, our food supply and the jurisdiction of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; and be it further

RESOLVED, that Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland call on all Occupy General Assemblies, the working class, and the “99%” everywhere to come to the aid of Longshore workers, and to support them in any way possible in their fight against the EGT and Bunge; and be it further

RESOLVED, that Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland request that anyone willing to participate in a community blockade of the first EGT grain ship in Longview, Washington, do so when alerted that the ship will arrive; and be it further

RESOLVED, that all General Assemblies, any group of their members, as well as workers around the world who cannot physically join the community blockade in Longview, Washington, mobilize in solidarity through direct action in their communities—especially those located in the Midwest, the Delta, Occupies along the Mississippi River, and all other international locations where Bunge's growth and operations are located, and be it further

RESOLVED, that General Assemblies across the country and the mobilized 99% across the globe condemn any state or private-sponsored efforts to arrest direct action against EGT, or workers participating in those actions; and be it further

RESOLVED, that General Assemblies challenge any charges brought against workers or comrades struggling for economic, social, and envrionmental justice; and finally be it

RESOLVED, that Occupies Longview, Portland, and Oakland forward this resolution to all Occupy General Assemblies, the working people of the 99% in their communities, and comrades in the Occupy Movement around the world.

 In solidarity,

Occupy Longview, Occupy Portland, and Occupy Oakland

Politicians of the 1% changing laws to crush Occupy Movement: It's just the beginning

Oakland Docks: hoonored to have been there

It's interesting the way the 1% mass media reports things; the spin if you like.  The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the one percent's political leaders want to "minimize violence at high profile events' this year after "violent protests erupted in cities across the globe" in 2011.

Throwing people out of their homes (shelter) or jobs (means of subsistence); having 2 million people in the nation's prisons and others in Guantanamo (ever wondered why the US has a base in Cuba?) without a trial or being accused of anything for almost a decade is not violence in the extreme?

The violence at protests is brought about by the state imposing austerity measures on working people and the people resisting.  The way the unelected rulers of society want to minimize violence is not by allocating the collective wealth of society in a different way like providing a secure, safe and productive existence for people as opposed to making society and the world safe for profit making. No, they want to increase punitive laws against free speech and protests so that they can justify violence on their part when you break their laws.  This is a society of laws after all.

In Chicago Obama's friend Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing limited permits for protests as well as the hours of the day that protests are allowed at all and increasing fines for violating these laws.  The fine for violating parade rules will go from $50 to $1000. To deal with the increase in criminals this will cause, the chief of police will be allowed to "deputize" cops form other agencies. They'll be "deputizing" security guards as well, the new Pinkertons.

"People will have their First Amendment rights protected and the law will be enforced.  Those two aren't in conflict" says Rahm.  The First Amendment is important but there is a catch. It's OK to say what you think but you must not act on it other than through channels that the 1% know are ineffective. It's like Rand Paul's support of workers' right to organize.  We can get together but we shouldn't be allowed to force business to do anything that it finds objectionable.

The Democratic National Convention is taking place in Charlotte NC in September and the one percent's politicians there will be banning anything that might be considered a terrorist weapon like felt tip markers, 18 different categories of items in all like wearing armor for example.  There will be an all out ban on throwing anything, camping and fires on public property. The new laws will also allow cops to arbitrarily decide, what or who should be taken away much like the Arizona anti-immigrant law. If a person is carrying backpacks or scarves, then the cops "will have to decide whether protesters are carrying them with malicious intent". The history of cops on picket lines and protests is full of examples where they make the correct decision about intent isn't it?  You're all guilty.

At the general strike here in Oakland I was driving closer to the docks so I could park and not walk so far. A cop was in the road on his bike and I asked him if I could pass.  He said I could but "they might not let you" pointing to the marchers going through the intersection ahead.  "They'll let me through" I replied. "They might turn your car over with you in it" he shot back. This is their mentality. Charlotte's City Attorney says that "respecting and protecting legitimate First Amendment rights" is a must but cops deciding  what "intent" a person has allows them to "'engage' suspect protesters."

Florida is actually easing laws against protesting by making some minor changes to administrative rules. The cops will kick ass though if anything beyond expressing yourself in a way they consider is proper occurs we know that.

It will be interesting to see how the state responds to our blocking the loading of a ship up in Longview Washington.  The ship is coming in under military escort with helicopters and all. It is quite possible that there will be massive police presence up there including Federal Marshals. The bosses are determined to crush the Occupy Movement and any attempts by the organized workers to fight back against the austerity plans they have for us and our families.  The ILWU has the ability to close the West Coast docks entirely and California alone is among the top ten economies in the world.  The shutting down of shipping trade in a state that is about 12% of US GDP is not something the bosses will allow without a fight and I am sure the ILWU international leadership is coming under massive pressure to get any local leaders and dissenting voices to back off. You know Homeland Security has been in touch with them.

The use of the military in a Labor dispute is an ominous sign of things to come as the crisis of capitalism ripens. But we have been here before.  The bosses may have the money but we have the numbers and the social power. Unions were illegal at one point, even workers getting together to discuss increasing wages violated conspiracy laws.

These laws are just the beginning.  The strategists of capital read history, they are aware of the revolutionary and militant history of the US working class but they are driven by the laws of their own system to drive us further and further backwards and they will use violence, the courts, the police etc.  The Occupy Movement has shown that you can defy their laws, laws that protect their interests, the interests of the minority 1% in society, not our interests. The Occupy movement has a lot of passive support.  But working class people must join it, bring our class issues in to it and our ideas. Is this movement pretty, without confusion? It is not. It is difficult and time consuming and a political struggle of ideas, some we don't agree with and some that may seem absurd.  But movement's don't come ready made and movements in the US have traditionally been full of different and unusual forces--we come to movements with a lot of baggage, some of it we keep and some we discard to make room for new ideas and methods.

What is true is that this movement is made in America, it is full of a lot of courageous and dedicated people, many of them young people, some of them older, some of them homeless and other that have only recently lost their homes.  The bosses want to crush it, we must not let them.  Some of us have waited a long time for this.

Thugs disrupt Occupy Seattle Labor solidarity forum

A panel forum organized by Occupy Seattle in support of Local 21 in Longview Washington was disrupted by right wing supporters of the Labor bureaucracy according  to reports.  I was not present at it but it does seem this issue is heating up and the attempt to stop scabs from loading a ship due to arrive at the port will face some resistance.  Armed US Coast Guard vessels and helicopters, in other words, Homeland Security is escorting the ship in to port. The scabs in this case are members of the Operating Engineers whose leadership is directing the scabbing efforts.

It is hard to say what will happen or how many will turn up to support ILWU local 21 but the Occupy movement has surprised many of its critics with its staying power and ability to turn people out.  Protesters will face stiff opposition up there from the police and possibly hired thugs of the bureaucracy.  It is important to get to Longview if you can.  It would be important if ILWU Local 21 president Dan Coffman and the entire leadership of that local as well as other locals that have supported Local 21 to officially come out and condemn the disruption of this meeting (if they haven't already) and reaffirm that the locals support the Occupy movement and want its support in Longview when this ship comes in.

Chicago -need for a mass direct action front of struggle.

Fresh from his luxury holiday with his family in Central America Emmanuel, Chicago's mayor, has announced he is launching an offensive against the working class, the youth and the protest movements in the city. This thug, friend of the so called liberal Obama is determined to "keep order" in "his City." This will of course increase the struggles but also increase the cost to activists, working people and youth in conducting these struggles more arrests, more beatings, more deaths, this is what the thug Emmanuel has in mind.

When it was clear some time ago that Daley was not going to run again for Mayor I suggested that all on the left should get over our sectarianism and ultra leftism and should link with the activist movement in the city to run a single working peoples candidate for mayor. I suggested this should be done on a basic program of struggle, for example, mass direct action to stop all foreclosures, to stop police violence, to create jobs through a shorter work week with no loss in pay and a program of public works to build houses, schools and hospitals on union wages and benefits and with union rights, and make the rich and the corporations pay for such a program. Such a movement could have been developed under the 1% 99% banner when this banner developed. I suggested this idea before the 1% 99% movement and slogan emerged, its time had come but unfortunately the opportunity was missed back then.

I still believe this would have been the best approach. If this had been done a united front of struggle with a record of taking on the Democratic and Republican machines and the city bosses and big money would have been established. It would probably not have won the Mayors seat. But it would have established itself as an opposition force. And now when Emmanuel is going on the offensive it would have been in the position to draw together and build a real mass alternative which would have been capable of making gains. We on the left have to get over the left sectarianism and ultra leftism which has done such damage and prevented this step being taken. There are many hundreds of left activists in this city in different left groups, there are thousands who would be prepared to join in a united front of struggle, there are all sorts of community and also church groups fighting on housing and wage and education issues, It would be good if this could be discussed and some progress made on this front.

For the building of a 1% ------- 99% mass direct action united front of struggle.

Sean.

Occupy Oakland port shutdown: Mayor calls it "Economic Violence"

I attended the Occupy Oakland rally this afternoon after being on the early morning picket line that shut down the morning shift at the docks. We marched from 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland to the docks once more to shut down the evening shift which occurred around 6.00pm.  I just checked channel two news online and it said there were 1000 people at the port but this cannot be true.  I can't say exactly by I believe there had to be between five and ten thousand who eventually turned up to close down the port this evening.

It was an inspiring crowd.  When I left, the group was deciding whether or not to extend the shutdown to the 3 AM shift.  As I left the berth entrance to return home another group of maybe 500 or more people were coming down Middle Harbor Lane toward the docks.  I was walking with two grocery workers and UFCW rank and file members who had 76 years of employment in that industry between them (see below).  They were astounded, as I was by the size of the crowd and the diverse nature of it. "There are blacks, white folks, young and old, children in strollers, people in wheelchairs, all sorts of people"  the guys said. It was very inspiring.



As I mentioned in an earlier blog, these developments are very positive and the Occupy movement has indeed shifted the debate on who is to blame for the economic crisis in this country. But it has its weaknesses that have to be addressed and if not addressed will prevent the movement from moving forward and building a lasting presence that can begin to change the course of history in a more permanent way.

As I walked to the docks tonight I talked with a number of trade Unionists that were there, rank and file folks who were appreciative of the Occupy movement, and critical, as most workers are that our own leaders continue to do nothing in the face of a vicious assault on our wages and working conditions by the bosses and their two Wall Street parties. But a friend who had talked with some of the Longshoreman at the earlier picket said that some of them were a bit "pissed off" and felt left out.  This is understandable in that all the events I have attended over the years that have involved some sort of work stoppage at the docks has never actually included the rank and file ILWU members, those guys who actually work there.  They have always been passive observers even if supportive. They have never to my knowledge really been part of the process.

This stoppage or "community picket line" as it is called as opposed to a regular Labor sanctioned line is no different; the actual workers are not involved, somebody is doing it for us.  The heads of the local Labor movement distanced themselves from this action and publicly opposed it in order to keep their members apart from the OWS movement. The hundreds of thousands of rank and file Union members in the area were never really approached.  In the main, the Occupy movement has been weak in this area and when reaching out to organized Labor has tended to connect not with the ranks and the workers in the workplaces but the bureaucracy or its "progressive" wing and there is no desire from any section of the Labor bureaucracy to reach in to the depths of the movement and mobilize its membership. This has to change if the movement is to grow and not find itself isolated.

There were also a number of independent truckers that were ambivalent or not supportive of the action.  It is not that they don't support it in general but these workers are independent owners of their rigs and stand to lose considerable income through picket lines like these. Even those supporting such actions will not do so for ever--the rent has to be paid the truck maintained. There has to be something in this for them other than "Occupy everything".

As we have written on this blog it does appear that the OWS movement is beginning to make more effort to reach out to the working class and involve itself in home defense actions for example.  But the tendency of influential elements within the Occupy movement to focus entirely on actions and the occupation of public spaces while refusing to put forward a clear set of basic demands that can be taken in to the working class in the Unions and workplaces has to be overcome if the movement is to grow.  The attacks on pensions, wages, public services, education---in short, the austerity measures that are being introduced in order to solve the crisis of capitalism have to be taken on and the OWS movement must sink deep roots in the working class and our communities to do this.

The Labor officialdom is increasing its influence in this movement and will do what it can to direct it in to a harmless campaign to elect Obama and the Democrats in the coming elections. There are also some rank and file workers who are involved in the Occupy Oakland movement and who are involved in "Labor" outreach but this outreach is predominantly building links with the bureaucracy or its left wing while making no significant efforts to link the Occupy movement with their own fellow Union members and co workers on the job.

The OWS movement has been a truly inspiring development but to build a permanent presence that can transform the present situation in a significant way, the ranks of organized Labor and the working class in general must be drawn in to the movement not remain as passive bystanders as other fight seemingly on our behalf.

Late note: I just heard on the news that the Mayor, a former Maoist called the stoppage "economic violence" and you can bet the issue of terrorism will soon raise its head.  Truckers were also interviewed and explained how much money they were losing as they were many miles from their families.  This has to be addressed buy the movement

Occupy Oakland shuts down morning shift at the Port

Here's a short clip from this morning (about 6 hours ago.  We marched from the West Oakland BART station (Subway) to the Port and by 10 am it was clear that the morning shift (members of the ILWU) was not going in and the port was shut down. Washington, Portland Oregon, Seattle and Vancouver were also shut down.  We will be going back tonight to shut down the night shift.

The leadership of the local Labor movement all directly opposed or refused in the most cowardly way to support the action.  The history of the working class in the US is a rich and militant history.  The present leadership are totally wed to the market and capitalism through what they call the Team Concept (see other articles on this blog on the Labor movement) and shamefully allow the Occupy Wall Street movement to do what they should be doing, which despite the reduced union membership in the US could bring the US economy to a halt and transform the balance of class forces in this country.

Whatever weaknesses the OWS movement has, the opposition in many ways to political action for example, these actions are extremely positive as the movement has shown that the way to move forward is through mass action and open defiance of the law, something that the Labor leadership refuses to do except when it comes to their own members. The Labor hierarchy along wiht their allies in the Democratic Party will continue to make efforts to derail this movement and direct it in to an effort to elect Obama and the Democrats this coming year.  How successful they will be remains to be seen as we are living in a unique and volatile period.

Ows. Clarifying the demands and sharpening the focus and cutting edge.

I enclose below a piece from an article by Naomi Klein. I think it is very instructive in how it shows the dominant issues in the minds of the OWS activists whom the employers media lie and say do not know what they want. It also shows how how these ideas coincide with the issues which are so prevalent in peoples minds. Also it shows how the capitalist class have been coordinating and centralizing their attacks on the movement. As we have said on this blog, US capitalism knows that it cannot keep funding its wars abroad, the living standards for its working class at home and so it has been on the offensive against its own working class at home. Its idea is to take back all that was won in the 1930's and the 1960's.

We have argued on this blog for a united front of struggle of all the OWS forces and the working class which is finding itself more and more under attack all the time. We have argued for an increased orientation towards the direct attacks on working people such as foreclosures, firings, wage cuts, benefit cuts, education and health cuts, against the wars, etc and to use the tactic of mass direct action to pursue these struggles. We still think is the correct approach.

Let us develop some demands such as raised by the OWS people in the interviews with Naomi Klein. For example she says the top demands was take the money out of politics. Should we raise that all lobbying be made illegal. Is this something that we can fight for, or perhaps fight for that any contribution more than 25$ to any political cause or campaign by any one individual would be a felony.

I believe we should fight for an end to the gerrymandering of the political system where there are two Senators for every state irregardless of the size of the state and where there is an electoral college to elect the President as opposed to a direct vote and where elections are staggered so that a mass change in consciousness cannot sweep in a new congress and presidency all in the one elections.

I do not believe that society will be changed by elections, the ruling elite will seek to stop this by force, but people believe in the electoral process and as they get mobilized will try and use it to change their lives. We have to have something to say about this.

I watched my local TV coverage of the small city where I live in Illinois last night. Their were 18 elected officials and three bureaucrats and four member of the public present. The public was outnumbered around five to one. There was no opposition, this forum was not being used for struggle and a platform for an alternative, it was being used by the local business people and their politicians to get their way. This is a mistake of the left. These fora should be used as platforms to get our ideas out and launch struggles. Of course the main launching pads has to be on the ground where the attacks are taking place, that is where people are being foreclosed on, fired, having their wages and benefits cut, having their education and health care cut, being sent to war to get an education etc.

Some ideas for taking the OWS movement forward. See the piece from the Naomi Klein article below.

Sean.

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.