Next Occupy LA Stops: The Ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach

Photo by Chris_Lott via the LAist Featured Photos pool

Without City Hall Park to occupy, Occupy L.A., along with other global occupations, has turned its focus on occupying a very different set of landmarks - West Coast ports. On Monday, December 12 protesters will "Occupy the Ports" in a coordinated West Coast port shutdown. Occupy L.A. and Occupy Long Beach will lead "A Day Without Goldman Sachs."

Beginning at Harry Bridges Park at 5am, activists will protest at one or more facilities belonging to SSA Marine, a shipper owned by Goldman Sachs, with 5 terminals and a warehouse in the Long Beach Harbor area.

The occupation's goal is "to disrupt and blockade the economic apparatus of the 1%," according to the Occupy the Ports website. Participating occupations include Occupy L.A., Occupy Long Beach, Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Portland, Occupy Seattle, Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Vancouver, Occupy Anchorage and Occupy Denver. Answering questions surrounding why Occupy is shutting down West Coast ports, the website says the following:

We are occupying the ports, as part of a day of action, boycott and march for full legalization and good jobs for all to draw attention to and protest the criminal system of concentrated wealth that depends on local and global exploitation of working people, and the denial of workers’ rights to organize for decent pay, working conditions and benefits, in disregard for the environment and the health and safety of surrounding communities. Port workers, particularly port truck drivers, have repeatedly shut down the ports around similar demands of migrant rights and workers’ rights which have not yet been met.

The Port of Los Angeles, also known as "America's Port," adjoins the Port of Long Beach and is the busiest container port in the nation. A post on the Occupy L.A. website says SSA Marine was recently fined for building an illegal road to its coal terminal project in Washington and was recently called out for not alerting its workers of the threat of explosive cargo in Oakland. The occupy movement accuses SSA/Goldman Sachs of depriving workers - notably truck drivers - of decent pay, safe working conditions and the right to organize.

Sites offering additional information on the day of action are West Coast Port Blockade, ShutDown The Port and the Facebook event.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Lauren Lloyd in News on December 8, 2011 3:30 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Spokker

Free trade is one of the best hopes we have for achieving peace in this world. I don't find many things offensive in society, but their planned disruption of the ports is truly reprehensible.

thegodofthor

see, if there was only a way for authorities to somehow keep these occupiers in one place. These recent roaming around and taking over foreclosed houses and banks is a bit much. I know. Maybe find a park or two and invite them to camp out there and stay. That way the police can keep an eye on them. I think that would solve the entire problem.

90gabriele065

The ILWU will not honor any picket lines Occupy may set up. The various terminals are private property and ALSO under US Customs (www.cbp.gov) and Border Protection control. Full photo ids will be required, masks or other face coverings will not be tolerated and threatening Federal authorities or areas under their control could be considered a lot more than civil disobedience.

Add to that the fact that there's little public transportation and not a whole lot of parking in the terminal areas...sounds like whoever planned this little outing didn't do much research or overestimates their own importance.

And of course I got the news from SFGate...didn't bother to check the Times, they're late so often, not worth looking:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...

The ILWU is not stupid. And guys? A truck with a 20' container is carrying up to 17 mt of cargo, a 40' container up to 30 mt cargo. Don't think a truck can stop in the same amount of time it takes a passenger auto to stop. All terminal workers and drivers do their best to keep their safety foremost, but even the best training and planning can't protect against human stupidity.
And while union members may vote democratic party to keep their unions strong, for their own lives, they tend to be more right wing than leftist...so don't expect much sympathy or support.

Spokker

These ass douches are in over their heads this time.

jesse

You are fortunate to have a job. Don't come crying to us if your job gets outsourced to some kid in Pakistan. Our nation's foreign policies (which are at this time manifested through impressionalble, desperate youths toting M-16s, smart-bombs and satellite guided drones) are curiously centered around the Three O's. Oil, Opium, and Outsourced-labor. Nothing in the US is sacred. There are just too many problems facing our nation at this moment and the apparent ambiguousness of the movement is both a media creation and a reflection of the complexity which we are trying to address.

Eric Harmon

You are right, I have marketable skills. I did not take Liberal Arts or Basket Weaving nor did I study the Classics - I took marketing and what do you know...I have a job.

Spokker

Glad to see you have a job and are proud of it, Eric. We have not enough pride and too much envy of what others have.

Eric Harmon

And here is the one idea you guys are missing...SPEND LESS MONEY!!!

Eric Harmon

No, I did not know the movement was non-partisan. How come the Tea Party is not a non-partisan group?

The whole movement has become offensive, like one big smelly fart. They have no ideas, they have their nightly get-togethers where everybody just talks and agrees to nothing. That is the whole movement...NOTHING!

The movement itself has cost millions of federal, state and local dollars...OUR GODAMN DOLLARS! All for no ideas. It would be worth it if they actually produced something but nope...NOTHING.

I'm sorry but the whole movement is a joke, just one big joke. But since we live in the greatest country in the world (though stated by the movement, "Death to Capitalism" = No Occupy movement), you have the right to organize and say what you want. But don't make me step over you while I go to work!

Phillip Whittmore

Yeah, you're right Eric. This movement has cost millions of federal, state and local dollars. Too bad that the TARP bailout for the banks cost 700 BILLION dollars.

Get a clue you sheep.

Spokker

Most TARP funds have been repaid.

Eric Harmon

I did not want the bailouts. That was the liberal side of Bush doing that. Leave the markets alone and they will correct themselves. Once the government starts to interfere with the private markets, this is what happens.

Ok you Drone!

Eric Harmon

I drove by the Occupy Long Beach camp at Lincoln Park and confused them with the homeless population. I think that the Occupy people should really go home, take a warm shower and put some fresh clothes on. And if you don't have a home to go to, go to the local shelter because you are all looking pretty dirty!

And get a job! Oh wait, your boy Obama is not helping you out much on that one.

euridike

You seem to fit the personality-disordered population perfectly !

fackkkkk12

Well if congressional Republicans hadn't blocked the JOB bill. Oh wait! Republicans don't care about creating jobs as much as they care about blaming Obama for not creating jobs, that way they can use it against him in 2012. Yet they can still yell at those free speech lovin' hippies to "GIT A JERB!!!!"

James Bean

"And get a job! Oh wait, your boy Obama is not helping you out much on that one."
Oh yea, it's Obama's fault that congressional Repubs have BLOCKED , stymied and filibustered every effort Obama has made to get a jobs bill passed.

Eric Harmon

How about this, let the oil pipeline from Canada run through the US. Instant JOBS! If not, the pipeline is going to run to the coast of Vancouver and the Chinese are going to buy it.

Obama and the leftist democrats are the only ones styming job growth. Two simple ways the Obama administration has stymied jobs growth is unleashing the EPA and continually wanting to tax the small business owners (who you think are the rich).

Put it this way, you have Reagan and Obama - they each come into the same bad economy. Reagan does A, B and C = the most productive peacetime economy. Then you have Obama and he does X, Y and Z = the depression that we are in.

The simple point is...the US needs to spend less money, not tax more!!!!

James Bean

"Obama and the leftist democrats..."

I wish Obama were a leftist.

He's bent over backwards to please house Repubs and all the GOPers can say is No! No! No! Like a bunch of two year olds who have just learned the word.

I'm not a Republican or a Democrat, but what I see happening is a President who wants to use FDR's tactics to get us out of depression, (not a recession), and a bunch of Republicans who are more interested in playing politics and making him look bad than they are in saving America from another Great Depression.

"The simple point is...the US needs to spend less money, not tax more!!!!"

Is that why house Repubs are about to let the middle class tax cuts, which save the average American family $1000 a year in taxes, expire because it may cost the top 1% more in taxes?

necropalypse

Our occupation in Long Beach is intermingled with the homeless seeking shelter in Lincoln Park. Many of them have even joined our movement and are active members. :D

Plenty of us also have jobs and a home - others do not. So that comment is a little offensive. And so is assuming we are all Obama-supporters. You DO know the movement is non-partisan, right?