Thousands of Occupy protesters all along the West Coast gathered at ports Monday in support of the International Longshore Workers Union and their ongoing workers’ rights battles with Goldman Suchs and other corporate goblins (although members were forbidden by contract from formally joining the protests, which the union officially was not allowed to support because of …um, anti-union legislation). As one trucker in the video above nicely points out, however, “we wouldn’t cross a community line.”
Shutdowns in Oakland and Portland had the most success according to the as usual excellent play-by-play coverage from the Guardian Occupy blog, and Mother Jones has more on some of the truckers and union port workers who were, uh, against support for unions?
Anyway, here is an open letter from five truckers at the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports who supported the action:
Today’s demonstrations will impact us. While we cannot officially speak for every worker who shares our occupation, we can use this opportunity to reveal what it’s like to walk a day in our shoes for the 110,000 of us in America whose job it is to be a port truck driver. It may be tempting for media to ask questions about whether we support a shutdown, but there are no easy answers. Instead, we ask you, are you willing to listen and learn why a one-word response is impossible?
We love being behind the wheel. We are proud of the work we do to keep America’s economy moving. But we feel humiliated when we receive paychecks that suggest we work part time at a fast-food counter. Especially when we work an average of 60 or more hours a week, away from our families.
Sounds reasonable!
On the other end of the spectrum in the “not reasonable and super mean” category, America’s littlest Ocupados in New York City made 5,000 paper hearts to represent each of the OWS protesters who’ve been arrested since the movement began and then hung them up outside City Hall, which NYPD cops immediately trashed as the children watched in tears:
Police bullies really suck, don’t they kids? [Guardian/MoJo/AP]
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The New York Times pretty much buried yesterday's events. Part of "Everything fit to ignore", apparently.
OCCUPY THE NEW YORK TIMES!!!
They are still sure OWS has WMD at NYT. Mainly because they are all POS's.
Someone passed a note to Judith Miller at the last Aspen conference implying that the only possible industrial use for drum circles is in the centrifuging of Uranium.
Don't tell Jill Abramson, but I heard they're hiding yellow cake in the brown water cleaning systems…
To be fair, I'm not sure I'd occupy a festering, rotting corpse, either.
Next how about shutting down Trump by occupying what ever science lab does his hair?
I can't support that. We need more funny these days, not less.
Next year, Occupy the voting booth!!
Should we vote for Goldman Sachs, or Goldman Sachs?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!
It is a clear choice between SOPA and NDAA for POTUS. As long as we end up SOL…
will the lizard people field a candidate?
Isn’t Newt a lizzard?
I hope the American Gestapo clears them out right quick – I'm waiting on a shipment of inflatable Chinese reindeer for my lawn.
I read that as "… inflatable Cheese reindeer…"
I'd better have a drink…
Mmmmm, cheese.
You may have too much blood in your alcohol
Well at least you're both in the spirit of Christmas
It's crimpin' my stream, Bro.
"Them kids need some
PepperVegetable Spray!""Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, Help! We're being repressed!"
"You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
Who doesn't like being called "emperor" by moistened bints while having their scimitar lobbed?
I, for one, would much rather it be the moistened bint than the grotty Scots bint.
They made kids CRY? Holy fuck, what the fucking is wrong with "America's Finest"? Fucking assholes.
What the fuck? Why didn't they pepper spray the kids and then rip down their protest signs. This is NOT S.O.P.! Someone hasn't been reading his manual.
Apparently the protestors in Seattle were pepper-sprayed for the unconscionable crime of sitting in the street.
That little blonde girl clearly had a gun. You all saw it. Why else would she be wearing such a thick coat in December? They had to do it.
A living wage is un-American as it is clearly Socialist. And I wonder how many of those 60-hour/week truck drivers bringing home fast-food paychecks vote or voted repub? Talk about cutting off your nuts to spite your face (or however it is that that old saying goes).
Exactly, look what happened to Putin when he went from IRON fisted rule to allow people to have enough to eat and live indoors; ANARCHY! Now the ingrates want choices.
Some of them are paying attention, but don't expect to hear "Internationale" on country/western stations anytime soon.
Yes, sweet mystery of life. i can't afford to take my kids to the doctor unless I have Sooner Care and let the taxpayers pick up the bill, courtesy the termed-out Democratic governor, yet I'm going to vote for the Republics, because not letting gays get married is more important than my kid's rotting tonsils.
Or as the people I canvassed in 2004 when we thought a couple of Democrats had a chance told me: "I' can't remember their names, but I'm just voting the Republicans because my preacher said to."
In my innocent days, when I had just moved back to OK, I thought the "vote against your self-interest" message was subtle. Ha! A big sign in front of the Baptist church in Fairfax, OK, actually read "Vote your values, not your pocketbook." I told me old man about it and he drove up there just to get photos.
Sad. Sad, sad, sad, that we have to live in a world controlled by idiot puppets of the 1%.
Must you live up to your name?
I can hardly wait for the preachers to explain how voting for Newt is voting for your values.
But he said he was going to honor the institution of marriage.
See, he has redeemed hisself. All it took was taking a vow…
He honors it three times as much as most of us do.
Here's a guy who fits your description to a tee. Accepts unemployment, foodstamps, welfare, medicaid, etc, and says the government shouldn't provide the safety net. He says others would pick up the slack, but he never says who…
I knew a guy like that. Cracker-ass wrestler in tenth grade, telling fried chicken n' watermelon jokes on the day of the Million Man March. Now, he lives in sin with his baby-mother — who has children by him & at least one other man — & gets food stamps.
Maybe if the kids had all done jumping jacks, SOMEONE would say something about this fascist behavior fer chrissakes. I'm looking at you, Barry.
I'll admit that this is off-topic, but did anyone notice that Fox News is now seemingly trying to euthanize Romney's campaign by running footage of Romney from 2002 in which he says he's a "moderate" with "progressive" views?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal...
Is the blade sharp yet, Dr. Guillotine?
Every time the NYPD makes a child cry, Bloomberg gets a boner.
and a baby's heart to feast on
And pulls off an angel's wings.
I got nuthin'. Watching that just leaves me empty. Hell in a fucking handbasket…
Sorry, kids, but Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want your bleeding paper hearts. That's litter.
Over the weekend, Occupy Richmond shut down a couple of intersections for a few minutes while marching through the capital of the Confederacy. And the cops largely stayed off to the side.
Time for the ghost of Sherman to reverse course and go from Georgia to NYC, stat…
I couldn't not laugh watching that second video because HOW IS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING? They have to be trying really hard to piss people off, because anyone with any sense at all would have told them that tearing down paper hearts made by children in front of said children and making them cry is not exactly a good PR move.
It makes you pine for the days when The boys of the NYPD choir Were singing "Galway Bay" And the bells were ringing out For Christmas day.
Aye, me favorite Kresmas chune….
They're playing to their base.
And then Newt Gingrich arrived on a fire truck and gave all the children a piece of coal and a minimum wage job cleaning up the remains of their little exercise in free expression.
And that's the story of Chirstmas, 2011.
He stated that position again at the last debate, that poor children need to be put to work cleaning schools because a union janitor makes more money than a teacher.
And the crowd applauded.
You know, this is pretty crappy simply on the face of it. But also, if I was a Union Janitor I'd be pretty pissed off too, because he is saying that the work is so simple that even an untrained, inexperienced 5th grader could do it. And — exposing children to the chemicals involved in cleaning and disinfecting — that won't cause any long term problems for the kids. Besides, they are poor. They are expendable. Grrrr.
Meanwhile, best post-war quote on the Gifzette: "A year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad named after President Bush."
—Richard Perle, 9/22/2003
How much do we bet* that there'll be a square somewhere – anywhere – named after the Occupy movement before there's one name after Dick Cheney?
*Either one dollar of 10,000.
These are the same douchenozzles that on their way out the door, kept saying that history will not judge the Bush Administration badly.
I guess History hasn't been long enough yet. Wait another millenia or so.
The way things are going, another millenium, we'll still be in Iran, Afghanistan, etc., etc…
Probably not–the oil can't possibly last that long, and without it there's no reason to remain.
You optimist, you. As though humans will still be around. Anywhere.
Yeah … look at how Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun have bee rehabilitated with the passage of time. Oh wait… OK, let's make it two millennia.
"We love being behind the wheel. We are proud of the work we do to keep America’s economy moving. But we feel humiliated when we receive paychecks that suggest we work part time at a fast-food counter."
BURGERMcRib-flippin' McLIBEL!!1!Wait….the Corporatocracy hasn't outsourced our ports yet????
Really. I thought that the Arab terrorists were given that business years ago.
Oh, and dude in the screen-grab is hawt..amirite, ladiez?
He's got kind of a lame, Cali-style accent, but overall? yeah, he's hawt.
Damn, you read my mind, and I promise not to make the obvious Occupy joke.
He could stand up for my rights, anytime.
Nice to see that the CHILDREN protesting did not impede the drunken Santacon idiots.
You have the right to be pepper-sprayed,
to be handcuffed, to be beaten,
to spend some time in jail.
These are your rights. Enjoy them for mow. It can get a lot worse.
He looks so pissed off to. Like he's saying to himself "these fucking kids putting their crafts up. What rite do they have doing that. BOY I'D LOVE TO BUST OPEN THAT BITCHY 7 YEAR OLD'S HEAD AND WOULD IF THERE WASN'T A CAMERA"
Harry Bridges, RIP, you communist Kiwi*.
* Aussie, actually.
"Instead, we ask you, are you willing to listen and learn why a one-word response is impossible?"
To which the media has a one-word response.
"Duh…"
But we feel humiliated when we receive paychecks that suggest we work part time at a fast-food counter.
What's even worse is that fast-food workers usually get a discount on their shitty meals that they have to buy at the company store and the truckers don't!
To
serve and protectstomp on and intimidate.Wow. Cops really, really suck at PR.
We just had the Christmas/Holiday “Shop with a Cop” where poor kids go to EvilWalMart with a local donut eater. It creeps me. out.
OT again, but check out the latest unemployment figures, as distorted by Fucks Gnus.
Media Matters has the story, along with an honest plot of the data. Comments from the wingtards focus on how the honest plot actually distorts the facts, therefore something something.
If these kids refuse to work, insist on doing crafty little hearts, then I have a "modest proposal" that should solve this problem.
Gingrich/Christie Hunger Tour
Warning: Snarklessness ahead:
As a near shut-in I want to express my profound gratitude to the Occupiers for the time and energy and spirit it must take to do all that occupying. I can't occupy, but I'm sending some little contributions when I can to our locals. And thank you kids, for your heart felt (and felt hearts) contributions too. They may have torn down the hearts, but you've warmed many of ours.
Nothing says "99%" like a MacLaren Stroller.
Really, NYPD–the hearts pose a threat to public safety now?
So much for the I (heart) NY shirts, then…
OT, but that Shell ad is really irritating, aesthetically and message-wise. I'm usually able to ignore the Wonkette ads or appreciate their placement here, but this one really sucks. Plus it freezes my screen when I refresh so I have to watch whatever that light thingy is. I know Wonkette has to pay its bills, but this one is horribly sucky.
Besides, it's not as much fun as Kortney was…
Better oil-powered broadband!
May the Force be with the Occupiers.
It may just be the hangover talking, but the brownish cop actually looked unhappy having to take down the hearts. And the "Occupy MY pole!" guy at 3:11 should have been vegetable sprayed, for freedom.
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