Notes from Occupy Oakland

By Dave Welsh
Oakland, Calif.

Nov 2, 2011

You gotta love the stamina and fighting spirit of this young movement.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, a pre-dawn police raid tore up and destroyed the Occupy Oakland camp. It was a war zone. More than 500 police from at least 12 jurisdictions took part in the paramilitary operation, arresting more than 130 by day’s end, beating many and sending one Iraqi war vet to the hospital in critical condition.

But the people had the last word, fighting to reestablish their liberated area. Many hundreds of militants marched for hours that night through the downtown war zone, thick with cops, to reclaim the streets.

By Wednesday night someone had torn down the police fence and tents sprouted up again on Oscar Grant Plaza. Soon a new camp kitchen was up and running, dishing out plates of hot food. The mayor and police, stung by the ferocity of public outrage at Tuesday’s police riot, were in retreat. The initiative was once again with the people.

Every evening since then, mass meetings of 1,000 to 3,000 people have packed the open-air amphitheater in front of Oakland’s City Hall — building for a one-day General Strike and Mass Day of Action on Nov. 2 to converge on downtown and “shut down the 1%.” This is a movement with legs.

photos: Judy Greenspan

The encampment began on Oct. 10, Indigenous People’s Day. I brought my sleeping bag and started camping out there about 10 days later. The large plaza was a sea of tents. There were maybe 300 people camping, with many more coming by for rallies, a bite to eat or some sharp conversation about the burning issues facing us.

There was a medical tent — with help from the California Nurses Association — a child-care tent, media tent, kitchen and supply tent. Also porta-potties courtesy of the Oakland teachers’ union, city workers’ union and Everett & Jones BBQ. Teamsters brought the water. Donations flowed in from a supportive community.

The big banner at the entrance read, “Oakland Commune — Oscar Grant Plaza.” And it’s true that the camp became a real community. During my four nights in the camp, African Americans made up about 30 percent to 35 percent of those eating and sleeping there, preparing the food or taking on other camp responsibilities.

On Friday night, Oct. 28, musicians and dancers took over the amphitheater with some politically charged reggae music. On Saturday it was hip-hop night. Sunday was movie night, showing the powerful film “Viva Mexico” on a big screen.

At midnight, following camp rules, the sound was turned off so people could sleep. But a lot of people weren’t ready for bed, so they gathered in groups around the plaza to debate everything from the U.S./NATO assault on Libya to the attacks on migrant workers, the new Jim Crow and the prisons, or how to deal with sexism and homophobia inside the camp. It was like a People’s Free University on the streets of Oakland. You got a glimpse of what a society based on real equality might look like.

The outpouring of support following the police raid was something to behold.

A moving candlelight vigil of 3,000 rallied in the amphitheater for Scott Olsen, the Iraqi war vet who was in the hospital with a concussion and brain injury from a police projectile. His comrades from Iraq Veterans Against the War and Steve Morse, a Vietnam vet, spoke simply but powerfully about the wars overseas and the war at home that had just struck down their friend.

GA votes for General Strike

On Oct. 26, the General Assembly of Occupy Oakland, which meets at 7 p.m. every day, voted by 97 percent to hold a General Strike and Mass Day of Action on Nov. 2. The Strike Committee meets every day at 5 p.m. A first run of 12,000 flyers is being distributed, reading: “Everyone to the streets! No work! No school! Converge on downtown Oakland.”

Demands are: 1) Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement; 2) end police attacks on our communities; 3) defend Oakland schools and libraries; 4) against an economic system built on inequality and corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism and destruction of the environment.

On a proposal from Boots Riley, the Oakland-based hip hop artist, the Occupy Oakland strike assembly voted unanimously to march on Nov. 2 to shut down the Port of Oakland. The resolution stated: “… As part of the Oakland General Strike, we will march on the Port of Oakland and shut it down. … We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital,” as well as show solidarity with International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Wash. EGT is a grain exporter, backed by major Wall Street interests, that is trying to break ILWU jurisdiction over longshore work so they can hire cheaper labor.

The resolution said further: “This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. ... The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% — their wealth only exists because the 99% creates it for them.”

Labor support

Many unions and labor councils have condemned the police raid and endorsed the Nov. 2 General Strike. Without specifically calling for strike action by their members, they are nevertheless actively encouraging their members to participate in a mass shutdown of business as usual in Oakland. Union staff and members come to the plaza to take part.

Rank-and-file members of the ILWU union issued a statement, titled “Defend Occupy Oakland with the muscle of organized labor,” which urges support for the General Strike. Other cities are mobilizing to support the Nov. 2 call. One flyer in Philadelphia called on workers to strike for 99 minutes on that day — “in solidarity with the 99%.”

Welsh, a retired union letter carrier, was one of those arrested by Oakland police during the mass bust at Oscar Grant Plaza in the wee hours of the morning on Oct. 25.