Blockade Over/Italian Ship Unloads at Long Beach

by LA-IMC writer Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001 at 6:38 AM

After successful blockades in Portland and Oakland, the Cielo De San Francisco unloaded suprisingly early for the 5 activists who showed up to picket. The ship was blockaded in memory of the ship's links to the brutality of Genoa's G-8 streets.



Cielo de San Francisco Unloads in Long Beach

When longshoremen refused to cross the pickets in Portland then Oakland, the Italian based Cielo de San Francisco sailed down the coast to Long Beach Harbor.

Activists attempted to mobilize a picket in LA, getting information from a public website that stated when the ship would arrive in port. Expecting that the ship would start unloading at Long Beach Dock c-62 at 7:00AM August 20th, activists called for a picket at that time.

According to an organizer for the picket, the freight company seems to have grown savvy of that the Longshoreman would not cross a line. To avoid this problem, the freighter had the ship unload at 1:50 pm, presumably paying extra fees to unload at that hour.

Reportedly, When the 5 (five) activists including 3 ISO and 2 Action LA members arrived at the dock they formed a line. Several representatives from the Longshoremen's locals 67 and 13 came down to talk about the picket and its causes, the G-8 events in Genoa. 3 Long Beach PO's arrived to make sure everything was all right, and a reporter for AM-980 did a small report.

Lee Sui Hin, an organizer for Action LA, remarked that the two small victories for those present. He was happy about the conversations with the longshoreman, whom he found to be supportive. He also was impressed that the freight company had caught on to the picket and had to do some misinformation to successfully unload the ship.

Original: Blockade Over/Italian Ship Unloads at Long Beach