Whither Occupy Wall Street? (tags)
class war
Portland, Oregon Prepares for Pre-Election Anti-Austerity Protest (tags)
On November 3rd Portland community and labor groups will declare “enough is enough” by organizing a first for the U.S. — a large demonstration against government austerity cuts.
The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
F29 Walmart Warehouse Shutdown: Victory at Dawn (tags)
Wednesday, February 29, 2011
EASTVALE, California - Nearly 300 people arrived at six in the morning in this desolate inland city with the intent to shut down the world's largest distribution center for Walmart goods. Activists from Occupy Riverside, Occupy LA, other Southern California occupys, community activists, and student groups arrived at the Schneider warehouse only to find that the management had closed the facility of its own accord. Having tasted victory at dawn, the group soon set its sights much higher.
Cornel West lectures on social justice; PD harasses occupier for flyering (tags)
February 1, 2012
POMONA - The prophetic voice of Cornel West was heard by hundreds of people this evening at Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. West lectured on self-knowledge, what it means to be human, suffering, and the Occupy movement's role in confronting social, civic, and economic death of our society, as well as its moral bankruptcy. The CSUPD, however, sent a different message when its agents silenced an activist by prohibiting him from handing out flyers.
F29 SHUTDOWN THE CORPORATIONS CALL TO ACTION: Occupy Walmart! (tags)
Join Occupy Riverside, Redlands, San Bernardino Valley, Los Angeles and other Occupy groups in the region for the mass participatory direct action targeting Walmart's largest warehouse and distribution center. NO BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Targeting Journalists Covering OWS Protests (tags)
police state
Longshore Workers, Truckers: Shut the Ports, Coast to Coast! (tags)
Following the nationally-coordinated police evictions last month of Occupy Wall Street and encampments across the country, on December 12 the Occupiers struck back. Ports up and down the West Coast were blockaded, from Seattle to San Diego. Despite a barrage of hostile propaganda in the media, opposition from union bureaucrats and heavy police repression in some places, overall the blockade was successful -- this time. The blockade was called in solidarity with longshore workers fighting a union-busting assault in Longview, Washington and port truckers seeking union recognition in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. This support should have been greeted. But now the class war on the West Coast docks is coming to a head, and it can't be waged from the outside. Bay Area labor has called for a caravan to Longview. The goal should be a real occupation of the terminal by the workers to prevent the loading of the scab cargo. Longshore militants have called on the longshore unions to shut down every port on the West Coast, and the East and Gulf Coasts, to smash EGT's union-busting. Can it be done? Yes, but only though sharp struggle against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy.
The Way Forward for Occupy Portland (tags)
In Portland, Oregon, all the promise and pitfalls of the Occupy Movement are on public display. Portland is second only to New York when it comes to sustained Occupy power, but in a newly born social movement strength is not something to take for granted. The vast amounts of public support in Portland, earned through large demonstrations and strategic outreach, can be frittered away by the internal contradictions of the movement.
10,000 marched yesterday (Thu.) for "Occupy Portland"! (tags)
Thursday, in peaceful solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, the occupation of Portland, Oregon, began. According to reports, approximately 10,000 peaceful Oregonians marched from Tom McCall Waterfront Park to Pioneer Courthouse Square Thursday afternoon.