Occupy Protests


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Serkanner
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Serkanner »

Drunken Idaho wrote:
Serkanner wrote:I also was a protester in my younger days ( early eighties in Holland against the placement of nuclear bombs in our country for instance ) but those lasted a single day when hundreds of thousands made their voice heard ... and then went back to work.
Did it work?
Yes it did. The government decided to not place Cruise Missile installations and the nuclear warheads in our country after the massive protests in Amsterdam and Den Haag in 1981-1985 where half a million and more people marched (out of a population of 14 million).
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

SandRider wrote:one more time: you just GOTS to separate the US Federal Government (& Federal Military)
from the actual people who happen to inhabit the actual land occupied by that government (& military) ...

to me, a statement like "The US does/does not care about 'other' ("less fortunate") countries"
is meaningless horseshit-babble ... again, there just ain't no "us" in "US" ...

does the Federal Government "care" about other countries ("less fortunate" or not)?
well ... fuck, no ... the only concern the US Federal Government has is how it can use
its wealth, power & influence to exploit any and all other countries for its' own benefit ..
(and not saying this is "wrong", or even immoral - this is just the way Empires behave)

do the "people" care ?
the vast majority don't ... private humanitarian donations to various organizations spike
after any type of tragedy or catastrophe, but even then, totaling those amounts versus
earned income & GDP show that in real dollars, "Americans" care maybe a little over one percent ...

the outlays for the Federal Government's "foreign aid" is paltry at best,
taken as a percentage of the Federal Budget, but even then, the "aid" is
set with so many barbed hooks of coercion, any "goodwill" that might have
been generated is soon lost ...
Even though the percentage is low it's still more than other countries. give. A lot more.
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Freakzilla
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

Serkanner wrote:
Freakzilla wrote:You saying Americans don't help people in other countries?
That is not what I said. I was addressing DI's defence of the occupy movement which is in my opinion only focussed on the "horrible" situation in the Free West.

What I am sorry for is that I wandered of into the politics section of the forum. Nothing good will come from it.
I'm sorry I misunderstood. I thought you meant he should be protesting about real problems, like how other countries don't spend enough in foreign aid.
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Nekhrun
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Nekhrun »

Freakzilla wrote:
SandRider wrote:one more time: you just GOTS to separate the US Federal Government (& Federal Military)
from the actual people who happen to inhabit the actual land occupied by that government (& military) ...

to me, a statement like "The US does/does not care about 'other' ("less fortunate") countries"
is meaningless horseshit-babble ... again, there just ain't no "us" in "US" ...

does the Federal Government "care" about other countries ("less fortunate" or not)?
well ... fuck, no ... the only concern the US Federal Government has is how it can use
its wealth, power & influence to exploit any and all other countries for its' own benefit ..
(and not saying this is "wrong", or even immoral - this is just the way Empires behave)

do the "people" care ?
the vast majority don't ... private humanitarian donations to various organizations spike
after any type of tragedy or catastrophe, but even then, totaling those amounts versus
earned income & GDP show that in real dollars, "Americans" care maybe a little over one percent ...

the outlays for the Federal Government's "foreign aid" is paltry at best,
taken as a percentage of the Federal Budget, but even then, the "aid" is
set with so many barbed hooks of coercion, any "goodwill" that might have
been generated is soon lost ...
Even though the percentage is low it's still more than other countries. give. A lot more.
But that's not his point. The government gives only to manipulate, not to help.
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Re: Occupy Protests

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The American public also gives an enormous amount to private charities.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

And I'm all for cutting off all foreign aid since it isn't appreciated anyway.
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Nekhrun
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Nekhrun »

Again, it's not appreciation that the government is looking for.
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Happy Memorial Day everyone! -James C. Harwood

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Freakzilla
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

I'm all for staying out of foreign politics, too.

Next earthquake or tsunami, we'll just let y'all take care of it.
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Freakzilla
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

Back on-topic...

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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

Flashback to Jan. 28 2011:



Plenty of hypocrisy in the first minute alone.

Do we have a thread going on Anonymous? I was going to post some related info I found out last night, but it's a bit off-topic here.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by SandRider »

What I am sorry for is that I wandered of into the politics section of the forum. Nothing good will come from it.
that's what we've been saying ever since it started ....

on the other hand, it keeps political opinions out of the rest of the sietch ....
................ I exist only to amuse myself ................
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Freakzilla
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

SandRider wrote:
What I am sorry for is that I wandered of into the politics section of the forum. Nothing good will come from it.
on the other hand, it keeps political opinions out of the rest of the sietch ....
I think it's been hugely successful in that respect.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

The Tweetscape informs me that tomorrow should be an interesting day:

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West Coast port shutdown in multiple cities. Expect numerous solidarity marches or shutdowns in other cities too. Apparently Goldman Sachs owns the shipping company that is the target for this. Things get kicked off with an Occupy Goldman Sachs at 7:30am EST. You can search #D12 on twitter to follow the day's events. There will be video livestreams to watch as well.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Freakzilla »

Now that's the kind of protest that will get the fat cat's attention.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

Freakzilla wrote:Now that's the kind of protest that will get the fat cat's attention.
Let's hope so! So far, lots of arrests reported, but mostly in NYC where they are marching in solidarity. Reports say that police moved in on a bunch of livestreamers first, and many of the operators of those feeds were arrested. Here are some that are still up:

http://www.livestream.com/occupynyc <--- Ohh, this is fun: Live from the Paddy Wagon in NYC (550 viewers)

http://www.ustream.tv/theother99 <-- Long Beach (1900 viewers at the moment) Police calling it an "unlawful protest" and are threatening use of "impact weapons"

http://www.ustream.tv/occupyoakland <-- Port of Oakland (1700 viewers)

http://www.livestream.com/owsnyc <-- NYC financial district (150 viewers)

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution <-- Switching between multiple streams (1600 viewers)


I'll let you know if I find more, follow this link for live text/photo updates:

http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23D12
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

http://www.livestream.com/occupyptown <-- Portland (300 viewers)
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

http://bambuser.com/channel/Roastcaulif ... st/2206210 <-- Another Paddy Wagon stream, not sure if it's a different one, but the other one is now showing a different feed.
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Re: Occupy Protests

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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

Here's an open letter published today from representatives of America's Port Truck Drivers, explaining why they support today's shutdown. I've emphasized in bold some of the parts that pertain mostly to this thread, but it's all worth reading of course...

http://cleanandsafeports.org/blog/2011/ ... the-ports/
Port Truck Drivers wrote:An Open Letter from America’s Port Truck Drivers on Occupy the Ports
December 12, 2011

We are the front-line workers who haul container rigs full of imported and exported goods to and from the docks and warehouses every day.

We have been elected by committees of our co-workers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma to tell our collective story. We have accepted the honor to speak up for our brothers and sisters about our working conditions despite the risk of retaliation we face. One of us is a mother, the rest of us fathers. Between the four of us we have six children and one more baby on the way. We have a combined 31 years of experience driving cargo from our shores for America’s stores.

We are inspired that a non-violent democratic movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts and minds of so many working people. Thank you “99 Percenters” for hearing our call for justice. We are humbled and overwhelmed by recent attention. Normally we are invisible.

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.

There is so much at stake in our industry. It is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations. We don’t think truck driving should be a dead-end road in America. It should be a good job with a middle-class paycheck like it used to be decades ago.

We desperately want to drive clean and safe vehicles. Rigs that do not fill our lungs with deadly toxins, or dirty the air in the communities we haul in.

Poverty and pollution are like a plague at the ports. Our economic conditions are what led to the environmental crisis.

You, the public, have paid a severe price along with us.

Why? Just like Wall Street doesn’t have to abide by rules, our industry isn’t bound to regulation. So the market is run by con artists. The companies we work for call us independent contractors, as if we were our own bosses, but they boss us around. We receive Third World wages and drive sweatshops on wheels. We cannot negotiate our rates. (Usually we are not allowed to even see them.) We are paid by the load, not by the hour. So when we sit in those long lines at the terminals, or if we are stuck in traffic, we become volunteers who basically donate our time to the trucking and shipping companies. That’s the nice way to put it. We have all heard the words “modern-day slaves” at the lunch stops.


There are no restrooms for drivers. We keep empty bottles in our cabs. Plastic bags too. We feel like dogs. An Oakland driver was recently banned from the terminal because he was spied relieving himself behind a container. Neither the port, nor the terminal operators or anyone in the industry thinks it is their responsibility to provide humane and hygienic facilities for us. It is absolutely horrible for drivers who are women, who risk infection when they try to hold it until they can find a place to go.

The companies demand we cut corners to compete. It makes our roads less safe. When we try to blow the whistle about skipped inspections, faulty equipment, or falsified logs, then we are “starved out.” That means we are either fired outright, or more likely, we never get dispatched to haul a load again.

It may be difficult to comprehend the complex issues and nature of our employment. For us too. When businesses disguise workers like us as contractors, the Department of Labor calls it misclassification. We call it illegal. Those who profit from global trade and goods movement are getting away with it because everyone is doing it. One journalist took the time to talk to us this week and she explains it very well to outsiders. We hope you will read the enclosed article “How Goldman Sachs and Other Companies Exploit Port Truck Drivers.

But the short answer to the question: Why are companies like SSA Marine, the Seattle-based global terminal operator that runs one of the West Coast’s major trucking carriers, Shippers’ Transport Express, doing this? Why would mega-rich Maersk, a huge Danish shipping and trucking conglomerate that wants to drill for more oil with Exxon Mobil in the Gulf Coast conduct business this way too?

To cheat on taxes, drive down business costs, and deny us the right to belong to a union, that’s why.


The typical arrangement works like this: Everything comes out of our pockets or is deducted from our paychecks. The truck or lease, fuel, insurance, registration, you name it. Our employers do not have to pay the costs of meeting emissions-compliant regulations; that is our financial burden to bear. Clean trucks cost about four to five times more than what we take home in a year. A few of us haul our company’s trucks for a tiny fraction of what the shippers pay per load instead of an hourly wage. They still call us independent owner-operators and give us a 1099 rather than a W-2.

We have never recovered from losing our basic rights as employees in America. Every year it literally goes from bad to worse to the unimaginable. We were ground zero for the government’s first major experiment into letting big business call the shots. Since it worked so well for the CEOs in transportation, why not the mortgage and banking industry too?

Even the few of us who are hired as legitimate employees are routinely denied our legal rights under this system. Just ask our co-workers who haul clothing brands like Guess?, Under Armour, and Ralph Lauren’s Polo. The carrier they work for in Los Angeles is called Toll Group and is headquartered in Australia. At the busiest time of the holiday shopping season, 26 drivers were axed after wearing Teamster T-shirts to work. They were protesting the lack of access to clean, indoor restrooms with running water. The company hired an anti-union consultant to intimidate the drivers. Down Under, the same company bargains with 12,000 of our counterparts in good faith.

Despite our great hardships, many of us cannot — or refuse to, as some of the most well-intentioned suggest — “just quit.” First, we want to work and do not have a safety net. Many of us are tied to one-sided leases. But more importantly, why should we have to leave? Truck driving is what we do, and we do it well.

We are the skilled, specially-licensed professionals who guarantee that Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart are all stocked with just-in-time delivery for consumers. Take a look at all the stuff in your house. The things you see advertised on TV. Chances are a port truck driver brought that special holiday gift to the store you bought it.

We would rather stick together and transform our industry from within. We deserve to be fairly rewarded and valued. That is why we have united to stage convoys, park our trucks, marched on the boss, and even shut down these ports.

It’s like our hero Dutch Prior, a Shipper’s/SSA Marine driver, told CBS Early Morning this month: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

The more underwater we are, the more our restlessness grows. We are being thoughtful about how best to organize ourselves and do what is needed to win dignity, respect, and justice.

Nowadays greedy corporations are treated as “people” while the politicians they bankroll cast union members who try to improve their workplaces as “thugs.”

But we believe in the power and potential behind a truly united 99%. We admire the strength and perseverance of the longshoremen. We are fighting like mad to overcome our exploitation, so please, stick by us long after December 12. Our friends in the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports created a pledge you can sign to support us here.

We drivers have a saying, “We may not have a union yet, but no one can stop us from acting like one.”

The brothers and sisters of the Teamsters have our backs. They help us make our voices heard. But we need your help too so we can achieve the day where we raise our fists and together declare: “No one could stop us from forming a union.”


Thank you.

In solidarity,

Leonardo Mejia
SSA Marine/Shippers Transport Express
Port of Long Beach
10-year driver

Yemane Berhane
Ports of Seattle & Tacoma
6-year port driver

Xiomara Perez
Toll Group
Port of Los Angeles
8-year driver

Abdul Khan
Port of Oakland
7-year port driver
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/korgasm <-- Port of Houston (800 viewers) - A handful of protestors met with dozens of of police, many of them with duct tape covering their names (this has been seen before). Arrests have been made.

I also saw an elderly lady lecturing Houston police about the NDAA Habeus Corpus-killing bill.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Mandy »

The police put tape over their names? How can that be legal?
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »

Mandy wrote:The police put tape over their names? How can that be legal?
I don't believe it is... Not totally sure about Houston, but this was from Oakland a while back and judging by the cops' reactions to the guys' questioning, it doesn't seem too legal:



Again, this has been happening a lot since the occupy protests started.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by Drunken Idaho »



Here's a video of one of the livestreamers being targeted in NYC. Looks like they had done a occupy/flashmob at the World Financial Center. Reports are that the 2 NYPD who tackled him were a Captain & a Deputy Inspector. Can't really be sure of that from this video, but you can see some pretty high-rank-looking insignia at 0:21.
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by MetaCugel8262 »

Change we, the 99 percent will never accept: Chinese Fascism/Communism. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. Monopoly. :lol:
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Re: Occupy Protests

Post by MetaCugel8262 »

And here is why...two youtube videos using humor to demonstrate the myriad reasons...but one in particular...a total lack of happiness, flexibility and joy.
The play of words can lead to certain expectations which life is unable to match. This is a source of much insanity and other forms of unhappiness...-Wreave Saying: Whipping Star
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