Organizers hope to draw thousands to stand in solidarity with longshoremen and port truckers they say are being exploited.
"Taking on and blocking the 1 percent at the port is also taking on the global issue of exploitation by capitalism," said Occupy Oakland blockade organizer Barucha Peller.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents many thousands of longshoremen up and down the West Coast, has distanced itself from the shutdown effort. The union's president suggested in a letter to members that protesters were attempting to co-opt the union's cause to advance their own agenda.
◼ Occupy Movement Attempts to Shut Down Ports - John Hayward/Human Events
Here’s how the Occupy masterminds justify their port shutdown scheme:
"We are occupying the ports as part of a day of action, boycott and march for full legalization and good jobs for all to draw attention to and protest the criminal system of concentrated wealth that depends on local and global exploitation of working people, and the denial of workers' rights to organize for decent pay, working conditions and benefits, in disregard for the environment and the health and safety of surrounding communities," organizers said on their website.To the extent that load of twaddle means anything at all, it’s a neat expression of the totalitarian mindset. The targeted corporations have broken no laws, but the Occupy politburo has decided they’re “criminals,” and has assigned itself the power to punish them. Due process is for wussies!
These vigilantes of commerce are apparently unsatisfied with the environmental results obtained by our staggeringly huge, unbelievably powerful, job-killing eco-bureaucracy, so they want to centralize power even more, over-riding the last shreds of economic liberty for those who oppose their agenda.
It’s also interesting to note how thoroughly every branch of the “progressive” movement is stuck in the past....