Oakland Port Action

Starting at 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning, April 7,
2003, a group of at least 500 protestors began a
community picket line at the entrance to Neptune
Orient Line's docks.

The target was chosen carefully. According to Direct
Action to Stop the War's web site:

"APL is not only a carrier of military cargo; they
also operate as a direct arm of the U.S. Department of
Defense. In their own words, APL has a “close,
decades-long working relationship with the U.S.
Department of Defense (APL website).”

APL, headquartered in Oakland, receives millions of
taxpayer dollars every year for shipping military
cargo through the Department of Defense (DOD) Maritime
Security Program (MSP). APL makes nine of its vessels
available to the DOD in order to move “ammunition and
sustainment cargo.” Several of these vessels have
already been called up to service the military this
year. The MSP is authorized to make payments of $2.1
million per vessel per year through the program.
Therefore, APL is potentially receiving $18 million
dollars of taxpayer money per year from the U.S.
military to be a gunrunner.

But it gets worse, APL’s parent company, Neptune
Orient Lines Ltd, (NOL), is receiving $100 million in
U.S. tax-payer money annually from the DOD for its 47
ships (including APL’s nine) that participate in the
MSP. "

Activists were organized and on message (pro-worker;
anti-war). Folks came prepared for an early morning,
moving community picket line, not a violent
confrontation with the Oakland police.

When the police arrived at 7:00 a.m. (shortly after
the first shift of ILWU workers had been sent home
after arbitration,) they already had their gas masks
on. They gave orders to dispurse, but according to
many reports they did not allow activists time to do
so before firing rubber bullets, concussion grenades,
wooden pellets, and other "non-lethal" weapons into
the crowd.

What follows is an audio documentary of what happened.