DASW Labor Solidarity Working Group Call to Rally Today 5/6 at 4pm

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Down here in Los Angeles we had a very important meeting in South Gate on May 8 and discussed joining in solidarity with Oakland by shutting down again for a week the Los Angeles harbor. Several efforts were made to contact Oakland and we did have confirmation that they were aware of our South Gate meeting. Nobody showed up and the solidarity strike was called off. If only ONE Oakland troquero had showed up history might be different. Maybe even if we had pictures of what was going on it might had been different. The independent media will make a difference in the future linking workers in the two harbors with accurate and descriptive reports.

ernie

Communication and coordination is certainly the name of this game. Here in Oakland we taken completely by surprise by the truckers strike. The irony is that the antiwar movement has been doing actions in the Port of Oakland for a year now, and we do understand the strategic nature of the port, or at least we should. But when the truckers shut down the port of April 30th, we simply weren't ready to do anything. I guess we hadn't even thought of such a thing ever happening, and, when it did, we at first didn't even seem to quite believe it really was happening. By the time we even begin to get ourselves in gear, it was almost over with.

I think that one of the major problems is the mistaken image we have of truckers. There's the Hollywood stereotype of a guy who decorates his rig with a Confederate flag. Well, of the several hundred truckers at the docks, I saw none who fit that image. In fact, most were antiwar. And they welcomed us.

Fortunately, there were several people who reported for Indymedia and covered the events of the strike as they unfolded. In contrast, reporters for the commercial newspapers didn't even bother to go down to the docks and interview the truckers; they basically regurgitated the press releases and statements of port officials. Some of the "facts" reported in the commercial press was grossly inaccurate, if not purposely intended to misinform For example, when the truckers met to negotiate with port officials, the Oakland Tribune inaccurately reported that there had been an agreement. And when the truckers rejected the proposals, the Tribune incorrectly reported that the truckers had "reneged" on their promise.

So Indymedia was there to give coverage which often included breaking news.

Had we been more prepared, we could have done more. For example, a demonstration to show community support for the truckers could have made a major difference in the outcome.

I am going to check in the near future to see if I can get an update about what is going on, and how the supposed monthlong process of further negotiations is going. There was also some fear of immigration based reprisals that I will be checking into, and there is definitely need for community support in the follow up process to the strike actions from April 30 - May 7. An update to the entire story will be posted soon, along with some sort of concrete proposals from community groups around supporting the truckers in what ever is going on now.

Solidarity Forever - upton sinclair