OWST Update #3: Learning and Witnessing

Comment

Comment by June Herold on December 16, 2011 at 2:36pm

John, thank you so much for filling in the blanks and providing more context.

Comment by John L. Bohman on December 15, 2011 at 11:30pm

My Dearest Friends:

There is a labor perspective on the protests, which you can see articulated in part below by the president of the ILWU.  As a union labor lawyer who has probably made it into the one-percent, I am definitely not the right person to articulate a union perspective; but I have spent my entire legal career representing labor related organizations.  Despite that, the following can only represent my personal viewpoint.

The protestors and their goals are widely supported by the labor movement, but some of their tactics are not.  There has been a long and proud struggle for generations in Oakland and San Francisco by the members of the ILWU over pay, benefits, and woking conditions at the ports in the Bay Area.  It is fundamentally a struggle that has been and must continue to be moved forward by those who work there; it is their struggle; it is not a struggle that the protestors can or should adopt or take over.  Those workers  have successfully organized a union; and the result has been better pay, better benefits, and better working conditions. Why shut down a unionized work place with relative labor peace when the percentage of unionized private sector employees is in single digits?  Isn't this the kind of work place that the protestors want?  These are ninety-nine per centers who have actually made some progress.  There was no request by the workers or their union for outsiders to organize a shut down.  This is not my idea of solidarity.

The following letter was sent to longshore local unions on December 6, 2011 from ILWU International President Robert McEllrath:

On October 5, 2011, I published a statement in support of “Occupy Wall Street.” In that statement, I thanked the organizers of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in New York City for shining a light on some of the most pressing issues of our times – corporate influence on democracy, the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, and the failure of accountability for the financial crisis. These issues are linked to issues that concern the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), namely, the attack on Social Security and Medicare, the refusal to level the playing field by supporting workplace democracy and employee free choice, and the failure to implement any kind of meaningful change to an unjust tax system, and we find strength in the courage of the supporters of the Occupy movement.

Since my October 5 statement, the Occupy movement has spread from the East Coast to the West Coast and captured the hearts and minds of the 99% who have had enough. Some in the movement have begun to draw comparisons between the broader struggle against Corporate America and the ILWU’s labor dispute with its employer EGT in Longview. The fact is that the story of corporate greed and its impact on the working class is the story of the 99%, and, of course, this reality connects us all.

While there can be no doubt that the ILWU shares the Occupy movement’s concerns about the future of the middle class and corporate abuses, we must be clear that our struggle against EGT is just that – our struggle. The ILWU has a long history of democracy. Part of that historic democracy is the hard-won right to chart our own course to victory. As the Occupy movement, which began in September 2011, sweeps this country, there is a real danger that forces outside of the ILWU will attempt to adopt our struggle as their own. Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process and jeopardizes our over two year struggle in Longview.

Most recently, groups directly connected to the Occupy movement and other loosely affiliated social media groups have called for the shutdown of certain terminals and the West Coast ports. At the same time, these groups se

Comment by June Herold on December 14, 2011 at 8:18pm

Thanks folks for the comments. Sorry for acknowledging them a few days after your posts. On the plane back from San Fran, I considered what it would take to mobilize OWSTers and send them to DC to descend on the Mall and other significant, visible government spots. Seems to me that local churches could raise money to hire buses to send OWST to Washington ---less stress on local reources and more pressure on the people making laws and decisions about how the economy is run and managed.

Comment by Laura Dely on December 14, 2011 at 8:05pm

Thank you, June. Robert Reich said it all - our democracy has been taken over by big money. I'm extremely grateful to the OWSTers - they have brought the issue to the center of public debate, where it should be.

I just hope that the Democrats turn away from their big money persuits, and stand up for economic justice here and abroad. They could make a great case that tax cuts and shrinking regulation just don't work, so why not try what worked to get us out of the Great Depression and onto the 30-year economic jaggernaut path that resulted: spend now to create jobs for things that need doing, raise taxes to redistribute the extreme excesses at the very top, strengthen unions here and abroad (pass the Employee Free Choice Act for starters), and increase regulation, especially in the financial sector. And move away from social issues like abortion, gay marriage, and boogey men from Darwin to Obama. The last thing the right wingers want to have the public riled up about is the economy, which could be used as the focal point in the upcoming 2012 campaigns. And be used to sharply distinguish the two parties, but first Democrats would have to walk away from their own big money ways, and I don't see much of a chance of that happening anytime soon. One can always hope.

Frightening news about the next big likely crash: Europe, which is saddled with hundreds of billion dollars in credit default swaps, and other risky investments a situation that has been ignored whilest it managed the crisises in Greece, Spain, Portugal. Wall Street is deeply entwined with European banks, so as they stagger, so will our economy. Robert Reich discussed this on today's Marketplace.

Re: the dock workers, I say that the unions just aren't explaining things to their members anymore. They should have updated the workers about the OWST movement, as it so definitely encompasses their concerns overall, right from the first NYC encampment. And the unions should have reached out to the SF activists as soon as they learned of the planned action, and figured out a way to subsidize the workers who wanted to join the demonstration so they wouldn't have lost a day's pay, and encouraged participation.

Union members used to have a ferocious stake in their locals; now they just pay their dues and hope for a more secure future. I have hope that the OWST movement will awaken those members and reenergize their drive for a fair share.

Comment by Cynthia Adcock on December 13, 2011 at 8:23pm

Thank you, June--ironies indeed.  The only way I know how to deal with them is the notion of "contradictions."  Opposing forces that can only be resolved by pulling together into a creative synthesis.  Like workers becoming also owners of businesses; like communities owning a share of the businesses—and using that ownership to create worker- and environment-friendly policies.  A long slog, I know, but there's lots of history in many different countries that says it is possible.  

Comment by Sana Saeed on December 12, 2011 at 1:11pm

I was just talking about this the other day with friends, after hearing Kojo Anandi on NPR talk about how the local businesses around Macphearson Sq where Occupy DC is camped out, are suffering. One critique was that some of the servers and busboys working in the restaurant's surrounding the park are also part of the 99%, but because work is slow as restaurant goers are avoiding the protest area, the restaurant staff are hurting. So, how do we reconcile these two sides of the 99%, some people don't have the option of not working to camp out in protest. Secondly, I'm aghast at the allegations of sexual assault that have emerged from Occupy Wall Street (written about in this blog : http://www.madre.org/blog/?p=1944). Supposedly, the women had organized a rally in support of women's rights and against sexual assault and were boed by some male protestors. The same has happened in DC. The result has been to create a women's only tent- but as the author of the blog says, it's sad that women have to be targeted as such and have to create a group tent for safety purposes. I DEFINITELY believe in the occupy movement, but I don't believe in the hypocrisy. I'm also frustrated about the scapegoating by supporters who say that- oh well the sexual assault and public urination (which has been a problem in DC) is because there are homeless people and others that have decided to camp out with the protestors. Just because people are homeless, doesn't mean they're the most likely to commit crimes against women.....it's a stereotype and it's scapegoating to say that. I really hope that the protestors stay in solidarity towards their original mission/goals, and take into account the affect of their protest on local business and within their own camp. (Sorry about the rant)!

Comment by Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith on December 12, 2011 at 12:20pm

Thank you for this post, June ...

Global Peace through Justice had a very well-attended program in UUCA's Board Room yesterday focusing on the issue of corporate personhood. They started with Annie Leonard's 9-minute video, "The Story of Citizens United v. FEC", followed by presenters including Equene Freechild of Public Citizen. There will be related Global Peace through Justice events in the New Year -- I encourage everyone concerned about the undue influence of corporations to check them out!