EAST COUNTY RESIDENTS AMONG 100 PROTESTERS AT “WEST COAST PORT SHUT DOWN”

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By Nadin Abbott

December 12, 2011(San Diego) – Around 100 Occupy San Diego protesters took part locally today in a multi-state effort to shut down West Coast ports.  The protesters succeeded in preventing some trucks from off-loading cargo from ships docked at the port.

The protest was called in support of a long-standing battle between  port owners and the International Longshoremen Union(ILWU). Organizers have also said the shut-down aimed to raise awareness of “corporate greed.”

Before the Occupy protesters arrived, I spoke with Ronald W. Powell, spokesperson for the Port of San Diego. He told me that they had no problem with people exercising their rights, as long as the demonstrators abided by a series of ground rules.

"It is their right to protest under the First Amendment,” he said, adding that the Port authorities will honor that but want people to be safe, “chiefly not to disrupt employees who are also part of the 99%, who also want to do their job.”

Powell pointed out that the port assigned a free speech zone, where people could freely protest and stay out of the road. He also had instructional pamphlets on the dos and don’ts while on port property at the Crosby Port Entrance.

There were two ships in port, a grain ship and a Dole Ship. They were both ready to be unloaded by the Longshoremen.

When the Occupiers finally showed up around 6:30, they did not take on the free speech zone but instead started marching in circles on the corner of Crosby and Cesar Chavez. They were about a hundred protesters.

They did force employees to turn around and go to work through alternate routes. They screamed refrains such as “El Pueblo Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido,” as well as “Shut it down.” They also modified Solidarity Forever, a traditional union song, ending it now with “Occupation makes us strong.”

There was also a strong presence from the National Lawyers Guild, as event legal observers. After a while I walked over to the north gate, which was also blocked by Occupiers. Most came from the original group of one hundred. They were given a warning, as well as an order to disperse, but the police never acted on the north gate to clear the protesters.

While there I had a chance to talk to a trucker who did not want to give his name. He said that he did not know what this was about. But that if “people where here there had to be a reason for it.”

There was quite a line of trucks waiting to enter the Port though the north gate, idling on Harbor Drive, all the way to the Convention center. When it became clear that they were not going to go in, a few turned away.

The mood remained peaceful; Occupiers went across the street to also block a third gate. They achieved a partial slow down of Port operations.

A cheer arose when they learned that Oakland and Portland ports were shut down. At 9:15, the officers formed up and left the line to go back to the Crosby gate.

Back at the Crosby gate, Harbor Police assisted by San Diego Police, pushed the Occupiers off Crosby and Cesar Chavez and onto the corner of Cesar Chavez and Harbor Drive. There the police kept them under control, and this is when the port resumed full operations. It was 9:30.

There were four arrests during these clearing operations. Police moved people off the port property with no use of overt force.

 


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