Answer the Call! Shut Down the Port!

Occupy Portland has called for a community picket to commence at 6 a.m. on Monday December 12th to shut down the Port of Portland. The action stems from a November 22nd call from Occupy Oakland to shut down all West coast ports as a mean to stand in solidarity. As the initial call stated, “Together we are unstoppable!” But stand in solidarity with whom? Well, and by no means inclusive, it may be said that Monday we shall stand:

– In solidarity with the workers of ILWU Local 21 of Longview who continue to fight the multinational conglomerate EGT and its use of scab labor as a means to break the union.

– In solidarity with 84-year old Dorli Rainey who on November 15th was pepper sprayed by Seattle police.

– In solidarity with Iraq War veteran Olsen whose skull was fractured on October 25th by a projectile fired by the Oakland police.

– In solidarity with the students of UC-Davis who on November 18th were pepper sprayed by campus police at point blank range for protesting tuition hikes.

– In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street who had over 3,000 books from the People’s Library destroyed during the November 15th police raid of Liberty Square.

– In solidarity with the occupiers the nation over who have been, and continue to be, arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment right to free speech.

– In solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin and other states who have come under attack, and no longer have the fundamental right to collectively bargain over the conditions of their employment.

– In solidarity with the nation’s 30 million under and unemployed, over 6 million of whom have been without a job for more than six months.

– In solidarity with the thousands of invisible economic refugees left to sleep under bridges and in alleyways each and every night in cities across the nation.

– In solidarity with indigenous people whose stolen and desecrated lands we have all come to inhabit.

– In solidarity with American war veterans who return wounded and mentally scared from wars of choice only to have their mental and physical health ignored by the very politicians that ordered them into combat.

– In solidarity with the countless civilians living in American war zones across the world who come under daily attack from hellfire missiles raining down from stealth predator drones.

– In solidarity with workers and the 99-percent nationwide who over the last 30 years have seen their incomes stagnate, as the 1-percent have gobbled up nearly 20-percent of the nation’s wealth.

– In solidarity with all those concerned about the ecological threat our world now faces from climate change, and whose voices were ignored in the Durban climate summit of the last two weeks.

– In solidarity with Mohammed Bouazizi, the man who nearly a year ago set himself ablaze in central Tunisia in a desperate protest against the nation’s systemic corruption.

– In solidarity with the people of Egypt who have braved bullets and U.S. manufactured tear gas to topple a dictator, and who now continue their struggle against the lingering military junta.

– In solidarity with the people of Palestine who live and struggle daily under Israeli apartheid.

– In solidarity with all the people of the Arab world who have braved, and continue to brave, lethal force in their continuing struggle to topple long entrenched despots.

– In solidarity with the people of Greece who by the millions have mobilized and continue to fight against draconian social spending cuts imposed by a cabal of European bankers.

– In solidarity with the Indignados of Spain who continue to protest an economy that has left nearly 50-percent of those under 25-years of age unemployed.

– In solidarity with the two million workers in Britain who on November 30th went on strike against radical austerity measures.

– In solidarity with the students in Chile who have braved water cannons and tear gas to voice their belief that all should have access to higher education.

– In solidarity with the estimated 2.4 billion workers globally who are either under or unemployed.

– In solidarity, in other words, with all those exploited and silenced by the parasitic 1-percent for far too long.

This, then, is in part for whom the call for solidarity has been made. It is for you; it is for me; it is for us.

To all people of conscience: Answer the call! Shut down the Port!

by Ben Schreiner