Crowds attempt to shut down Oakland
Pueng Vongs, Y! SF Editor
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Oakland Wednesday to join in a general strike against the city. Protesters from the Occupy Oakland movement aimed to shut down the city's businesses in response to economic inequality and to the violent crackdown on protesters who had set up camp nearby.
The all day protests and marches were mostly peaceful. There were some reports of break-off groups smashing windows at banks and the Whole Foods in Oakland.
In the evening, participants boarded buses and converged on the Port of Oakland to block entrances. Many port workers left early ahead of the crowd's arrival. ILWU representatives said they do not sanction a strike.
An official told Reuters maritime operations at the Oakland port, which handles some $39 billion a year in imports and exports, had been "effectively shut down" by the thousands of marchers that gathered there.
Normally bustling on a weekday, downtown Oakland seemed more quiet than usual, with only scattered businesses open.
The frenetic scene at 14th and Broadway, the hub of the Occupy Oakland movement, was a mix of causes, tents, public services, spiritual practices, and food suppliers, including a tortilla maker with "Day of the Dead Occupy Oakland Nov. 2" printed on its product.
Activist and author Angela Davis galvanized the crowd in her talk, saying, "The eyes of the world are on our city. There are now Occupy movements in Asia and South America and Europe. The 99 percent are rising all over the planet."
"B" from the Occupy Los Angeles movement came to support the Oakland group equipped with a gas mask. "I'm prepared for what already has happened," he says. He added their L.A. group has a "great relationship with police." "They ask us how can we help you?"
Robert Dees, a U.S. Army medic from Oakland, came to help out first aid needs. "I've been having my own issues with disability payments." He felt great sympathy for Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran seriously injured in the violent police sweep. "He was just standing there with a bible in one hand and a flag in the other."
Protesters marched to bank branches on 12th Street and Broadway. The branches were already closed before they arrived. A report from the The Daily Californian says hundreds of students marched down Telegraph Ave. to join the protests.
Oakland is letting city workers use vacation or other paid time to take part in the general strike. About 5 percent of city workers took the day off Wednesday, according to City Administrator Deanna Santana in an AP report.
About 360 Oakland teachers didn't show up for work, or roughly 18 percent of the district's 2,000 teachers, said Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint to the AP.
Photo captions: Scenes from the Occupy Oakland movement. (Sherbeam Wright for Yahoo! Local)
