Occupy Oakland has announced that SEIU Local 1021, which represents over 50,000 public service workers, will be asking its members to join Wednesday's General Strike. If confirmed, this could exponentially increase the number of participants in this important and historic act of collective civil disobedience. While SEIU cannot make a pronouncement that it is joining a general strike, reports from Occupy Oakland are that the union is asking union members to "voluntarily" participate.
Update: 10/31 - SEIU has put out a release confirming their support for the general strike on November 2. While they make clear that, as a union, they are not legally able to tell members to join a general strike, they get around this by saying "we encourage members to use legitimate time off to stand in support of Occupy Oakland."
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To add to the tremendous news, the Oakland Education Association has announced its endorsement of the strike in a statement entitled "We Are, We Teach the 99 Percent."
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Additionally, it has been announced that Oakland's Carpenters Local Union is going to be striking with Occupy Oakland as well.
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In mid-October, I (@David_EHG) published a piece in AlterNet (via Tikkun magazine) entitled "Could National Strikes and Boycotts be Occupy Wall Street's Next Move?"
I knew it was a possibility that national (and local) strikes could be a powerful galvanizing factor with winter approaching.
However, I did not think it would be happening so soon. Which leaves me thinking one thing: woohoo!
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Want to be further inspired? Here's video from Occupy Oakland's General Assembly in which they came to consensus about holding the strike:
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And as wu ming notes in the comments, Occupy Oakland plans to shut down the port on November 2 as part of the General Strike and in solidarity with Longshore workers:
On Wednesday, November 2nd as part of the Oakland General Strike, we will march on the Port of Oakland and shut it down. We will converge at 5pm at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift.
We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital on the day of the General Strike, as well as to show our commitment to solidarity with Longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Washington. EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction. The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD, a leading agribusiness and food company which reported 2.4 billion dollars in profit in 2010; this company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers.
The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it.The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% – their wealth only exists because the 99%
Here's a (to me) powerful video in which Longshore Workers, using the people's mic, announce their participation:
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Want more goodness? Okay, there is now going to be a Childrens' Brigade March from the public library for all those students who might be, um, striking from school, and for all those toddlers out there whose parents will be striking.