Occupying Times
84-Year-Old Woman Becomes the Pepper-Sprayed Face of Occupy Seattle
The Seattle branch of the Occupy movement, which has been camped out near Seattle Central Community College, held the march in support of the New York camp, which faced a day long eviction battle with the city yesterday. On Monday, Occupy Oakland was the scene of another attempt by police to drive campers out of a city park. There were reports that both Occupy San Francisco and Occupy Cal (on the Berkeley campus of the University of California) are being raided on Wednesday morning. The week of police crackdown comes amid reports that the federal government and is coordinating with multiple on legal strategies that can shut down the Occupy protests.
Occupy Oakland’s port shutdown has re-energised the movement
Ever since Occupy Oakland was evicted, the movement has been stuck in the mud. Efforts to find a new site for the camp have been less than successful, while the general assemblies have been alternately racked by controversy and sparsely attended. Shutting down "Wall Street on the Waterfront", as they've called it, is an effort to get some of their momentum back. And so far, it looks promising: perhaps a thousand community members gathered in West Oakland at 5.30am yesterday morning, marched into the port of Oakland and prevented port workers and container trucks from entering. Busloads of riot police were on the scene, but there was no riot and they went home. By late morning the port of Oakland was officially shut down: port officials cited "health and safety risks" and sent workers home, leaving container ships loaded at the docks.
link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/13/port-blockade-occupy-oakland?newsfeed=true
Occupy Protesters Try To Blockade US Ports
In Oakland, which neighbours San Francisco, a crowd of around 1,000 chanted “Whose ports? Our ports!” during a pre-dawn march on the cargo port where they tried to block terminal entrances. The long-planned joint action comes after the original Occupy Wall Street camp in New York was dismantled by police, but it fell short of the full-scale blockade some had predicted.
Occupy Wall Street protesters in Boston gone as police arrest 46 in early morning eviction
There were no major clashes between police and protesters when the officers arrived around 5 a.m. at the site opposite the Boston Federal Reserve Bank. The Beantown shutdown came after officials closed similar long-term demonstrations in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
