A BID to block the West Coast ports of the USA is being launched by Occupy activists on Monday December 12.
Says the West Coast Ports Blockade site: "The ports play a pivotal role in the flow and growth of capital for the 1% in this country and internationally.
"For that reason alone it is the ideal place to disrupt their profit machine. The workers on these ports have always understood that; they have consistently staged shutdowns for political reasons, honored community picket lines, and led the labor movement.
"A general disruption of commerce, in protest of the nationally coordinated attacks on Occupy movements alone is warranted, but additionally, the specifically targeted attacks on workers at these ports by the 1% further necessitate this call to action."
Adds the Occupy Los Angeles site: "As part of the Dec. 12 Boycott and March for legalization and good jobs, the Occupy movement will protest at one or more facilities belonging to SSA Marine, a shipper owned by Goldman Sachs, with 5 terminals and a warehouse in the Harbor area.
"SSA Marine was recently fined for building an illegal road to the site of its massive, dirty coal terminal project in WA. It was also caught recently not alerting workers to the threat of explosive cargo in Oakland.
"SSA/Goldman Sachs symbolize the ruin that corporate greed has brought into our lives. The 1% are depriving port truck drivers and other workers of decent pay, working conditions and the right to organize, even while the port of LA/LB is the largest in the US and a huge engine of profits for the 1%.
"The 1% have pursued a conscious policy of de-industrialization that has resulted in 'trade' at the port meaning that there are 7 containers coming in for every one going out. The 1% have driven migrant workers into a 'grey market' economy and repression.
"The 1% use police brutality and repression, jails and prisons to suppress, divide and try to silence the 99% and all who oppose their insatiable greed. To put an end to all that, we call on the 99% to march, boycott, occupy the ports, and STRIKE."
For latest news, the Twitter hashtag is #occupytheports
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