On November 2nd, we joined thousands of people from around the Bay Area to stand together to join in the General Strike called by the General Assembly of Occupy Oakland at Oscar Grant plaza. All day long, marches originating from all over the city shut down every major bank in downtown Oakland. In the evening, only energized by a day of being in the streets, two marches descended on the Port of Oakland and shut down the second busiest port in the country.
HAVOQ/ Pride at Work members joined the march led my the Queer & Feminist bloc. Our flag-troupe– The Flaggits– danced in the streets and on top of a truck at the port.
Click here for a Youtube Video of Flaggits at the General Strike!
Our friend Simon took all sorts of great photos from the night– check them out on our flickr page. Here’s a few images to get you started:
The call for a strike was passed by 97% in the 2,000-person general assembly that poured into Oscar Grant Plaza just a day after a violent police attack which razed the encampment and fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd (famously injuring Iraq veteran Scott Olsen, causing critical brain damage). That night, the fences barricading Oscar Grant Plaza came down, the cops were nowhere to be found, and the camp started again.
The barricades around Oscar Grant Plaza become a house of cards!
The last general strike in the US was also in Oakland– in 1946!
