COMMUNIQUE TO EGT (Export Grain Terminal) FROM OCCUPY OAKLAND CONCERNING OAKLAND PORT SHUTDOWN IN SOLIDARITY WITH LONGSHORE WORKERS IN LONGVIEW, WASHINGTON
To: EGT
CC:Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO, Bunge Ltd,
CC:Eizo Kobayashi, Chairmen, Itochu Corporation
CC:Kang Duk-soo, Chairmen, STX Pan Ocean
As those of you with EGT (Export Grain Terminal) already know, on Wednesday, November 2nd, 100,000 residents, working families, children, students and Occupy Oakland participants marched and effectively shut down the Port of Oakland as part of our General Strike. Occupy Oakland passed a resolution to hold this historic march in solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview, Washington whose lives and work have been disrupted and shattered as a result of EGT’s business practices.
Bunge Ltd, a company who consistently records billions of dollars in global profits, has a controlling interest in EGT and has direct ties to Wall Street Banks and international finance. EGT is the 1% and the occupation movement is committed to shutting down the 1%.
The Occupy Oakland resolution to shut down the port was passed in order to express, through direct action and costs to business, our firm condemnation of EGT practices in Longview and our comittment to stand by Longshoremen who resist such practices.
The massive shutdown of the Port Of Oakland in protest of the EGT is news across the country and the world. Right now innumerable people around the world have been informed about what EGT, and particularly Bunge Ltd, has done to Longshore union jurisdiction in Longview, Washington and why this spurred tens of thousands of people here in Oakland to shut down the Port of Oakland. We have exposed you.
Not only have we exposed you, but we have also cost millions of dollars in business at the Port of Oakland in protest of EGT practices. Not only was the entire Port of Oakland blockaded by thousands of people, but so were the rail lines and container trucks-making the shutdown of the Port of Oakland an extensive action in terms of disruption and cost to business.
When EGT ruptured Longshoremen jurisdiction we were watching. When scab workers were sent into the Longshoremen worksite in Longview we were watching.When Longshoremen resisted we applauded them. When the Longshoremen were violently repressed and arrested we became angry and subsequently took action.
The historic blockade of the Port Of Oakland on November 2nd by thousands of people is our response to what EGT has done to Longshoremen in Washington- we feel that an injury to the livelihood of the Longshoreman and their families who have been adversely impacted by your practices is an injury to all of us in the Occupy Oakland movement.
As EGT continues to move forward with union busting practices as well repression and recriminations against the Longshoremen in Washington, we want you to know that Occupy Oakland will still be watching. We have done research on EGT and we know who you are. We know about a range of destructive capitalist ventures your company is involved in as the 1% both here in the United States and in countries like Argentina.
Let the shut down of the Oakland Ports by tens of thousands of protesters on Wednesday November 2nd be a strong message to you- when we stand in solidarity with Longshoremen, we mean it.
Hands off the Longshoremen in Longview Washington!
–Occupy Oakland Communique
Comments are closed.