Those Damned Hippies. They’re Saving the Post Office.

Yup. Hippies. Straight out of the 60’s, looking oddly like grandparents these days. Hardcore labor unionists. Harscrabble activists. Street kids. Cal students. Throw in a few of Berkeley’s famous homeless and They may think it’s a movement (as Arlo famously put it). A movement to save the Berkeley Post Office and stop the Privatization of our Commons.

One hundred plus people rallied at the downtown Berkeley Post Office yesterday, celebrating 15 days of successful Occupation organized by an activist coalition from Save the Berkeley Post Office and Strike Debt Bay Area.

We’re fighting to stop the sale of the Berkeley Post Office. We’re trying to call attention to the seemingly inexorable push to privatize and de-unionize the entire Post Office, just one instance of the more general goal of privatization across the board – from education to Social Security, from Medicare to owning the roads. (For more on these issues and the Occupation see the articles referenced in Background etal at the end of this picture essay).

Let’s start with the basics: Why Are They There?

Please continue here for the rest of the photo essay.