De Anza College students peppered the crowd of thousands of demonstrators who chanted, marched, and waved signs on Nov. 2 during a general strike called by Occupy Oakland.
The largely peaceful protest that started from downtown Oakland rerouted bus lines, closed the nation’s fifth busiest port and drew teachers and city workers who marched over five miles to occupy Oakland’s port.
The daylong protest against income inequality and corporate greed started at 9 a.m., as a crowd converged at Oakland’s civic center, where Occupy Oakland has its on-again-off-again encampment; it did not end until long after an evening march in which over 50,000 people swarmed the Port of Oakland.
“When we were on the overpass, stirring at the Oakland port, all you could hear was ‘Take the port!'” said Anthony Navarro, 25, a De Anza computer science major, “It was real intense and exhilarating.”
According to Oakland Police and California Highway Patrol, there were no arrest but only one injury; one pedestrian was hit by a car at 7:45 p.m. in the heart of the protest area in downtown Oakland.
Protesters at the port scrambled onto the roofs of container trucks as the sky darkened, and truckers honked and waved. “The truckers wanted to get us excited … when the crowd started dying down,” said De Anza College student Audra Casanova, a 23-year-old business major.
The diverse crowed included the Disability and Senior Action Brigade which held a sit-in to protest cuts in services. Feminists and Queers Against Capitalism protested capitalism. Families, holding hands and pushing strollers, marched from the main library to City Hall. A flash mob danced in the streets to the strains of “I Will Survive.”
Many downtown businesses were closed — some in solidarity with the strike, others in fear. “I actually wanted a latte from Starbucks, but it was closed,” said John Nueva, 20, a De Anza philosophy major.
Municipal workers went home early. Maritime operations at the port were shut down by late afternoon, Omar R. Benjamin, the port’s executive director, said at an early evening news conference.
“We want you to allow our port workers safe passage home,” Benjamin said, addressing the demonstrators. “Please allow our fellow 99 percent to get home safely to their families. Maritime operations will resume when it is safe.”
In addition to the port, where an average of $8.5 million in business is done each day, banks were a particular focus of Wednesday’s action — and of its vandals. City officials said four branches were closed because of demonstrators.
David Solnit, a 47-year-old San Francisco resident, was among the protesters who strung yellow tape across the door of the downtown Wells Fargo branch and refused to budge. “A few young people sat down in front of the door, and within an hour, 25 people had joined them,” Solnit said.
Vandals smashed windows at the Bank of America branch near Lake Merritt and spray painted “Class War,” “Shut It Down” and “1946,” a historical reference to the general strike that shuttered Oakland for two days 65 years ago.
At a Chase branch near downtown, vandals painted ATMs black. “For the Commune,” said one graffiti message. “Withdraw Only,” said another. Police officers stood watch outside two shattered plate glass windows.
Sheila Dvorak, 19, a stunned De Anza communications major, who had geared up for a peaceful march to the port, said the damage “doesn’t feel right.” Dvorak was visiting to gain extra credit for her speech class and hoped to protest peacefully to voice her concerns about healthcare.
“I think the root of the movement is peaceful,” she said. “I would ask whoever broke these windows to remember that. It’s the only way we’ll get what we want.”
The next day, the protesters who formed a picket line at the ports interacted with port officials peacefully but tensions could be felt. Eighty protesters were eventually arrested through the midnight hours at Oakland’s port.
PROTEST PREACHER – An Oakland man preaches a strong message, “The government won’t save you; if you want someone to save you, look in the mirror!” (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
ROAD-SIDE BLOGGING – Protesters who support the street closure of 14th & Broadway are greeted by a sign that states “Long Live the Oakland Commune.” (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
A NEW GENERATION – A young activist holds up her “We are the 99 percent” sign as a group returns from marching. (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
FAMILY TIES – Mother and Son display anti-capitalism posters. (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
URBAN SAGE – An elderly man protests corporate America with a sign and decorated skull (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
A PARADE! – Activists march down 14th street back to the protest’s main camp after shutting down a downtown bank that refused to cooperate with Occupy Oaklands’s general strike. (Photographer, Nick Tsang / La Voz Weekly)
