2011-11-12 "Labor Proposal to Defend Occupy Oakland"

Message from R.C.:
The following urgent proposal was unanimously adopted today at an ad hoc Labor Activist Assembly, and signed by more than 30 veteran labor activists.
Occupy San Francisco was saved from attack when the San Francisco Labor Council declared the encampment to be a sanctioned picket line. About fifty people showed up and formed a picket on the outside the encampment, and the police aborted the attack. This is an appeal to the Alameda Labor Council to pass a motion implementing the same thing for Occupy Oakland, and mobilizing their member unions to support it.
The City of Oakland knows now they cannot use force alone to destroy the encampment. They ignored the peaceful shutdown of 40,000 at the Port of Oakland and emphasized the vandalism that happened in its aftermath. They are now waging a systematic campaign to isolate the encampment and then destroy our right to protest the foreclosures, school and library shutdowns and police violence that our city government is responsible for.
Organized and unorganized, we all need to stand together. An injury to one is an injury to all!

(Text follows)
 We, the Ad Hoc Labor Activist Assembly, in light of the imminent threat of police action to evict Occupy Oakland, call on the Alameda Labor Council Executive Board to adopt and implement the following:
 The Alameda Labor Council declares the Occupy Oakland encampment to be a sanctioned picket line. The Council's Executive Board calls on every one of its affiliates to immediately mobilize members to defend the encampment, dispatching pickets in shifts, beginning tonight (November 12) and continuing as long as the threat persists.

 SIGNATURES (organizations listed for identification only)
 Jack Gerson, OEA retired
 Zev Kuithy, CFT
 Susan Schacher, Peralta Federation of Teachers
 Bob Mandel, OEA/AFT retired
 Peter Brown, Peralta Federation of Teachers
 Steve Miller, OEA
 Loretta Franke, Operating Engineers retired
 Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10 retired
 Stan Woods, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
 Richard Tan, Librarian
 Pete Turner, IFTPE 21
 Henry Johnson
 Richard Mellor, AFSCME 444 retired
 Robert Irminger, IBU/ILWU
 Caray Dau,ILWU 6
 Adam Balou, Occupy Oakland
 Jenna Woloshyn, IBT 10
 John Reimann, IWW
 Matt Meyer, BFT
 Marcus Holder, ILWU 10
 Mary Beth Schuler
 Mike Parker, UAW 1700
 Bill Balderston, OEA
 Bill Cherneau, SEIU 1021
 Ruth Maguire, Grandmothers against the war
 Ying Lee, BFT retired
 Ann Weills, National Lawyers Guild
 Michael Rubin, SEIU
 Rosalind Makris OEA
 Dave Welsh, Letter Carriers 214
 Frank Martinez Campo, SEIU 1021
Howard Keylor, ILWU 10, retired
Anthony Propernick, SEIU 1021
Alison Bowman, SEIU 1021
Sharon McKellar, SEIU 1021
Peggy Simmons, SEIU 1021
Amy Martin, SEIU 1021