2011-11-17 "Occupy Martinez Report" by Frank Runninghorse
Frank Runninghorse is a street organizer who works with "Occupy Concord", "Movement for a Democratic Society - Diablo Valley Chapter", "Students for a Democratic Society - Diablo Valley Chapter", "Oscar Grant Committee against State Repression", "Peace and Freedom Party - Contra Costa County Chapter"
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Martinez, 10 miles NW of Concord is a small working class town of 40,000, ringed by oil refinery's and also the Contra Costa county seat. It has many Union HQ's in town including the big UFCW [grocery workers] hall on Alhambra Ave, across from the Post Office, which is where the "Occupy Martinez" street protest took place today.

UNION TOWN
The working class makeup of the town explains the the tremendous cacophony of motorist honking support for the 'Occupiers' which was nearly continuous. Many union workers in their union jackets were
present among the 100 protesters. AFL-CIO Central Labor Council
President John May who spoke at our Occupy Concord action 11/5 ,was there as were several union workers I recognized from  Occupy Concord and Occupy Richmond actions. Sheryl Grover a AFSCME and MoveOn organizer was there with a bullhorn. I spoke with both John May and Sheryl.

OCCUPY CONCORD/MDS CONTINGENT
5 of us from Occupy Concord attended to show show solidarity with Occupy Martinez.
Gary, Frank and Ambika from Movement for a Democratic Society [MDS] and Robin UPC and Clearwater Russ also from Occupy Concord. We received a very warm and loud welcome from the Occupy Martinez crowd ,many of whom had heard impressive things about Occupy Concord.
The action was called for 4:30 -6pm and peaked about 5:15, after that it started getting dark and picket signs became difficult to read, people started to fade away.

BAD COPS, NO DONUTS
When we got their 10 minutes early, there was already 40-50 people there with homemade hand written signs and a couple of cops who had caused a commotion by first telling protesters they had to be on union property and off the side walk. Then they told them they had to keep moving like a picket line and they couldn't stop. I immediately and loudly challenged this as BS and began chanting, "whose sidewalks, our side walks", most of the protesters quickly agreed and began to defy the two cops who faded away into the back ground. We had brought about 60 MDS/SDS [Students for a Democratic Society - Diablo Valley Chapter] picket signs with us and after the act of resistance to police false instructions, a group of 8-10 highschool students rushed in and grabbed our picket signs, soon many folks had exchanged signs and nearly all our 60 signs were being waved on both sides of the street.

A TALE OF TWO ROBINS
We also met Martinez Robin who had organized a recent Occupy action on Pacheco Blvd in front of the big refinery. She was there with her baby in her arms and her mother and father. She was very excited to meet Occupy Concord people and was thrilled to have two way solidarity flowing. Latter when Robin UPC showed up after work, I introduced the two  spunky Robins and they seemed to hit it off. Martinez Robin and her parents said they would be coming to the Occupy Concord General Assembly on Sunday.
   
BUILDING DIABLO UNITY
Frank made sure that every Occupy Martinez protester got a Occupy Concord leaflet and were made aware of our Sunday morning Occupy Concord General Assembly. Many expressed interest in coming. The crowd was also leafleted with MDS/SDS lit as well and these were the only two leaflets we saw. Ambika signed up 16 new
contacts.
A smaller group around 6pm encouraged folks to go down to city hall and carry on the action. But it was dark and most folks went home for dinner was my impression. At least that's what we did.
It was a successful action with tremendous honking support and a strong sense of mutual solidarity was developed between Occupy Concord and Occupy Martinez movements.