Crowd swells at peaceful Occupy Oakland general strike rally

[Zorra]

Source: MercuryNews.com

By Cecily Burt, Kristin Bender, Sean Maher, Thomas Peele
Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND -- Hundreds have gathered for a mostly peaceful rally this morning in downtown Oakland to launch the general strike called by the Occupy Oakland movement, with nary a police officer in sight.

Several businesses, including the Men's Wearhouse and the Grand Lake Theater closed their doors Wednesday in support of today's planned General Strike as thousands of people are expected to join the Occupy Oakland movement to protest the inequality of wealth and power. The UC office of the President is also closed today over concerns that BART might be shut down at some point and more than 1,000 people who work in the building wouldn't be able to get to or from work.

Contrary to rumors, the Port of Oakland is not shut down, said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees. About 40 longshore workers out of about 325 expected on the morning shift didn't show up, however trucks are going through the gates and cranes are moving cargo on and off the ships.

The Occupy Oakland camp got the rally going before 8:30 a.m., putting together signs and pumping music from speakers outfitted to a truck that will serve as a rolling platform. The first scheduled mass-gathering takes place at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 9 a.m. followed by a march on financial institutions.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19246904

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Solidarity. Thank you, Occupy Oakland!
:bounce:

[Lorien]

1. Not cool that someone decided to vandalize a Wells Fargo

and, of course, that's the first photo on the site.

[Zorra]

2. Yeah. Probably PTB protest trolls and a few clueless kids.

Wish they'd go home, they're never welcome.

[quakerboy]

3. I liked this bit in one article

"At another Wells Fargo branch, at Franklin Street near 20th Street, managers locked the doors at 12:30 p.m. as a crowd converged. Protesters drew "jail bankers" on the walls and covered the ATM with yellow caution tape. Later, other protesters came and washed off the graffiti."

Found at the top of the second page of the article, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/02/BA8Q1LPI1J.DTL&ao=2#ixzz1cbHTiEd9

[red dog 1]

4. BREAKING NEWS....CAR HITS PROTESTER, then BACKS UP & HITS ANOTHER PROTESTER

730 PM 11th & Broadway, Oakland....
Man in car got impatient while stuck in traffic at 11th & Broadway....drove forward & hit protester...then backed up & hit another protester....

Crowd surrounds car...ambulances just arrived on scene..