Occupying the Ports? #Occupy's War on the Working Class - UPDATE 2

The Occupy movement intends to shutdown ports on the West Coast tomorrow, Monday, December 12. OccupySD plans are listed here. There stated aim is to draw attention to "unfair and unjust business practices of multinational corporations." That there is a nexus between multinationals and the ports is left to the imagination of the reader. They also claim that their purpose includes:

- our picket lines are picket lines organized by working class people, in solidarity with fellow workers

One problem with that assertion is that the unions aren't too happy. From the SF Chronicle.

"Support is one thing," Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union, wrote to his members last week. "Outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process."

Not the 1 percent

The Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council's secretary-treasurer, Andreas Cluver, said many of his union's workers were recently hired at port building projects after long stretches on unemployment. Given that, a port shutdown aimed at punishing the 1 percent "makes no sense," he said.

He said no union at the port supports the shutdown.

"We're extremely supportive of the message of Occupy Oakland, and we did come out to support the Nov. 2 general strike, but we're not behind this one," Cluver said. "When working people aren't involved in the decision on whether to shut down their jobs at the port, that's problematic. And we weren't consulted. Losing a day of wages is hard."

Also, given that this protest is planned for a Monday, is this really a protest of working people? Or maybe its a protest against working people for their effrontery in working for big corporations in order to put food on the table for their families. It seems that the #OWS and its affiliate's protests are actually a war against those who work, regardless of their "percent" by the leisured class of those who subsist off the generosity of our society.

UPDATES

SarahB at Lipstick Underground is providing updates this morning.

UPDATE 2

Dean at BeersWithDemo checks out the action with some man in the street pictures. Here is a taste:

Outreach to Occupy - A Fool's Errand? UPDATE

I probably should have come to this conclusion before, but yesterday's tomfoolery at WalMart is really the last straw for any thoughts that the tea party could make common cause with #ows.  From Free Republic via Gateway Pundit.

Meanwhile, the San Diego occupiers stormed into a Wal-Mart, filled 75 carts with merchandise, disrupted shoppers by chanting their nonsense for several minutes at the cash registers, then fled the store leaving behind 75 full carts for the employees to put away.

The occupiers have been compared by the President to the tea party, but there is really no comparison.  Some friends pointed out that the fundamental difference accrues to respect for every individual and their rights that forms the basis of tea party principle, but is absent from the occupy movement.  In this occupy action against Walmart, no such respect is present.

• The occupiers presume to speak for the employees, as if they can't speak for themselves.  I know that Walmart employees can't speak out at work, but they have other avenues of protest available.
• By leaving the shopping carts filled with junk, they just create more work for those same employees, with whom they profess solidarity.
• They presume to inconvenience the shoppers at the store, infringing their opportunity to shop.
• They try to make the point that corporations aren't people, so they feel free to trespass on Walmart property.  But Walmart's stockholders are real people who own stock in the company, and as owners, they have rights too.

Besides the lack of respect for individuals, this stunt is just childish.  Chanting slogans and interfering with the workings of a business and leaving a mess?  Certainly you can do better.

That said, I will continue to make common cause with those on the left who want to oppose corporate welfare and crony capitalism, nationally or locally.  The purchase of the Union-Tribune by Doug Manchester, with the selection of John Lynch as new President and CEO, brought to light a case in point.  As has been reported here and here, the U-T will now shill for a new Charger stadium, presumably with taxpayer funding.  I will certainly make common cause with the left of center VOSD  for example, to prevent a taxpayer fleecing in support of the big business known, currently, as the San Diego Chargers.  But as for the occupiers themselves, their movement seems to have gone off the rails.






UPDATE

 SarahB at Lipstick Underground offers an assessment of the disrespect shown to the mothers shopping at Walmart.

And, as a mother, what horrifies me most, is how they boxed in families during the stunt. One mother with a stroller, a small boy and a baby in her arms, has no where to go. If that was me, I would have been angry and terrified. One wrong move by anyone in that crowd and things would have turned dangerous in a flash.

Post of the Week

DooDooEcon goes behind the scenes at OccupySD and finds some surprises. One thing that doesn't surprise is that the media has not accurately portrayed the occupiers. A few quotes.

Several occupiers were dismissive of Councilman DeMaio as a political opponent. Upon hearing these sentiments I mentioned some of the reasons he is supported by both fiscal conservatives and more libertarian Tea Party members. The change in attitude in the occupiers toward Councilman DeMaio was abrupt and surprising.
. . .
One item that struck me was the claim that many occupiers are fiscal conservatives. First, it was good to see that they are educated enough to understand the term fiscal conservative. It was an appeal to common ground which is as dangerous a political position for the Tea Party as it is for the Democrat Party.

tea party Outreach to Occupy Wall Street

A guest at our Halloween party Friday night (not pictured, but that's your author on the right) had attended some of the Occupy San Diego events, and said that the press image of the movement distorted what they are trying to achieve. No surprise there, as I have seen the tea party movement's principles and activities similarly distorted. She said that the movement has serious demands that are the result of government enriching particular companies through undue influence. Further, she stated that one of the demands of the group is to prevent a revolving door between corporate lobbying and government. She also said that the Iraq war was the result of weapons contractors being highly placed in the Bush administration, a point on which I disagree. However, we had many points of agreement, but disagree fundamentally on what is to be done about government regulatory and tax policies, as well as subsidies and bailouts that enrich the privileged elite with the connections to benefit. The occupy movement seems to believe that we can build "good government" free from the influence of the wealthy and powerful, which will then regulate the activities of that group for the greater good of all Americans.

I fundamentally disagree that this goal is possible. What then is to be done? The fundamental problem is that the wealthy, and especially those in the financial sector, have benefited from government subsidies, bailouts and implicit guarantees. They make risky bets, knowing that the taxpayers will be on the hook to bail them out, while they still walk away rich. The only solution is to attack the source of the problem, which is to allow banks and other financial firms to fail. Further, we must ban subsidies and pork barrel projects. We must press for transparent and simple regulation that applies evenly to all businesses. To protect ourselves from financial meltdown from "too big to fail" we must enforce ever higher capital reserve requirements for ever larger firms, rather than execrable and impenetrable regulation like the 2319 page Dodd Frank bill.

The occupy movement targets the outrageous outcome of taxpayers bailing out the already wealthy. But there movement is being hampered by other deficiencies, and they could learn from the tea party movement. But I think they could get more traction and even tea party support if they made a few changes. On the other hand, the tea party should be thanking them for protesting the problem of crony capitalism. Crony capitalism and corporate welfare are a twin cancer on America, depleting our ability to grow the economy in a just way. However, the occupy movement is not getting the traction it deserves due to a number of distractions.

• It seems that #occupy is protesting all wealth, not just the unearned wealth. Americans think that Steve Jobs, for example, deserved to keep the wealth he earned, Wall Street bankers with implicit guarantees from Uncle Sam, not so much.
• Too many socialists in the movement call for the collapse of capitalism. The tea party purged racists from its movement, occupiers should purge the anarchists and socialists from theirs. (Yeah, I'm comparing socialism to racism. Various forms of socialism, such as national socialism and communism, have killed far more people than racism ever did. If you don't like the comparison, you're reading the wrong blog.)
• The occupy movement is perceived as trashy, as in literally leaving trash in its wake. Be model citizens, and the 99% of the public that isn't protesting might take #occupy more seriously. It leaves the impression that you are spoiled children, not adults taking responsibility for changing the republic.

Taking a look at this Occupy Wall Street web site, I can find common cause with some of their complaints, such as:

• They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

But some of the complaints seem shear fantasy:

• They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

Really? How are you able to publish your manifesto, and how am I able to read it?

So I will end with what I told our young guest, Friday.

It's the crony not the capitalism and its the corporate welfare not the corporation that are causing the problems in America today. You complain about money in politics, but after forty years of successive reforms, nothing has been done to stop it. At the end of the day, you never will because the rich have freedom of speech as well. The situation is like what Steve Forbes described. You have vermin in your kitchen. So you set traps, put out poison, and plug up the holes, but somehow the vermin keep coming back. That's because you have to stop keeping the cake under the kitchen sink! The cake is the largesse shelled out by government through crony capitalism and a regulatory excess that favors some businesses over others. The only way to get the money out of politics, is to get politics out of the business of dispensing money.

So how about it occupiers? Could we agree on ending all corporate subsidies, loans and tax loopholes as our common platform? Could we ask for a ban on government giving tax dollars to favored groups? Could we ask for regulatory simplicity, not complexity? Could ask for an end to "too big to fail?" I look forward to your response.

Caption Contest

Yes, that is a Mercedes SLK 320, sporting an Occupy home made window placard. Spotted today in Mission Bay Park. Your best caption wanted. Winner will get a free subscription to The Liberator Today and B-Daddy's Other Blog.

Honestly, I had promised myself I would stop blogging about Occupy Wall Street for a while, to at least see where that movement is headed.

Sadness over OWS - Leftists Appear Firmly in Control

Gateway Pundit is reporting that

The pro-Obama Working Families Party of New York, a group that shares the same address as the SEIU and ACORN in New York, posted this advertisement on Craig's list. They are looking for energetic progressives to help them to fight to hold Wall Street accountable. And the pay is $350-$650 a week depending on the responsibility and length of time of staff.

Gateway Pundit offers a screen capture of the Craigslist ad.

This saddens me, because I had previously posted about the possibility of a common agenda. Here in San Diego, the Voice of San Diego interviewed some of the protesters, and filtering out the stuff I couldn't understand we have:

• Have student debt, no good job. (See Temple of Mut for discussion of education bubble.)
• Corporations profited from Iraq war through no bid contracts. (There is actually some truth to that, but the dollar value is nothing compared to Wall Street bailouts.)
• Inadequate health care for the poor. (No explanation of why Medicaid, America's largest program, let alone social program or health program, isn't providing care.)

Maybe I should have included injustice against LGBTQs of color, but I don't know what that means. However, there is little discussion of bailouts, the fed or crony loans to corporations, all of which are at the root of what's really wrong.

My offer of a coalition to deal with injustices that we can agree upon stands.

San Diego Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Common Agenda - UPDATE

Update at bottom.

Temple of Mut has a great round up on the Occupy (insert your city here) events yesterday. Fellow SLOBs W.C. Varones and Left Coast Rebel both attended the San Diego event yesterday. W.C. has great video and LCR has revealing pictures. They are worth a review, because this movement is complex and even self-contradictory at times, see Thor's Assistant's comments on a related post, where their demands are listed.

Pictures from LCR's blog of yesterday's San Diego rally:

What are the red and black flags in the background? Glad to see the U.S. flag.

I am sympathetic to many of the complaints that motivate the Occupy Wall Street. Indeed, bailing out Wall Street and the banks with federal money was the initial event that inspired the tea party movement's beginnings in 2009. Unfortunately, OWS appears to be getting hijacked by the usual suspects on the left, the socialists, communists, labor unions and the Green party. This results in fundamental disagreement with those in the tea party on the means by which to end the injustice of government support for privileged corporations. When OWS protesters start talking about confiscation of wealth and trampling property rights, it reminds me of the horrors of the Russian revolution. However, the outrage that all citizens feel with a political class that looks first to the interests of itself, then of its large contributors is poignant and a basis for common ground.

Here is an agenda that we might all agree upon, because it attacks the root causes that led to both movements.

• End the bailouts for financial firms and indeed all the failed corporations. Disabuse corporate CEOs of the notion that they can jet to Washington to save their companies.
• Eliminate the special dispensations for favored groups and corporations in the tax code. Simplify the corporate tax code so that simple profit and loss, as measured by generally accepted accounting principles form the basis of taxation. No more special breaks because you lobbied Congress. Ethanol comes to mind.
• End the secret bailouts by the federal reserve, which seem to involve more than just banks. Audit the fed.
• While we are at it, restore the gold standard for our money so that banks can be held accountable and not get federal reserve bailouts.
• Investigations and possible prosecutions for fraud in the manner in which mortgage backed securities were represented.
• Prosecutions when banks foreclose on homes when they don't even own the mortgage.
• End all government loans to corporations.

That's my short list, I hope those on the left can find some agreement.

UPDATE

I was alerted to a blog post by left of center, peak oil and "new urbanism" activist James Howard Kunstler, in the comments section of W.C.'s post. I am quoting one paragraph, because it shows that we can perhaps come to agreement with the left on some key issues.

For instance, what is Attorney General Eric Holder's program for prosecuting CDO swindles, the MERS racket, the bonus creamings of TBTF bank executives, the siphoning of money from the Federal Reserve to foreign banks, the misconduct at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the willful negligence of the SEC, and countless other villainies? What is Barack Obama's program for restoring the rule of law in American financial affairs? (Generally, the rule of law requires the enforcement of laws, no?)

In case you can't follow the acronyms he uses.

CDO = Collateralized Debt Obligation. Similar in structure to a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) or collateralized bond obligation (CBO), CDOs are unique in that they represent different types of debt and credit risk. In the case of CDOs, these different types of debt are often referred to as 'tranches' or 'slices'.

MERS = Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. A electronic registry designed to track servicing rights and ownership of mortgage loans in the United States. But consider this little gem in an appeals court ruling from Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems v LISA MARIE CHONG, LENARD E. SCHWARTZER, BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE, et al.

Instead of presenting the evidence to the Bankruptcy Court, MERS attempted to withdraw the Motion from the Bankruptcy Court’s consideration, citing the failure of a MERS Certifying Officer to demonstrate that a member was in physical possession of the promissory note at the time themotion was filed. The only evidence provided by MERS was a declaration that MERS had been identified as a beneficiary in the deed of trust and that it had been named nominee for the originallender. Since MERS provided no evidence that it was the agent or nominee for the current owner of the beneficial interest in the note, it has failed to meet its burden of establishing that it is a real partyin interest with standing. Accordingly, the order of the Bankruptcy Court must be affirmed.

TBTF = Too Big To Fail. The doctrine that we can't allow some banks too fail or it will crash the whole economy. We have railed against that sufficiently in this space.