8 Reasons to Shut Down the Ports:
- Slavery: Ports represent global injustices including the bringing of slaves to this country, and our continued tolerance of slave labor in other countries as ships bring us designer products, cheap trinkets, and technological devices made by abused workers overseas.
- Unemployment: As the ports bring in products of exploitations listed above, they also ship out more and more American jobs.
- Environment: As those jobs are exported, and products are imported, the environment suffers pollution caused by the transportation of goods that could be made locally.
- Corruption: Free Trade Agreements allow multinational corporations to operate outside of the laws of any land. This means multinational corporations can pay laborers in China LESS than China’s minimum wage, and release MORE pollutants into the air, water, and soil than even lax government restrictions allow. These multinational corporations bully governments around the world to enforce policies that hurt their people and profit the corporations even more.
- Entitlement: Whose ports? OUR PORTS! “These ports are the people’s ports. Ports belong to the people of the Pacific Coast. The money came from the taxpayers in California, Oregon and Washington. EGT was subsidized by the Port of Longview. So the people have the right to go down there and protest how their tax dollars have been ripped off.” - Clarence Thomas, 3rd generation longshoreman, Oakland
- People Power vs. Corporate Power:“51% of Stevedoring Services of America is owned by Goldman Sachs. EGT is a multinational conglomerate trying to control the distribution of food products around the world. The face of Wall Street is in the ports.” - Clarence Thomas, 3rd generation longshoreman, Oakland
- History: Communities and unions have been working together throughout history to stand against injustices suffered around the world. We ask the unions to stand with the Occupy Community, or at least not stand in the way of this important demonstration. Union workers should be compensated for their lost day of labor; Clarence Thomas says “Only 7.2 percent of private sector workers have union representation today, the lowest since 1900.” Now is a time for the 93.8% to use our support to demand fairer labor laws.
- SOLIDARITY: We Occupy Together. We are the 99% and so are you!
OCCUPY SAN DIEGO WANTS YOUR SIGN NOW!
(post your ideas in the comments below)
