Staff Writer
As the evening rush-hour traffic sped past the handful of tents in Lincoln Park, advocates for Long Beach’s Occupy movement ignored the occasional heckler who yelled “Find a job!” from his car. One volunteer tried to explain what issues provoked Occupy supporters like her to come to the park on Pacific Avenue.
“It’s not one thing. It’s everything,” said Elvia Yribe, a Long Beach resident who has been actively volunteering for the group since last Saturday. “It’s the breakdown of our country. It’s corporate America and our elections. It’s 4,000 people being arrested, you know, and not one banker held accountable for his actions. You know, it’s the children not being able to afford their educations, people losing their jobs, people!foreclosing on their homes.”
Yribe described herself as one of the “moms” in the group and said she helps pick up trash and does what she can to support the group. She said right now she’s on disability but has worked all of her life and has helped put two children through school. She is one of many Occupy members who rallied around the message that they are the “99 percent.” What it means exactly to be part of the “99 percent” may vary from person to person, but it hones in on a message of an unfair economic disparity between the ultra rich and the rest of America.
“The little guy needs a voice,” Yribe added. “Corporate America has had too much of a voice.”
After New Yorkers originally began to stage Occupy Wall Street rallies last September, the movement had spread to groups around the nation who formed their own local Occupy movements. By at least the beginning of October, the media began to report on Long Beach’s Occupy group, which set up camp at Lincoln Park. Supporters gathered there all day and stayed overnight.
Occupy Long Beach has a diverse crew of people who range in age, ethnicity and background. Some are students. Some are disabled or homeless, or both. Some have day jobs who join the general-assembly gatherings at night. Everyone has a different opinion on what their first priority is, and the group has at least two websites and one Facebook page dedicated to its movement. A few have highlighted the problem of homelessness in speeches before Long Beach City Council. Now members of the group are cooperating with other Occupy movements to take aim at one financial institution giant.
West Coast port boycott and march
In conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Occupy movement in Los Angeles on Monday announced a coordinated march and boycott at various West Coast ports on Dec. 12. They intend to shut work down on at least one of the terminals.
According to the Occupy Los Angeles Facebook page, they have specifically targeted SSA Marine’s terminal because financial investment corporation Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. owns SSA Marine. Members of Occupy Long Beach have said that they will join the demonstrations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Jacob Zerba, a young man who has been volunteering with the local ped past the handful of tents in Lincoln Park, advocates for Long Beach’s Occupy movement ignored the occasional heckler who yelled “Find a job!” from his car. One volunteer tried to explain what issues provoked Occupy supporters like her to come to the park on Pacific Avenue.
“It’s not one thing. It’s everything,” said Elvia Yribe, a Long Beach resident who has been actively volunteering for the group since last Saturday. “It’s the breakdown of our country. It’s corporate America and our elections. It’s 4,000 people being arrested, you know, and not one banker held accountable for his actions. You know, it’s the children not being able to afford their educations, people losing their jobs, people!foreclosing on their homes.”
Yribe described herself as one of the “moms” in the group and said she helps pick up trash and does what she can to support the group. She said right now she’s on disability but has worked all of her life and has helped put two children through school. She is one of many Occupy members who rallied around the message that they are the “99 percent.” What it means exactly to be part of the “99 percent” may vary from person to person, but it hones in on a message of an unfair economic disparity between the ultra rich and the rest of America.
“The little guy needs a voice,” Yribe added. “Corporate America has had too much of a voice.”
After New Yorkers originally began to stage Occupy Wall Street rallies last September, the movement had spread to groups around the nation who formed their own local Occupy movements. By at least the beginning of October, the media began to report on Long Beach’s Occupy group, which set up camp at Lincoln Park. Supporters gathered there all day and stayed overnight.
Occupy Long Beach has a diverse crew of people who range in age, ethnicity and background. Some are students. Some are disabled or homeless, or both. Some have day jobs who join the general-assembly gatherings at night. Everyone has a different opinion on what their first priority is, and the group has at least two websites and one Facebook page dedicated to its movement. A few have highlighted the problem of homelessness in speeches before Long Beach City Council. Now members of the group are cooperating with other Occupy movements to take aim at one financial institution giant.
West Coast port boycott and march
In conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Occupy movement in Los Angeles on Monday announced a coordinated march and boycott at various West Coast ports on Dec. 12. They intend to shut work down on at least one of the terminals.
According to the Occupy Los Angeles Facebook page, they have specifically targeted SSA Marine’s terminal because financial investment corporation Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. owns SSA Marine. Members of Occupy Long Beach have said that they will join the demonstrations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Jacob Zerba, a young man who has been volunteering with the local Occupy group for about a month, said he plans to join the group at the Port of Long Beach at the SSA Marine Terminal.
“I guess the big picture is to stop their profits,” said Zerba. “Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest corporations there is, and I believe by shutting down these ports, we’ll stop their profits!for one day at least. It’s not going to make such a great impact on their corporation. As you know, they are huge.”
Zerba’s personal experience with a financial institution is not a rosy one. He said his family had problems with their bank, and they had to short-sell their home, a move that eventually ruined their credit and made them go bankrupt.
It’s not clear just how many will join Zerba and other volunteers who have committed to rally at the ports, but the issue is already on the radar with the port authorities.
Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles, confirmed that the Port was monitoring the situation and was working with various law-enforcement agencies to develop a plan in the event that the Occupy movement does attempt to stop operations.
“We certainly respect the rights to gather and assemble,” said Sanfield, but he also emphasized that they were balancing those needs with the need to “keep cargo moving through the ports.”
“If they were to demonstrate, we hope that it will be a peaceful gathering,” said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach. “And that they would do it safely, and they would not shut down the port operation.”
Wong also emphasized that there were safety challenges that come with traffic that passes through the busy port areas. There are public right-of-way streets at the port, Wong acknowledged, but he stressed that the truck traffic could be hazardous for individuals on the roads.
“They would be in danger if they were to block streets,” Wong added, indicating that port officials would not want to see protestors or anybody else injured. “We’re just concerned for public safety.”
A key union did not back Occupy’s plan to shut down work at any of the ports, but they said they weren’t asked. Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), said that no union representatives were contacted by leaders of the Occupy movement to get support for their initiative to target the port areas. He confirmed that the ILWU would not be participating in the Occupy movement’s efforts to shut down any of the West Coast ports.
The ILWU released a statement last week from ILWU International President Robert McEllrath.
“The ILWU shares the Occupy Wall Street movement’s concerns about corporate abuses and the future of the middle class, but we must be clear that any actions organized by outside groups, including the proposed Dec.12 shutdown of various terminals on the West Coast, have not been vetted by our union’s democratically led process,” McEllrath said in the statement.
Long Beach’s local pre-Occupation
Before they announced their efforts to rally at the ports, much of the discussion surrounding the Occupy Long Beach movement had focused on Long Beach’s ordinances that restricted where individuals who participated in the demonstrations could stay.
Members of Occupy Long Beach have battled the City of Long Beach when the City enforced ordinances against remaining in the park after 10pm. The Council is considering a recommendation to establish a free speech zone. At the last November Council meeting more than two weeks ago, the City Council voted to request that the city manager’s office and other departments prepare reports on the background of the ordinances. They asked that City personnel research how other cities were managing similar Occupy groups that had rallied in public park areas. The Council also asked for a summary of the City’s efforts to assist the homeless. The report had been distributed to the Council last Wednesday, but at press time the Council has not yet requested to add the park ordinance issue to the Dec. 6 Council agenda. That deadline is Friday, Dec. 2.
Earlier this week, one man was convicted for violating the municipal code that prohibited camping at the park. Jonathan Glen Davidson was arrested Oct. 30 along with two other protestors when they remained in the park after it had officially closed. According to a press release issued by the city prosecutor’s office, the judge who sentenced Davidson had considered Davidson’s previous criminal record that included charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and assault of a Westminster police officer. Davidson has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service, and the city prosecutor’s office confirmed Davidson will be picking up trash on the freeways with CalTrans.
City Prosecutor Douglas Haubert in a telephone interview acknowledged that many of the protestors were moving to the sidewalk after the park officially closed.
“There are many opportunities for people to express themselves,” Haubert said Tuesday. “They don’t have to violate the law to do so, and I would encourage anyone who wants to make their voice heard to do so in a lawful manner and not in an unlawful manner.”
