A protest was recently held at the Oakland docks against an Israeli ship that was due to be unloaded there. There was wide celebration on the left that this unloading was delayed for 24 hours. While this was a success, some weaknesses were also revealed. For more, see the attached article.

Thoughts on the Successful Picketing
of the Israeli Zim Line Ship
on Sunday, June 20, 2010

History was made Today.
Met together to flame the spark
struck by the Gaza Flotilla.
800 of us.

Long day to me. Up ready at a.m. 4:30
Copwatch Security crew swept into office gearing up.
Last minute hustling for rides to docks.
Wobbly universal-labeled drum carried by Copwatch car.

Down empty streets, past committed comrades
stringing out along the road hiking Bart to the dock at Berth 58.
Dropped off across tracks from closest gate
and walked across to growing clustered pickets.

Sorting out.
Fellow workers Bruce and Donna
flying red/black flag.
Picket sign.

First forty formed a line at first gate.
Took back copwatch wobbly drum.
Drum beat march to main gate,
numbers growing.

Wobbly Banner strung across wire fence
fellow workers down from Reno.
Fellow Workers with Security,
Steve and John waving wobbly flag.

6 am line swelled to hundreds.
main gate circle lengthening to fifty,
then seventy, then a hundred feet
as more marchers crowded in.

Cadenced couple hours with wobbly drum,
handed off to another on the line

[ http://rvanews.com/news/public-bus-users-fight-increasing-fares-route-cuts/28781 ]

Public bus users fight increasing fares, route cuts
by Erica Terrini
June 8, 2010

Rushing down East Broad Street on a Wednesday morning, 19-year-old Laura McWilliams dons her work uniform and a smile as she talks about her son, who she supports with her job on Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV Campus.

As a life-long rider, McWilliams says she relies on the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) to get to work every day, traveling approximately 20 minutes from her apartment in Henrico Country to Downtown Richmond.

The roaring engine of the GRTC bus can be heard almost as soon as it becomes visible, and for many riders like McWilliams, the far off sound is as routine as their morning cup of coffee. However, with proposals of increasing fare prices and inaccessibility by cutting routes, public transportation is taking a back seat when it comes to funding, and commuters are beginning to notice.

While some news about the Israeli attack on the flotilla has reached the media, they are still failing to carry a real account of the chain of events on the Mavi Marmara. Here is one such account:

6. Forwarded by Greta Berlin Monday, June 07, 2010

A diary of events on the Mavi Marmara and after

Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened.

It was this time last week that I was on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara, and first spotted Israeli war ships in the distance, as they approached the humanitarian flotilla. Little did I know how deadly and bloody were the events that soon began to unfold.

What I will write in this entry is fact, every letter of it, none of it is opinion, none of it is analysis, and I will leave that to you, the reader.

After spotting the warships at a distance, (at roughly 11pm) the organisers called for passengers to wear their life vests and remain indoors as they monitored the situation.

“In going to war in Gaza in late 2008, Israeli military and political leaders hoped to teach Hamas a lesson. They succeeded. Hamas learned that the best way to fight Israel is to let Israel do what it has begun to do naturally: bluster, blunder, stonewall, and fume.” So wrote a columnist in the Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aritz. He continued by attacking the stupidity (from Israel’s point of view) of its latest outrage – the boarding of the Free Gaza Flotilla meant to help break Israel’s siege of Gaza.

But from the point of view of the Israeli regime, why was this stupid?

They conducted a war against the people of Gaza in 2008-9 in which blatant acts of “crimes against humanity” were conducted, and nothing was done. They continued to steal land and water from the Palestinians in the West Bank, and aside from a little flap from US President Obama, nothing is done. They falsified passports of a series of countries in the process of murdering a Palestinian leader in Dubai, and nothing was done. They continued with their siege of Gaza with impunity.

The question is who is to do what?

To read more, see attachment

It has long been the policy of the IWW to keep funds as close to the workers as possible. That is where the money is needed for organizing. The General Administration is meant to be a clearing house so that our communal funds can be diverted to specific organizing campaigns. It is a "march seperately, fight together" sort of philosophy. GHQ itself was always meant to be hosted by a GMB large enough to accomodate it.

Recent events have seen the GA grow into an entitiy unto itself. Their own offices independent of a GMB, a Storefront only useful to Chicago, now the GEB wants the entire Lit Dept. We currently are running a huge tab to support what has become a central committee. Union members are now paying dues not into a central account for us all to share in, but instead are paying dues to support this minority within the union. The IWW is becoming a capitalist enterprise.

Let GHQ go back to sharing accomodations wtih a GMB large enough to host them. Close the storefront, it does not benefit the union as a whole and leave the Lit Dept alone.

The developments in Thailand, leading up to and including the recent mass murder carried out by the regime, perfectly embody the major processes under way in world capitalism of recent decades.

During the Vietnam War and shortly thereafter, the US maintained an important air force base in Thailand. This was mainly to check Chinese communism. With the collapse of Stalinism as a world force, the base was abandoned, but the US military still maintains close ties with its Thai counterpart, including helping train the Thai air force.

Globalization and “Asian Tigers”

Perhaps more important than the military link are the developments of world capitalism, first and foremost its famous “globalization”. No region of the world was more affected and saw more economic changes from this than did the “Asian Tigers” in 1980s and early ‘90s, and Thailand perhaps more so than any of the other “Tigers”.

See attachment to read more

By John Reimann

An environmental disaster is spreading through the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. On April 20th, there was an explosion and then a fi re on the deepwater oil drilling rig the “Deepwater Horizon” operated by Transocean Ltd. under contract from British Petroleum (BP). Eleven workers lost their lives in the explosion. The rig then capsized and sank and oil started pouring out of the well, which is nearly one mile deep. BP and their public relations agent – the US government – estimate that some 5,000 barrels daily are polluting the ocean. Some scientists estimate the rate at between 25,000 to 80,000 barrels per day.

“Free” Market

From its very start, this entire calamity was caused by the basic laws of motion of capitalism, itself, and exacerbated by the “free” market policies that are so prevalent today.