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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Protestors block and delay Israeli
ships up and down US West Coast</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-08-28T01:05:22+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/charlotte-silver"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Charlotte
Silver</span> on Thu, 08/28/2014 - 01:05</span> </div>
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media-element file-full" style="width:618px;">
<div class="content"><b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/protestors-block-and-delay-israeli-ships-and-down-us-west-coast">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/protestors-block-and-delay-israeli-ships-and-down-us-west-coast</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
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<p dir="ltr">Over the past two weeks, activists in port cities
along the West Coast of the United States staged picket lines to
prevent or delay vessels operated by Israel’s Zim shipping line
from offloading cargo.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The actions had been planned at the height of
Israel’s <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack">assault
on the Gaza Strip</a> that began on 7 July and ended with a
ceasefire yesterday.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/zim-shipping">Zim
Integrated Shipping Services Ltd</a>. is Israel’s biggest
cargo shipping company and the tenth largest in the world. It’s
2013 <a
href="http://www.zim.com/aboutus/pages/factsandfigures.aspx">revenue</a>
was $3.7 billion.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The action originated in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/oakland">Oakland</a>,
California, which set a high bar for others to follow.
Protestors there successfully prevented the unloading of the <em>Zim
Piraeus</em> container ship <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israeli-ship-blocked-unloading-oakland-four-straight-days">for
nearly four full days</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But other cities’ more modest demonstrations were
nevertheless successful in temporarily delaying the Zim ships
from unloading, costing the company hundreds of thousands of
dollars, building momentum and signalling widespread support for
such actions.</p>
<p dir="ltr">After <em>Zim Piraeus</em> departed Oakland on <a
href="http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/477634800">20
August</a>, two different Zim container ships were scheduled
to dock in Tacoma and Seattle, Washington and in Long Beach,
California. Weeks earlier, organizers in Oakland had reached out
to Palestine solidarity groups in those cities to plan a
coordinated shut-out of Zim cargo ships along the West Coast.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In Tacoma, the <em>Zim Chicago</em> was supposed to
arrive at port on 18 August but was delayed from offloading
until 23 August — which local organizer, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/nada-elia">Nada
Elia</a> describes as a victory for the Northwest Block the
Boat Coalition. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Elia, a member of Antioch University’s faculty and a
member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for
the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/pacbi">PACBI</a>),
told The Electronic Intifada that the delay was partially due to
a crane malfunction in Vancouver, British Columbia, but mostly
due to protesters.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The delay showed that they were trying to avoid the
blockade,” Elia said. Throughout the week, activists around the
state were poised — monitoring the Facebook page and then their
phones for text alerts — to be called down at moment’s notice to
Tacoma port for the picket. Elia said her group’s Facebook page
was taken down with no explanation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When the <em>Zim Chicago</em> docked on Saturday,
activists rallied at the port and successfully blocked the two
known entrances. But the port opened up a third, little-known
entrance that allowed workers to cross the picket line and
unload the containers from the Zim vessel.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The coalition that had formed around this action
included Filipino group BAYAN, Queers Against Israeli apartheid
and Occupy Seattle. Elia said people travelled from all around
the state to attend the demonstration at the ports.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to the <em>Seattle Globalist</em>, the
delay cost the shipping company <a
href="http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2014/08/25/block-the-boat-palestine-philippines-bds-israel-tacoma/28647">half
a million dollars</a>.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Limited goal</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Elia said that the action’s organizers had to
consider that their relationship with the longshoremen’s union
in Seattle and Tacoma is not strong. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“The union’s response was, to put it mildly, not
positive,” Elia said. “So we knew they were not going to be on
our side.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">So they were very clear about their goal: “Our
victory was determined if we were able to delay, which we very
clearly did for at least three days.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">On 25 August the same Zim ship docked in Seattle and
organizers were unable to prevent the workers from unloading.
However, according to a press release issued by the coalition on
27 August, the ship may have delayed its arrival to the Seattle
port by 24 hours in an effort to avoid the expected protests.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to the press release, the <em>Zim Chicago</em>
finished offloading in Tacoma the morning of 24 August, but did
not begin to unload in Seattle — a port only a short distance
away — until the evening of the next day, 25 August.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We know of no other reason for the ship to wait for
an open dock except to avoid spreading the impact of our
blockade to other ships, who might then ask for refunds because
of delays,” organizer Ed Mast states in the press release.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Getting labor onboard</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Elia says that while organizers are content with the
victory they set out to achieve, they hope to build their
coalition: “At this point what we want to work on is getting
labor on board — getting the union to realize this is an issue
of social and global justice.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Meanwhile, down the coast in Southern California’s
Long Beach port, organizers were moved to mobilize an action in
the span of only two and a half days after witnessing Oakland’s
action.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Oakland was so amazingly successful and it really
inspired a lot of people,” Garrick Ruiz of BDS-Los Angeles told
The Electronic Intifada. “We in Los Angeles wanted to do
something along the same lines and that’s when the larger
coalition came together.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The coalition included <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-muslims-palestine">American
Muslims for Palestine</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/uspcn">US Palestinian
Community Network</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-jewish-anti-zionist-network-ijan">International
Jewish Anti-Zionist Network’s</a> labor division, Global
Women’s Strike, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jewish-voice-peace">Jewish
Voice for Peace</a> – Los Angeles, Al-Awda (The Palestine
Right to Return Coalition), ANSWER and BDS-LA.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ruiz said that his group had done an informational
picket on 13 August to gauge support of the action among the
union, build a relationship with the rank and file members and
provide information about the <a
href="http://araborganizing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Palestinian-labor-statement.pdf">Palestinian
General Federation of Trade Union’s call</a> for US labor
solidarity with Palestine and the efforts to blockade the Zim
lines.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ruiz said that the union as of now has been
unresponsive to his group’s attempt to reach out by phone, mail
and email.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But it wasn’t until the Oakland success that they
decided to stage a picket line: when the <em>Zim Haifa</em>
docked on 23 August in Long Beach, around 250 people rallied at
the port until a union official sent workers for the morning
shift home.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We see this action as an important piece for
building our movement, planning bigger actions and building
solidarity with labor at the ports,” said Ruiz.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“In the big picture we called that demo in less than
three days and everyone in that coalition put in an immense
amount of work to make it happen. Now we’re stepping back to
determine next steps.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ruiz said members of the coalition plan to attend a
Labor Day parade on 1 September in Wilmington, Los Angeles to
reach out to the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ilwu">ILWU</a> and
Teamsters unions.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And while the protests had been a direct
demonstration against the devastating attack on Gaza, organizers
are hoping to maintain pressure on ports and <a
href="http://pastebin.com/vdXzV8kY">businesses</a> contracting
with Zim.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The movement to protest Zim is catching on in more
cities. As a tool for activists and organizers, a <a
href="http://pastebin.com/iH21cW11">new pastebin</a> has been
created that provides crucial information for tracking the
activity of Zim vessels at various port cities across the US.
There activists can see when and where Zim will be docking in
their city.</p>
<p>Next up: a protest at Florida’s Tampa port is planned for <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/541809929252987/">30
August</a>.</p>
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