Take down the Stars and Stripes and raise the PA banner; America has become a tool of Abu Mazen and other Muslim terrorists and their liberal, eyes-closed-to-reality sympathizers.
Once again, the "brave" longshore"men" of the Port of Oakland (California) have been cowed by Muslim sympathizers into refusing to cross their picket lines to off-load a Zim (Israeli flag) container ship.
The San Francisco Chronicle- Examiner's SFGate web site has two articles from a site search that mention the Oakland (across San Francisco Bay from San Francisco) interference with free trade. Perhaps because this is becoming commonplace the fears of the formerly fearless longshoremen no longer rates either front page or above the fold play.
A article dated September 27 and headed Protesters block unloading of Israeli ship in Oakland by Hamed Aleaziz, reads: Longshore workers did not unload the ship, the Zim Shanghai, because of safety concerns posed by the presence of several hundred protesters and about 50 police officers, said Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The ship is docked at the port's Berth 59, he said.
About 200 demonstrators picketed outside several of the port’s gates on Saturday morning, said
Steve Zeltzer*, part of the Stop Zim Action Committee, which is organizing the protest.
“I think it was a big victory today for those who are opposed to the policies of Israel in Gaza,” he said. The group planned to return to the port later Saturday in preparation for the longshore workers’ evening shift.
A second day article on September 28 briefly recapped the September 27 story, reporting under the headline California protesters block Israeli-owned ship that International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokesman Craig Merrilees says dockworkers at the Port of Oakland did not unload cargo from the ZIM Shanghai on Saturday because of safety concerns raised by the presence of police and protesters.
He said the protesters blocked workers from driving into the terminal during their morning and evening shifts.
THE QUSTIONS: Why do the Oakland, California, and U.S. governments allow this violation of free trade? Why are 50 armed policemen too few to protect a few longshoremen as they cross a picket like?
A little history of strikes leading to federal government action in the U.S.:
MINES On July 2, 1943, then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the government to take over coal mines from striking miners. (The coal was needed for the war effort.)
That particular document, Eyewitness History: World War II is worth a read for many eye-opening reasons.
PHILLY TRANSIT STRIKE - 1944 In August of 1944, transit workers in Philadelphia went on strike. On Temple University's Civil Rights in a Northern City: Philadelphia web site read about The Philadelphia Transit Strike of 1944. According to the article, After several days of crippled war production and racial violence, the strike ended when President Roosevelt authorized federal troops to enter the city of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Transit Company Strike of 1944 began as a racially-motivated strike on the local level, but quickly escalated to include federal involvement because of war-production implications. This strike was laid to protest the promotion of eight black PTC employees to the position of trolley car driver
CONTROLLERS STRIKE According to a New York Times article. On Aug. 3, 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, which represented most of the nation’s 17,000 controllers, went on strike seeking higher wages, a shorter workweek, improved pensions, better equipment and other benefits. Even in an era when labor unions were powerful, it was an audacious move.
On Aug. 5, then-President Ronald Reagan fired the 11,500 controllers who did not follow his order to return to work that day.
The government brought in military controllers as a stopgap measure, retained those controllers who had chosen not to strike, and hired new workers. Air traffic was slowed and flights were delayed, but the firings led to no major disasters. An association of pilots said the skies were safer than they had been before the strike. In December, the president lifted a ban on allowing controllers to work in other jobs for the federal government, but he maintained the ban on their returning as controllers.
PHILLY TRANSIT STRIKE - 2014 On June 14, 2014, Reuters reports that President Obama intervenes to end Philadelphia transit strike. The article continued President Barack Obama on Saturday intervened to end a transit strike in the greater Philadelphia area, establishing an emergency board to force the two sides to negotiate.
The move, at the behest of Republican Governor Tom Corbett, came hours after about 440 engineers and electricians who operate trains that connect Philadelphia and its suburbs walked off the job.
Admittedly, the transportation strikes were against national interests; the miners' strike impacted the war effort.
What damage does the strikes at the nation's ports do?
First and foremost, it interferes with American diplomacy. That's supposed to be the job of the State Department and Executive branch.
Second, it interferes with international trade.
Third, it negatively impacts on American businesses which have cargo onboard the Israeli ship or to be laded onto the Israeli ship. The cargo cargo carried on the ship very likely is NOT from Israel nor is it bound for Israel. The shipper may have no idea under what flag a container will be laded.
Fourth, it hurts the people the strikers are misguidedly trying to help; Zim ships carry cargo to and from Muslim states. The company has offices or agents in a number of Muslim cities.
Fifth, it shows America's enemies - now mostly the Muslims with whom the strikers sympathize - that local, state, and federal governments won't do what is necessary to keep cargo coming into and going out of American ports.
Never mind that it shows the ignorance - in most cases deliberately ignoring facts when allowing emotion to rule is easier - of the protesters.
They accuse Israel of apartheid, yet Israel has Muslims on its highest court, it has Arab generals in its army, it allows multiple anti-Israel political parties and seats their elected candidates in the nation's parliament. They also ignore the fact that Abu Mazen the PA's political leader, has promised that Palestine will be free of Jews. They ignore the fact that women in most Muslim countries are chattel - unlike Israel where women are free to do what they wish - including sit in the parliament and on the highest court - and to be Israel's chief banker. In Saudia a woman may not drive any vehicle; in Israel, they drive whatever they want, including cross-country buses.
The protesters, and the unions that cave to them, have no idea of real life in any Arab nation or in Israel. The unions should act in solidarity with the ISREALI unions which are allowed to strike at will - never mind that they are damaging Israelis economy and safety. Could a union - if a union was allowed at all - strike in any Muslim nation? Google that!
I was in Israel in 1976 when katushas (mortars) were coming down on Zefat where I lived at the time. No one attacked any Israeli Arabs or blamed the attacks on them.
I picnicked on a beach near Haifa in 2005 as rockets rained down on Haifa. As I sat with my kin I watched an obviously Muslim family - grandmother, son or daughter and the child's spouse, and the couple's children stroll along the sand - NO ONE BOTHERED THEM nor where they shunned. They were just some more Israelis enjoying the beach. That would not happen in a most Muslim(-dominated) countries. (The possible exceptions: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco.)
I was in Israel visiting my daughter, son-in-law, and grand-daughter when the despots of Gaza, Hamas, fired rockets into Israel - not at military targets but at civilian targets - such as my almost four-year-old grand-daughter. Hamas was never accused of war crimes FOR DELIBERATELY TARGETING CIVILIANS yet it wants Israel to face a war crime tribunal for collateral damage when Israel's retaliatory fire struck Hamas' civilian shields, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) weapons depots and Hamas headquarters in hospitals!
* Steve Zeltzer is a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) and the United Public Workers For Action (UPWA)
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