Occupy Oakland’s plan to shut down the city’s bustling port on Monday for the second time in as many months is facing a complicating wrinkle nowhere in sight last time – opposition from several unions and some within the Occupy movement itself.
The attempted shutdown will be part of a coordinated blockade of 11 West Coast ports from San Diego to Anchorage, Alaska, an effort conceived by Occupy Oakland to build on the success of the Nov. 2 general strike it led that closed the city’s port for more than six hours.
But unlike last time, when the area’s major unions gave tacit or outright approval, many of them see Monday’s action as disruptive and unnecessary.
And some occupation activists are labeling it as too confrontational, with the protest’s potential for violence detracting from Occupy’s stated intention of narrowing the chasm between rich and poor.
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