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Several dozens of protesters in a caravan gathered to shut down the Port of Oakland on Friday morning as part of a nationwide action known as the People’s Strike. The group of roughly 50 cars started at the port before moving up Broadway to the Oakland Police headquarters, then the Oakland Unified School District Headquarters, City Hall, Kaiser Permanente Mosswood Building and finally Whole Foods.
Though the People’s Strike organizers call the movement a “growing coalition of workers, community, and political organizations confronting the COVID-19 pandemic,” the May 1 date for the nationwide action is no mistake and the group’s list of demands run the gamut on issues from instituting a basic income and universal healthcare to a slew of housing and immigration reforms. But the most time-sensitive focus of the annual International Workers Day protests concerned the essential workers who are striking to demand safer conditions during the coronavirus outbreak.
To that end, the group called for a day-long moratorium on spending money on Amazon, FedEx, Instacart, Shipt, Target and Whole Foods to support the frontline workers demanding unpaid time off work, hazard pay, sick leave, personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies.
Noura Khouri, a local organizer of the Bay Area’s People’s Strike, said Friday’s demonstrations are the first in a series of monthly actions that will also include rent strikes to support tenants.
“This capitalist system does not exist without our labor,” Khouri said in a video tweeted from the Port. “We want to make sure we are the ones determining our future and when we go back to work and when we are ready to open the economy.”
