Link: Occupy Oakland protesters declare victory after thousands of demonstrators shut down Port of Oakland

The estimates I was hearing for how many people marched on the port ranged from 10,000 to 15,000. I’d guess there were at least 8,000 people. There was the first march at four. I stood on the corner for ten minutes waiting for a friend with waves of people passing by and when he caught up to us we were still only in the middle of it, with no end in sight behind and no end in site ahead. Then there was a second march that left at 5pm, and it was just as big as the first. I was on top of one of the semi trucks so we could see the crowd coming up over the bridge and it appeared to be an endless stream of people for about an hour. Other people on the semi with me used words like “amazing” and “historic” to describe the mass of people. There seems to be very little mention of it in the media, and though the protest is described as peaceful the media is giving zero accomplishment to all that was accomplished in just one week.

occupyonline:

OAKLAND, Calif. - Occupy Wall Street protesters declared victory after thousands of demonstrators shut down evening operations at one of the nation’s busiest shipping ports late Wednesday, escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.

A voice over a bullhorn said “the night is not over, yet.” Protest organizers told demonstrators to head back to the downtown plaza across from City Hall, which is where the Oakland movement has been based for several weeks and was the scene of intense clashes with authorities last week.

The nearly 5-hour protest at the Port of Oakland, the nation’s fifth-busiest shipping port, was intended to highlight a daylong “general strike” in the city, which prompted solidarity rallies in New York, Los Angeles and other cities across the nation.

The demonstrations in Oakland were largely peaceful and police say there were no arrests.

Police estimated that a crowd of about 3,000 had gathered at the port at the height of the demonstration around dusk. Some had marched from the city’s downtown, while others had been bused to the port.

The crowd disrupted operations by overwhelming the area with people and blocking exits with chain-link fencing and illegally parked vehicles. The demonstrators also erected fences to block main streets to the port. No trucks were allowed into or out of the area.

Port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said evening operations had been “effectively shut down.”

(Source: enlighteningnews)