Amonst all the violence this week, Occupy Oakland was the site of an assault on an Iraq veteren, Scott Olsen, by police on the 25th October. He was shot in the face with a gas canister that fractured his skull. As others rushed to help cops threw a thunderflash.

Sometimes it only takes one; in Tunisia it was a fruit stall holder setting himself on fire, in Greece the death of a 15 year old boy...could this be the moment that stirs more of America into action?

Occupy Oakland General Assembly responded, by consensus, to the clearing of their camp by calling for a city-wide general strike on Wednesday (2nd). The last general strike in Oakland was back in 1946.

On the day thousands marched down to Oakland’s port (one of the US’s busiest) and shut it, and much of the city, down. Cops used teargas and stun grenades to attack the protesters later that night. By midnight an unused building had become a beacon for protesters, and a party was in full swing, but not for long as large numbers of police in full riot gear crashed the blowout.

* See  www.occupyoakland.org