Truckers Protest, the Resistance Begins

Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, “Hit me! Please, hit me again!” You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I’ll just slink off somewhere out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall back on Advil.

Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take – inaction. Faced with $4/gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching “as far as the eye can see,” according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 mph. Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg PA; they slowed down the Port of Tampa where 50 rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off “to pray for the economy.”

The truckers who organized the protests – by CB radio and internet – have a specific goal: reducing the price of diesel fuel. They are owner-operators, meaning they are also businesspeople, and they can’t break even with current fuel costs. They want the government to release its fuel reserves. They want an investigation into oil company profits and government subsidies of the oil companies. Of the drivers I talked to, all were acutely aware that the government had found, in the course of a weekend, $30 billion to bail out Bear Stearns, while their own businesses are in a tailspin.

But the truckers’ protests have ramifications far beyond the owner-operators’ plight --first, because trucking is hardly a marginal business. You may imagine, here in the blogosphere, that everything important travels at the speed of pixels bouncing off of satellites, but 70 percent of the nation’s goods – from Cheerios to Chapstick --travel by truck. We were able to survive a writers’ strike, but a trucking strike would affect a lot more than your viewing options. As Donald Hayden, a Maine trucker put it to me: “If all the truckers decide to shut this country down, there’s going to be nothing they can do about it.”

More importantly, the activist truckers understand their protest to be part of a larger effort to “take back America,” as one put it to me. “We continue to maintain this is not just about us,” “JB”-- which is his CB handle and stands for the “Jake Brake” on large rigs-- told me from a rest stop in Virginia on his way to Florida. “It’s about everybody – the homeowners, the construction workers, the elderly people who can’t afford their heating bills… This is not the action of the truck drivers, but of the people.” Hayden mentions his parents, ages and 81 and 76, who’ve fought the Maine winter on a fixed income. Missouri-based driver Dan Little sees stores shutting down in his little town of Carrollton. “We’re Americans,” he tells me, “We built this country, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to lie down and take this.”

At least one of the truckers’ tactics may be translatable to the foreclosure crisis. On March 29, Hayden surrendered three rigs to be repossessed by Daimler-Chrysler – only he did it publicly, with flair, right in front of the statehouse in Augusta. “Repossession is something people don’t usually see,” he says, and he wanted the state legislature to take notice. As he took the keys, the representative of Daimler-Chrysler said, according to Hayden, “I don’t see why you couldn’t make the payments.” To which Hayden responded, “See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I’ve eaten too many meals in my life to give that up.”

Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events-- inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough.

But the larger message of the truckers’ protest is about pride or, more humbly put, self-respect, which these men channel from their roots. Dan Little tells me, “My granddad said, and he was the smartest man I ever knew, ‘If you don’t stand up for yourself ain’t nobody gonna stand up for you.’” Go to theamericandriver.com, run by JB and his brother in Texas, where you’re greeted by a giant American flag, and you’ll find – among the driving tips, weather info, and drivers’ favorite photos –the entire Constitution and Declaration of Independence. “The last time we faced something as impacting on us,” JB tells me, “There was a revolution.”

The actions of the first week in April were just the beginning. There’s talk of a protest in Indiana on the 18^th, another in New York City, and a giant convergence of trucks on DC on the 28^th. Who knows what it will all add up to? Already, according to JB, some of the big trucking companies are threatening to fire any of their employees who join the owner-operators’ protests.

But at least we have one shining example of defiance of the face of economic assault. There comes a point, sooner or later, when you stop scrambling around on all fours and, like JB and his fellow drivers all over the country, you finally stand up.

If you would like to help support the truckers in any way, go to http://www.theamericandriver.com/files/TruckersAndCitizensUnited.html

Comments

[Anarcissie]

Born in The Bronx: '... Can I look forward to newly chastened truckers joining me at anti-war protests and on the campaign trail for Democrats?'

Lots of right-wingers and libertarians are against the present set of wars. By contrast, Democrats have by and large acted as enablers. And still are.

And what exactly are the Democrats going to do for the truckers?

[Ken Hall]

I support the owner operators 100%. I only hope it's not too late.

The multinational corporations can afford the fuel for their fleets of trucks. Hell, they can probably claim some expense back from the taxpayer for it. The owner operators have no such luxury.

This is about the corporations featherbedding their nests with corporate handouts direct from the taxpayer whilst small business fold all over the place to be bought for cents on the dollar by the same corporations. This Corporatocracy was known as something else by Bonito Mussolini. He called it Fascism.

The truckers and all other small independent business people need to take America back NOW!

[W.v.d.Kuilen- Holland]

Particularly for George , who excuses the truckers for their actions. Based on the traders/truckers internationally in Europe they donot differ so much in no's of km's / year.,compare with the Americans. What to think of roadtaxes, highway toll,mountain pass toll, tunnel toll, maintenance , tyre prices in Europe? Compare this in total and add this to the km. price ...then I bet Europe is much , much more expensive. And yr $ 4 / gallon is holy cheap !!

[suraci]

We had a similar protest here in the UK when the price of petrol was nearing 80 pence a litre. It's now at £1.10 a litre.
The truckers protest ground the UK to a standstill in about 4 days flat, but they still had overwhelming public support.
If they tried it now I think under terror legislation the government would call out the army, maybe shoot a few. Being disarmed here we can't shoot back.

[Anarcissie]

suraci: 'We had a similar protest here in the UK when the price of petrol was nearing 80 pence a litre. It's now at £1.10 a litre.
The truckers protest ground the UK to a standstill in about 4 days flat, but they still had overwhelming public support. ...'

The inescapable conclusion seems to be that the truckers' protest did not affect the price of fuel. This is pretty much what I would expect. But don't let my depressing observation slow any of you down.

I think we're in the world of _Network_ now.

[D. L.]

I agree with bobby and Born. further, though I do support the truckers' actions, I suspect that most of them are rednecks who, still supporting Bushism and the war, really really really don't get it yet, and probably never will. I really really don't want a "revolution" created by a bunch of rednecks who, despite it all, still would like to nuke the Ay-rabs and everyone else they feel like getting their Scots-Irish "revenge" against. Living in redneck country, I know of what I speak. What would Joe "Deer Hunting with Jesus" say?

[James]

What do you want?

Trucker subsidies?

Instead of asking for fiat "fake" cash,
Protest against the people who print the fake cash - the Federal Reserve.

A healthy, sound economy needs a healthy sound currency.

[bigbookoftruth]

Congratulations to the truckers. This is life under the new government... Isrealii corporate management!

[connie mack]

nice blog. good comments. for those that feel like doing a little research...i suggest

anabiotic oil

see if that doesn't start to make you think.

[James McDonough]

There is only one party, not two. It is them against us. Join the truth movement. Go to http://www.prisonplanet.tv and become a member for 15 cents a day. Spread the word of what is going on in this country to those of us that are still asleep. http://www.infowars.com is another of Alex Jones sites. If you have not heard of him go to infowars and click on listen to the broadcast. It is FREE. Open you minds to the things that are going on in this country, and help us fight the NWO.

[Roxan]

testing

[art]

Too bad that most of these good ole' boy truckers probably voted for George W. Dufus TWICE. They didn't understand that when Cheney held a secret energy conference - he was telling big oil and Kenny Boy Lay that there was going to be a war in Iraq, triggered by a phony terrorist act on our soil, and they were going to quadroople the world wide price of oil, by cutting the supply our from Iraq. Half of these ignorant truckers would probably vote for Bush again.

[Roxan]

Okay, since I have MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity), I've been reduced to being an armchair activist.

I've been constantly writing (hounding) the politicians such as Feinswine, Boxer & others to stop: Offshoring, outsourcing, all use of any visa holders and ILLEGAL ALIENS.

I've also been demanding repair of Free Trade or an end to it and the MASSIVE deficits due to it, but what do the politicians do? Ignore us and start a deal with Columbia, etc.

Does anyone know why ILLEGAL ALIENS are still allowed to pour in and our borders remain WIDE OPEN despite our "War On Terror?"

The reason would be the NAU (North American Union) the plan to merge Canada, the US & Mexico together. Larry King even interviewed Vicente Fox & Fox admitted this.

I think the reason our $ is also tanking is to implement the Amero.

The EU (European Union) exists as well as the Euro. Now the elites are implementing this was us.

The NAU is an extension of NAFTA. Between CAFTA & the FTAA, this will merge the Americas together.

With our never-ending wars with the majority of our soldiers chasing their tails in Iraq & Afghanistan, we're left essentially as sitting ducks here with unprotected borders.

[Roxan]

I have suggested many times ways to fix our budget whether it be on city, state or nation levels:
End all tax breaks to any corporations (with the above behavior).
End all free benefits for illegal aliens (to include births, WIC, etc benefits, free schooling including breakfasts/lunches, end the DREAM act, etc.
Address the MASSIVE trade deficits.
Tarriff all foreign goods coming in.
End tax breaks to ALL churches, foundations & institutions who are forcing illegal aliens on us.
End our wars (especially the 100% fraudulent "war on Terror.")

End CORPORATE PERSONHOOD LAW

[Jay]

I am sick of idiotic liars who compare our gas prices with Europe. First off Europe has a working rail system that makes daily driving a choice not a necessity.

You don't have to own a car in Europe to have a decent job or to buy necessities. Truckers are highly unionized and in Germany they are paid to take weekends off, which makes weekend travel nicer for everyone. Only a fool would compare the two.

And in response to the hippie who posted the hateful things about working class people - that's the reason your movement failed loser - your movement was elitist from start to finish.

[Greg Farnum]

Great article!

[John Taylor]

The trucker's dilemma is the tip of an iceberg called "globalization". Globalists including the major oil companies want to produce as cheaply as possible and price according to what the market will bear. Globalization is not concerned with a level playing field; that is whether one juridiction has environmental protection laws, minimum wage laws, OSHA laws etc. Corporations look at maximizing profits pure and simple. Oil corporations are just one of many corporate lobby groups with this same agenda. That is why over the next 20 years 40 million US manufacturing jobs will relocate to Asia. American truckers will be replaced with cheaper Mexican rigs and drivers. All three major candidates are sponsored by big corporations just like NASCAR or Formula racing cars. Americans are the spectators watching the cars (candidates) roar around the track trying to get to the finish line first. The winner gets the corporate sponsored champagne. In the end the winning "driver" repays the corporations for their generosity from the public purse paid for by the spectators who naively believe that they control the show. This illusion is created for the benefit of the American Public by special interest groups, secret societies and secretive government organizations, foreign government lobbyists, the Diebold Corporation (voting machines) and of course the mainstream media. WAKE UP AMERICA!

[Roxan]

Back to illegal immigration.

Did anybody know about the ad from ABSOLUT VODKA?

They had a map showing the old Mexican Territory. This is also the AZTLAN Map. This AZTLAN map consists of the states of CA, AZ, NM, TX, NV, UT & CO.

This AZTLAN is taught in Mexico as well as the LA RAZA (means the Race)/MEChA (motto-For the Race everything, for those outside the Race, nothing) chapters in U.S. schools.

Worse yet is ANAHUAC-the plan for the entire Americas to be returned to the Native Americans & to boot everyone else out (Check out the MEXICA MOVEMENT) site for this.

Anyway, the NAU will be implemented much easier because our corrupt politicians allow the behavior of illegal aliens demanding their rights and keep pandering to their wishes.

Many politicians/media members belong to the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations)-who are pushing this NAU.

Is it any accident that Hillary (NAFTA) and Obama (also a NAFTA fan) and McCain who with Kennedy in the McCain/Kennedy bill tried to cram illegal immigration down our throats twice & also fought Prop 200 in AZ?

Anyway, the price tag for providing services for illegal aliens is huge, yet our polticians won't stop that either.

REMITTANCE MONEY: This is money sent out of our country in the $billions (that should be in OUR coffers) that is relatively untaxed (including the banks & wiring services) who provide this service.

Also for addressing outsourcing, Washington Tech & Zazona are 2 great sites to help fight this.

So, I haven't been silent. I've been constantly writing and calling in. But since I've been doing that, I also found out and am astounded by the mass corruption in our government. It really seems to have turned into a Banana Republic (at least to me anyway).

[Roxan]

I'm delighted the truckers are doing something.

Now, do they know about the NAFTA Super Highway and that now, Mexican Truckers are now allowed in our country?

Also speaking of oil, There was a proposal in CA that OIL COMPANIES MUST PAY "Extraction Fees." There was also a bill to implement biofeuls (the voters shot down both proposals)

Alas, during the last CA election, the CA people grew complacent when they saw the gas price fall to about $2.60 or so a gallon. The oil companies also falsely claimed that they were responsible and that the biofeul companies would not be....so, the rest is history. The CA people believed the oil companies and rejected both bills.

[Robert Gates]

I am VERY sympathetic to the plight of the truckers. That being said let me make some observations.

All the talk and gumming about a nationwide Trucker strike (like previous so called trucker strikes) ended up with traffic delays in New Jersey and a few other areas. As a whole it had NO effect what so ever.
The independents howl and complain about losing money every time they crawl into a RIG, yet they turn around and keep driving until they are foreclosed on. One said even though he was "losing money" he still got paid, which mean't he put off paying somebody else for awhile.
You have other drivers who are actually contracted with the companies they work for so they keep driving. Companies like Swift, England, trucks that work for grocery stores, McDonalds etc etc.
Bottom line is IF EVERY trucker pulled off the road for one week in protest, that 'might' get somebody's attention. Two weeks would get peoples attention. When people can't get food at McDonals, or go to their local grocery store and buy food, it would get alot of attention. Providing the truckers how the guts and courage. Problem is with all the whining and complaining the only people that are not running rigs are those that are in foreclosure. Otherwise they keep rolling.

Kind of defeats the whole purpose.

[chris]

Leave it to Barbara Ehrenreich to tackle the same old subject about which she knows nothing: market-driven capitalist economics.

We can all sympathize with truckers who see their incomes decline as diesel prices rise. But, like Ehrenreich, they obviously have no idea how markets work. It really does boil down to a re-interpretation of that old Pogo saying: We have seen the enemy of low oil prices, and he is us.

More accurately, though, we can add a footnote to that maxim. The enemy of low oil prices is Congress, and the truckers seem to have a sense of that. They demand a release of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve, believing if the government unloads a lot of oil on the market, the market price will drop. But the oil market is global. Hence, there's no reason to believe that temporarily emptying the national storage tanks will knock down world prices for more than a day. As they say, what goes down must be refilled. The refilling will do its part to push prices up, which suggests a net gain for truckers of zero.

What can Congress do? Congress can give drillers the green light to drill for the 80 billion barrels of proved reserves in US territories now off-limits to drillers. That would knock prices down.

Truckers also have to realize that about 50% of the price at the pump is taxes. Federal, state and local. Oil companies are like cigarette companies. They are de facto tax collectors sending huge sums to every level of government in this country.

Ehrenreich has always suffered from the basic problem of trying to force her marxist square peg into the capitalist hole. She should check with truckers in Cuba and North Korea to see how well the merchandise is moving along their main roads. Of course, they don't have any merchandise to move in those workers' paradises. Not much fuel either. And apparently food supplies are tight. Actually, it's more likely that both countries are on national diets.

She further exposes her complete misunderstanding of economic issues when she claims Bear Stearns was bailed out by the Fed. Since Bear was sold to JP Morgan for $2 a share, representing a 98% reduction in Bear's market value; since more than half of Bear's 14,000 employees are losing their jobs; and since Bear itself no longer exists, it's hard to call the Fed's actions a bailout. A better term is fire-sale liquidation. If a homeowner were unable to pay his mortgage and suddenly found half his family renting a room in the basement, the other half was on the street and his former neighbors filling the rest of the house, I don't think the homeowner would feel relieved and say he had been bailed out. Kicked out. But not bailed out.

By the way, the current oil prices should call for rejoicing among many. For a long time liberals have called for higher taxers on oil to accomplish exactly what's happening now. Where's the cheering from the large crowd of people who believe the European plan of taxing oil out the wazoo is the best way? Now's the time for them to pile on and ask Washington to treat oil like it treats cigarettes. Raise the oil taxes to optimize the cash stream to Washington and every state capital.

If a gallon of gas were to cost as much as a pack of Marlboros, we'd see plenty of changes. Based on current prices for gas and cigarettes, we're half-way there.

If truckers are angry enough to stop rolling and block highways now, what would they do after a further doubling of fuel prices? But what they demand is a repeal of economic reality. The World consumes about 85 million barrels of oil a day. About 25 million barrels are consumed in the US. But China and India are catching up. What should be done?

Energy consumption is a function of population and prosperity, both of which are increasing rapidly. Earth's population is now 6.5 billion and heading for 9 billion by the middle of this century. Tata, the GM of India, is now selling a $2,500 car. It expects to sell 100 million of these vehicles to first-time buyers. In other words, it is easy to understand why the experts believe oil consumption will hit 110 million barrels a day sometime in the next 20 years.

Yet in the face of these huge global forces our domestic truckers believe that opening the spout of our insignificant national oil tank will solve the problems. Too bad it won't work. We need real supply increases, not a temporary drop in the bucket. Real supply increases are available by exploiting our own domestic reserves that are kept out of reach by Congress. To give the truckers what they want, Congress has merely to wave its magic wand and pass the legislation that opens all domestic oil reserves to drillers.

There is a second step, however. Refineries. We need more of them in this country. There are too few to produce the quantity of fuel consumed here. Thus, we buy imported crude oil and we buy imported refined products. In other words, we export oilfield jobs and export refining jobs while raising fuel prices to satisfy people with an upside-down sense of economics. Crazy.

[THE SENSEI]

Well, boys and girls, it is for sure that if all the trucks stop moving, this country will come to a dead stand still. That is a scientific fact. But I wonder, has anyone thought ahead to what happens then? This shutdown would obiviously be an attempt at a nonviolent solution to our economic crisis However, when all those people in the cities who can not produce their own food, and other life necessities, start feeling hungry and cold..... what then? Well we go to war with each other? fighting and probably killing to either keep what little we can produce or take what someone else has? All I can say here is, when the shooting starts, and I think it surely will, I hope the guns are aimed at the right people! You all know who they are. And if we have to have another Boston tea party, I will be happy to have the turckers on our side. Sadly I have been preaching, as have many, that this was coming sooner or later. But until the truckers decided to take the first action, no one really believed it. NOW THE COUNTRY IS SITTING UP, AND TAKING NOTICE. Way to go boy's.....
Maybe things will be better when we hit bottom and can start all over. If any of us survive.. wink. I for one am very tired of just hanging on by a thread. It would be something indeed if we could see 50 cent a gal. gas or less, and 25 cent sodas and penny candy again. But to take us back that far, it would have to be a real full blown depression, that would make 1929 seem like a picnic. So the question is not "can it be done?" The quesiton is, "Are we ready and willing to go the distance?" If the truckers can make it happen, I will be right behind them all the way. I to, run a small business. But lately, I have had to get outside work, just to keep it going...FOLKS, THAT IS NOT RIGHT.... I think we all know what has to happen, and there is little left to be said. Either it will be done, or it won't.....

[chris]

SENSEI, you get the Moron Of The Day Award.

Truckers bring the nation to its knees? Intending to start a depression worse than the Great Depression, which was a worldwide depression?

Your dream is laughable. But the fact that you've romanticized the notion of destroying the US economy is an unfortunate display of ignorance and callous disregard for 300 million people.

A farm crisis struck the US a couple of decades ago. Hollywood was even obsessed with it. Sam Shepard made a movie about farm foreclosures. Farmers went on national television to convince non-farming Americans that the end was near.

Yeah. That was a close call. They almost stopped planting as a plan to improve the financial picture for farmers. Yeah. Sure.

So maybe a few truckers on the verge of bankruptcy will throw in the towel and stop driving. But it would be foolish to think millions of people will stand still, doing nothing, while important goods remain undelivered.

A truckers' strike would create a boom for railroads. And you can be sure local truckers would work overtime to move everything possible. Meanwhiole, lots of truckers are merely drivers. They don't own the rigs they operate. Fleet owners will have a lot of work for them.

Moreover, you have a viewpoint about city people that must be the product of a rural life.

Oil and natural gas come to New York City by pipeline. Not by truck. Gasoline is delivered to gas stations by truck. But most of those trucks are owned by the oil companies.

A lot of goods arrive here by boat. A lot of stuff arrives by freight train, and a freight line cuts through Queens and Brooklyn. Two runs a day most days.

Though a truckers' strike might inflict some pain for a while, there is no collective bargaining agreement that stops motivated opportuntists from jumping in and replacing the strikers. Thus, striking looks like a bad idea whose time has come. The most likely losers are the truckers themselves, not the average American who gets stuck with the final bill for everything.

[Bobby]

The American public are sheep and will be lead to disaster. Anyone with eyes can see what is going on. Whatever the issue is, Americans come last, except for taxes, then we come first.

[Anarcissie]

chris: '... She further exposes her complete misunderstanding of economic issues when she claims Bear Stearns was bailed out by the Fed. Since Bear was sold to JP Morgan for $2 a share, representing a 98% reduction in Bear's market value; since more than half of Bear's 14,000 employees are losing their jobs; and since Bear itself no longer exists, it's hard to call the Fed's actions a bailout. ...'

You seem to have missed part of the deal, which was the FRB _guaranteeing_ Morgan-Chase that they would not lose money on the deal. The size of the guarantee was something like 30 billion dollars; evidently Morgan-Chase believed that Bear Stearns actually might have negative value. If the FRB is called upon to make good on the guarantee, that money will be produced either from taxation or, more likely, it will just be printed, and everyone who holds cash or a fixed income will pay by having the value of their money diluted. Since the latter are poor people, you can probably guess which option is most likely to be chosen.

But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that the financier set are being told, over and over again, that the Federal government will not let them fail no matter how recklessly and stupidly they do their business. As they get this message, we will see much worse things than the dot-com boom-bust and the subprime mortgage disaster, although probably not for very long.