Special Report: Oakland Block the Boat Action Delays Supply Ship Bound for Israel, Tacoma Block the Boat Action Underway

Block the Boat Sequel Delays US Military Support Vessel with Ultimate Destination Israel

A third iteration of the Arab Resources and Community Center [AROC] -led “Block the Boat” managed to delay a civilian-crewed military support vessel ultimately bound for Israel for an entire day Friday. The action, which began in the early morning hours as a picket, morphed into a direct action sit-in when a group of protesters answering the call from AROC and other aligned groups like Critical Resistance, attempted to impede the launch of the MV Cape Orlando.

The Cape Orlando is part of the US Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Force [RRF], auxiliary supply and service ships kept mothballed until needed to supply US strategic needs. Ships like the Cape Orlando are quasi-civilian, crewed by a civilian company and used only by the US government, usually for military purposes. The Orlando is one of two RRF ships currently lay-berthed at the Port of Oakland and was actively used during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Organizers told this reporter that they had reliable information that the ship was likely being mobilized in the US’s military aid for the government of Israel during its current decimation of Gaza. The Oakland Observer has confirmed with relative certainty that the Orlando’s ultimate destination was Israel as of Friday through another confidential source.

As protesters continued to picket directly in front of the ship, separated from the pier where the Orlando was docked only by a gated fence, the crew of the Cape Orlando was visibly preparing the boat for departure throughout the morning, moving a connected ship to which it had been tandem-tied, and throwing off stabilizing lines to the dock.

Anticipating the boat’s departure, several activists noticed that the gate separating the picket from the dock was not fully closed at around 10 am, poured through and began undertaking actions to frustrate the launch. Images captured by photographer Brooke Anderson show the moment in which the smaller group of activists rushed the boat, searching for a way to prevent the Cape Orlando from leaving—this included physically trying to retie the lines to the pier cleats.

Eventually, several protesters began climbing up a rope ladder to a hatch on the dock facing-side of the vessel. The protesters refused to move from the spot for nearly 6 hours, delaying the departure of the boat, which in the morning hours had appeared imminent. US Coast Guard Investigative Services officers arrived and positioned at the hatch and below on the dock, joined on land by Oakland Police and in the water by OPD and United States Coast Guard [USCG] patrol boats.

Nine Hour Protest

The protest began with about 50 protesters who gathered to mount a picket of the line at 6 am Friday. Organizers had received credible information from knowledgeable sources that the ship was being mobilized to depart Oakland that morning, would stop at Tacoma to load cargo and travel to aid the Israeli government war effort in some capacity.

According to Time Magazine, the US and its attendant arms manufacturers have been replacing Israeli munitions and equipment at an increasing pace, as the Israeli government relentless, indiscriminate attacks on Gaza accelerate the Israeli military's “burn rate” of weaponry.

No longshore workers were scheduled to work the Cape Orlando because it was not loading cargo and civilian crew workers were already on the ship. The picket was more protest than the type of direct action utilizing the Block the Boat tactics that prompted Zim, an Israeli state-owned shipping company, to leave Oakland's port for good in 2021. However, after several dozen protesters answered the call, the crowd began to swell into hundreds just before the apparent launch of the Orlando at around 10 am. After the direct action move on the Orlando by the small crew of protesters, more continued to arrive in larger numbers. Oakland police blocked off the area immediately adjacent to the dock, leaving about 100 protesters on one side adjacent to the fenced off dock and several hundred on the other.

Another fence separated the smaller group from a handful of protesters from the original direct action group to support the three clinging to the ladder and on the edge of the hatch. Protesters continued to arrive to support and protest at the first police line, the crowd swelled to hundreds. Meanwhile, both OPD and UCSG maintained a presence in the waters around the Cape Orlando. Though physical tethering to the boat was not a goal or tactic from the original organizers, according to Lara Kiswani, AROC’s director, the organizers continued to rally the march to support and protect the protesters until there was a resolution to their action.

Authorities Play Waiting Game, Distract Protesters, Move In

At a certain point, late in the afternoon, land crews re-tied the lines to the Orlando, in what many protesters assumed reflected an initial victory—a signal that the boat was planning on staying for some time. But the action was more likely part of a waiting game by authorities coordinated with ground staff, to encourage protesters to relax their guard and awareness.

Eventually, as protesters tired, the UCSG Investigative Services officers moved in, detaining two protesters that had been perched on the inside of the hatch. That left a protester clinging on to the ladder just below the hatch, now alone, but undaunted.

About a half hour later, the ship’s crew fired the ship's engines and the OPD and ground workers assembled—the UCSG officers then hauled up the boarding ladder with the last protester still hanging on it. Almost immediately, in coordination, the ground crew threw off the ties, and the Cape Orlando began to push off from the dock, and was away within minutes—apparently with protesters still aboard.

After the detentions and the departure of the boat, protesters celebrated a much more significant win than anyone had assumed possible at dawn that morning. Lara Kiswani summed up the protest at its end:

The three protesters apparently remained on the vessel and were taken to Treasure Island, where they were transferred to a Coast Guard boat and ultimately released, according to sources with direct knowledge of the events. A press release by the USCG states that there is a potential for federal charges, but it’s not clear if any charges were brought. Most of the details around detention and release still need to be confirmed by official sources, but could not be as of press time.

Cape Orlando Encounters More Resistance in Tacoma in Block the Boat Action

Geo-tracking commercial websites confirmed that the Cape Orlando was headed north along the California coast to port at Tacoma. As late as Friday, the Orlando was on the Tacoma Port's schedule for arrival on Sunday, but at some point since, the Orlando was removed from the schedule. The Cape Orlando also stopped sending its AIS positioning signal, and was also not trackable by satellite on Marine Tracker the Oakland Observer found.

The Cape Orlando finally arrived at port in Tacoma on Monday morning, and as of this writing, protesters are using Block the Boat picketing tactics to block the loading of cargo on to the boat—that includes forming a picket with the goal of prompting local union workers to decline to cross for any number of reasons in ILWU policy. As of this writing, it's unclear whether the tactic is working, but it does seem as if workers have not been able to load the ship. More on this as it develops:

Addendum:

Though the ILWU did not comment on or support the action officially, Clarence Thomas, a venerable civil rights activist and former ILWU Local 10 Secretary Treasurer spoke to this reporter, and addressed the assembled crowd earlier in the morning before the direct-action set off. Thomas compared the Block the Boat activism to the storied history of the ILWU in refusing to load cargo bound for White Supremacist Run South Africa during the boycott era. He also noted that unlike South Africans, who called for the boycott, Palestinians are prohibited from participating in the global economy.

Here's more of Thomas, as he addressed the group, still quite small in the early hours.