Exclusive: Berkeley’s P.O. Protest on the Move
by Steed Dropout
Aug. 14, 2013
No one knows when the tent city encamped at the Berkeley main post-office downtown will be cleared by postal police, but when David Welsh, a retired letter carrier and San Francisco Labor Council delegate heads south for an early September AFL-CIO labor convention, the P.O. protest may lose its driving force.
In a statement to his fellow demonstrators, Monday, Welsh sounded like an elder statesman, proud of his efforts to save Berkeley’s post office — but preparing to leave.
“…the encampment has won broad support in the community, with non-stop favorable media coverage, daily dinners and cultural events at the post office and two large rallies on the post office steps,” Welch wrote.
Leaving Post Office. Photo by Ted Friedman.
He went on to describe actions Saturday.
Welsh, center, taking it to the 'vultures.' Photo by Ted Friedman.Welsh wrote, “We marched up Shattuck to highlight two of the private companies — United Parcel and Federal Express — that like vultures hope to gobble up the profitable parts of the post office and privatize it.”
Fed-Ex this! Photo by Ted Friedman.“We marched to the Richard Blum Center on the U.C. campus to highlight this billionaire real estate investor’s role in the proposed sale of the Berkeley Post Office for private profit.”
Campus-bound. Photo by Ted Friedman.Berkeley Reporter has exclusive photos
U.C. president's 'home.' Photo by Ted Friedman.
'Arduous' Bridge. Photo by Ted Friedman.The march up Hearst was arduous and virtuous, snaking past the U.C. president’s ceremonial residence, over a precarious bridge and more climbing to reach the Blum Center, the restored Naval Architecture building (a Blum bequeath?)
Taking it to U.C. campanile, left. Photo by Ted Friedman.