OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? Hundreds of protesters blocked a major Oakland intersection on Wednesday in what they called a general strike to protest economic conditions and police brutality, but fell well short of paralyzing the city.
Commerce appeared to carry on largely as usual, with most stores and businesses remaining open and workers going to their jobs, ignoring appeals by Occupy Oakland organizers to shut down the Northern California city.
Protest organizers said they had effectively closed Oakland's port, one of the biggest container ports in the nation, after longshore workers refused to defy the strike, but a spokesman for the facility said it was open.
"At the seaport, marine terminals are generally operating, although the situation is fluid," port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said in a written statement. He said each of the terminals operates independently.
The protesters, who complain bitterly about a financial system they believe benefits mainly corporations and the wealthy, had aimed to disrupt commerce, with a special focus on banks and other symbols of corporate America.
"A lot of the small businesses actually have closed," organizer Cat Brooks said of the strike's effectiveness. "A lot of the food places and other things, we appreciate them staying open (to feed protesters)."
Local labor leaders, while generally sympathetic to the protesters, said their contracts prohibit them from proclaiming an official strike.
Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said about 40 out of 325 unionized port workers had stayed off the job.
"There was no call for a strike by the union," he said.
Other residents like Rebecca Leung, 33, who was headed to her job at an architectural lighting sales company, went about their ordinary activities. Leung she supported the theme of the protests and would check them out during her lunch break.
"I don't really feel striking is necessary. I work for a small company, I don't work for Bank of America," she said.
'I CAN'T AFFORD TO CLOSE'
City officials said schools and government offices would remain open.
Thom Reinhardt, 33, who teaches biology and engineering at Oakland High School, said that about 10 to 15 teachers out of some 75 at the school decided to protest during the day.
"The sentiment (for the others) was that they didn't want to leave their students," he said.
The owner of a flower shop near the plaza, meanwhile, said that the weeks of protests and ongoing encampment had only served to hurt his small business.
"Business has not been the same. Everything has gone downhill around here, the noise, the ambience and the customers," the man, who identified himself as Usoro, told Reuters. "I cant afford to close down."
An estimated 1,000 demonstrators filled the intersection of 14th street and Broadway in downtown Oakland, where last week marchers clashed with police, forcing traffic to be diverted.
Few uniformed police officers were seen at the main rally.
It was at that intersection of 14th and Broadway that ex-Marine Scott Olsen suffered a serious head injury in an incident that has galvanized protesters across the country. He remains in an Oakland hospital in fair condition.
Protest organizers say Olsen, 24, was struck by a tear gas canister fired by police. Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan has opened an investigation into the incident but has not said how he believes Olsen was wounded.
"We stand in defense of Scott Olsen and in memory of Oscar Grant," Angela Davis, a radical leader prominent in the 1960s and '70s, said at a rally on Wednesday.
Grant, 22, was shot to death on an Oakland train platform on New Year's Day in 2009 by a policeman who said he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his Taser electroshock weapon during a scuffle.
Video of that incident touched off a night of rioting in the city in January 2009, and civil unrest erupted again in July 2010 when the officer was cleared of murder charges.
Elsewhere, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Wall Steet protesters he would take action if circumstances warranted, saying that the encampments and demonstrations were "really hurting small businesses and families."
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Noel Randewich; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Jerry Norton and Cynthia Johnston)
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