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Blackout Collective Shuts Down Black Friday BART Trains to San Francisco: photos

by Dave Id
Blackout Black Friday actions are taking place across the nation right now. Community activists are shutting down business as usual the day after Thanksgiving, the "biggest shopping day of the year," commonly known as Black Friday. The actions are in solidarity with the people of Ferguson, Missouri, who continue to fight for justice for Mike Brown and, simply put, to end the war on Black people in the United States. In what might be one of the nation's most impactful actions of the day, a lockdown at the West Oakland BART station this morning stopped all trains heading to the annual shopping spree in San Francisco. The action denied/delayed access for thousands of suburban consumers making their way to commercial districts in San Francisco such as Union Square.
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[Photo: activists use lockboxes to shut BART down in Oakand. Photo by Julia Carrie Wong, all rights reserved.]


After the action, a BART employee at Lake Merritt station was overheard complaining, "They put all the damn cars on the road. You should see the Bay Bridge now."

The BART lockdown was audacious and well-planned, rivaling the boldest actions during the height of the the Oscar Grant Movement for Justice in Oakland. Fourteen activists were arrested in the civil disobedience action and transported to Santa Rita jail.

The Blackout Collective is a coalition of Oakland African American activists from groups such as Black Lives Matter and ONYX, coming together to demand that the police stop killing people of color in the Bay Area and across the U.S.


Bail fund, supports the legal fees of Black folks doing direct action: http://www.youcaring.com/other/blacklivesmatter-bay-area-legal-fund/268878

Blackout Collective: https://twitter.com/blackoutcollect

All photos by Julia Carrie Wong, except as noted. Photos copyrighted Julia Carrie Wong republished here with permission. http://www.juliacarriewong.com
§This train is going nowhere.
by Dave Id
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§Rally outside station
by Dave Id
800_oaklandfergusonsolidarity_20141128_09.jpg
§Justie for Mike Brown
by Dave Id
800_oaklandfergusonsolidarity_20141128_13.jpg
800_oaklandfergusonsolidarity_20141128_18.jpg
Lockdown arrestees were first transported to Lake Merritt station by BART train before being driven to Santa Rita jail.

The Lake Merritt station is BART PD headquarters, where BART police took Oscar Grant's friends and held them in handcuffs for six hours after officer Johaness Mehserle shot Oscar Grant in the back. http://www.indybay.org/oscargrant

Photo by Dave Id.
§West Oakland BART station is closed
by Dave Id
800_oaklandfergusonsolidarity_20141128_19.jpg
After arrests, BART allows trains with Black Friday suburban shoppers to pass through to San Francisco. The station itself re-opened about an hour later.

Photo by Dave Id.
§Just one more arrestee to go...
by update
800_bartlockdownheroesatsantarita2.jpg
Two more Blackout Collective heroes
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