Communities Defend Their Post Offices One by One

Four endangered Bay Area post offices will stay open after all, and the subcontracting of California postal trucker jobs is on hold. Those victories were the latest in a string of local wins for grassroots activists across the country.

The success followed a raucous public campaign to keep the facilities open. Hundreds marched into a threatened downtown San Francisco post office in June, carrying a sound system.

Postal workers, seniors, low-income activists, churchgoers, and Occupy folks crowded in to speak about how the closure would affect their communities. Homeless residents who count on post office boxes and the general delivery window would have been especially hard hit.

On many fronts at once, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and congressional conservatives are waging the battle to downsize and privatize the post office (see next page).

“It’s a whack-a-mole thing. If we are able to beat back an attack in one area, they just attack in a different area,” said Chicago letter carrier Melissa Rakestraw.More