There has been a movement growing among truckers nationwide to protest not just high gasoline prices but the general attack against workers. It’s an interesting movement in large part because it’s truly grassroots–it has been driven (no pun intended) by a loosely-knit group that has found allies throughout the country but it has no real organizational structure. Yours truly has been lending a minor hand as the folks gear up to protest in NYC.

   Yesterday, the truckers descended on Washington, D.C. The New York Times only mentions the protest in passing as part of a report on the presidential campaing debate about whether to give relief to people via a gas tax cut. The Washington Post, though, has a stand-alone story:

A caravan of horn-honking truck drivers rolled their rigs through Washington yesterday, protesting rising gasoline costs and demanding that Congress impose caps on prices at the pump.

The truckers, who formed a long column, circled the Mall about noon and blared their horns. Some spectators waved while others covered their ears.

"The high price for oil is hurting our economy," said Mark Kirsch, a trucker from Myerstown, Pa., who helped organize the rally. "It’s hurting middle-class people."

    Read more about these folks at this website.

    Underneath the anger about gas prices is a general seething over the assault on workers’ livelihood. Heck, they even are planning on coordinating a nationwide shut-down in coordination with an action by the longshoremen on the West Coast.