[statecom-discuss] Fwd: Longshoremen to Close Ports on West Coast to Protest War

[gary hicks]

gary hicks <big_g19462002 at yahoo.com> wrote: Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:15:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: gary hicks <big_g19462002 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: Longshoremen to Close Ports on West Coast to Protest War
To: gary hicks <big_g19462002 at yahoo.com>

 

moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG wrote: Date:         Wed, 9 Apr 2008 21:05:16 -0400
From:         moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: Longshoremen to Close Ports on West Coast to Protest War
To:           PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG

 Longshoremen to Close Ports on West Coast to Protest War

Jack Heyman

Open Forum
SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/ED8L101F5U.DTL
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

While millions of people worldwide have marched against
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week's New
York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent
believe the country is headed in the wrong direction -
key concerns being the war and the economy - the war
machine inexorably grinds on.

Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of  the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union have
decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West
Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to
call for an end to the war.

This decision came after an impassioned debate where
the union's Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion
in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called
it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of
working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being
wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work"
holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who
received a mandate to end the war but who now continue
to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their
political power on the docks.

Last month, in response to the union's declaration, the
Pacific Maritime Association, the West Coast employer
association of shipowners, stevedore companies and
terminal operators, declared its opposition to the
union's protest.  Thus, the stage is set for a conflict
in the run up to the longshore contract negotiations.

The last set of contentious negotiations (in 2002) took
place during the period between the 9/11 terrorist
attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Representatives of
the Bush administration threatened that if there were
any of the usual job actions during contract
bargaining, then troops would occupy the docks because
such actions would jeopardize "national security." Yet,
when the PMA employers locked out the longshoremen and
shut down West Coast ports for 11 days, the "security"
issue vanished. President Bush then invoked the Taft-
Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under
conditions favorable to the employers.

The San Francisco longshore union has a proud history
of opposition to the war in Iraq, being the first union
to call for an end to the war and immediate withdrawal
of troops. Representatives of the union spoke  at anti-
war rallies in February 2003, including one in London
attended by nearly 2 million people, the largest ever
held in Britain. Executive Board member Clarence Thomas
went to Iraq with a delegation to observe workers'
rights during the occupation.

At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters
demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen
honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in
riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal
weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike
with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags,
concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights
Commission investigator characterized the Oakland
police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war
protesters in the United States.

And finally, last year, two black longshoremen going to
work in the port of Sacramento were beaten, Maced and
arrested by police under the rubric of  Homeland
Security regulations ordained by the "war on terror."

There's precedent for this action. In the '50s, French
dockworkers refused to load war materiel on ships
headed for Indochina, and helped to bring that colonial
war to an end. At the ILWU's convention in San
Francisco in 2003, A. Q. McElrath, an octogenarian
University of Hawaii regent and former ILWU organizer
from the pineapple canneries, challenged the delegates
to act for social justice, invoking the union's slogan,
"An injury to one is an injury to all." She concluded,
"The cudgel is on the ground. Will you pick it up?"

It appears that longshore workers may be doing just
that on May Day and calling on immigrant workers and
others to join them.

May Day protest

WHEN: 10:30 a.m., May 1, followed by a rally at noon.

WHERE: Longshore Union Hall, corner of Mason and Beach
(near Fisherman's Wharf).

WHAT: March to a rally at Justin  Herman Plaza along the
Embarcadero.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.maydayilwu.googlepages.com;
www.ilwu.org; www.transportworkers.org or call (415)
776-8100.

Jack Heyman is a longshoreman who works on the Oakland
docks.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/ED8L101F5U.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San
Francisco Chronicle

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