[Peace-discuss] Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Omigod, too good to be true!!!
   -Jenifer

Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Well, it's a start!
-Ricky


Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war
by Jack Heyman, SF Chronicle
Letter from ILWU Pres. McEllrath to John Sweeney 
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. 



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