
Labor for Palestine
Salutes West Coast Dockers for Embargo on
Israeli CargoJune 21, 2010
ILWU President Bob
McEllrath
robert.mcellrath@ilwu.orgDear
Pres. McEllrath:
Labor
for Palestine salutes ILWU Local 10 and its members for refusing to
unload the Israeli ship that arrived in Oakland on June 20 (see reports
below*).
Their action is in direct response to Israel's May 31
brutal assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Taking place in
international waters under cover of darkness, the Israeli attack
targeted 750 unarmed volunteers from 40 countries seeking to relieve the
humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's siege of collective punishment
against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Because of Israel's
attack on the Flotilla, scores were killed and wounded, while hundreds
of survivors were abducted, jailed and deported. This act of piracy is a
direct extension of the 2008/2009 Gaza massacre that killed 1400
people, most of them civilians, which has been condemned by the UN,
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights
organizations, including those that are Israeli.
Workers in the
United States have particularly good reasons to act. In the past ten
years alone, the US government -- with overwhelming bipartisan support
-- has given Israel $17 billion in military aid; over the next decade,
it will give another $30 billion.
Top US labor officials -- often
without the knowledge or consent of union members -- collaborate with
the Histadrut, the segregated Zionist labor federation, and its
mouthpiece, the Jewish Labor Committee, that defend every attack on
Palestinian rights, including the Flotilla Massacre.[1] These same
leaders invest billions from our union pension and retirement funds in
State of Israel Bonds.
Noting that "Gaza today has become the
test of our universal morality and our common humanity," the Palestinian
trade union movement has specifically called on dockworkers around the
world to refuse to handle Israeli cargo. Local 10 now joins with
dockworkers in South Africa, western Australia, Sweden and Norway, who
have answered this call.
This action stands in the proud
tradition of West Coast dock-workers who refused to handle cargo for
Nazi Germany (1934) and fascist Italy (1935); those in Denmark and
Sweden (1963), the San Francisco Bay Area (1984) and Liverpool (1988),
who refused shipping for apartheid South Africa; those in Oakland who
refused to load bombs for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1978); and
those at all twenty-nine West Coast ports who held a May Day strike
against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008).
Israel
deliberately carried out the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Massacre in order to
silence opposition to its strangulation of Gaza. But just as the 1960
Sharpeville Massacre and the 1976 Soweto Massacre spelled the ultimate
doom of South African apartheid, Israel's attack has already had the
opposite effect.
New waves of volunteers are coming forward to
break the siege, which is already beginning to crack. The movement for
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is spreading.
Already, it is clear that the Flotilla martyrs did not die in vain.
And
just as labor solidarity played a critical role in toppling South
African apartheid, it now has the potential to cripple Israeli
apartheid. We urge the entire ILWU and all trade unionists to stand
behind and expand on this critical issue of conscience and solidarity,
and invite supporters to endorse "Labor for Palestine Condemns Gaza
Freedom Flotilla Massacre, Supports Worker Action to Boycott Israel":
http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/2010/06/07/gaza-flotilla-massacre/.
On
behalf of Labor for Palestine,
Monadel Herzallah, President,
Arab American Union Members Council, California
Michael Letwin,
Former President, ALAA/UAW L. 2325; NYC Labor Against the War; Al-Awda
NY; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network/Labor
Brenda Stokely,
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; NYC Labor Against the War; Co-Chair,
Million Worker March Movement
[1]
http://www.histadrut.org.il/index.php?page_id=1801;
http://www.jewishlaborcommittee.org/2010/06/jlc_on_the_gaza_flotilla_israe_1.html.
cc:
ILWU
Secretary-Treasurer William Adams <
William.adams@ilwu.org>
ILWU
Local 10 President Richard Mead <
waterfrontworker@comcast.net>
ILWU
Local 10 Secretary-Treasurer Farless Dailey
<
local10secretarytreasurer@bayarea.net>
ILWU
Local 10 Executive Board member Jack Heyman
<
jackheyman@comcast.net>
------------------
Reports on the June 20 Blockade of an Israeli
Apartheid Ship in OaklandOakland
Longshorman's Union June 20, 2010Union dock workers refused
this morning to cross picket lines to unload an Israeli ship, in support
of Palestinians everywhere. If the evening shift does the same, the
ship will not be unloaded!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYm1_kWiYzwProtesters
Picket Israeli Cargo Ship ILWU members refused to cross
picketline - citing "health & safety" provisions of their contract.
Management demanded "instant arbitration." The arbitrator took a look at
the picketlines at each gate to the SSA Terminal and ruled that ILWU
members were justified in refusing to cross. All dockworkers were sent
home with FULL PAY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKObPFtcBAMorning
Picket Shuts Down Israeli Zim Lin Line at the Port of Oakland, 6/20/10:
videoThe blockade represents the first time in U.S. history
that a protest has stopped an Israeli ship from unloading.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/20/18651341.phpPicket
to stop unloading of Israeli shiphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0s3o9w9wkILWU
Explains Why they've refused to unload Israeli shipThe
union workers of the ILWU explain their decision to not unload Israeli
goods in the Oakland port, citing past decisions to unload the goods of
other countries that violate human rights on a massive scale with U.S
tax dollars and heeding the call of Palestinian civil society which has
called on the world to apply boycott divestment and sanctions akin to
the actions that brought down apartheid south Africa until Israel ends
it's brutal military occupation of the Palestinian people, ends the
siege on gaza, and grants equal rights and respects the human rights of
all people living under Israeli jurisdiction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEnM3VldJIwIsraeli
Ship Blockaded at Port of Oakland!http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/20/18651381.phpProtesters
Block Israeli Ship from Unloading at Oakland Port"We want
to send a clear message that if you commit acts of piracy on the high
sea; if you go and attack civilians and kill them in cold blood,
execution-style; if you put Gaza under siege; if you build an apartheid
wall; we will not honor your Israeli commerce right here in this town."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/21/headlines/protesters_block_israeli_ship_from_unloading_at_oakland_port
Demonstrators
Prevent Unloading of Israeli ShipOAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) --
Hundreds of protesters gathered before dawn at the Port of Oakland to
prevent dock workers from unloading a cargo ship from Israel on Sunday.
http://www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4747575
Tom
Vee's Photos - California Says 'NO' to Israeli Cargo Shiphttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067629&id=1252763340
Hundreds
in Oakland protest Gaza blockadeHundreds of demonstrators,
gathering at the Port of Oakland before dawn, prevented the unloading of
an Israeli cargo ship. The demonstrators, demanding an end to Israel's
blockade of the Gaza Strip, picketed at Berth 58.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F06%2F20%2FBA0G1E28CV.DTL
Message
from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)Your
action today is a milestone in international solidarity from honest and
brave U.S. workers and trade unionists.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/history-made-june-20th-in-san-francisco%E2%80%93dockworkers-block-unloading-of-israeli-cargo-ship-in-oakland/
Daybreak
outpouring of Bay Area picketers stops unloading of Israeli shipFor
veteran Bay Area activists, today's victory echoed a historic milestone
in 1984, when ILWU workers in San Francisco refused to unload a ship
called the Nedlloyd Kimberley, because its cargo came from South Africa.
Just 10 years later, Nelson Mandela was elected president, and
apartheid - in its South African form - was dead.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/huge-outpouring-of-oakland-picketers-stop-unloading-of-israeli-ship.html