Class War on the Waterfront: Longshore Workers Under Attack (tags)
ILWU Local 10 retired longshoreman Jack Heyman talks about technology and the danger of a proposed 8 year contract.
Oakland General Strike a Success, but Cops Seriously Injure another Vet (tags)
With over 50,000 people protesting in the street in three major protests through the course of the day, massive labor participation, and a shut down of the Port of Oakland, there is no question that the general strike was a success. Yet the corporate media is now blowing up the importance of a few acts of vandalism by protesters and agent provocateurs.
Labor for Palestine Salutes West Coast Dockers for Embargo on Israeli Cargo (tags)
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.
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
OEA Press Conference on ILWU May Day Stop Work Action Against War (tags)
The Oakland Education Association representing more than 2800 education workers called a press conference on Tuesday April 29, 2008 to announce support of the ILWU action against the war and action by their own union. They were joined by other unions and Cindy Sheehan
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.
Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war (tags)
This is called Walking the Talk. Please do all you can to publicize and support this effort.
For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Against War (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
Paro portuario en la Costa Oeste contra la guerra el 1° de mayo (tags)
En lo que representa un paso de gran importancia para el movimiento obrero norteamericano, el International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU – sindicato internacional de estibadores y almacenistas) ha anunciado que paralizará los puertos de la Costa Oeste de Estados Unidos el 1° de mayo para exigir el cese inmediato de la guerra y la ocupación en Irak y Afganistán, así como el retiro de las tropas norteamericanas de Medio Oriente. Ésta es la primera vez en décadas que un sindicato en Estados Unidos ha decidido emprender una acción industrial en contra de una guerra de EE.UU. La acción anunciada por el poderoso sindicato de trabajadores portuarios de la Costa Oeste, un paro de labores para parar la guerra, debe ser retomada por sindicatos y organizaciones de trabajadores de todo Estados Unidos y a escala internacional. El propósito de semejantes acciones no debe ser suplicar a los políticos burgueses –cuyas manos están llenas de sangre, por haber aprobado a lo largo de los últimos seis años y medio todo presupuesto de guerra– sino dar una muestra de la fuerza de los trabajadores, que hacen funcionar este país, ¡y que pueden también pararlo!
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
West Coast Solidarity Meetings For "Freightliner Five" (tags)
There will be solidarity meetings for the fired UAW Freightliner N. Carolina workers in LA, SF, Portland and Seattle
On the Line in the Port of Oakland (tags)
Dockworkers honored a community picket line in the Port of Oakland on May 19, 2007, and the shipping operations of a war profiteer were shut down for two shifts. Cargo did not move at the SSA terminal that day. It takes only two lines to sum this up, but it took two months to prepare.
Longshore Workers Honor Picket Line, Shut Down War Cargo Shipper in Oakland (tags)
This can be an important first step toward the mobilization of workers power to shut down the war machine, but that requires a sharp struggle against the bourgeois politics of the antiwar groups and union officialdom. The OEA calls for money for schools not for war, as if it were a matter of budget priorities, and the PAC poster made a social-patriotic pitch to “Bring the Troops Home Now, and give them the care they need.” Such “peace is patriotic” rhetoric is a staple of the UPFJ, but all the antiwar coalitions make similar appeals to garner support from Democratic Party liberals. Revolutionaries and class-conscious workers, in contrast, emphasize that this imperialist war must be opposed by class war.
Stop Union Busting on the Waterfront! (tags)
In a show of solidarity ILWU Local 10 voted for a port-wide shutdown in support of the IBU & MMP workers. This is call for all union members and their allies to join us on the picket line Pier 31/33, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, December 9, 2006 at 10 AM.
Police spies chosen to lead war protest (tags)
Friday, July 28, 2006Two Oakland police officers working undercover at an anti-war protest in May 2003 got themselves elected to leadership positions in an effort to influence the demonstration, documents released Thursday show.
KPFA listeners mobilize to return Bill Mandel to the air (tags)
Bill Mandel supporters fight to get him back on Pacifica's air. They met with KPFA management in Berkeley in March. See video and stills of the meeting at http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/1729636.php Mandel, Gerald Sanders (Pacifica Board member), and Jack Heyman (ILWU) on their way to the meeting.
The unexpected ending of the case against the Oakland 25 (tags)
The DA had been prosecuting 25 victims of the police assault which took place on April 7, 2003 in the Port of Oakland. A year later, the ordeal of these people finally ended in a strange twist.
The first anniversary of April 7th in the Port of Oakland (tags)
Revisiting a scene of shock and awe to reaffirm our First Amendment rights. Our banner read, “Remember the shots! -- Return to the docks!”
Bush guts Health Care for Veterans; Michael Moore's Popularity Surges (tags)
Green news and opion updated daily
Relying on failed strategies Union leaders place ILWU victory in jeopardy (tags)
Relying on big business politicians and refusing to mobilize their members to confront the employers' attacks is a strategy that has led to defeat after defeat for organized labor despite great sacrifice and heroism from the rank and file union member. There is little indication in the ILWU/PMA struggle that change is on the way.
Strikers as Terrorists? (tags)
June 27, 2002 A CounterPunch Exclusive Strikers as Terrorists? Ridge Calls Longshoremen's Chief by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
Homeland Security & Union Busting (tags)
In a CounterPunch exclusive, Alexander Cockburn shows how the Bush Administration's phony and fascist "War on Terrorism" is being waged against decent working people here at home.