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.
UPDATED: List of 200+ U.S. BDS Victories! (tags)
By popular demand, below is a list of U.S. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Victories, originally released to commemorate ten years since Palestinian civil society issued the call for BDS.
Israel's Genocidal War Continues (tags)
Gaza
At the AFL-CIO Convention, Leaders Ask: What Direction for Labor? (tags)
The acknowledgment of Labor’s existential crisis and the recognition that something must be done to resolve it is the key issue at the AFL-CIO’s four-day quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. The urgency of the situation has compelled Labor’s top officials to experiment in a search for solutions.
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts, Part 2 (tags)
In the Northwest, at the terminals on the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Portland, Oregon, the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are on the defensive against the Northwest Grain Handlers Association (NWGHA). The conflict involves nearly 3,000 workers at terminals that handle a quarter of the nation’s grain exports.
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts (tags)
Part I - It’s a familiar pattern: those on top of the economic ladder enjoy massive profits, while expecting workers to sacrifice even more for the “greater good.”
Why We Defend the ILWU and All Workers (tags)
In recent weeks, a showdown has loomed on U.S. docks between the shipping bosses and port workers that has rattled the capitalist ruling class. On the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the International Longshoreman's Association prepared to strike container shipping while the employers threatened to lock out 14,500 ILA members. On the West Coast, the grain shippers been demanding a giveback contract from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which would effectively bypass the union hiring hall, slash workers' vital safety protections and gut union power. Yet in the midst of the Northwest grain battle, an Occupy activist Peter Little publishes an article vociferously arguing against the call to defend the ILWU. While posing as ultra-left, this policy if actually carried out would aid the employers who are hell-bent on destroying ILWU union power on the waterfront. And blaming sellouts on the nature of unions lets the bureaucrats off the hook. We in the Internationalist Group say: all those who stand with the exploited and oppressed must come to the defense of the ILWU in this fight. And that defense includes forthrightly opposing the capitulations and betrayals by the labor bureaucracy which sells out vital union gains in the vain hope of an impossible "cooperation" with capital, endangering the workers organizations they preside over.
Paul Krugman Discovers Marx (and Misses the Point) (tags)
In his recent New York Times op-ed piece, Princeton professor and regular columnist for The New York Times, Paul Krugman observed: The American economy is still, by most measures, deeply depressed. But corporate profits are at record high. It’s simple: profits have surged as a share of national income, while wages and other labor compensation are down. The pie isn’t growing the way it should — but capital is doing fine by grabbing an ever-larger slice, at labor’s expense.
The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
Lynch Law U.S.A.: State Defends Murderer of Trayvon Martin (tags)
Outrage over the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin compounds daily as the killer remains free, facing no criminal charges for gunning down the unarmed black youth from Miami Gardens, Florida. On February 26, George Zimmerman, a white self-appointed captain of a "neighborhood watch" team in a gated community in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, shot Martin, a black high-school student, who was returning to the home in the development where he and his father were staying. Police and local prosecutors never charged Zimmerman and accepted his cynical claim that he shot the unarmed youth in "self-defense." Thousands have demonstrated around the country, particularly after police tapes of 911 calls by Zimmerman were released, showing that he was stalking Martin. But the main thrust of liberals is to divert the protests into a movement for gun control laws and to get rid of "Stand Your Ground" laws such as Florida's which make it legal to shoot in self-defense. The ruling-class response deliberately tries to obscure the key fact that this was racist murder. Trayvon Martin was killed for the "crime" of "walking while black."
From Protest Camp to General Strike (tags)
Something crucial happened in the US in 2011. The strengthening of the Occupy movement, first on Wall Street and then in hundreds of American cities, is celebrated as the revival of the revolutionary middle class. The movement in the US seems two steps ahead.
Longshore Workers, Truckers: Shut the Ports, Coast to Coast! (tags)
Following the nationally-coordinated police evictions last month of Occupy Wall Street and encampments across the country, on December 12 the Occupiers struck back. Ports up and down the West Coast were blockaded, from Seattle to San Diego. Despite a barrage of hostile propaganda in the media, opposition from union bureaucrats and heavy police repression in some places, overall the blockade was successful -- this time. The blockade was called in solidarity with longshore workers fighting a union-busting assault in Longview, Washington and port truckers seeking union recognition in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. This support should have been greeted. But now the class war on the West Coast docks is coming to a head, and it can't be waged from the outside. Bay Area labor has called for a caravan to Longview. The goal should be a real occupation of the terminal by the workers to prevent the loading of the scab cargo. Longshore militants have called on the longshore unions to shut down every port on the West Coast, and the East and Gulf Coasts, to smash EGT's union-busting. Can it be done? Yes, but only though sharp struggle against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy.
Occupy The Ports Long Beach (tags)
Occupy Movement Rises Again Photo Essay 2 of Two Photo Essay one can be found at.http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/12/250375.php
Occupy The Ports Long Beach (tags)
Occupy Movement Rises Again Photo Essay 1 of Two Photo Essay 2 can be found at... http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/12/250396.php
The Labor Movement in Portland, Oregon, Takes a Step Forward (tags)
On only the second sunny weekend of the year in Portland, Oregon, 60 plus labor activists decided to spend their Saturday at the Electricians union hall (IBEW Local 48), at the United Labor Strategy Meeting ? an event unlike any other happening in the country. What made the meeting unique was both its perspective and the diversity of unions that participated.
Obstructing and Delaying Aristide's Return (tags)
Aristide
Occupied Palestine: Good News and Bad (tags)
Far more of the latter than former
Paul Robeson play for L.A. 19-21 Feb (tags)
Award-Winning one-man play about African American Actor, singer and civil rights activist is playing in North Hollywood as part of Black History Month tour.
The San Francisco Strike of 1934: It’s Lessons Today (tags)
The progressive sector of the US labor movement marked July 5, 1934 - a day striking labor unions called "Bloody Thursday" - a turning point in the history of working people on the West Coast. On that day, strikes, riots, tear gas and armed troops on the San Francisco waterfront 1934 strike still had an impact that is still felt to this day. "I think it is still relevant to the Bay Area," said Kevin Starr, the pre-eminent historian of California who wrote about the strike in "Endangered Dreams," a history of California in the Great Depression.
May 15, 2009 LA ILWU Local 13 75th Commemoration March in Wilmington at 10:00 AM (tags)
On May 15, 2009 ILWU Local 13 will have a march to honor members killed and injured in their strike
California workers express concerns about Rite Aid management at shareholder meeting (tags)
On December 2, a representative from Lancaster, CA met with Rite Aid CEO Mary Sammons at a special shareholder meeting in New York City.
What Will It Take to Defeat the War? (tags)
On June 28-29, an “Open National Antiwar Conference” was held in Cleveland, called by a newly minted National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation. Over objections from the conference organizers, centrally Socialist Action, the assembly voted to change the name to include reference to the war on Afghanistan, and to emphasize the connection with U.S. backing for the Zionist occupation of Palestine. (The sponsors of the confab were so right-wing that they feared losing “unity” with Democratic Party supporters of Israel and the Afghanistan war!) What did not change at all was the popular-front character of the new outfit, tying it to the bourgeois parties despite the fig leaf of electoral “independence.” Making this utterly clear, it was decided not to call a national antiwar mobilization prior to the November elections explicitly in order to court those forces who wish to aid the Democrats (and therefore want to avoid making problems for the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama). Here is the leaflet issued by the Internationalist Group at the conference.
May Day revival on three fronts: labor, immigrant, and antiwar (tags)
What started on May 1, 2006 as some of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history for immigrants' rights have in 2008 brought together three fronts -- labor, immigrant, and antiwar -- in one struggle for peace and social justice.
May Day becomes an annual tradition for immigrant and workers' rights (tags)
In San José and all across the United States, marches for immigrant and workers' rights are reviving the long-dormant American tradition of May Day. While legislation for comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress, demonstrators are poised to take the struggle to the next level.
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.
Town hall calls for impeachment to save the Constitution (tags)
A regional town hall on the subject "Are Peace and Impeachment Possible?" was held in Oakland to reaffirm the need and political viability of impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush. It enjoined the audience to support new candidates running against Democratic Party leaders who have declined to challenge the Bush administration for its violations of the Constitution and international law.
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.
VERMONT AFL-CIO CALLS ON WORKERS TO SUPPORT WEST COAST SRIKE AGAINST WAR (tags)
The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their “unequivocal” support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq.
AFL-CIO’s John J. Sweeney Fears “an American Nightmare!” (tags)
On April 8, 2008, John J. Sweeney said in Baltimore, MD, that the country is going down the tubes and dragging working class people with it. He’s the head of the national AFL-CIO. He added that in November: “We have an opportunity to reverse these awful trends.” On May 1, 2008, West coast dockworkers are calling a work stoppage to protest the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps, Mr. Sweeney will join them on the picket line. Stay tuned.
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!
Ruling Against Mumia Shows: No Justice in the Capitalist Courts (tags)
On March 27, the U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia reaffirmed the frame-up conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther Party spokesman and world-renowned radical journalist who has been locked up on Pennsylvania’s death row for more than a quarter century. After previously rejecting Mumia’s request to present evidence of his innocence, as well as a host of issues showing that he was railroaded by a racist court, the Court turned down Mumia’s request for a new trial. It upheld the 2001 ruling by a federal district judge that ordered a new hearing on the sentence, but limited the “choice” to the living hell of life imprisonment without parole ... or execution. Mumia is innocent. He was declared guilty and sentenced to die because of his revolutionary politics and because for years he had been a thorn in the side of the racist rulers of the misnamed “city of brotherly love.” Around the world, millions have come out in defense of Jamal. This latest ruling, like all those that preceded it, shows that the exploited and oppressed must have no faith in the racist injustice system. We call on the workers movement to mobilize its power to free Mumia now!
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!
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.
A Mom's FYI: Reality Bites (tags)
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ANTIWAR MARCH! March 19th, High Noon - Hollywood & Vine (tags)
Be there... or be a bush supporter
Million Worker March in Washington defies AFL-CIO and calls for a fighting labor movement (tags)
The forward thrust of the March stood in stark contrast to the AFL-CIO’s failed strategy of support for John Kerry.
[gangbox] TROQUEROS REVOLT.... (tags)
TROQUEROS REVOLT....can the California port truckers wildcat strike lead to the reunionization of the freight industry???
Independent Truckers Strike! (tags)
Independent owner/operators on the West Coast carry their strike through the weekend. Signs of growing solidarity felt in the Oakland area and up and down the Coast.
That these issues I keep hearing about--of the increased use of police and military force in this country--are real. They're not happening in the future; they're happening today.
State of California monitored war protesters (tags)
Oakland Tribune: State monitored war protesters Intelligence agency does not distinguish between terrorism and peace activism
U.S. Troops Open Fire On Iraqi Protesters, Again (tags)
Iraqi people are being shot dead for demanding that their school not be turned into a U.S. military base.
Class War heats up in the USA (tags)
Class War
Police attack injures protesters, workers (tags)
OAKLAND, Calif. – Outraged witnesses and community leaders used words like “preemptive,” “premeditated,” and “brutal” during an emotionally charged meeting of the Oakland City Council to describe the Oakland Police Department’s attack on anti-war demonstrators and longshore workers near the gate of the Stevedoring Services of America dock on Monday, April 7.
The Bush Outrage(s) of the Month list (tags)
(see related story below) As part of its campaign to put a four-year limit on George W. Bush’s tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the AFL-CIO has drawn up what might be called the “Outrage of the Month” list of attacks against working people by the Bush administration since taking office in January 2001.
Nautical Ecocide Threatens the World's Aquarium (tags)
(versión en Español pendiente) Analysis of the Escalera Nautica or Nautical Stairway project in Northwest Mexico, with regards to environmental impact and global economic forces.
The ILWU From Bridges to Spinosa (tags)
Great article on the dockworkers
National security, or war on workers? (tags)
OAKLAND, Calif. – Like many Filipinos living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Erlinda Valencia found a job at the airport, screening carry-on bags for passengers. She worked for Argenbright Security for 14 years, most of that time at a minimum-wage job, barely able to support her family.
Bush rewards bosses, invokes Taft-Hartley (tags)
LOS ANGELES – The labor movement reacted with outrage to George W. Bush’s decision to invoke the unionbusting Taft-Hartley Act to end an employer lockout of the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). It was the first use of the law against the union since Richard Nixon invoked it in 1971 to interrupt a strike.
5 deaths of longshore workers prove hazardous conditions (tags)
There have been 5 deaths of longshore workers this year on the docks, demonstrating the hazardous working conditions. The World Socialist Website provides one perspective on what is to be done.
West Coast Ports Stay Shut (tags)
Shippers: W. Coast Ports Stay Shut - Sun Sep 29,11:35 PM ET - By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer
LA TIMES on ILWU with short update (tags)
Below is yesterday's LA times on ILWU possible lockout by the bosses. NYT reports today the lockout is averted
The ILWU has called an emergency press conference on the threat to use troops to break any strike action and/or to run the docks without the union.
Longshore rallies to Bush: Butt out (tags)
“Contract, Yes! Government intervention, No!” was the message of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the AFL-CIO, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and many mayors at rallies up and down the West Coast, Aug. 12. Thousands took to the streets in protest of a threat by the Bush administration to take over ports militarily in the event that the union decides to strike.
ACTION ALERT: Bush trying to smash ILWU, the most powerful radical union in America (tags)
Bush is attempting to bust the most powerful radical union in America, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They've done numerous solidarity actions for environmental, labor & human rights groups & they need our support on the West Coast.
ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation (tags)
ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation. story from portland indymedia.
Bush threatens troops in longshore dispute (tags)
LOS ANGELES – The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) revealed this week that a secret Bush administration task force has threatened a military takeover of West Coast ports if the union decides to strike.
Copied from the Press Telegram, article gives you an idea of the impact of a port strike. Truckers are trying to leverage the situation, and organize into unions.
Labor solidarity backs West Coast dockers (tags)
OAKLAND – Leaders of unions representing transport workers from around the world locked arms at a Solidarity Day rally here on June 27 in support of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The ILWU is in the battle of its life, faced with a threatened lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) – and the danger that President Bush will invoke the Taft-Hartley Act in the event of a strike or slowdown.
Networked Web/Microradio Broadcast of Major Portworkers Rally (tags)
The Portworkers Rally at the Port of Oakland at 11:00 am on June 27, 2002 will be broadcast over a web/microradio network along the West Coast. A live microradio broadcast from the Port of Oakland will be received by the SF IMC and web cast to other IMC's, where the streams will be picked up and broadcast via the Internet and microradio, such as on www.killradio.org.
Rally Thursday noon in Wilmington, CA to show support for the ILWU longshore workers.
Harry Bridges and the ILWU. From 'Wharf Rats' to ‘Lords of the Docks’ (tags)
The life and times of Harry Bridges are so closely linked with the history of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that it is impossible to write about one without writing about both – and this writer is not going to try.
Freedom Fest for Mumia - Saturday, September 15, 2001, noon - 6p.m., Lemeirt Park
Labor Day Events in Los Angeles (tags)
Labor Day Events in Los Angeles. (See also pictures posted by Slobodan Dimitrov)
Police Attack Organized Labor at Staples Rally; Leaders Demand Apology (tags)
Monday night's Staples Center rally was an officially sanctioned labor event. Labor has been and will remain an essential component of the Seattle coalition regardless of the wishful thinking of some. When the LAPD attacked those attending the Staples Center rally, they were also attacking organized labor. We demand an apology. An injury to one is an injury to all!
A Message from the International Longshore & Warehouse Union to D2KLA (tags)
letter of support from ILWU to D2KLA
Organized Labor to Take Part in Democratic Convention Protests (tags)
Organized labor has announced plans to take part in the D2K protests.