Kees,
I’m about to leave for a short Labor Day weekend. (Unlike the rest of the world, the U. S. holiday for workers is celebrated in Sept. not on May Day. ) So, I won’t be able to respond to any comments for a few days.
Any worker involved in building solidarity for the Charleston longshore struggle would be happy to have ITF’s participation in the international day of action. However, Kees, this is the first time the ITF has come out concretely for “organizing a world wide action day” for the Charleston 5. I don’t begrudge that effort. I welcome it. If we are successful, it will mean the a real international dockworkers’ solidarity action.
“Support” is an ambiguous word with different meanings and interpretations. The March ILWU Caucus (Longshore Convention) voted specifically to “call for an international day of solidarity action in ports around the world through the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the International Dockworkers’ Council to be coordinated in one powerful display of union protest on the first day of the trial of the Charleston Five to demand the charges be dropped”. Dockworker demonstrations around the world effectively means that ships won’t be worked because longshore workers will be exercising their right to protest. The focus of a demonstration could be a U. S. Embassy overseas or a South Carolina business in the U. S.
In ITF’s April 5th circular there’s no mention of an international day of action. You say that “ITF affiliated port workers unions should be asked for further support and international solidarity”. In a conversation with you at the ILWU International Dockworkers’ Solidarity Conference earlier this month you said that you were waiting for ILA President John Bowers to issue a call for solidarity action. You reiterated the ITF policy that only union representatives to the ITF (not locals) may call ITF for assistance. Nor does that call for action appear in Bowers’ ILA News Report (Vol.18, #2). That is precisely why Ken Riley is now requesting that Bowers openly and publicly call for demonstrations on the first day of the trial. Publicizing the Charleston 5 defense case and raising money for legal and defense campaign expenses are necessary forms of support, but what is decisive is labor action. That is where our power lies as workers, at the point of production. And that is why workers at the June 9th South Carolina rally in response to Bowers’ speech shouted thunderously,“Shut the ports down!”
I hope the ITF has learned a lesson from the Liverpool dispute. The precondition for labor solidarity can not be based on the whims of one person like Bill Morris, General Secretary of the TGWU, when the survival of a union is at stake. . . . lest scabs are recruited as the new union members. I look forward to the ITF-affiliate unions participation in this international day of action for the Charleston 5. A successful action will effectively warn global shipowners and governments against implementing anti-labor privatization schemes which undermine dockworker union conditions in Europe, Japan and around the world.
Jack
