Issue No. 9 — September 19, 2007
| Issue No. 9 — September 19, 2007 |
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| ILWU contingent marches in antiwar protest in San Francisco |
On August 23, West Sacramento cops and private SSA security guards viciously attacked, two Local 10 brothers returning to work after lunch on the SSA terminal. When the guards demanded to search the car, the brothers asked to see the MARSEC (maritime security) reg and called the Local 10 business agent. This enraged the guards who called the cops. While talking by phone to BA MacKay and without provocation, they were assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed, charged with “trespassing”. How the hell can a longshoreman be “trespassing”, after returning to work at the terminal. They’d already shown PMA ID and a driver’s license. This is racial profiling and police brutality. The longshoremen were black and the cops white. Such is the brutal face of the “war on terror” on the docks. It’ll get worse unless we take united action to defend these brothers. An injury to two is an injury to all! Local 10 has called for a protest rally at the Woodland courthouse to defend these brothers. Ship Clerks’ Local 34 and the Portland longshore Local 8, are joining in the protest. We need to have all the locals on the Coast participating as we did for the successful campaign in the Neptune Jade protest for the Liverpool dockers in front of the Oakland courthouse. So far the ILWU International has remained silent on this critical struggle, just as we go into contract negotiations. Remember longshoremen going to work in Oakland got shot by cops attacking antiwar protesters in front of SSA and APL terminals at the start of the war? Now this Sacramento attack! Even in our own union, the Grievance Committee had to deal with one new member with a personal grudge who snitched on an upstanding Local 10 brother to ICE (Immigration and Customs) agents simply because he was of Arab descent. Isn’t that “conduct unbecoming a union brother”? DUMP THE TWIC CARD — THE FEDS’ BRANDING IRON! On another front of the government’s phony “war on terror”, longshoremen and ship clerks are angry and rightfully so about TWIC cards being forced on us. To add insult to injury they want us to pay for it. Reminds you of the racist South African government’s “pass cards” forced on workers under apartheid. A police state uses “biometric” cards and spy cameras keep tabs on you 24/7. That’s government repression. It’s another outrageous example of how the war abroad means a war on our rights here as portworkers. Brothers and sisters, we’ve got to stand together. Like the preamble to Local 10’s Constitution says “organization of the working class and unity of action” are “imperative and essential” to defend “the fundamental rights of labor”. That’s why Local 10 initiated the call for the Oct. 20 Labor Conference to Stop the War. Why are maritime bosses and their government so hot for TWIC? By invoking “port security” in the “war on terror,” the feds want to bypass the union hiring hall. They want to say who can and can’t work on the waterfront. Intrusive background checks are made by Bush’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to see who’s been arrested before. You can be deemed a threat to port security and denied access to marine terminals for many different kinds of past arrests and “offenses” that have nothing to do with terrorism. Back in the day, longshoremen stopped work if a union brother was denied work because of government screening (ILWU Dispatcher Jan. 4, 1952 front page). They even set up a legal defense fund for victimized workers. How many longshoremen have been unfairly deregistered or deported because of background checks since 9/11? And what is our union doing to defend them? That’s what a union is supposed to do. For anyone denied waterfront employment, the appeals process is blatantly biased. Coast Guard brass, who often retire to big money jobs with oil and shipping companies, pick the judges. The Coast Guard’s administrative court system is stacked against maritime workers, as shown by the Baltimore Sun (June 24), one of the most respected maritime newspapers in the U. S. The Sun’s in-depth report was based on federal court records, internal memos and the testimony of a former U. S. Coast Guard (USCG) judge who testified that Chief Judge Joseph Ingolia directed judges to rule against maritime workers and “assure rulings favorable to the USCG.” The Coast Guard admitted that maritime workers won only 14 of 6, 300 charges since 1999. A blind crane operator has a better chance of landing a box in the hold of a ship than a longshoreman does of winning a TWIC appeal! The TWIC “Background Check” and MoreLongshore workers already have PMA identification cards, seamen have the merchant mariners document and truckers have drivers’ licenses. So why all the hype about TWIC, Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or is it Transport Workers In Chains? If you think that the Sacramento and Oakland attacks were bad, it’ll only get worse….. unless we organize against it. TWIC is a loaded gun pointed at our heads, as Bush’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) runs background checks to see who’s been busted before. So, who hasn’t? The criminal “justice” system makes sure most working-class youth, especially minorities go through the wringer. A huge number end up in jail at some point. Of course, law-breakers like Bush and Cheney never go to jail. Unveiling “Phase III” of the TWIC program in 2004, the TSA boasted that “communications technologies tied to the program will allow TSA to interface with other federal, state and local agencies.”. TWIC will carry electronic snoop data of every kind. It’s another step towards the national ID card they’ve been dreaming about for so long. A journal devoted to the big business of “homeland security” (HSToday) brags: “The TWIC card will have all the data and biometric information necessary to reliably verify the holder’s identity.” Biometric identity data – like race, skin color, eye color, fingerprints, what else? Credit history, phone calls, favorite web sites. How about the books you take out of the library, or movies you see? This is no joke: Section 802 of the USA Patriot Act is aimed straight at labor, redefining “terrorism” to include actions that “appear to be intended” to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.” Job actions or strikes at contract time could be deemed illegal. “What’s Goin’ On”
Both Democrat and Republican parties keep shredding the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, while voting to fund the war. And they want us to go along with it. No way. We, longshoremen have a proud tradition of standing up for our rights and the rights of others. We Have Power – Let’s Use ItLocal 10 has said loud and clear that we don’t want federal security agents in our union hall to process TWIC cards. And we’re not going to pay for the snitch cards. Maritime workers didn’t vote for electronic shackles and we won’t pay for them either! Our Canadian ILWU longshore brothers and sisters have vehemently protested the background checks. When longshore workers and seamen came down to the front for work, we didn’t have to show a squeaky clean record to get a job. Like our Canadian brothers and sisters, the ILWU has in the past protested government screening. Past president Jimmy Herman chaired the Committee Against Waterfront Screening, during the McCarthy period when the government was trying to ban militant maritime workers from the ships and docks. ILWU successfully defended President Harry Bridges against four attempts to deport him for being a communist and we offered refuge to militants who were purged from other maritime unions. Nowadays, ILWU officers go along with TWIC waterfront screening, while union members are targeted. Today, Bush and his criminal cronies look like rats jumping off a sinking ship. Rumsfeld is thrown over the side. Rove quits under the pressure of being ordered to testify in court for illegally firing attorney generals. Attorney General Gonzales dumped in disgrace. But the Democratic Party, having swept Congressional elections in a mandate to end the war, keep the war going and eagerly support the “war on terror”. The real criminals— the “oil emperors” who torture, terrorize, bomb, lie, steal and violate rights supposedly guaranteed in the constitution – get richer by the day. Labor strikes against war has been used effectively by workers in other countries and could succeed here too. The LA County Federation of Labor passed a motion for workplace actions to stop the war. Longshore workers along with other workers have the power to stop the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and turn the tide on the “war on terror”. A bold workers’ protest action here in the Bay Area could have a rebellious ripple effect across the country. The Labor Conference to Stop the War called by Locals 10 and 34 will be held on October 20 at our union hall to discuss how to organize actions. Union activists from around the country and from South Africa, Britain and Japan have been responding enthusiastically to this call. Longshoremen have made history before and we can do it again– and we need to, before all our rights are taken away. All Out for ILWU Protest Rally at Yolo County Superior Court
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For the big business government and both its parties, this can mean any picket line or protest. Marvin Gaye in his song “What’s Goin’ On” said it years ago during the Vietnam War: “Picket lines, picket signs, don’t punish me with brutality.” The PMA’s Miniace shortly after 9/11 started blaring propaganda about how maritime employers and longshoremen together are the “first line of defense.” A year later, during the 2002 ILWU longshore contract negotiations, Bush threatened a military takeover of the ports if there were any job actions by longshore workers on the docks. But, of course, when employers locked us out and shut down every port on the West Coast, Bush didn’t call that a “threat to port security.” Then, to make sure we understood the “war on terror,” at Democratic Senator Feinstein’s request, he invoked the slave labor Taft- Hartley law, forcing us back to work under the employers’ conditions. A few months later, the war started. Cops on the Oakland docks shot longshoremen and antiwar protesters with “non-lethal” weapons and then- Democratic Mayor, now-Attorney General Jerry Brown backed them.