The "Neptune Jade" is now 0-2 in its quest to find dockworkers willing to unload its hot cargo. After spending several days in an Oakland harbour while ILWU members refused to cross a picket line and work the ship, the "Neptune Jade" sailed north to Vancouver, Canada hoping to find a friendlier reception. What it got was another militant picket by 22 local Liverpool Docker supporters and ILWU workers who respected the picket line and refused to handle its cargo.
On Friday afternoon, Vancouver activists received confirmation from their Bay Area counterparts that the Jade would be arriving in the Vancouver Terminal at approximately 7 AM, Saturday, October 4. This was all the time that was needed to organize supporters, who arrived at the Port with placards shortly before 8 AM to meet the morning shift. The demonstrators stayed in the pouring rain until they were sure that no work would be done on the Jade for the duration of that shift. A contingent was organized to meet the next shift, but this became unnecessary when it was revealed that the Jade was heading to Japan.
Outside of the ILWU, the dockers' supporters reflected a cross section of local activism. Organizations that were represented included SIKLAB, a group that organizes Philippine migrant workers, including seafarers; the Philippine Youth Alliance; the No! to APEC Coalition; New Socialist Group; Socialist Challenge; the International of Hope; International Socialists; Communist League; and others. The people present included trade unionists, students, and social justice activists. The event was documented on video by a member of Working TV, a show broadcast on community cable.
Today's action was the latest instance of solidarity with Liverpool shown by Vancouver-area ILWU Locals. In addition to supporting the Dockers financially, the ILWU have participated in the Montreal Conference and in the International Day of Action on September 8. Once again, the ILWU have demonstrated that issues of casualisation, privatisation, and union-busting are faced by dockworkers everywhere.
The campaign in Canada to reinstate the Liverpool Dockers has reached a new level. Today's events illustrate the resonance of the Dockers' struggle with working people in general, who in Canada have been subjected to many years of downsizing, unemployment, social service cuts, and lean production. More and more Canadians are finding out the truth about Liverpool, and today's action furthered that process. This education work will continue in Vancouver. On October 14, the Liverpool Dockers' Solidarity Network (LDSN) and the New Socialist Group are organizing a benefit screening of Ken Loach's "The Flickering Flame." This event will lead up to the late November Vancouver stop of the Canadian Women of the Waterfront tour, sponsored by the LDSN.
The LDSN hopes that Vancouver's boycott of the Neptune Jade strengthens the resolve of our sisters and brothers in Liverpool to fight until victory is achieved. Until justice prevails in Liverpool there will be no peace for shippers in Canada. In particular we are serving notice to Canadian Pacific subsidiaries CanMar/CAST that we are intensifying our campaign against their continued use of scab labour in Liverpool. Shipping corporations will be forced to reckon with the fact that the working class has no country and that an injury to one is an injury to all.
Finally, the LDSN calls upon Japanese portworkers and their supporters to replicate the success of Oakland and Vancouver in Yokohama. The only escape for the "Neptune Jade" is reinstatement of the Liverpool Dockers. Until then, may the Jade's cargo rot!
-Janis Kaleta, Heidi Swierenga, and TJ Baker
reporting for the Liverpool Dockers' Solidarity Network
