The Superior Court of the State of California has thrown out the case against several Neptune Jade defendants including ILWU activist Jack Heyman. But the shipping industry may still seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from picket captain Robert Irminger, a member of the Inland Boatmen's Union within the ILWU.
They must not be allowed to get away with it.
Two years ago, the sacked Liverpool dockers' newspaper "The Dockers Charter" coined the phrase "The World is Our Picket Line". The picket of the "Neptune Jade" stretched from Oakland to Vancouver, Yokohama, and Kobe. It expressed world wide anger at the shipping industry which continued to trade with Mersey Docks and Harbour Company after the sackings.
Now the Pacific Maritime Association imagines that Robert Irminger can be held responsible for any commercial damage. They need look no further than the mirror to find out who to blame.
Whether it is the ILWU, Jack Heyman, the Labor Party, Laney College, the Peace and Freedom Party, or Robert Irminger in the dock makes very little difference to the principles at stake for the rest of us, be they the First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech, the ILO Convention on Freedom of Association, or the concept of solidarity which lies at the heart of all working class organisation.
We believe with the ILWU that "An Injury to One is An Injury to All". That's why Liverpool Dockers refused to cross the picket line when young men were sacked at Torside in 1995. That's why dockers, longshoremen, and wharfies all over the world took sides with the sacked dockers. And that is why we urge all those who supported the Liverpool Dockers to stand with Robert Irminger.
