Port of Oakland Has Been Shut Down!!!!

I think this is/was great but how do we get to the ILWU where it counted/s. In Olympia, Tacoma, and Aberdeen, Wshington, this year and last, ships with military equipment beiong transpoted for IRAQ were being loaded by ILWU workers. A community picket line was set up, but with the brutality of police pushed aside so that the workers could load these ships for Bush's "surge" I realize that people are not always at the same level and that the history of the ILWU in the Bay Area is somewhat unique, but it is a crying shame that when it counted, the ships were loaded nd sent to kill Iraqis and continue the the occupation of Iraq.. Maybe next time.... Any thoughts?

CORRECTION: The Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) gates were closed today by the ILWU members honoring the picket line. It was NOT the Port of Oakland that was shut down, just that one shipping line.

American Presidents Line (APL) had also been targeted, but with no ships in port it was already closed.

But kudos to the longshoremen for not working the day shift today!

I was at the picket, and last I heard it was not certain that the longshoremen and women had given up their pay. Apparently there is still a chance they will be paid for missing a day's work. This is not to doubt the solidarity of the longshore workers, but it is to say that the issue of whether or not workers will cross a non-union picket of this type is complicated.

There did not seem to be many messages at the picket that tied the interests of U.S. workers to the stopping of war in Iraq, other than appeals for more money for a neglected school system that these workers may or may not have their kids in. The call for "peace" is too simple and insufficient. Which peace? What do the workers even think of the war? Appeals to international worker solidarity are great but they were not made outside of slogans. I know there is and was communication between representatives of the organizers and the ILWU. But the small amount of communication I noticed between protestors and the ILWU members present was not very inspiring. Barriers to be overcome comrades...

During the U.S. agression against Indo-China a group of anti-war students approached the ILWU then led by their Aussie president, and asked if they could picket one ship in the harbour that the ILWU was to load with munitions for the U.S. Imperialist agressors against the Indo-Chinese people. The pres. said no. That he was sorry and agreed with the students that the U.S. agression against Indo-China was wrong but that they had to work according to contract. This was just at the time when the anti-war surge of the American people and in particularly the students was at peak. Had he stood up to the Military and allowed the students to picket, the ILWU would have had the chance to again lead the workers in winning great recognition of international solidarity just like they did in 1934, with their general strike that got the Union its recognition world wide , nationally and locally. I think those students were correct and honoring the best of ILWU practice because the militancy of the students soon proved to be the end in numerous ways of loading any ships with killing materials for to destroy the workers in Indo-China. It is not the Unions function to destroy the working and living conditions of any other peoples globally. It is the duty of the workers unions to unite globally to put an end to war and poverty and pollution wherever the Imperialist system practices it. I hope the community picketers do not give up just because the union did not respond as it should, because when there is an unjust war, and illegal violence going on globally, there is a super resistence going on that will inevitably win against all odds. The ILWU has a good and remarkable record of resistence to various Wars of agression. They will because of the press of world history soon realized that History-Herstory is with the peoples of the middle east and that Unions must, to retain their charters as working class organizations , do their duty to oppose illegal wars of the bosses Imperialist agression. Keep on keeping on the fight back, and don't get discouraged because you are appoaching victory.

As far as I know, it remains undetermined whether longhore workers will be paid for the shifts yesterday at SSA. Naturally, SSA who is the employer, has taken the position that they will not. The union, ILWU Local 10, has taken the position that they have to be paid.

Longshore workers did not lose the arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that the picket was not a bonafide picket under the terms of the contract. There was never really any question that would be the ruling. Organizers knew that. This was not the central question. It's what SSA wants to emphasize.

The union's position is that the picket constituted a health and safety hazzard at the work site and therefore the workers were within their rights not to enter an unsafe work site. As far as I know, the arbitrator never ruled on this point. I know for sure the arbitrator never ruled on this for the day shift. I haven't gotten a report on the arbitrator ruling for the 2nd shift. If there is a ruling that the picket is a health and safety hazzard, the longshore workers will be paid (time and a half because it was a Saturday).

The union's position is that the arbitration process is incomplete and will be need to be continued. I'll update news on the arbitration question soon.

SSA is not a shipping company. It's main business is a longshore labor provider. They hire longshore workers to work at the Port. However, they do operate a terminal at the Port. That's what we shut down yesterday.

It's very important to understand that the union members knew they were risking losing their pay. Yet member after member told me that there is no way they that they would cross the picket line. These workers took a stand to end the war, and demand the Port give more money to fund local schools and social services. One worker told me, "twe have to stop this war. My family has children in the Oakland schools. If they think I'll cross this picket line they're crazy."

Saying the Port was shut down and overplaying the very small impact this and other recent protests have does not help the cause. The ILWU voted to 'shut down the port' for May Day also but there was no mention of it in any press accounts. Did it really happen? There were very few unions represented at the SF May Day march and little, if any, follow through on these pronouncements of the Ports being shut down. We are still wiping the diesel soot off our windowsills in west Oakland, and the war drags on...

First, closing a terminal for any reason is costly for capitalists. Friday's Wall St. Journal (5/18 "Ports in a Storm") reported that every extra day a ship waits before being unloaded costs $30,000. So do the math: 3 ships sat unloaded at SSA for 2 shifts yesterday. That's 3 X $30,000 because a 2 shift delay slows the ship by at least a day. So that's easily $90,000.

And the ILWU workers LOST the arbitration regarding health and safety, but they honored the picket line of their own will regardless. THAT'S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! And it keeps alive the traditions of '34, the '71 Strike, the refusal to unload ships from Apartheid-era South Africa and the picket line at the Neptune Jade, among many other acts of solidarity.

This, along with the recent actions at the Port of Tacoma, are important steps in bringing in working class solidarity to anti-war actions. It's not quite yet internationalist opposition to war, but is getting there.

We need to try to do it again and again...