Boron Miners Strike Solidarity Committee

There will be an important meeting at ILWU Local 10 to organize support for the 600 Boron miners, now locked out in the Mojave Desert by global mining giant Rio Tinto for nearly 3 months.

This solidarity committee will be similar to ones organized in the Bay Area in the past to support the ILWU in the 2002 employer lockout, the Charleston 5 defense committee, the sacked Liverpool dockers and the anti-apartheid struggle.

Members of all ILWU locals and retirees are invited to participate as well as other union members, antiwar activists and May Day organizers.

The ILWU miners' struggle is at a critical stage and solidarity actions at this point could turn the tide in favor of the union. The alternative would be a defeat not only for a local of arguably the most militant union in this country, but could become another PATCO, spreading dire consequences for the rest of the ILWU and organized labor.

Please make every effort to attend. Victory to the Boron miners!



7 PM, WEDNESDAY APRIL 28

ILWU LOCAL 10, Henry Schmidt room
400 North Point St.
San Francisco

Boron miners will be in attendance, and will give a report on the critical situation they face.



MAY DAY APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY FROM JACK HEYMAN, ILWU LOCAL 10:

Dear Comrades,

As you may know, 600 ILWU borate miners employed by Rio Tinto in Boron, California have been locked out and are waging a desparate struggle. May Day will be the 3rd month of the lockout, an employer strike against the union. Rio Tinto, a global mining giant, has declared class war against the most militant union in the United States, the ILWU. Rio Tinto, which was nurtured under Franco's fascist dictatorship in Spain, has earned a reputation as rapacious capitalists who evict indigenous peoples off their resource-rich land, destroy the environment and bust trade unions. This is a struggle which workers in the U.S. can not lose because after the miners, the longshore workers will be next and then the organized labor movement. It is similar to the 1980 PATCO air controllers' strike broken by President Ronald Reagan. Workers of the world must stand together on May Day against this brutal attack. As the old syndicalist slogan goes: "An injury to one is an injury to all!"

I implore you in the spirit of working class militants on the barricades, carry a banner on May Day in solidarity with the locked out miners in Boron, California. On May Day 2008, the ILWU shutdown ALL West Coast ports to protest the imperialist war in Afghanistan and Iraq demanding an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Supporters of the ILWU around the world held banners and posters at May Day rallies in support of our strike, took photos and sent them to us. Could you please do the same to help build morale for our miners at a critical moment of this struggle and build international labor solidarity?

Victory to the ILWU miners!

Jack
jackheyman [at] comcast.net

P.S. You can also fax solidarity greetings to

ILWU Local 30 760-762-5542

ILWU Local 10 415-441-0610

ILWU International 415-775-1302