Laborfest: Hooks Down! SF Longshore v Apartheid South Africa

Hooks Down! How Longshore Workers in San Francisco Battled Apartheid in South Africa - A Panel Discussion
With Professor Peter Cole; Howard Keylor, ILWU Local 10 retiree and others.
From its founding in the 1930s until recent times, members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) have seen their struggles as part of larger ones for social justice. Strategically positioned workers in marine transport occasionally have expressed solidarity and support for social movements in the Bay Area, the United States, and even other nations by stopping work. As early as 1962, members of the SF Bay Area branch of the ILWU, Local 10, have been at the forefront of anti-apartheid activism locally and nationally, by refusing to unload cargo from South Africa. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, activists in Local 10 continued to use their power on behalf of the global struggle against apartheid and imperialism across southern Africa. In 1984, days after Ronald Reagan’s re-election, rank-and-file activists in Local 10 pulled off the longest “strike” of its kind by refusing to unload South Africa cargo for ten days. In 1990, when Nelson Mandela visited the Bay Area, he expressly thanked the ILWU for its commitment to the cause of freedom. While activists in the ILWU continue to take such principled stands on occasion, so do militant dock workers in Durban, South Africa use their labor power on behalf of fellow workers. This impressive, if largely unknown, tradition of longshore activism and commitment to social justice continues.
Sponsored by ILWU Local 10 Education Committee, Shaping SF and LaborFest.
See also:
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/34fnp6ps9780252031861.html
http://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/cole.php
http://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/ColeCV.pdf
http://www.laborfest.net/2012/2012schedule.htm