12/6Nat Conf On Labor, War & Repression

National Labor Conference
Working People, The War & Repression
Why It Is Happening And What Can We Do About It?
Saturday December 6, 2003 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
ILWU Local 10 Henry Schmidt Room 2nd Fl
400 North Point St./Mason St.
San Francisco




The growing quagmire in Iraq and the Middle East is a threat not only to the people of the Middle East. This war,, which will cost hundreds of billions of dollars has been used by the government to justify a massive attack on our civil liberties. From the Patriot Act to the Homeland Security Act, the Maritime Security Act and other repressive legislation, our basic democratic rights to dissent and also our labor rights are under attack. It will be paid for with cutbacks on healthcare, social services, education and housing and privatization of more jobs.
It is time that the labor movement begin to go on the offensive with labor action both against the war in Iraq and against the attacks on our democratic rights. We cannot allow politicians that our unions support to continue to fund the war and support this repressive legislation. The attacks on trade unionists and anti-war protesters in Oakland on April 7, 2003 and the use of this legislation to incarcerate thousands of innocent people throughout this country must be stopped.
The fightback has begun to be organized at many unions and other community organizations. Ashcroft with his so-called "Patriot Act" is now on the defensive and millions of people realize that these laws threaten our basic rights.
Also ILWU Executive Board member Clarence Thomas will be making a report back on the trade union delegation trip to investigate labor conditions and US plans for privatization in Iraq.
Please join us as we discuss the attacks facing labor and what program we need in the labor movement to defend ourselves. This is a critical issue for every worker in America.

This conference is initiated by the Committee to Defend ILWU BA Jack Heyman, Rank & File ILWU Anti-War Action Committee & The Campaign Against Taft-Hartley, Repression and Privatization. It has also been endorsed by the San Francisco Labor Council. Please let us know if you can attend and get your local/organization to endorse and contribute financially to make this conference a success.





National Labor Conference
The War and Repression and What To Do About It
Saturday December 6, 2003
San Francisco, California
http://www.defendilwuba.com
(415)273-1649
jhook [at] jps.net
lvpsf [at] labornet.org
carltv214 [at] aol.com


STOP ASHCROFT AND THE PATRIOT ACT
DEFEND ILWU BA JACK HEYMAN!



If you want to know what Ashcroft’s current nationwide campaign to defend and extend the Patriot Act means, just give a moments attention to what happened to anti-war protestors and longshore workers at the Port of Oakland, California. On April 7th, 2003. International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 business agent Jack Heyman and several demonstrators were arrested by Oakland, California Police at the port location of a protest against the war profiteering of American President Lines and Stevedoring Services of America.
ILWU Local 10 President, Henry Graham, explains further: "TV coverage clearly shows that it was a peaceful protest until police opened fire with so-called "less than lethal" weapons. The New York Times called it the most violent suppression of antiwar dissent during the Iraq war. Numerous demonstrators and nine longshoremen were hit with this fire, sending five of our men to the hospital. When business agent Heyman attempted to warn longshore workers at an adjacent terminal gate who were waiting to go to work that police were firing on our brothers and sisters, they dragged him out of his car and arrested him. If a union official can't tell his members to get out of harm's way, then what rights do we have? Safety is a fundamental right of all workers. And the right to protest for the demonstrators is indelibly etched in the Bill of Rights."
The prelude to these events drops the chill factor several degrees more. Under auspices of Ashcroft’s implementation of the Patriot Act, days before the demonstration took place, the police determined that the demonstrators and longshore workers were going to be violent and therefore the police would have to use "less than lethal" force to break up their April 7th demonstration.
Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff has now charged 25 demonstrators and ILWU Business Agent Jack Heyman with criminal offenses. That's the Patriot Act in action folks.
And it could act on any of us anytime we decide to demonstrate and/or picket over workplace issues. Now is the time to join with hundreds of local unions, labor councils, state labor federations and community groups to stop Ashcroft, as he campaigns for the Patriot Act across the country. Or we could all join Jack Heyman in jail, facing criminal charges.
Ashcroft may be coming to a city near you soon. Now is the time to join with the more than 160 city, county and state (Hawaii, Alaska, and Vermont) legislative bodies that have called for the modification or abolition of the Patriot Act. Now is the time to join with conservative political groups and civil liberties organizations to oppose the Patriot Act, its implementation and all its related off-spring‚ legislation, especially the as yet to be proposed Patriot Act on steroids‚, Patriot Act II.
To start, you can contact the San Francisco Labor Council at its website [http://www.sflaborcouncil.org] to download its anti-Patriot Act organizers resource document, toolkit and guide to fighting this anti-worker, anti-union legislation.
You should fax Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown (510-238-4731), Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff (510-208-3965) protesting the phony charges against Local 10 business agent Jack Heyman and the antiwar demonstrators and demand the charges be dismissed.
And then fax a message of solidarity to ILWU Local 10 (415-441-0610) and send a donation to the Committee to Defend ILWU Local 10 Business Agent Jack Heyman (c/o Local 10; 400 North Point Street; San Francisco, CA 94133) to help defray Local 10's legal expenses and build a defense campaign. If we take to heart ILWU's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all," then we can defeat this Patriot Act and achieve a victory for all working people.
Thanks in advance for your support.
The Committee to Defend ILWU Local 10 Business Agent, Jack Heyman
Contact us at:http://www.defendilwuba.com or (415)273-1649
Committee To Defend ILWU BA Jack Heyman
ILWU Local 10
400 North Point St. San Francisco