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Labor And Mobilizing against racism in post racial America
ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member Jack Heyman writes about the struggle against racism by the ILWU and the meeting that they will on on Feb 14 at 12:00 noon.
thttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/02/11/ED4515QUR8.DTL
Mobilizing against racism in post racial America
Jack Heyman
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Some say this country has entered a post racial period with the election of the first African American president. Yet, the New Year's Day killing of Oscar Grant III by BART police was protested in Oakland by thousands who saw the shooting as racially motivated.
And this month, in Woodland (Yolo County), two black longshoremen, who were assaulted by police in 2007, will be going to trial. The longshoremen say that West Sacramento police, overzealously enforcing port security, attacked them. West Coast longshoremen are mobilizing to protest the arrest.
Just last week, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, protested what they called "apartheid Israel's massacres in Gaza" of Palestinians, refusing to offload the Israeli ship Johanna Russ and calling on dockworkers around the world to follow their act of solidarity. The South African dockworkers credited the San Francisco longshoremen's 1984 action against apartheid as their inspiration.
The San Francisco longshore union, Local 10, has a proud record of fighting racial injustice going back to the 1934 General Strike, organized in the wake of police killing two strikers. During that strike, the union integrated blacks into the local - decades before the Civil Rights Act. The strategy broke racial barriers, united maritime workers and helped to win the labor dispute.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has defended African Americans against racial discrimination beginning with Paul Robeson, the black American cultural icon known for his baritone voice and civil rights activities. Robeson was mercilessly pursued by the FBI and the CIA for his leftist views.
In 1971, the ILWU defended Angela Davis, then a Black Panther and target of an FBI investigation into the killing of a Marin County judge. She was later arrested, imprisoned, tried and found not guilty by an all-white jury. She is now a UC Santa Cruz professor and frequent speaker against racist repression and the prison-industrial complex.
The death penalty, rooted in the legacy of slavery, shamefully remains an American institution. Ten years ago, the ILWU shut down West Coast ports to demand freedom for death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, also a former Black Panther, who the union members believe was framed for killing a Philadelphia police officer.
In Georgia, Troy Anthony Davis faces execution for killing an off-duty policeman, although seven of the nine prosecution witnesses recanted, citing police coercion. Those calling for a new trial for Davis include former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the Pope and even former FBI director William S. Sessions. Yet the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, passed during Clinton administration, makes it nearly impossible for him to get a new trial.
Last October, Local 10 President Melvin Mackay and 600,000 others sent letters to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parolesthat temporarily stayed the execution of Davis.
In the '70s and '80s, longshore unions in Southern ports effectively demonstrated in support of busing for integration and against South African apartheid. If they used that power today, they could save the life of an innocent black man.
Unions can turn the tide against racism and in favor of social justice. It's going to take the might of the integrated union movement, linked to the struggle of blacks and immigrant workers, to turn the tide now.
Union rally against racism
The San Francisco longshore union is sponsoring a rally on "Racism, Repression and Rebellion."
When: noon, Saturday
Where: ILWU Hall, 400 North Point St. (near Fisherman's Wharf) San Francisco.
Who: Angela Davis, the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, Martina Correia (Troy Davis' sister) and Robert Bryan (Mumia Abu-Jamal's lead attorney).
Jack Heyman is a member of the executive board of the San Francisco Longshore Union and the Board of Directors of the John Brown Society.
Mobilizing against racism in post racial America
Jack Heyman
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Some say this country has entered a post racial period with the election of the first African American president. Yet, the New Year's Day killing of Oscar Grant III by BART police was protested in Oakland by thousands who saw the shooting as racially motivated.
And this month, in Woodland (Yolo County), two black longshoremen, who were assaulted by police in 2007, will be going to trial. The longshoremen say that West Sacramento police, overzealously enforcing port security, attacked them. West Coast longshoremen are mobilizing to protest the arrest.
Just last week, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, protested what they called "apartheid Israel's massacres in Gaza" of Palestinians, refusing to offload the Israeli ship Johanna Russ and calling on dockworkers around the world to follow their act of solidarity. The South African dockworkers credited the San Francisco longshoremen's 1984 action against apartheid as their inspiration.
The San Francisco longshore union, Local 10, has a proud record of fighting racial injustice going back to the 1934 General Strike, organized in the wake of police killing two strikers. During that strike, the union integrated blacks into the local - decades before the Civil Rights Act. The strategy broke racial barriers, united maritime workers and helped to win the labor dispute.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has defended African Americans against racial discrimination beginning with Paul Robeson, the black American cultural icon known for his baritone voice and civil rights activities. Robeson was mercilessly pursued by the FBI and the CIA for his leftist views.
In 1971, the ILWU defended Angela Davis, then a Black Panther and target of an FBI investigation into the killing of a Marin County judge. She was later arrested, imprisoned, tried and found not guilty by an all-white jury. She is now a UC Santa Cruz professor and frequent speaker against racist repression and the prison-industrial complex.
The death penalty, rooted in the legacy of slavery, shamefully remains an American institution. Ten years ago, the ILWU shut down West Coast ports to demand freedom for death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, also a former Black Panther, who the union members believe was framed for killing a Philadelphia police officer.
In Georgia, Troy Anthony Davis faces execution for killing an off-duty policeman, although seven of the nine prosecution witnesses recanted, citing police coercion. Those calling for a new trial for Davis include former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the Pope and even former FBI director William S. Sessions. Yet the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, passed during Clinton administration, makes it nearly impossible for him to get a new trial.
Last October, Local 10 President Melvin Mackay and 600,000 others sent letters to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parolesthat temporarily stayed the execution of Davis.
In the '70s and '80s, longshore unions in Southern ports effectively demonstrated in support of busing for integration and against South African apartheid. If they used that power today, they could save the life of an innocent black man.
Unions can turn the tide against racism and in favor of social justice. It's going to take the might of the integrated union movement, linked to the struggle of blacks and immigrant workers, to turn the tide now.
Union rally against racism
The San Francisco longshore union is sponsoring a rally on "Racism, Repression and Rebellion."
When: noon, Saturday
Where: ILWU Hall, 400 North Point St. (near Fisherman's Wharf) San Francisco.
Who: Angela Davis, the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, Martina Correia (Troy Davis' sister) and Robert Bryan (Mumia Abu-Jamal's lead attorney).
Jack Heyman is a member of the executive board of the San Francisco Longshore Union and the Board of Directors of the John Brown Society.
For more information:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...
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§Please post the event to the calendar separately
Hi, since this post came from the Chronicle's website, we have to put it under "Other." Please post the event to the calendar (and then link to the article here on indybay) so more people will know about it. Thanks!
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