The following op-ed piece by Jack Heyman appeared in the San Francisco
Chronicle on 11 February, three days before ILWU Local 10 sponsored a “Racism,
Repression and Rebellion” rally. Angela Davis, Martina Correia (Troy Davis’ sister)
and Robert Bryan (Mumia Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney) were among the speakers at the event.
In his remarks at the demonstration, Heyman pointed to the action by South African
dockworkers in Durban, who boycotted Israeli cargo to protest Zionist terror in Gaza, as
an important example for the entire labor movement. Inspired by the anti-apartheid action
carried out by militants in Local 10 almost a quarter of a century earlier, the Durban
boycott is both a model for future international labor solidarity initiatives in defense
of the oppressed Palestinian people and an illustration of how an exemplary,
class-conscious labor action can resonate long after it is over.
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 [Bay Area Rapid Transit] 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 [University
of California] 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 the 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 Paroles that 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.