THE LABOR UNIONS HOLD A RALLY
On Saturday, April 26th, not quite three weeks after the April 7th event, the labor unions held a rally at Jack London Square in Oakland to protest the shooting of workers and protesters. The speakers included Judy Goff, Shelly Kessler and Walter Johnson, of the Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco labor councils, respectively. Teamsters Joint Council 7 President Chuck Mack and California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski also spoke, as did persons from Clerks Local 34, Warehouse Local 6 and the IBU.
Joel Tena was there, representing Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, and also among the speakers was Father Bill O'Donnell, who'd just been released after doing six months in federal prison for trespassing at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas.
ILWU Local 10 President Henry Graham introduced four of the longshore workers who'd been shot by police that morning. Graham criticized Mayor Jerry Brown for his support of the police tactics. "Today we will send a message: Do not mess with demonstrators, and do not mess with labor," Graham said. He, along with others, called for an investigation.
Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer Fred Pecker said a few words about the man for whom this square was named - the working-class writer Jack London. "The Iron Heel was my favorite book," Pecker said pointedly. "It describes the rise of fascism."
The ILWU had received letters of solidarity from unions around the world, including the Brazilian Trade Union Federation, the London-based International Transport Workers Federation, dockworkers of Compagnia Unica in Genoa, Italy, the National Council of Dockworkers' Unions of Japan and the All Japan Dockworkers' Union, and the European zone of the International Dockworkers Council.
One of the solidarity letters was read by Clarence Thomas, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 10 and also chairman of the ILWU Anti-War Action Committee. The letter was from dockers in Bangladesh who had recently defeated a $450-million dock-privatization plan which SSA had attempted to impose upon them and their port - SSA again, they seemed out to plunder the world.
There was a march to the Oakland Civic Center Plaza where the rally was continued.
The organizers seemed to have saved their punch line for the end. Among the last to speak was Jack Heyman, the ILWU business agent who'd been arrested on the 7th.
Heyman was brief, but pithy. There were lessons to be learned from "this iron heel of repression," he said, and reminded us that Mayor Jerry Brown, who'd condoned the police attack, was a Democrat - not some rightwing Republican.
"This is yet another glaring example of the bankruptcy of the ILWU's, and organized labor's, policy of supporting and funding the Democratic Party. The actions of Mayor Brown and those of Senator Feinstein, who was the first politician to request that Bush invoke Taft-Hartley against the ILWU during the employer lockout, need to be exposed. The ILWU needs to quit wasting time and money on politicians that serve only the interests of big business," Heyman said. "We need to build a labor party and run our own candidates."
But Heyman wasn't finished. He then went on to say that that when those shipping companies step out of line, as they had on April seventh, there is just one way to deal with them. "You have to shut them down," he said.
The speaker following him was introduced as Sasha Wright, a person from Direct Action. I recognized her from April 7th as one of the persons with a bullhorn who'd directed our meeting at the BART station plaza when we voted to march downtown. I'd been impressed by her competence during the stressful conditions of that day.
She spoke briefly, looked around the gathering, almost hesitantly for a moment, drew in her breath, and then told us that Direct Action was considering a return to the docks. No decision had been made on it yet; it was still under consideration, but she asked us, "If we were to go back, how many people here would be willing to go? Could I see your hands?"
A sizeable number, perhaps half those present, raised their hands. Cheering followed.
Sasha was the last speaker, and was followed by a guitarist, David Rovics, who sang, "Shut them down!"