Union (ILWU) to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Union to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan

Link: http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0802/ilwu1may1.htm

US West Coast dockers: 1st May Workers Action to Stop the War

For Workers Strikes Against the War!

ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq,
Afghanistan

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut
down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war
and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S.
troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO
president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath
reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, "One of the
resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to
stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their
opposition to the war in Iraq."

This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided
to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. It is doubly
important that this mobilization of labor's power is to take place on
May Day, the international workers day, which is not honored in the
U.S. Moreover, the resolution voted by the ILWU delegates opposes not
only the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, but also the war and occupation
of Afghanistan (which Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama and Republican John McCain all want to expand). The motion to
shut down the ports also demands the withdrawal of U.S. troops from
the entire region, including the oil sheikdoms of the strategically
important Persian/Arab Gulf.

...

Now is the time to turn words into deeds, to speak to the capitalist
rulers in the only language they understand. The imperialist war
parties must be defeated by a class mobilization of the working people
at the head of all the oppressed. The ILWU motion to stop work on May
Day to put a stop to the war can provide working people everywhere
with the opening to turn from impotent protest to a struggle for
power. For that the key is to build a class-struggle workers party
fighting for a workers government, for socialist revolution here and
around the world, that will put an end once and for all to the system
of endless war, poverty and racism.

Write to the Internationalist Group, Box 3321, Church Street Station,
New York, NY 10008. E-mail: [e-mail]. Visit us on
the Internet at: www.internationalist.org

[rainy]

1. I hope it really happens. The workers need to flex their real power. nt

[suffragette]

9. Here it is on the ILWU website

http://www.ilwu.org/longshore/maydayrally08.cfm

[msongs]

2. its pretty obvious they are not dems presidential candidates :-) nt

[bluerum]

3. One of the comments that stands out in my mind from the movie SICKO

was when Moore was in France talking health care with some local ex-patriots.

They said that the reason the French have such excellent health care and employment benefits is that the people protest. The government is AFRAID of the people.

In the US, people are afraid of the government and appearing unpatriotic by demanding that government serve them, instead of bending over for the corpo whore masters who run our government now.

[jimshoes]

4. The French have a way of letting the ruling class

know how they feel at times.

[girl gone mad]

7. You win the understatement of the day award.

:)

[enid602]

5. Bush

That doesn't give Bush much time to get the NAFTA Superhighway up and running.

[pleah]

6. Now, If the rest of the country would just follow their lead.

I think that would really get their attention. Plus, the oil companies would not make one red cent for a whole day. I believe this would make our government rouse from their slumber.

[Omaha Steve]

8. K&R for US Labor

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. Quote

That means fighting the war mobilization down the line. First and
foremost, this means actively joining the struggle for immigrant
rights as the government turns undocumented working people into "the
enemy within." Class-conscious workers should demand full citizenship
rights for all immigrants. Last year, San Francisco Local 10 voted to
stop work and join marches for immigrant rights on May 1, but this was
opposed by the employers PMA and sabotaged at the last minute by the
union tops. Shamefully, Local 13 in Los Angeles, a majority Mexican
American port, made no protest when police attacked immigrant rights
protesters that same day. Today, as the ICE immigration police stage
Gestapo-style raids across the country, organized labor should take
the lead in organizing rapid response networks to come into the
streets to block the raids. Despite the campaign by the capitalist
media and politicians to whip up anti-immigrant hysteria, there is
widespread disgust among American working people toward the jackbooted
storm troopers who are terrorizing immigrant communities.

[troubleinwinter]

11. An eight hour strike will not be noticed.

[unkachuck]

12. applause, applause.....K&R.....n/t

[Orwellian_Ghost]

13. Kicking