Union dock workers will shut down San Francisco Bay area ports on October 23rd !

[Better Believe It]

Justice for Oscar Grant: Longshoremen Will Shut Down All Bay Area Ports
by Jack Heyman
October 18, 2010

On October 23, dock workers will halt work in the San Francisco Bay area in solidarity with those seeking justice for Oscar Grant, the Black youth summarily shot to death by a transit policeman.

Angered by the pro-police rallies and news coverage calling for killer cop Mehserle’s freedom, Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has called for a labor and community rally October 23rd in Oakland to demand justice for Oscar Grant and the jailing of killer cops. Bay Area ports will shut down that day to stand with the black community and others against the scourge of police brutality.

Anthony Leviege, a longshore union rally organizer, said “Many unions, including the San Francisco and Alameda Labor Councils, have endorsed and are mobilizing for the rally. They see the need in the current economic crisis to build unity with the community to defend jobs, public education, health care and housing for all. And unions defending black and brown youth against police brutality is fundamental to that unity.


Labor Must Defend Minorities Against Racist Police Attacks

Some have asked, what’s the connection between unions and the killing of a young black man? Plenty, according to Richard Washington, an Oakland longshoreman. He recalled the history of the longshore union and its struggle against the favoritism and racism of the “shape-up” hiring system that preceded the union hiring hall. At the start of the 1934 S.F. Maritime Strike, Harry Bridges, head of the militant Strike Committee, he said, appealed to the black community. Strikers implored blacks to support the strike and vowed to share work on the waterfront after their victory in the midst of the Great Depression when jobs were scarce, not unlike today. Blacks were integrated on the docks, a shining example being set by the San Francisco longshore local, and the union has been fighting against racist attacks and for working class unity since then.



Read the full article at:

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/justice-oscar-grant-longshoremen-will-shut-down-all-bay-area-ports

[DFab420]

1. KNR!

From a Bay Area local.

What happened to that poor young man was a tragedy and a crime. Just because you wear a badge doesn't give you the right to shoot unarmed civilians.

Right on local unions...right on.

[truedelphi]

2. K & R from a former Bay Area res. n/t

[roguevalley]

3. longshoremen rule