Dock Workers Strike for Peace

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 11:06 PM

Dock Workers Strike for Peace

1. May Day Message to West Coast Dock Workers ( Iraq Port Workers)

2. Longshore Union Strikes Against War (Peter Cole)

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May Day Message from the Port Workers in Iraq to West

Coast dock workers in the U.S.

General Union of Port Workers of Iraq April 29th, 2008

U.S. Labor Against the War is pleased to be able to

share with you a statement of solidarity from the

General Union of Port Workers in Iraq to the

members of the International Longshore and

Warehouse Union (ILWU) in support of the decision

by ILWU members to shut down all the ports on the

West Coast on May Day 2008 as a demonstration of

their opposition to the war and occupation of Iraq .

In solidarity with the ILWU, the General Union of Port

Workers in Iraq will stop work for one hour on May Day

in the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al Zubair.

Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California

The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike

on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of

Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring

a better future for us and for the rest of the world as

well.

We are certain that a better world will only be created

by the workers and what you are doing is an example and

proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only

element in the society that is able to change the

political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in

Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the

victory over the US administration's barbarism is

achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are

the product of the occupation, have been trying to

transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting

workers, including their residential and shopping

areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive

devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part

of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the

society but they miserably failed to achieve their

hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both

the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.

The pro-occupation government has been attempting to

intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single

government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has

been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to

use the occupation against the interests of the

workers.

We the port workers view that our interests are

inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and

the world; therefore we are determined to continue our

struggle to improve the living conditions of the

workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its

economic and political projects.

Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.

Long live the port workers in California !

Long live May Day!

Long live International solidarity!

The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq An Affiliate

Union with General Federation of Workers Councils and

Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)

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Longshore Union Strikes Against War

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361087_mayday.html

April 29, 2008

By Peter Cole, Guest Columnist

On Thursday, May Day, the International Longshore and

Warehouse Union will declare an eight-hour strike to

protest the war in Iraq . Since the ILWU controls every

port along the U.S. Pacific Coast , including Seattle

and Tacoma , this strike demonstrates the collective

power of workers willing to use it.

The ILWU is demanding "an immediate end to the war and

occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal

of U.S. troops from the Middle East ." Although the

majority of Americans repeatedly have expressed their

desire to end the war, President Bush has not obliged

us, so it drags on. Because our leaders refuse to

listen, ILWU members are taking the next logical step

for workers: Strike.

For those unfamiliar, the ILWU is perhaps the most

militant and politicized worker organization in the

nation. It operates in one of the most important

sectors of the world economy -- marine transport --

and, thus, is in a strategic location to put peace

above profits.

Forged in the fires of 1930s worker struggles to gain

basic rights, the ILWU was born in 1934 when

longshoremen (there were no women in the industry then,

though there are now) performed the incredibly hard,

dangerous and important work of loading and unloading

ships. To improve their wages and wrest some control

over their lives, men all along the coast struck -- and

in a few instances died -- to gain union recognition.

The ILWU is highly democratic. A caucus of more than

100 longshore workers representing every union local

establishes policies for the Longshore Division. It was

this caucus that voted to declare the May Day strike.

Dockworkers, including those in the ILWU, have a proud

tradition of political action. For example, in the

1980s the ILWU respected the strike of British

dockworkers by refusing to unload a ship worked by scab

labor. Just last week, union longshoremen in South

Africa refused to unload a Chinese vessel carrying

military supplies destined for autocratic Zimbabwe -- a

tremendous example of solidarity.

That the ILWU chose International Workers' Day to

declare this strike suggests its political commitment

and internationalism. Around the world, workers honor

labor by taking a holiday. What few Americans know is

that the tradition of a May Day strike originated not

in the Soviet Union in the 1950s but the United States of the 1880s.

These days, such examples of worker power are

increasingly rare in the U.S. The tragedy is that,

historically, labor activism gave us the 40-hour

workweek (and the weekend) and helped humanize the

exploitative excesses of unregulated capitalism. As

income inequality continues to grow in the United

States, it is wise to remember how, in the past, strong

unions created a larger middle class as well as a more

democratic and egalitarian nation.

The ILWU strike also reminds us that unions still have

an important role in public discussions beyond the

workplace. As a democratic institution, the ILWU is

precisely the sort of "civic society" that the Bush

administration has been trying to create in Iraq . On

May 1, dockworkers will speak loud and clear -- end the

endless war in Iraq . Other American workers who want to

support our troops by bringing them home can make their

voices heard by joining with the brave men and women of

the ILWU and taking the day off.

Peter Cole is an associate professor of history at

Western Illinois University in Macomb , Ill. His book

"Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in

Progressive-Era Philadelphia " was published by the

University of Illinois Press.

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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