Feature Archives

A million worker march is being planned for mid October 2004. This mobilization, first initiated by the ILWU, local 10, is in response to the attacks upon working families in America and the millions of jobs lost under the current administration with the complicity of Congress. The working class has not suffered such hardships since the Great Depression. Help us organize and fight back.
Mission Statement | Demands

MayDay is celebrated on May 1st all around the world. In many countries, International Workers' Day is observed on that day. Beltane is a pagan holiday that celebrates the coming of spring. The bloody fight for the 8-hour workday, including the martyrdom of several anarchist organizers in 1886, led to the rescheduling of the official workers' day in the United States to Labor Day (the first Monday in September). May 1st is still observed as International Workers' Day in many countries and political spheres around the world.

May Day by the Bay
May Day 2004: People Organizing to Win Employment Rights(POWER), Chinese Progressive Association, the Day Labor Program of San Francisco, and other grassroots community groups came together in an inspirational show of unity and power to celebrate May Day and international worker's rights. Demands were made to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq, to stop intervention in Haiti, and to respect immigrant and worker's rights. Targets included the Disney Corporation and Levis. Photos
Out of the Cubicles, Into the Streets! - About 50 people converged on Yerba Buena Gardens to celebrate May Day by starting a street party in front of the Sony Metreon. They called for people to leave the spectacle of commerce and consumption behind so they could create their own adventures and fun in the streets of San Francisco, instead of watching actors doing so on the big screens in the Metreon. Four people were arrested by SFPD for various alleged offenses committed while dancing in the streets.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

On Tuesday(4/24/04), Local United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Butcher’s union local 120 president Tim Hamann and union attorney David Rosenfeld both received calls from the local National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office, telling them the NLRB will soon be issuing a complaint against the Berkeley Bowl for unfair labor practice charges filed during last year’s union drive. Along with that complaint, the NLRB will also deliver a bargaining order under which Berkeley Bowl must start negotiating with the union without holding another election. Read full Berkeley Daily Planet article for full story. Article in Daily Cal
A Couple of Background Articles on the Union Election at Berkeley Bowl
Think Twice Before Shopping At Berkeley Bowl: Glen Yasuda Uses Union Busters To Crush Vote | Berkeley Bowl's 2nd Anti-Union Victory

The 2004 Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Parade & Festival was held Sunday March 28th in San Francisco. Hundreds of labor and human rights activists took to the streets in Chavez's honor, marching from 2nd and Market to Civic Center Plaza. This year's march was also in remembrance of Father Bill O'Donnell. Pictures: 1 | 2   Video: 1 | 2
On Saturday March 27th there was a parade to honor Cesar Chavez in Fresno. Pictures: 1
More Coverage of Cesar Chavez Day events on Santa Cruz Indymedia

On April 4th there was a march for Legalization and Licenses in Santa Rosa. Join Gallo workers marching for a contract. | Sign Petition to Support Gallo Workers' Struggle for Health Care Coverage
April 24: Invitation to the Unveiling of the Chavez Memorial in La Paz

From Oakland to Iraq: No War! No Empire! Return to the Oakland Docks!

Wednesday April 7th, 2004 on the anniversary of the April 7, 2003 Community picket shutdown and assault at the APL and SSA ports on Oakland Docks.

4pm: OPD Rally - 455 7th St at Broadway(down the street from 12th St BART)
5pm: March - From West Oakland BART to the Oakland Docks

organized by:
Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW)| People United for a Better Oakland(PUEBLO)
Shuttles provided from OPD to West Oakland BART for those who need them.

The International Longshoreman and Wherehouseman's Union (ILWU) will be shutting down ports throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and up the coast in some ports in Oregon and Washington, with a stop work meeting on the morning of March 20. They are shutting down the ports on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and will be demanding an end to the war, an end to the occupation and the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops now! ILWU Local 10 will be boarding buses, after their meeting, to go to the San Francisco protest and lead the march. They urge all union members from throughout the area to attend the march and join them and thousands of other people on the streets of San Francisco on the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
Video: Announcement of Port Closure and Call for Union Members to Join ILWU Local 10 members at the antiwar march on Saturday. | Call for Union Members to Join ILWU Local 10 at the Oakland 25 Rally on Friday in Oakland at Noon
Call for Labor Contingent at Saturdays March in San Francisco

Update: March 26: Femsa finally agreed to begin meeting with union leaders in hopes of ending the hunger strike. Galvis(VP of a local union), said the company changed course due to solidarity in Colombia and from overseas. Unionists and human rights activists around the world had sent protest messages to Coca-Cola executives in Atlanta. And students in a dozen U.S. cities organized March 23 solidarity actions.
Monday March 15: Coca-Cola union workers in Colombia began a hunger strike in front of the Coke bottling plants in Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín, and Valledupar. Juan Carlos Galvis, vice president of the local union in Barrancabermeja, has said, "If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives."  | Demands

Since 1990 eight Coke workers have been killed and 67 have received death threats from paramilitaries. Management has used this to intimidate workers out of being part of the union.
Reportback and Pics: Oakland Action at Coke Regional Headquarters, March 23rd
Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and Economy Press Conference in Oakland 3/15/04  | Students Organize at California Student/Labor Teach-In at Berkeley to Support Colombian Coke Workers 3/12/03  | Listen to "Coke is the Drink of the Death Squads" by David Rovics  | Killer Coke Campaign Grows Internationally  | For More info see Killer Coke