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DESCRIPTION:ILWU Shutting Down W.C. Ports On Juneteenth STOP Police Terror & Systemic 
 Racism\nby Committee to Stop Police Terror and End Systemic Racism\nFri Jun 
 12 11:32:17 2020\nThe ILWU on the West Coast will shut down all ports on 
 Juneteenth June 19, 2020 to stop police terror and systemic racism.\nOn 
 Juneteenth all West Coast ports will be shut down by the ILWU to protest 
 police terror and against systemic racism. In Oakland the march will start 
 at SSA Terminals 1717 Middle Harbor Road at the Port of Oakland. 
 \n\nCommittee to Stop Police Terror and End Systemic Racism \nEmail: 
 stoppoliceterror2020(at)gmail.com \nTwitter: #juneteenthSPT \nInstagram: 
 @juneteenthSPT \nWebsite: http://www.juneteenthspt.com \n\nDockworkers to 
 Shut Down West Coast Ports in Memory of George Floyd 
 \n\nhttps://www.thenation.com/article/economy/dockworkers-union-shutdown-george-floyd/ 
 \nOne of the most radical antiracist unions in the country makes a show of 
 solidarity with all those threatened by police violence and exploitation. 
 \nBy Daniel Boguslaw \nTODAY 4:19 PM \n\nILWU members strike in California. 
 (Bob Riha Jr / WireImage) \nReady To Fight Back? \n\nOn June 19th, members 
 of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union (ILWU) will shut down 
 29 ports across the West coast in solidarity with ongoing protests over the 
 murder of George Floyd. The day of action is slated for Juneteenth, the day 
 celebrating the heralding of the emancipation proclamation to Texan slaves 
 more than two years after the proclamation took effect in 1863. \n\nSince 
 its founding in 1937, the ILWU has endured as one of the most radical 
 antiracist unions in the country. It was one of the first American unions 
 to desegregate work gangs in the 1930s and during the 1940s it publicly 
 agitated against the internment of Japanese Americans. During the civil 
 rights movement of the 1960s the ILWU led organizing drives and even 
 inducted Martin Luther King as an honorary union member after he spoke to 
 members of San Francisco’s Local 10 in 1967. \n\nIn recent years the 
 union has protested the wars in Iraq and Afghanistanwith similar work 
 stoppages and refused to unload containers from an Israeli-owned ship in 
 protest of the killing of Palestinians at the hands of the IDF. In 
 maintaining its commitment to racial justice, the ILWU also shut down ports 
 in 2010 over the police killing of Oscar Grant. \n\nBut despite the 
 ILWU’s recent and historic stance on racial justice, increasingly 
 anti-labor rulings from the National Labor Relations Board have meant that 
 the decision to stop work is always fraught with debates over the legal 
 repercussion of escalation. In March, a Portland judge ruled against the 
 ILWU for millions in damages in response to an extended slowdown campaign 
 against terminal operator ICTSI in Portland, Oregon that began in 2012. The 
 award of $19 million in damages comes to more than twice the ILWU’s total 
 assets and has many worried that it could potentially bankrupt the union, 
 especially as ICTSI seeks a new trial for even more damages. \n\nFor now, 
 the shutdown is scheduled to overlap with a coastwide ILWU stop-work 
 meeting, a tactic that falls within protections afforded by the union 
 contracts. The longshore workers intend to use their day of action to call 
 on other unions to stand in solidarity with all those threatened by police 
 violence and exploitation. \n\nEfforts are underway to coordinate with East 
 coast dock workers in the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) 
 in an effort to organize the first dual-coast port shutdown in American 
 history, and ILWU members are hoping their shutdown will inspire inland 
 unions to join forces as well. \n\nThe potential for a bicoastal shutdown 
 goes beyond a symbolic gesture of worker solidarity against police 
 brutality. Estimates predict the hit to American GDP from a five-day west 
 coast shutdown at almost $10 billion. If the shutdown spread to the East 
 Coast, that number could rise substantially. \n\nJack Heyman, a former 
 longshoreman and one of the lead organizers of the shutdown protesting the 
 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, points out that the planned action is part of 
 ILWU’s long history of standing against police violence. Dock workers 
 have maintained this commitment since the murder of labor activists sparked 
 the bloody waterfront strike of 1934—a moment in American labor’s 
 militant history that recalls similar scenes of police violence coming out 
 of Seattle and the Bay Area in recent weeks. \n\n“Black and brown union 
 lives have always been targeted by the police. In fact, if you look at ILWU 
 locals’ bylaws, many of them explicitly ban police from membership. 
 That’s because the police have always been used as tools in the fight 
 against the working people of this country,” Heyman said. \n\nSince 
 George Floyd’s murder, the planned ILWU shutdown is one of the highest 
 profile labor actions to take shape. It follows on the heels of unionized 
 bus drivers in Minneapolis and New York City refusing to transport arrested 
 protesters, and also serves as a significant escalation at a time when some 
 of the largest and most powerful unions—in addition to the AFL-CIO—are 
 facing progressive challenges to long-entrenched moderate leadership. 
 \n\nAt the Teamsters, the O’Brien/Zuckerman ticket is running to unseat 
 the IBT dynasty now led by James Hoffa. At the AFL-CIO, Sara Nelson, 
 president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), is gearing up for 
 a potential run against Richard Trumka, who has refused calls to 
 disaffiliate police unions from the AFL-CIO. \n\n“It’s fantastic that 
 longshoremen are standing together to make it clear that racial injustice 
 is directly tied to the injustices of all workers in this country. 
 There’s no more critical time than right now for labor to stand together 
 and force change,” Nelson said. On Friday, the AFA passed a resolution 
 calling for sweeping police reforms and the removal of law enforcement from 
 the labor movement should they fail to comply. \n\nKeith Shanklin, the 
 first black president of ILWU local 34 in Oakland, came together with the 
 historically militant locals 10, 75, and 91 to organize the Juneteenth 
 stoppage. “Right now, workers have more power than a lot of people in 
 this country understand,” Shanklin said. “That’s why we are going to 
 put that power on display: to raise the voices of labor, and to raise the 
 voices of black people in this country. To demand and return justice for 
 George Floyd.” \n\nILWU, ILA, and Teamsters Take Action in Honor of 
 George Floyd \nTOWARD A PEOPLE'S STRIKE IN SOLIDARITY 
 \n\nhttps://spectrejournal.com/lwu-ila-and-teamsters-take-action-in-honor-of-george-floyd/ 
 \n\nFRANCES MADESON \nJune 9, 2020 \nToday members of the International 
 Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the International Longshoremen’s 
 Association (ILA) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters laid down 
 their tools in a work stoppage for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, the 
 precise measure of time that George Floyd, handcuffed and helpless to 
 resist, was forced to endure a policeman’s lethal knee on his neck. 
 Killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, Floyd was buried today in Houston. 
 \nTrent Willis, president of ILWU Local 10, Keith Shanklin, president of 
 ILWU Local 34, and Gabriel Prawl, former Secretary/ Treasurer of ILWU Local 
 52 in Seattle, all members of ILWU’s Committee Against Police Terror, 
 conceived of bringing this powerful gesture into union workplaces as a way 
 of honoring Floyd, who earned his livelihood as a truck driver and security 
 guard. In connecting Floyd’s struggle for his last breath with workers’ 
 struggles for survival in a drastically altered post-pandemic economy, they 
 hope to point the way forward by demonstrating the power of the working 
 class. \n“Longshore workers probably understand capitalism better than 
 anyone else,” said ILWU Spokesman Clarence Thomas. “If the cargo 
 doesn’t come off the ship, that’s merchandise not sold. Stopping work 
 for eight minutes and forty-six seconds is not a symbol, it’s an act that 
 demonstrates the leverage of the working class.” \nThis is an important 
 step because “the only way that we’ve been able to get any kind of 
 concessions from the bosses is through withholding our labor.” \n\n\nThe 
 union’s very inception derives from the police murder of six strikers in 
 1934 that led to a general strike in San Francisco that shut the entire 
 city down for four days. \nThe People’s Strike, a recently formed network 
 of resistance, has come together in the face of COVID-19 to spur the kind 
 of deep and wide organizing needed to pave the way for the tactic they see 
 as ultimately necessary—a global general strike. The group put out a call 
 for people to join the unions’ collective vigil of power in quietude to 
 honor the memory of George Floyd and all those murdered at the hands of the 
 police—Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and Walter Scott, among 
 others. \n“I see this as being a critical connection between the younger 
 generation who’ve really been disconnected from labor,” explained Kali 
 Akuno of the People’s Strike, “to expose them to the power of their own 
 creativity and the power of their labor.” Akuno says Black youth are 
 struggling in various ways as they face a jobless future from the reality 
 of a jobless present. \n“This step that the ILWU, ILA and Teamsters are 
 taking addresses the deep issues at the heart of COVID-19;” he explained, 
 “the underlying white supremacy and racism, which are the reasons why the 
 whole pandemic has played out so catastrophically for the Black 
 community.” \nHistorically, ILWU has been at the forefront of the labor 
 movement’s response to police murders. On October 23, 2010, it shut down 
 five Bay Area ports demanding justice for Oscar Grant and jail for the 
 killer cops. The union’s very inception derives from the police murder of 
 six strikers in 1934 that led to a general strike in San Francisco that 
 shut the entire city down for four days. \n“At that time San Francisco 
 was the number one port city in the world,” Thomas explained. Even the 
 tale of how Black workers joined the industry is one of exploitation. 
 “Before 1934, most of the Black Longshoremen were used as 
 strike-breakers,” he instructed. “They used us to break the strikes, 
 but they didn’t keep many of us on.” \nHe credits strike leader Harry 
 Bridges, and other communists and leftists like Henry Schmidt, for changing 
 that. “They went to the Black church and appealed to Black pastors to go 
 into their congregations to address the parishioners, saying ‘we have a 
 new deal to offer you, a real new deal. If you support us on the picket 
 line, we will ensure your inclusion into the union.’ They made good on 
 that promise,” he said. \n“I see this as being a critical connection 
 between the younger generation who’ve really been disconnected from 
 labor,” explained Kali Akuno of the People’s Strike, “to expose them 
 to the power of their own creativity and the power of their labor. \nThe 
 movie On The Waterfront starring Marlon Brando dramatized a discriminatory 
 hiring practice called the “shape-up.” \n“Bosses would pick and 
 choose who can go to work based on ethnic group, nepotism, kickbacks, 
 pitting one group against the other. It’s anti-democratic,” Thomas 
 said, and its eradication was an essential strike demand. “African 
 Americans wouldn’t have had any chance to work with that doggone shape-up 
 in place,” he says. “Our numbers greatly increased after World War 
 II.” With a Black majority membership, ILWU Local 10 considers racial 
 discrimination and exploitation in adopting its positions. \n“When 
 Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, nickel and other metals were destined to go to 
 Italy, and longshore workers did not work that cargo,” he said. “After 
 Manchuria was invaded scrap iron was destined for Japan, and longshore 
 workers would not work that cargo, either.” \nBut new threats are on the 
 horizon. Owner of the Oakland A’s baseball team, John Fisher, is pushing 
 a real estate deal that would overwhelm the Port of Oakland with a 34,000 
 seat baseball stadium, 3,000 condominiums, a 400-room hotel and 1.9 million 
 square foot retail space. \nBut new threats are on the horizon. Owner of 
 the Oakland A’s baseball team, John Fisher, is pushing a real estate deal 
 that would overwhelm the Port of Oakland with a 34,000 seat baseball 
 stadium, 3,000 condominiums, a 400-room hotel and 1.9 million square foot 
 retail space. \n“People need to understand it for what it is,” Thomas 
 said, suggesting a spectrum of violences against Black people: by police 
 killings, by the denial of jobs, and “against ILWU Local 10 by the owner 
 of the Oakland A’s at the only African-American port.” \nThe longshore 
 jobs, which supplanted the railroad jobs, that replaced shipyard jobs in 
 the Bay Area, represented upward mobility, dignity, Black labor empowerment 
 and influence in the community, and, Thomas says, they will not be ceded. 
 More actions are planned. \nOn June 8, it was decided by longshore 
 presidents representing 29 ports up and down the coast to follow the lead 
 of ILWU Local 10 to withhold its labor for eight hours on Juneteenth (June 
 19), the anniversary of the day in 1865 it’s said that enslaved people in 
 Texas first learned of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. \n“It will be 
 the first time that an international union has ever taken off from work for 
 the purpose of commemorating Juneteenth,” Thomas said. “What kind of 
 statement will that make to the political class—the Democratic party, the 
 Republican Party, to Donald Trump?” \nThomas invites other unions to 
 follow their lead in the Juneteenth action, and the People’s Strike 
 invites all workers, unionized or not, to join the momentum to organize 
 towards a global general strike. \nAkuno says, “We are offering a 
 platform for promoting already ongoing efforts to organize tenants, 
 workers, mutual aid and anti-austerity, anti-imperialist forces and for 
 connecting with many more organizations who share these aims in the 
 struggle for liberation, and a society built on new foundations.” 
 \nAnti-racism, Labor, Logistics \nFRANCES MADESON \nFrances Madeson has 
 written about liberation struggles in the U.S. and abroad for Ms. Magazine, 
 VICE, YES! Magazine, The Progressive Magazine, Tablet Magazine, American 
 Theatre Magazine and Indian Country Today. She is also the author of the 
 comic novel Cooperative Village. \n\n"I Can't Breath" ILWU 10 & 34 Speak 
 Out About Lynching of George Floyd & Action Against Police Terror 
 \n\nhttps://youtu.be/V7Kbu0p-_oA \n\nILWU local 10 president Trent Willis 
 and ILWU Local 34 president Keith Shanklin on 6/8/20 talk about the 
 lynching of George Floyd and how they personally and Black longshore 
 workers have been effected by the reign of terror. \n\nThey also talk about 
 what workers and labor need to do to fight back and stop the systemic 
 racism. \n\nTheir unions have set up a Committee Against Police Terror and 
 Systemic Racism.  and the ILWU will be shutting down all west coast docks 
 on Juneteenth which is on June 19th. They are calling on all other workers 
 and unions to take action on June 19th. \nThis interview was done by Steve 
 Zeltzer of WorkWeek on 6/8/2010 \n\nAdditional media: \nEnough Is Enough! 
 Thousand Speak Out & Rally In SF Against Murder of George Floyd & Systemic 
 Racism \nhttps://youtu.be/j2wk4aVwcXQ \n\nILWU 10/34 Shutdown On 2020 May 
 Day Rally/Caravan In Oakland An Injury To One Is An Injury To All! 
 \n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98SAF9MsDs&t=176s \nWorkWeek 
 \nhttps://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio \n\nProduction of Labor Video 
 Project \nhttp://www.laborvideo.org\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/06/12/18834197.php
SUMMARY:ILWU Shutting Down W.C. Ports On Juneteenth STOP Police Terror & Systemic Racism
LOCATION:SSA Terminals 1717 Middle Harbor Road at the Port of Oakland to Oscar Grant 
 Plaza
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/06/12/18834197.php
DTSTART:20200619T170000Z
DTEND:20200619T210000Z
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