Labor Community Rally October 6 For Beaten and Arrested ILWU Local 10 Members

Labor Community Rally October 6 For Beaten and Arrested ILWU Local 10 Members in Yolo County House Courthouse

A hundred ILWU Local 10 longshoremen, officers and other labor and community supporters were in Woodland at the Yolo County Courthouse on October 6, 2008 to protest the trial of Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, two members who had been beaten and arrested on the docks of Sacramento. In August of 2007, after returning from lunch they were pulled out of their car by Yolo County police, maced and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest.
After organizing a support campaign, the district attorney was forced to drop the charge of "trespassing" but they continue to press charges of resisting arrest against the two longshore workers. The absurdity of continuing this trial while the basis for the arrest in the first place has not missed the eye of legal experts and longshoremen alike.
The rally was chaired by ILWU Local 10 Business Agent Trent Willis and ILWU members attended from Locals 34, 17, 6 and the IBU-ILWU. ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member Clarence Thomas led off the rally and called for building support within the labor movement for the case and pointed out that ILWU Local 10 had strong history of solidarity actions including the May Day walkout against the war and repression against working people.
ILWU Local 10 Secretary Treasurer Adam Mendez thanked all those for attending the support rally. Many of the speakers pointed out that the Yolo county police and sheriff's department have a long history of racist targetting. Cres Belucci of the ACLU said that the main target of police repression has been the Mexican American youth who've had injunctions placed on them, unconstitutional measures which the Civil Liberties Union is challenging in court. Steve Jerome-Wyatt who is a leader of the American Indian University called DQ University reported that the Yolo County police had attacked their school and were seeking to destroy it with repression and raids.
Reverend Odeye from the Justice Reform Coalition also reported that there is a continuing record of racial profiling and attacks of the Black and Latino community in Yolo County. Bill Camp, Executive Director of the 120,000 member Sacramento Central Labor Council also spoke in solidarity and condemned the attack on the Ruffin and Harrison and said that he had been arrested in the past by this "out of control" police force. He urged the charges against Ruffin and Harrison be dropped.
Thousands of workers at University of California in Davis which is located in Yolo County have also been working without a contract and without a living wage. Tarone Bittner a representative of AFSCME Local 3299 on the Davis campus applauded the ILWU for taking up the fight against racial profiling and promised that they would mobilize their membership to back this fight for justice.
Local 10 Executive Board member Jack Heyman charged that West Sac cops act like its the Mississippi Delta. He then asked for any speaker from the ILWU International. There was none. At a previous rally last year retired ILWU Local 10 Leo Robinson had pointed out that the membership of the ILWU should take not of their absence from this important struggle. Apparently the ILWU International has no interest in backing ILWU protests against abusive port security acts even though the recent Longshore Caucus voted overwhelmingly to mobilize for this critical protest. This was the same ILWU body that voted for the historic May Day antiwar West Coast ports shutdown. ILWU executive board member Clarence Thomas spoke on the need to mobilize the entire labor movement over these attacks.
Solidarity statements were read from Ken Riley, President of Charleston, South Carolina ILA 1422, the Japanese railroad union Doro-Chiba, and George Binette who is a Convenor of the Camden branch of UNISON and representing the National Shop Stewards Network. ANSWER and the Labor/Black League also had speakers. Local 10 rank and file activist Kennard Wilson concluded the speakers' list.
A moving tape was played from Mumia Abu-Jamal who is prison on framed up charges of murdering a Philadelphia policeman. Jamal has made commentaries from Pennsylvania's death row supporting ILWU solidarity actions since the Liverpool dockers' strike in 1998.
The supporters chanted as the Ruffin and Harrison entered the courthouse and raised the chant "Drop The Charges Now".
It was reported as the rally was still going on that the police and District Attorney would continue to press charges and a trial would be held on December 15, 2008. Supporters promised that they would mobilize many more workers, trade unions and community supporters if and when the trial started
The following are the statements of solidarity sent to the rally.

Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
http://www.transportworkers.org

Send letters of protest to The Yolo County District Attorney's Office:
District Attorney Jeff Reisig
301Second Street
Woodland, CA 95695
Fax: 530-666-8423

From UK National Shop Stewards Network

To our brothers and sisters gathered here today

Unfortunately we could not be with you today. But know this, your brothers and sisters in Charleston, South Carolina are standing solidly with you in support of Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison. Let the Yolo County Court and the West Sacramento police know that we are united and we are speaking loudly with one voice: LET OUR BROTHERS GO.

We have stood where these brothers are standing and we know what it is like. But we also know that if our support is visible, audible, steadfast, determined and strong, victory will surely come.

Kenny Riley
President, ILA Local 1422
Charleston, South Carolina

Dear Sister and Brothers -

I have recently learned that the attempt to criminalize ILWU brothers Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison continues. From what I know of the case this smacks of a racist frame-up of two young African-American members of a militant local of a union, which has a proud tradition of standing up to racism in the docks and acting in the best traditions of international solidarity.

Thousands of union activists in Britain are aware of the key role Local 10 of the ILWU played in boosting effective support for the locked-out dockers of Liverpool in the mid-1990s and also know of the union's historic participation in strike action on May Day this year against the ongoing bloody occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

I very much hope that on Monday 6 October the trumped up charges against Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison are dropped unconditionally.

With best wishes for a successful outcome and continued courage in your vital struggles for workers' rights and against a racist, imperialist system of capitalism both in the US and internationally.

Yours in solidarity -

George Binette.

Convenor, Camden branch of UNISON, the largest public sector union in Britain, and as a steering committee member of the National Shop Stewards Network, whose second annual conference Jack Heyman and three other ILWU members attended on 28 June to spread the word about the historic May Day action.

Brothers and sisters here in this rally!
On behalf of Doro-Chiba and Japanese fighting workers, I send you a heartfelt solidarity message.

We strongly condemn the outrageous police brutality against young workers of ILWU Local 10, brothers Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, and fight with you all hand in hand.
Although eventually dropped, the charge of "trespassing" against workers who entered their own workplace is a flagrant police crime. The police went so far as to mace and to arrest the two brothers who only made a protest. Drop all charges against them!

The aim of the Sacramento police and Yolo County sheriff's department and that of the Bush administration is evident: they are trying to band-aid their bankrupt neoliberal world, driving a wedge of discrimination between workers and destroying unity on workplace.
Nevertheless, this rally itself shows that effectiveness of such divide and rule policy is now largely undermined as rank and file struggles in point of production emerge. The most decisive evidences are: the world historical port shut down on last May Day led by ILWU Locals 10 and 34, the rank and file revolts within the infamous stronghold of business unionism, SEIU, unyielding struggle of the Puerto Rican teachers union, FMPR, and struggles of Californian education workers represented by United Teachers Los Angeles, Oakland Education Association and other unions against attacks on public education and privatization of the state.

Also in Japan, the police recently conducted massive arrests of students in Hosei University, fabricating the charge of "trespassing"-the students had surely entered the campus! The students are still held in prolonged solitary confinement. More over, the police banned our demonstration against G8 Summit in downtown Shibuya, arrested demonstrators and raided Doro-Chiba's headquarters.
However the erupting fights of “we must live!” confront these attacks made in haste, and unity in workplaces and campuses is being strengthened more tightly. The dismissed 1047 National Railway workers and the teachers resisting the coercion of “Hinomaru and Kimigayo” keep on fighting as a matter of principle of fight, calling for overthrow of the co-opted leadership of the unions who always places blame to union members saying “Be realistic!”

Strengthening unity on shop floor and international solidarity, let's fight back against neoliberal agenda: disconnection of any and every social tie.

Drop all unjust charges against brothers Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison!
With solidarity and unity of workers, fight back against attacks to divide and rule!
Your success in this October 6 rally is our success!
Please join our November 2 international workers solidarity rally in Tokyo!

October 6, 2008
TANAKA Yasuhiro,
President of National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba (Doro-Chiba)