support the dock workers

Not sure if it's a Side Issue or an Uber or Under issue but...keep in mind that this Tom Ridge character, Bush's director of "Homeland Security" has reasons to hate W.Coast dockworkers.
As Governor of Pennsylvania, one of his priorites was to push for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal...whom the Dockworkers supported by word and deed...once shutting down the West Coast ports. Background info at http://www.mumia.org

The animosity felt by Ridge and Bush, brother executioners, for the Dockworkers must be intense.

Please give us concrete details as to how we can support them.

September 30, 2002


Appeal to Support the ILWU's Picket Lines in Oakland, CA

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

As you have read in today's press, the ILWU has been locked out once
again, this time indefinitely, by the Pacific Maritime Association.
A further sign of the PMA's refusal to bargain in good faith occurred
this afternoon, when the PMA called off a scheduled bargaining
session and placed further unacceptable demands on the ILWU.

The ILWU has called on the PMA to come back to the bargaining table.
It has stated repeatedly that the longshore workers want to return to
work. It has denied categorically the PMA's claims of "slowdowns"
and the like, calling these pretexts by the PMA to hinder good-faith
bargaining.

Meanwhile, the ILWU's picket lines have gone up in 29 West Coast
ports. In Oakland, support for the ILWU's picket lines is solid, as
union after union has contacted the ILWU pledging that its members
will not cross the lines. Picket lines are up at all the terminals.

Now the ILWU needs our support. They need help with reinforcements
on the picket lines from unionists and labor rights activists in San
Francisco and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. They are
calling on all supporters of trade union rights to come down to the
Port of Oakland, at any time of day or night, though preferably at
the time of shift changes, which are 6:00am, 12:00pm, 6:00pm, and
12:00am, to help staff the lines.

Everyone should report to the picket captains at Port View Park,
after which they will be dispatched to the terminals that need
reinforcements. Port View Park is located at the end of 7th Street
in the Port of Oakland. To get there, take Maritime Boulevard and
make a right onto 7th Street.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All.

Sincerely,


Walter L. Johnson
Secretary-Treasurer

WLJ:kmz
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By all means, support the dockworkers. But make it REAL; don't be fooled by the hype or blinded by overenthusiasm or awe. People remind us of the "turtles and teamsters" coalition, so let's remember what happened there:

The union leadership (including the Teamsters) mobilized a sector of their membership to protest the WTF in Seattle. They were completely caught by surprise at the radicalism and the militancy of the youth there. Terrified that their members might catch the same "disease" they abandoned this coalition following this.

Let's also not forget the disastrous history of failure of the labor leadership: Greyhound, Staley, P-9, Caterpiller, Detroit newspapers... The list is almost endless. The reasons for these defeats is the weak, passive approach of the labor leadership. This leadership refuses to mobilize its members to really take on the bosses. They passively obey every union busting court ruling and law that comes down. The idea of returning to the militant methods of the 1930s is completely ruled out to them. As a result, they tailor their program (concessions and more concessions) to whatever the bosses demand.

Why do we think that the PMA has locked out the ILWU? Do we think that they WANT to keep the docks shut down? I cannot see any reason other than that they have a scheme (probably cooked up with the Bush regime) for federal intervention. Already there are demands for federal mediation - in othe words a government, pro-PMA agent intervening and pretending to be neutral.

What will be next? I don't think we can rule out sending in federal troops to unload the ships. The entire labor movement must be prepared for this. This means going directly to the rank and file of the rest of organized labor immediately. It would be a disastrous mistake to expect the AFL-CIO leadership to mobilize to oppose this. They won't do it.

The ILWU should start on this on their own. If the ILWU leadership does not want to step on toes and do so, then the Solidarity Committee should. I and plenty of other union members would love to help with this task.

John Reimann
expelled member, Carpenters Local 713

Replace those asshole dock workers with the unemployed. I've seen some of those retards on TV and my 9-year old son could their work! And he whines less often! I could use the extra $114,00 a year.

if at all. What is this, the "I love the corporations" website? Don't these people who identify with the ruling class have their own website? Please don't post your mindless drivel. Do it elsewhere.

Vince

You are one dumb person, Vince. Until you realize that you have been brainwashed by union propaganda, you'll never get that this has nothing to do with corporations and everything to do with individual rights, a concept you and your whining unions have obviously never heard of nor give a damn about.

So, if you don't like being criticized for what you are, tough. This is still a FREE country and we are going to freely express our opposition to those bottomfeeders like you who wish to change it into a totalitarian paradise.

Now, when are you going to retract the threat you made to kill scabs, Vince?

vince is a pussy lucky i havent found his lazy ass on the docks cause id kick him and the pansy hes got swinging from his pecker both into the bay now get to work and quit your bitching ya fuck

What's a "pussy lucky"? Sounds fun. Nice reductionism--I'm totalitarian and your free. I'd say the opposite. And if I'm so totalitarian, why do you go crying to the cops any time you hear threats to scabs? If you didn't live with your parents in the suburbs, you might actually have to scab.

The Saint

One needn't be a big fan of today's unions to see what a tired little clown Sam B is.

In Sam B's parlance, "individual rights" is nothing more than the right of capital to do anything it wishes.

When I was on strike a couple years ago (a wildcat non-union strike) the bosses we were placing demands upon tried employing Sam B's "individual rights" argument to get us back to work. It was a transparent attempt to depict management as the oppressed little guy. In other words, it was a complete joke -- like Sam B.

Aren't we all working too hard? The ILWU at least has succeeded in making work not horribly unbearable and low-paid. If the workers weren't unionized, then the workers (and any new ones) probably wouldn't get $80,000 a year.

The question isn't, are the dockworkers paid too much? The question is, why is everyone else paid so little?

I wonder what would happen if everyone made at least $114,000 a year, like you suggest.

The answer? Say hello to $10 rolls of toilet paper!

only productive and upstanding Americans -- you know, bond traders, derivatives brokers, real estate speculators, and the like -- should make that kind of money.

Otherwise, we'll have inflation and things like housing and health care will suddenly become expensive.

I hate to be the one to break bad news, but "bond traders, derivatives brokers, real estate speculators, and the like" generally make an exponential amount more than $114K/year.

I'm not against people making a living wage, but unfortunately if everyone made $114K a year, than it would cost just about $114K a year to "get by".

Poor Aaron, anything to avoid the fact that what keeps unions in existence is the violation of individual rights. Pretending that the Constitution is evil and union violence is a right, you and your little lackey Vince will go through life clueless as how screwed up you are.

It's really pathetic to watch you display your ignorance so proudly.

Poor Aaron, anything to avoid the fact that what keeps unions in existence is the violation of individual rights. Pretending that the Constitution is evil and union violence is a right, you and your little lackey Vince will go through life clueless as how screwed up you are.

It's really pathetic to watch you display your ignorance so proudly.

We all have our vices.

[O]nly productive and upstanding Americans -- you know, bond traders, derivatives brokers, real estate speculators, and the like -- should make that kind of money.

---

AMEN! I'm glad somebody finally said it. For the work we do, and risks we take to hold up the world and create comfort and wealth for the planet, we deserve it.

Now that the Longshoreman's union has been spanked and has had to go back to work, the little whiners like Vince (who still has not withdrawn the death threats he made) have run away with their tails between their legs.

The least these unions can do is apologize to the American public, work overtime without pay, and pay for the financial damage they have done to the economy, some billions of dollars worth.

Hey goody-goody Sam-aritan--the saviour of the scab. Your pathetic scabs will never be safe as long as capitalism exists. SO BEWARE, THEY'LL GET FUCKED IF THEY CROSS PICKETS, OR TAKE JOBS FROM WORKERS. Period. No rhetoric, just crushed bones.

The Saint

Your a hoot, Vince. That's why I fight for the freedom of all working men while you have consistently advocate for their slavery!

And it's here for all to see!

Now, Vince, when are you going to have the GUTS to withdraw those death threats you have made, or are you such a prissy little twit that you're scared of your little union goon friends?

Hey Sam, you better get your friends in the worker's rights organization to call the Oakland cops for you because me, nor any other consciously struggling working class person, is ever, ever going to retract them. At least not until capitalism is overthrown and a more human, just and natural way of living is created.

Vince

You poor soul, you haven't a clue what you're talking about.

You don't even know what capitalism is and that freedom depends on having MORE capitalism, not less. No wonder you're so brainwashed by your unions to believe the nonsense you vomit here.

Capitalism will never be overthrown because it is the only just and moral system there is.

But why lecture to the moron you are, Vince.

And, yes, as soon as all states become Right To Work states, as they all must and will, then the laws which protect your union monopoly (anti-capitalist), your restriction of entry to protect your monopoly (anti-capitalist), your use of violence and threat of it (anti-capitalist, and the list goes on, will all disappear and you will have to join the rest of law abiding Americans or flee to the socialist heaven your union masters have brainwashed you into believing.

And don't forget, moron Vince, you do not own the job you have.

It's a pleasure watching you confirm the true nature of anti-worker labor unions. You've made a complete ass of yourself.

Hey Sam, you just don't get it. I don't have an ounce of unionism in my blood. Yes, I was in the ILWU decades ago and our sector had been unorganized before and our wages, benefits and working conditions went up substantially when joined the ILWU. And stayed that way and are still that way. But I'm not pro-union because I think they're an impediment to TRUE revolutionary struggle. They just act as a "mediation" between workers and capital, these days most often in capital's interest. The only unions I ever liked were fighting unions liked the IWW and those were pretty much broken by the Palmer Raids in the 20s. And if they were to exist today, given that the modes of capitalist accumulation--and distribution--have changed so much, they wouldn't be revolutionary anymore. So we need new working class organs appropriate to new modes of struggle. We've got to imagine new ways of fighting and overthrowing capitalism.

So there, I'm not a union man. I'm a working man who sees the proletariat as the class with the potential to abolish all classes and allow humanity to finally be free with a new, liberated society. It's latent in all of us. Even little suburban weenies like you and your SUV driving parents. But I'm sure you can't read all of this or you might be late to soccer practice. Or is your mom is taking you to the mall today?

The Saint

Vince, I feel sorry for you for buying into all that class warfare nonsense.

It's too bad you never got an education to see how fallacious your view of the world is. You only have to look beyond our borders to watch LIVE the failure and self-defeating nature of your thinking.

But you've got your blinders on, thinking that freedom means threatening to kill people, monopolizing labor, and having SPECIAL privleges.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that you are going the way of the dinosaurs but you REFUSE to think.