Hundreds in Oakland protest Gaza blockade

[Jimmie Higgins]

Hundreds in Oakland protest Gaza blockade (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/20/BA0G1E28CV.DTL&type=politics)



Longshoremen refused to cross the pro-Palestine picket and supported the calls to refuse to unload an Israeli cargo ship.

Good job comrades!

[Rusty Shackleford]

im surprised no one else has commented on this yet!

i was there for both demos(with ANSWER and the PSL)

first round was a great turnout, and second round, a few people tried to cross the picket at the really wide gate. but we won both times!

as for all the tendencies there i saw PSL/ANSWER, ISO, RCP, IBT, SA, Anarco-Syndicalists, and some anarchists.




BTW the band there was great haha.

[Martin Blank]

A couple of ILWU members are WPA supporters and they had been agitating for their co-workers to not cross the lines.

[praxis1966]

A couple of ILWU members are WPA supporters and they had been agitating for their co-workers to not cross the lines.

A bunch of people from my org were at this one. The ILWU did not, in fact, cross the picket line. Years and years ago, they fought to get a clause inserted into their contracts whereby in circumstances like these, they could have the blockade declared a 'health and safety' danger and ask for an arbitrator intervention to decide whether their concerns were valid. They did so in this case, and the arbitrator agreed with them, so they weren't forced to cross the line [I]and still got paid.

The other good news is that this cost the shipping company in question a shitload of money, both in terms of payroll (they have to pay the workers on the boat whether or not it gets unloaded) and in terms of various fees, not least of which are the hugely expensive berthing fees. Considering that the police didn't intervene, I'd say this was a pretty big success.

[qmyers25]

I heard about this. I think it's great that people got out there to stand up for what they believe in, instead of just voicing political action.

[Martin Blank]

A bunch of people from my org were at this one. The ILWU did not, in fact, cross the picket line. Years and years ago, they fought to get a clause inserted into their contracts whereby in circumstances like these, they could have the blockade declared a 'health and safety' danger and ask for an arbitrator intervention to decide whether their concerns were valid. They did so in this case, and the arbitrator agreed with them, so they weren't forced to cross the line [I]and still got paid.

Yeah. The "health and safety" clause the ILWU has is something we've seen as a key part of any model contract. They invoked that clause during the Nedlloyd Kimberly picket in 1984 as well, IIRC. That one, however, was much more dramatic than this one, with longshore workers in boats out in the Bay to keep the Kimberly from docking. One of our members was part of the Kimberly blockade and does educational talks about it on occasion for our organization.