Oakland longshore workers refuse Israeli cargo

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55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at the level of union wages and We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and take steps to 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that matches the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, universal, public health-care 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by workers’ committees. 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimination; equal 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, and reduce pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color, or national 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program to employ 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transportation corporaall jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and renewable sources of power, 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY CONGRESS schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, forests, farmland, and open space. should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threat4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all ened by the crisis. These committees can draw up more concrete demands than the U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — use funds instead for public works!

Convert the war industries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed and exploited. For a 5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

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OAKLAND, Calif.—On June 20, ILWU Local 10 members refused to cross a day-long picket of an Israeli ship at the Port of Oakland. More than 700 persons, representing a diverse range of workers, students, and community activists, walked the pickets over course of the day, which began before dawn, at 5:30 a.m.

Chants of “Free, free Palestine! Don’t cross the picket line!” filled the air, keeping high the spirits of more than 500 picketing the entrances to three berths. Just before 9:30 a.m., they cheered an announcement that an emergency arbitrator had ruled in favor of the union’s claim that the workers on the morning shift could not work because the picket had made it unsafe to enter the docks. The workers did not receive disciplinary measures for refusal to cross the picket line.

A second picket of at least 200 began at 4:30 p.m. By 6 p.m., just as the Zim Lines ship was docking, word arrived that SSA Terminals, the port operator, decided against ordering workers for the evening shift change. Picket organizers and unionists attributed the decision to the size and strength of the pickets in the morning. A Chinese ship also arrived that day and met the same fate as its Israeli counterpart. No goods were unloaded for 24 hours.

A counter-mobilization consisted of two Zionist supporters waving Israeli and U.S. flags.

The picket was organized by the Labor/Community Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an ad hoc coalition of nearly 100 union members, organizations, and individuals throughout the Bay Area. It marked the first time in history that U.S. workers have refused to unload Israeli cargo, and it sent a powerful message of solidarity to all Palestinians, whose historic homeland was attacked by Israel in 1948, the start of a long-term strategy of land theft and ethnic cleansing.

The spark for the port of Oakland action was the Zionist massacre of nine heroic Freedom Flotilla crew members—part of an relief effort to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza—who were slain by the Israeli military on May 31. Six other crew members remain missA WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS implement the following demands — mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused decline in value. warming.

Name Address City Phone E-mail Palestinians in Gaza look across border into Egypt. ing and are presumed dead.

The beleaguered inhabitants of the Gaza Strip continue struggling against a three-year Israeli blockade, which is fully backed by the U.S. government. Similar actions and work stoppages are taking place elsewhere around the world, including South Africa, Norway, and Sweden. Solidarity messages urging the ILWU to refuse to unload Israeli cargo were sent by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU); UK Palestine Solidarity Committee; The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee; and the Oakland Education Association.

The PGFTU statement cited similar “historic and massive” dock actions in 1984 by the ILWU, when they refused to unload South African cargo to boycott their apartheid regime.

The Cuban Workers Central (CTC) message read: “The Cuban workers support the just protest of the workers and community of the San Francisco Bay Area that will take place on June 20 against the cruel and inhumane blockade which the Israeli government maintains in the Gaza Strip, depriving thousands of women, children, and men of the most basic rights, especially the right to life.

“Our people have lived for 50 years under an unjust and abominable blockade by the U.S. government, so we understand very well how the Palestinian people benefits.

system.

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workers’ government!

State Zip tions and place them under the control of elected committees of workers. • Ashland, Ore.: damonjure@ earthlink.net • Ashland, Wis.: northlandiguana@ gmail.com • Boston: bostonsocialistaction@ gmail.com (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860)478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: P.O. Box 16853 Duluth, MN 55816, [email protected], www.the-red-raven.blogspot.com • Florida: socialistaction_tampa@ hotmail.com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 8021482, [email protected] • New York City: [email protected] feel and we will always be in solidarity with their just cause.

Today we send you our most sincere support. Long live the solidarity of the working class! End the Blockade of Gaza! Respect and Justice for the people of Palestine!” n Before BP BP didn’t begin as BP. Indeed, it didn’t begin as British Petroleum. In 1908, it was known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and it exploited Iran’s natural resources and labor ruthlessly. Majority shares of the company were owned by the British government, and Iran offered a rich yield for APOC.

In 1947, for example, the company pulled in after-tax profits of £40 million, while Iran received a mere £7 million. The average Iranian worker, housed in huts assembled of rusted, hammered oil cans, lived in desolate oil towns, and earned about 50 cents a day.

One observer from Iran’s Petroleum Institute described one such shanty town, Kaghazabad (Farsi for “Paper City”) as a place where “in every crevice hung the foul sulfurous stench of burning oil.” Instead of streets, narrow alleyways existed, which the describer called “an emporium for rats.” He said the town was so desolate that there was no single tree.

Is there any wonder that the government of Mohammed Mossadegh wanted to nationalize the country’s oil wealth—or that the CIA (and MI-5, British Intelligence) assured his ouster and imposed the dictator, the Shah? BP plundered the country, making money, hand over fist.

Now, they are plundering American natural resources—its southern shorelines, and its matchless fishing and shrimping grounds—and the chickens have indeed, come home to roost.

© MUMIA ABU-JAMAL Source: Majidi, Mazda, “The latest crime in BP’s criminal history,” Liberation, June 4, 2010, p. 7.

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