Occupy the EGT

You do the work—THEY, the global maritime bosses, profit at your expense. Your safety and your jobs are always at stake. OUR LONGVIEW LONGSHORE BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE UNDER THE GUN FOR ALL OF US! THAT’S WHY OCCUPY OAKLAND IS CALLING FOR A PORT SHUTDOWN DEC. 12.

The bosses have been getting away with it for far too long. We can beat them, but we have to work together—unions, rank and file workers and Occupy. I was on my second pump to Iraq when ILWU—when you—led by your Vietnam vets, shut down the West Coast ports on May Day 2008 to stop the war. The best support I could have asked for in Iraq was from you brothers and sisters who wanted us home, alive and well- sooner, not later. I spent two pumps in Iraq looking for our enemies. Only after coming back home did I discover our greatest enemy—that is the enemy we are fighting now.

Please honor our Occupy picket lines. United we are stronger. As you say in your union, “AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL.” The only ones who will tell you otherwise are those that want to continue profiting off your backs. You all work hard at a dangerous job. You deserve to see something out of that.

I plan on standing tall again on December 12, and I look forward to standing with our longshoremen. PLEASE DO THE LABOR MOVEMENT PROUD LIKE YOU’VE DONE BEFORE AND HONOR OUR COMMUNITY PICKET LINE.

Scott Olsen 12/7/11

The Doro-Chiba railway workers in Japan will demonstrate on Dec.  12, in solidarity with the West Coast port shutdown, at a facility of Itochu,  the giant Japanese trading company that is a partner in EGT which is trying to  bust the ILWU jurisdiction in Longview.

While an official statement has yet to be made by Doro-Chiba, Japanese railway union members have traditionally stood in solidarity with the struggles of the Longview, WA longshoremen.

Source: ILWU Support Committee

This interview was originally pubished by Workers World.

As pressure builds for the Dec. 12 West Coast port shutdown, the capitalist owners and their media began a battle of ideas to blunt this powerful threat to their profits and control — even for a day.

Two International Longshore and Warehouse Union members — Clarence Thomas, who is a third-generation longshoreman in Oakland, and Leo Robinson, who is now retired — spoke with Workers World reporter Cheryl LaBash. Both men have held elected office in ILWU Local 10 and have been key labor activists during their years of work in the ports.

WW: The Nov. 21 ILWU Longshore Coast Committee memorandum states, “Any public demonstration is not a ‘picketline’ under the PCL&CA [Pacific Coast Longshore & Clerk’s Agreement]. … Remember, public demonstrations are public demonstrations, not ‘picketlines.’ Only labor unions picket as referenced in the contract.” What is your reaction?

Clarence Thomas: A picket line is a public demonstration — whether called by organized labor or not. It is legitimate. There are established protocols in these situations. To suggest to longshoremen that they shouldn’t follow them demands clarification. It is one thing to state for the record that the union is not involved, but another thing to erase the historical memory of ILWU’s traditions and practices included in the Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU adopted at the 1953 biennieal convention in San Francisco.

Leo Robinson: The international has taken the position somehow that the contract is more important than not only defending our interest in terms of this EGT [grain terminal jurisdictional dispute] but having a connection to the Occupy [Wall Street] movement in that when you go through the Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU, we’re talk about labor unity. Does that include the teachers? Does that include state, county and municipal workers? Those questions need to be analyzed as to who supports whom. The Occupy movement is not separate and apart from the labor movement.

CT: Labor is now officially part of the Occupy movement. That has happened. The recent [New York Times] article done by Steven Greenhouse on Nov. 9 is called ‘Standing arm in arm.”

The Teamsters have been supported by the OWS against Sotheby’s auction house. OWS has been supportive of Communication Workers in its struggle with Verizon. Mary Kay Henry, International President of the Service Employees, has called for expanding the Occupy movement by taking workers to Washington, D.C., to occupy Washington particularly Congress and congressional hearings demanding 15 million jobs by Jan. 1.

LR: There was the occupation in Madison, Wis. That was labor-led. People are trying to confuse the issue by saying we are somehow separated from the Occupy movement. More than anything else the Occupy movement is a direct challenge or raises the question of the the rights of capital as opposed to the rights of the worker. I don’t understand that the contract supersedes the just demands of the labor movement. It says so right here in the 10 guiding principles of the ILWU.

Article 4 is very clear. Very clear. “‘To help any worker in distress’ must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members.” Labor solidarity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact that solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called sanctity of the contract. We cannot adopt for ourselves the policies of union leaders who insist that because they have a contract, their members are compelled to perform work, even behind a picket line. It says picket line. It doesn’t say union picket line. It says picket line.

CT: Only 7.2 percent of private sector workers have union representation today, the lowest since 1900. Facing a critical moment, the labor movement has been reenergized by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

LR: Any number of times this union [Local 10] has observed picket lines, including Easter Sunday 1977 when the community put up a picket line at Pier 27 to picket South African cargo. Longshoremen observed that picket line for two days. So I don’t understand how all of a sudden the sanctity of the contract outweighs the need to demonstrate solidarity. It just does not compute. It doesn’t make sense.

WW: What were the similarities between that event and what is going on now with the Occupy movement?

CT: The first action against South African apartheid was a community picket line. It was not authorized by the union. It was a community picket line from start to finish.

LR: It was about 5,000 people out there on the Embarcadero [eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco] for two days running a community picket line opposing South African apartheid. Local 10 officers took the position that it was an unsafe situation and our members were not going to cross that picket line, period. It was ruled as such by the arbitrator.

WW: Who determines whether a situation is safe or unsafe?

LR: We have never waited for the employer to declare what is safe or unsafe. It is always the union that moves first. We don’t ask the employers what is safe or unsafe. They wouldn’t give a damn one way or the other as long as they got their ship worked. If the police have to escort you in or out, that is patently saying it is unsafe. What if someone decides to throw a rock while you’re being escorted in by the police? Does it make it hurt any less? A longshoreman determines what is safe for him or her — on the job and off.

CT: Our members have been hurt by the police and so has the OWS movement. In 2003 when we were standing by at a picket, police shot our members with wooden bullets. In Longview, Wash., at the EGT Grain Terminal, ILWU members and their families have been hurt by the police. We don’t want the police to do anything for us.

WW: What is happening at the grain terminal in Longview?

CT: Our union is at an historical juncture. Our jurisdiction is being challenged up and down the coast — the issue of logs and Local 10 and use of “robotics.” There has been nothing like this since 1934. If ILWU members don’t honor the community picket lines, it will cause an irreparable breach with the community. If the ILWU can’t support the community, why should the community support the ILWU in 2014 contract negotiations or when the new grain agreement is up next year? Who knows what the employer has up their sleeve when they demanded only a one-year contract.

LR: Grain work provides 30 percent of our welfare contributions. Who knows … let’s say that EGT is successful. It will open the door for other grain operators to try to work anybody.

WW: Aren’t the ports private?

CT: These ports are the people’s ports. Ports belong to the people of the Pacific Coast. The money came from the taxpayers in California, Oregon and Washington. EGT was subsidized by the Port of Longview. So the people have the right to go down there and protest how their tax dollars have been ripped off.

WW: Wall Street is in New York City. What do the West Coast ports have to do with that?

LR: To show you the link, last year in the ILWU Dispatcher - a sister from Local 10 was foreclosed on. I am certain she’s not the only one.

CT: Fifty-one percent of Stevedoring Services of America is owned by Goldman Sachs. EGT is a multinational conglomerate trying to control the distribution of food products around the world. The face of Wall Street is in the ports.

WW: Any closing comments?

CT: The ILWU is not some special interest group. We are a rank-and-file militant, democratic union that has a long history of being in the vanguard of the social justice and labor movement.

We don’t cross community picket lines. When people begin to do so they have completely turned their backs on the ILWU’s 10 guiding principles. Is it coincidental that Harry Bridges’ name has not been asserted in relation to the OWS movement and the history of militancy? Is it an accident? How can we not talk about Harry Bridges? That is how we got what we have today.

Clarence Thomas is past secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 10 and co-chair of Million Workers March movement, which was initiated by Local 10 and supported by the ILWU Longshore Caucus. Leo Robinson is retired and co-founder of African American Longshore Coalition. He is a former member of the ILWU Local 10 executive board, a national convener of the MWM movement and its major benefactor.

The General Assembly of Salt Lake City met at the Gallivan Center Occupation's Dome to reached consensus that the following is Occupy SLC's statement regarding December 12.

In response to coordinated attacks on Occupiers throughout the world:

As West Coast Occupations shut down their ports and the East Coast Occupations shut down their waterfront on December 12th, 2011, Occupy Denver has given a call for occupations to organize mass mobilizations across the nation to support these actions. Occupy Salt Lake will stand in solidarity with Occupy Denver and others by disrupting the distribution system of Walmart, an excessively oppressive corporation that is actively destroying communities throughout our nation.

The world’s workers at ports and in our transportation systems are under threat by the 1 percent. In Oakland, Goldman Sachs obstructs and opposes the interests of port terminal labor unions. Occupy Oakland stands in solidarity with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in their struggle against corporate oppression.

We stand in solidarity with the activists in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, where port workers refused to offload chemical weapons being used excessively against peaceful protesters. Actions taken in Egypt against the one percent have inspired communities throughout the world.

They have inspired us to raise resistance against Walmart and other corporate entities who have stripped workers of their right to organize and raise their voices in the workplace -- thus enabling these corporations to pay substandard wages in the United States and abroad. Walmart is one of the most successful players in the global trade system, where money has more rights than people. This system traps workers in poor countries as transnational corporations like Walmart “race to the bottom” to exploit workers who are most vulnerable. Our economic system should provide incentives to treating workers with dignity and punish those who oppress. If our system here in the United States doesn’t reform, we will become a third world nation as our middle class disappears in a very real sense.

Across the nation on December 12th, we will challenge the legitimacy of corporate entities that destroy communities and oppress their workers. We call on the 99 percent -- all workers and activists -- to unite in a common struggle. The revolution has begun.

Approved GA proposal from Occupy Dallas:

In solidarity with Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Diego, Occupy LA, Occupy Portland, Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Seattle and other movements along the west coast of the United States that will shut down ports in their cities on December 12, the General Assembly of Dallas hereby declares:

“On December 12, the occupy movements in different cities will stage  mass mobilizations to march on the ports, create community pickets, and effectively shutdown the hubs of commerce, in the same fashion that Occupy Oakland shut down the Port of Oakland on November 2nd, the day of our general strike. The Oakland Port Shutdown was a historic and effective action, and the memory of that night on the port lives in the hearts of people across Oakland and around the country.”

In Houston, we will mobilize and stage a mass march by integrating Occupy Houston, Occupy Austin, Occupy San Marco, Occupy San Antonio, Occupy Now and Occupy Texas.

Hip Hop Occupies to Decolonize issues solidarity statement & artist all-call for participation in 12/12 rallies. Originally posted here.

Seattle, WA–Hip Hop Occupies is calling upon youth and artists in Seattle and beyond to come out in full force December 12th in support and solidarity for the West Coast Port Shutdown. HHO endorses this day of direct action as not only an opportunity to make a political statement against budget cuts and on-going police brutality, but also to create a strategic profit loss within the toxic capitalist economic system. From Seattle to San Diego, oppressed peoples of all backgrounds are mobilizing to shut down the power of the 1% in this coordinated national effort. We choose to occupy capital, not capitol buildings, because we are no longer waiting to have our voices validated at the whim of elected officials.

It is the fact that the Port Shutdown is pushing the “Occupy Movement” in a more active, coordinated direction that Hip Hop Occupies stands in solidarity. It has historically been a West Coast tradition to push the envelope of culture and struggle in this way. From the Black Panthers to Freestyle Fellowship, from NWA to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, the West Coast stays innovating. Following in the footsteps of these West Coast innovators in both Hip Hop and Revolutionary struggle, Hip Hop Occupies to Decolonize Seattle is helping to coordinate rallies at 1pm, 3pm, and 6pm on Monday, December 12th. We are asking all our allies in the artist community to come MC, paint, dance, and create in the name of freedom and self-determination.

Event Date: Monday, December 12th, 2011

Event Locations: Westlake Park, 4th & Pine in Downtown Seattle, Port of Seattle

Event Schedule:

12:00pm: Hip Hop Occupies Artist Check-In at Westlake

1:00pm: Rally and Performances at Westlake Center

3:00pm: Rally & Performances at Port of Seattle

6:00pm: Rally & Performance at Spokane Street Fishing Area

To participate, perform, speak and/or share at any of the D12 rallies in Seattle, call (425) 223-7787, email HipHopOccupies@gmail, and then show up at Westlake Park on 4th & Pine at 12pm on 12/12 for the artist check-in.

On Monday Dec. 12th, 2011 we’re asking community organizations, rank-and-file union members, residents and journalists to join Occupy Vancouver at Callister park at noon for a 12-hour West Coast Coordinated Port Shutdown. Our fellow Occupiers in San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle have asked us to stand in solidarity with them and Occupy Vancouver has responded with a resounding YES! We hope that you will join us in this action and invite your sisters, brothers, neighbours and co-workers to successfully block the Port of Vancouver. Bring your signs, chants, passion, instruments, bikes, and revolutionary spirit!

Why?

Canada’s top 61 richest billionaires have a combined wealth of $162 billion and represent 0.0002% of the national population.  These 61 individuals own twice as much wealth as the bottom 17 million Canadians. BC has the highest child poverty rate in Canada for eight years running and 12% of British Columbians – more than half a million people – live below the poverty line.  Real incomes in Canada since 1973 have increased only by $1,500 dollars, while the cost of living, education and home ownership have increased exponentially. Workers today toil longer hours, retire later and spend many more years and money on their education than previous decades. In the 1950s, the average family income based on one pay check could finance home ownership, put kids through university and save for retirement; today two people have to work sometimes multiple jobs to pay the rent, pay off student loans and perhaps one day make room for a child. To finance home ownership and people’s consumption habits, Canadians have gone into serious household debt. The illusion of wealth is maintained on borrowed money for the average Canadian.

The 1% declared war on the 99% a long time ago

The disparity between the rich and poor is growing at an exponential rate. The working class has historically struggled, fought and died for the gains that are currently being systematically stripped away, often by force. The call for a port shutdown is a solidarity action – a call to stand in solidarity with the longshoremen of Longview, WA who are courageously fighting union-busting activities by the grain company EGT. The collective bargaining rights of the working class has been dramatically eroded. From the Canada Postal workers being legislated back to work to flight attendants not striking for fear of being declared an “essential service” the state crack down on union power and theft of collective bargaining chips that ensure a living wage, fair working conditions and benefits, has increased under the pressures of an unstable global capitalist economy. It’s time to stand up and unite as union workers, non-unionized workers, and surplus labour and FIGHT BACK. We can’t wait for management to do this; it is up to us to determine our destiny and struggle for the society we want.

Our Strategy/ Dispelling Fears and Myths

The ports are public. They belong to everyone, including us. If Canada is a democracy and a free country then we have every right to go to the Port and protest. Every right to assert our economic power. The 99% make the economy run and we can make the economy halt. The 1% are parasites that simply move capital – which belongs to EVERYONE – from one region to the next. It’s time to reassert our collective power and show that despite differences we can come together as a united front and halt port activities for 12-hrs. The ILWU, the longshoremen union that stretches across the West Coast, has a history of honouring “community pickets.” If we can get enough bodies to block the New Brighton Port entrance in Vancouver, arbitrators will be forced to get involved and declare working conditions unsafe, allowing the longshoremen to go home with a full day’s pay! We assert our collective bargaining power AND shut down the port!

Call for Support

From our community to yours, we need you. From Vancouver to Los Angeles, we’re behind you. From one human being to another, we can do this. If the state can orchestrate a coordinated-crackdown of Occupy movements, why shouldn’t we strike back and coordinate an action to assert our collective power? United we are more powerful than any individual action.

Mark your calendars: Dec. 12th @ noon @ Callister park, Renfrew & Hastings, East Van.

Blockade the Seattle port: March at 1, Rallies at 3 and 6. 

• Against Gov. Gregoire's devastating budget cuts.  It's not too late to stop these cuts that target working class people, people with disabilities, and people of color.  The 1% controls the politicians.  Let them know that if they cut us, we will cut their profits by shutting down Wall Street on the waterfront.

• No union-busting! Solidarity with immigrant port truckers battling Goldman Sachs in LA.

• We support the Longview, WA Longshoremen in their struggle against multinational grain cartel EGT.

• Against police repression and evictions of occupations. Occupy everything!

Occupy Seattle’s General Assembly voted unanimously to endorse the call to action put out by Occupy Oakland. Port blockades are planned in San Diego, LA, Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, Tacoma, and Seattle.

For more details on why we are occupying,  see http://occupyseattle.org/blog/2011-11-29/west-coast-port-shutdown-december-12th