Longshore union strikes against war
By PETER COLE
GUEST COLUMNIST
On Thursday, May Day, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
will declare an eight-hour strike to protest the war in Iraq. Since
the ILWU controls every port along the U.S. Pacific Coast, including
Seattle and Tacoma, this strike demonstrates the collective power of
workers willing to use it.
The ILWU is demanding "an immediate end to the war and occupation in
Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle
East." Although the majority of Americans repeatedly have expressed
their desire to end the war, President Bush has not obliged us, so it
drags on. Because our leaders refuse to listen, ILWU members are
taking the next logical step for workers: Strike.
For those unfamiliar, the ILWU is perhaps the most militant and
politicized worker organization in the nation. It operates in one of
the most important sectors of the world economy -- marine transport --
and, thus, is in a strategic location to put peace above profits.
Forged in the fires of 1930s worker struggles to gain basic rights,
the ILWU was born in 1934 when longshoremen (there were no women in
the industry then, though there are now) performed the incredibly
hard, dangerous and important work of loading and unloading ships. To
improve their wages and wrest some control over their lives, men all
along the coast struck -- and in a few instances died -- to gain union
recognition.
The ILWU is highly democratic. A caucus of more than 100 longshore
workers representing every union local establishes policies for the
Longshore Division. It was this caucus that voted to declare the May
Day strike.
Dockworkers, including those in the ILWU, have a proud tradition of
political action. For example, in the 1980s the ILWU respected the
strike of British dockworkers by refusing to unload a ship worked by
scab labor. Just last week, union longshoremen in South Africa refused
to unload a Chinese vessel carrying military supplies destined for
autocratic Zimbabwe -- a tremendous example of solidarity.
That the ILWU chose International Workers' Day to declare this strike
suggests its political commitment and internationalism. Around the
world, workers honor labor by taking a holiday. What few Americans
know is that the tradition of a May Day strike originated not in the
Soviet Union in the 1950s but the United States of the 1880s.
These days, such examples of worker power are increasingly rare in the
U.S. The tragedy is that, historically, labor activism gave us the
40-hour workweek (and the weekend) and helped humanize the
exploitative excesses of unregulated capitalism. As income inequality
continues to grow in the United States, it is wise to remember how, in
the past, strong unions created a larger middle class as well as a
more democratic and egalitarian nation.
The ILWU strike also reminds us that unions still have an important
role in public discussions beyond the workplace. As a democratic
institution, the ILWU is precisely the sort of "civic society" that
the Bush administration has been trying to create in Iraq. On May 1,
dockworkers will speak loud and clear -- end the endless war in Iraq.
Other American workers who want to support our troops by bringing them
home can make their voices heard by joining with the brave men and
women of the ILWU and taking the day off.
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