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A teamsters’ blockade in the United States
Great article below and great coverage of the recent U.S. independent trucker action. However it is inaccurate to translate "camionero" as "teamsters" since in the U.s. "teamsters" would be taken and "Teamsters’ Union". the truckers wert NOT members of the Teamsters Union and actually the Teamsters Union OPPOSED the independent trucker action.
And much. much bigger independent trucker actions are planned for May Day 2008, of course.
Will any "progressives" in the L.A. area be UNITING with the independent truckers as the independent truckers organize to shut down the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor (the largest harbor in the United States in terms of port traffic) and other ports and harbors in the United States? Unfortunately in most cases the (worker) independent trucker actions and the (liberal- middle class organized) anti-war and immigration rights actions are virtually totally separate. Why is that? Don’t the Anti-War Movement and the Immigration Rights Movements want any WORKER actions and Strikes in support of the Antiwar Movement and Immigration Rights Movement? Of course when that issue is brought up some then say "Oh that is just impossible the workers are not ready for that." But actually and really and right now in the real world - the independent port truckers already ARE organizing and doing actions to shut down the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor (and many of the ports and harbors of the United States) on May Day 2008. Will the Anti-War Movement activists and the Immigration Rights activists talk to and communicate with the independent port truckers? Will the middle class and the working class actions be UNITED!
WHAT IF ... the independent port truckers shut down the ports and harbors of the United States in opposition to the War in Iraq and what if they refused to haul any War material? Could the War on Iraq really continue under those circumstances?
And WHAT IF ... every time there was an ICE RAID the independent port truckers shut down the Long-Beach Harbor for one hour (or longer) - would the ICE RAIDS continue under those circumstances?
And WHAT IF ...all (or many) of the Anti-War groups and Immigration Rights groups went down to the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor and picketed and demonstrated with the independent port trucker when they shut down the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbors and helped the port truckers with publicity and leaflets and negotiating etc.
In other words WHAT IF . there was some UNITY among the Anti-War Movement and Immigration Rights Movement and the independent port truckers (WORKER) Movement?????? And some joint and UNITED actions.
Or is it best to have middle class and workers really acting separately? - Of course not IT IS BEST TO HAVE UNITY.
Let’s work towards that UNITY and not have the independent port trucker do their massive action shutting down the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor on May Day 2008 without virtually any Anti-War or Immigration Rights groups or activists doing any organized actions in the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor. Jim "Let’s UNITE up." D.
By: Juana Carrasco Martín
E-mail: internac 4mZ jrebelde.cip.cu
April 9, 2008 - 00:36:40 GMT
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/opinion/2008-04-09/un-bloqueo-camionero-en-estados-unidos/
It took a while to sink in, since it’s been long since this kind of protest was last seen in the US. There they are, however, those independent truckers, rolling down at a snail’s pace to hamper road traffic in expressways across the nation to protest against the seemingly unstoppable rise in fuel prices. Now they have to pay almost four dollars for the same gallon of diesel they pumped for $1.60 back when Bush started his second period in the White House.
In New Jersey, the line of vehicles stretched out of sight; police were on the scene outside Chicago, where traffic was blockaded; Pennsylvania teemed with highway holdups; all operations were at a standstill in the port of Tampa. An article in AlterNet mentioned a driver near Buffalo who told reporters he was taking a week off «to pray for the economy.
Horns were blowing all along Interstate 77 in South Carolina and Georgia; there was talk of shutdowns in Indiana on April 18 and in New York, and a big gathering of rigs in Washington, D.C. on the 28th.
Of course, these drivers are the owners of their vehicles. Those who work for the top companies have been warned by their employers: if you back any strike, we will have to let you go.
It all started on April 1st with website postings and CB radio broadcastings demanding the government to cut diesel prices, release the fuel reserves, and check on cases of profiteering by oil companies, because the private drivers’ small businesses are haunted by the threat of bankruptcy while the Bush administration, fearing that Bear Stearns -the world’s fifth largest investment bank and one of Wall Street’s "giants" would collapse because of liquidity problems, took 30 billion dollars from the public purse as emergency funding to try to get the corporation back on its feet. Now they will be kept afloat.
Long scoffed by George W. Bush, the economic recession is taking a heavy toll among the small fry. In the meantime, things are bound to get worse this summer, given the Department of Energy’s forecast that prices in some places throughout the country "will surpass the four-dollar-a-gallon mark", an ill-boding likelihood hardly «noticed» by the media.
These teamsters are responsible of 70% of all goods hauled the length and breadth of the United States. Therefore, this strike in the making could worsen an economic situation already in marked decline.
For the time being, the CB radio waves are carrying some messages along the following lines: «It’s about all of us owners of mortgaged houses, unemployed construction workers, old people unable to pay the gas bill...
This not a step taken by truck drivers alone; it’s by the whole people.
Last Updated April 11, 2008 3:17 AM
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2008/04/a_teamsters_blo.html
Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast of US to protest war
By: atheo on: 10.04.2008 [15:32 ]
Jack Heyman
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
While millions of people worldwide have marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week’s New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction - key concerns being the war and the economy - the war machine inexorably grinds on.
Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers’ Day, to call for an end to the war.
This decision came after an impassioned debate where the union’s Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work" holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who received a mandate to end the war but who now continue to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their political power on the docks.
Last month, in response to the union’s declaration, the Pacific Maritime Association, the West Coast employer association of shipowners, stevedore companies and terminal operators, declared its opposition to the union’s protest. Thus, the stage is set for a conflict in the run up to the longshore contract negotiations.
The last set of contentious negotiations (in 2002) took place during the period between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Representatives of the Bush administration threatened that if there were any of the usual job actions during contract bargaining, then troops would occupy the docks because such actions would jeopardize "national security." Yet, when the PMA employers locked out the longshoremen and shut down West Coast ports for 11 days, the "security" issue vanished. President Bush then invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under conditions favorable to the employers.
The San Francisco longshore union has a proud history of opposition to the war in Iraq, being the first union to call for an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of troops. Representatives of the union spoke at anti-war rallies in February 2003, including one in London attended by nearly 2 million people, the largest ever held in Britain. Executive Board member Clarence Thomas went to Iraq with a delegation to observe workers’ rights during the occupation.
At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags, concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights Commission investigator characterized the Oakland police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war protesters in the United States.
And finally, last year, two black longshoremen going to work in the port of Sacramento were beaten, Maced and arrested by police under the rubric of Homeland Security regulations ordained by the "war on terror."
There’s precedent for this action. In the ’50s, French dockworkers refused to load war materiel on ships headed for Indochina, and helped to bring that colonial war to an end. At the ILWU’s convention in San Francisco in 2003, A. Q. McElrath, an octogenarian University of Hawaii regent and former ILWU organizer from the pineapple canneries, challenged the delegates to act for social justice, invoking the union’s slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." She concluded, "The cudgel is on the ground. Will you pick it up?"
It appears that longshore workers may be doing just that on May Day and calling on immigrant workers and others to join them.
May Day protest
WHEN: 10:30 a.m., May 1, followed by a rally at noon.
WHERE: Longshore Union Hall, corner of Mason and Beach (near Fisherman’s Wharf).
WHAT: March to a rally at Justin Herman Plaza along the Embarcadero.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.maydayilwu.googlepages.com
or call (415) 776-8100.
Jack Heyman is a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/ED8L101F5U.DTL