“An injury to one is an injury to all! Stop police terror that’s our call!”

May Day: Oakland Longshore Workers Shut Down Port & March Against Police Murder

May 4, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On May 1—May Day—the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth largest port in the U.S., to protest police brutality and murder. It then led a diverse march of more than 1,000 people, including workers, activists, students, and families whose loved ones had been murdered by police, from the docks through the streets to a rally in front of Oakland City Hall.

This was the first workers’ strike against police abuses in recent memory, and was part of a wave of protests across the San Francisco Bay Area against police murder. On May Day alone, another march of hundreds took place in Oakland that evening, and one of 800 in San Francisco. To the south, in San Jose and nearby Mountain View, thousands of people joined annual immigrant rights marches that included demands to stop police brutality and state violence. A Muslim speaker said, “African-American brothers and sisters need us now”—referring to demonstrations in Baltimore, New York City, Oakland, and elsewhere against killings by police. On Monday, April 27, 150-200 people, mainly youths, marched through Oakland in support of the Baltimore uprising.

People at the ILWU’s May Day march were very open to revolution and the remarks made by Carl Dix later at the rally. All this points to how profoundly this issue is shaking society and the potential for very broad segments of society to join the opposition.

“The longshore union has stopped work today and when we stop work the cargo doesn’t move. All the cranes are up,” Jack Heyman, a retired longshore leader said at the beginning of the demonstration. “We’re out here to protest the police killings of mainly Black and Brown people in this country. The police have created an epidemic of terror against these communities. And we in the longshore union are here to let them know that it has to stop!”

Chants rang out: “An injury to one is an injury to all! Stop police terror, that’s our call!” There were youths, students, and older folks, people from many different unions throughout the Bay Area, including the SEIU and the Inland Boatman’s, as well as representatives from the ILWU from as far away as Los Angeles. Oakland teachers, representatives of UC Berkeley’s Black Students Union, and Native American and Aztec dancers took part. Everywhere there were signs with the faces of people murdered by the police. Many people held signs for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. As the march went through the ghetto of West Oakland, people ran up, cheered from their porches, and some joined. At several schools, students ran to the fence, jumping up and down with smiles on their faces and often fists in the air, and often with the support of their teachers.

The Revolution Club contingent was loud and bold with red flags, bullhorns, and “BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less” T-shirts. They marched in front of two large banners of the Revolution newspaper Stolen Lives centerfold and carried another banner, “Humanity Needs Revolution and Communism.” “All night and all day, we’re doing this for Freddie Gray!” was one of their most popular chants.

 

Stacey Rodgers, a ILWU member, told the rally why she made the motion for the union to take a stand: “I made the motion because I, like most of you, have been tired of watching the endless onslaught of police killings across the country. And it hit more to our union as well. What tipped it off was Charleston, South Carolina and, Walter Scott. His family members are members of Local 1422 in Charleston and it was about time that labor stood up.”

Two recent victims of police murder in the Bay Area also had family ties to the ILWU. The family of Pedie Perez marched and spoke at the rally. Pedie was killed on September 14, 2014 by Richmond, California, police. Jeremiah Moore was killed by Vallejo, California, police on October 20, 2012. Jeremiah’s uncle, Eugene Moore, a member of Local 1, spoke at the rally and told Revolution, “It’s so sad that I have to wear this shirt with his picture on it. Every day I cry for him.”

Revolution spoke with a number of Local 10 members about why they were out there. Mark, a Black man in his 30s, said, “We need a movement to facilitate people really caring about people being killed—not only Black people but people in general. It just happens to be that there is a huge rash of Black people being killed. So this is my way of saying I care, so I will be out here.” Mark went on to challenge others to come out and take a stand: “You don’t have to be a member of a progressive organization or union, just be yourself. If you care in your heart then make that move.”

Lou, another union member, spoke to Revolution about how he fears every day that his son will be attacked by the police. As he talked, though, it became clear that his concerns went beyond his immediate family: “It feels good to take a stand. The guy who was killed in South Carolina—his brother was a longshoreman, so it’s kind of like family. But it feels good to take a stand whether it was a brother or not. It’s ridiculous what is going on. The police are supposed to be here to protect you, but it seems like you are the enemy the instant they approach you if you are a Black person.”

The strong stand of the ILWU brought out diverse support. Jennifer, who teaches theology at American Baptist Seminary of the West, was among a group of religious activists. “We’re here because people are dying. The system is broken. We have to come out here to disrupt business as usual and make long-lasting change to the system,” she told Revolution. She went on to say that she believed the church is called on to be “an ally and a co-conspirator” in the struggle.

Carl Dix, speaking for the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, was one of the first speakers to lead off the rally at Oscar Grant Plaza. He gave props to the ILWU for organizing the protest and noted the significance of the action taking place on May Day. Carl asked, “Why does this happen again and again? Why does the system let the cops get away with this again and again? Because they have nothing to offer these Black and Latino youth growing up in the inner city. They have taken the jobs out. They have geared the educational system to fail them. All they have for them are cops patrolling the neighborhoods like occupying armies and courts to railroad them into prison. This is an overall program of oppression that amounts to a slow genocide and we have to act to stop it.”

Carl continued, “I am also a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and I always tell people that it will take revolution, nothing less, to end this horror and all the other horrors. We should live in a world where those entrusted with public security would rather lose their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. We should live in a world where women are treated as full human beings and not punching bags or sex objects. Where immigrants are seen as our sisters and brothers and not subjected to immigration raids that tear families apart. It will take revolution to bring that into being and we in the Revolutionary Communist Party are building a movement for revolution.” Significantly, Carl’s remarks drew very wide and spirited applause from the hundreds at the rally.

Other families whose loved ones had been killed spoke: Idriss Stelley’s mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry; a representative of Alan Blueford’s family; and Oscar Grant’s “Uncle Bobby” and mother, Wanda Johnson. Drawing links between these killings, Uncle Bobby said, “These are not isolated situations. These are not rogue or bad cops. It’s systemic and it goes to the core of their existence. In order to stop this killing we are going to have to tear down this system... If we go back and analyze capitalism and its relationship to racism we’ll understand that this system is working according to how it was designed. We must break up this concrete foundation, pour new cement of real freedom, justice, and equality for all.”

The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa sent a message of support for the May Day Action to the ILWU, which was read at the rally: “Your struggle is our struggle and your pain is our pain,” the letter said. The letter also reported that the metal workers had staged a protest in front of the U.S. consulate in South Africa against police brutality in the U.S.

More than 400 copies of Revolution newspaper, and hundreds of copies of Carl Dix’s statement, “On the Uprising in Baltimore,” were distributed, as revolutionaries and others took out the orientation posted recently online (“What Is It That The Masses Most Fundamentally Must Be Led to Understand and Act On?” A number of DVDs of the Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian were also sold.

 

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