A Call to Remember the Charleston Five--10 Years Later
Commemorating the Struggle, Celebrating the Victory, Charting the Future
February 25 & 26, 2010
Charleston, South Carolina
The Charleston Five.
On the night of Jan. 19, 2000, South Carolina law enforcement agencies teamed up to send a military style police force of 600 to attack a picket line of longshoremen at the port of Charleston who were defending their union jobs against Nordana, a Danish shipping line. The police brutality against International Longshoremen Association Local 1422, a 98 percent African American local, became a bloody war scene, with many workers injured and hospitalized, including Local 1422 President Ken Riley.
Living up to the ugly legacy of the Old South, the right-wing Republican State Attorney General, Charles Condon, the former chairman of the George W. Bush for President campaign in South Carolina, turned reality on its head and charged five longshoremen, four black and one white, with conspiracy to riot felonies. A global and national solidarity movement to Free the Charleston 5 arose in response and became one of the most significant victories of our time.
That victory provides valuable lessons for the challenges we face today. United labor/community power, strategic action, and global solidarity were the components of the movement that beat back some of the most reactionary forces of the present day.
International Longshoremen’s Association Charleston Locals, the South Carolina AFL-CIO and the Charleston Central Labor Council are hosting the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of this historic victory. This unique two-day event on Feb. 25 and 26, 2010 will have participation from those leaders and activists who guaranteed the victory, including dockworkers from around the world, the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the national AFL-CIO. The celebration will focus on the lessons we can draw from this victory for meeting the challenges facing working people around the globe, and most particularly in South Carolina and the South, where the corporate strategy to create jobs without unions threatens the standard of living of all working families across America.
The celebration with prominent speakers, socializing and tools for organizing will also announce a new campaign for the South that will be based in South Carolina.
Jobs with Rights Now! From the Charleston 5 to Organizing the South Today
The “Jobs with Rights Now” campaign will be unveiled at the 10th Anniversary celebration. The region is the target of a dangerous anti-worker corporate drive. Like the attack on Local 1422, the goal is to rid the South of union labor altogether. Corporations view the South as the weak link where low wages and benefits will increase their profit margin. As a consequence, similar to Third World nations, the South has become a corporate location of choice. While high levels of unemployment make new jobs a necessity here, new jobs without unions is a road to economic disaster with a clear impact on the standard of living across the nation. That is why defending and organizing workers in the South benefits every region.
Our campaign aims to unite labor in the South with all its allies to organize workers into unions and defend their rights to living with good benefits. That includes winning support in the South for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and the AFL-CIO’s Five-Point Plan to create and save jobs.
As was evident in the Charleston 5 victory and the 2008 elections, courageous men and women in the South are fighting back and working for change. But as with the Charleston 5 battle, we need your solidarity. Boeing’s recent appearance in Charleston with new jobs immediately led to a pressure campaign resulting in the decertification of the union. That is the corporate plan. We need your help to empower ours.
You can help commemorate the Charleston 5 victory and build a “Jobs with Rights” South by your solidarity and contributions. Our campaign requires financial assistance. We also need resolutions of support from your union, organization, Church, City Council or State Legislature.
Send your donations to:
Jobs with Rights Now!
c/o ILA Local 1422
1142 Morrison Drive
Charleston, SC 29403
Thank you in advance for your support,
In solidarity,
Ken Riley, President, ILA Local 1422
Donna DeWitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO
Erin McKee, President, Charleston CLC
A sample resolution for your union, central labor body and/or supporting organization in support of the the Charleston celebration and the "Jobs with Rights Now!" campaign can be found here.
Download and print a flyer to help spread the word about the Commemoration and the launch of this important campaign.
See the agenda for the Feb. 26 full day of celebration.
