By Steve Stallone

 

            ILWU Northern California members have begun organizing the first West Coast local defense committee for the Charleston longshore workers.

            Five members of International Longshoremen’s Association Locals 1422 and 1771 in Charleston, South Carolina are facing felony “incite to riot” charges punishable by up to five years in prison. The charges resulted from an incident Jan. 20, 2000 when 600 riot-equipped police got into a scuffle with longshore workers picketing a scab loading operation in their jurisdiction. The locals, their presidents and 27 individual members are also being sued for $1.5 million in financial losses the stevedoring company that hired the scabs alleges it lost because of the industrial action. The ILWU has joined the movement, along with longshore unions around the world, civil rights organizations and community groups, demanding the criminal charges and the civil lawsuit be dropped (see SOP on Justice for the Charleston longshore workers, page 7).

            Responding to the call by the Campaign for Workers’ Rights in South Carolina, led by the South Carolina AFL-CIO with the assistance of the national AFL-CIO, members of longshore Local 10, clerks Local 34, longshore Local 54 and the San Francisco Region of the IBU have established themselves as the Northern California Labor Committee in Defense of the Charleston Longshore Workers. So far they have drafted a resolution supporting the Charleston locals and their right to picket, demanding the South Carolina state Attorney General drop the criminal charges and that the stevedoring company end its lawsuit for financial damages. The Committee will be taking the resolution to various Central Labor Councils throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as a way to educate fellow unionists about the issue and to rally union support for the cause and the international day of action being planned for the first day of the criminal trial.

            ILWU International President James Spinosa has already secured the support of the California Labor Federation, the association of all the AFL-CIO unions in the state, representing 2.1 million union workers throughout California. He is in the process of contacting other AFL-CIO state labor federations to get them on board.

            The committee is also planning a forum on the situation in Charleston at the Local 10 hall to educate members about the issue and its importance for longshore workers and the American labor movement and a party at the hall to raise money for the legal defense fund. A campaign to get local and national media coverage for the Charleston struggle, coordinated with the International Communications Department, is in the works as well. The committee is also looking to broaden the base of support for the Charleston struggle beyond the union movement, reaching out to community groups and civil rights and civil liberties organizations.