Eyewitness Report on Charleston 5 Rally
June 21, 2001
On June 9, some 5,000 marchers
protested in Columbia, South Carolina, the state capital demanding "Free
the Charleston 5!" The Charleston 5 are longshore union members, four black
members of ILA Local 1422 and one white member of ILA Local 1771 who are under
house arrest and face 5 years in jail for picketing in the port of Charleston
last year. Caravans of buses carried demonstrators from Georgia,
Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois and New York. The
march was heavily integrated with many young trade unionists from as far away as
the ports of Seattle and Tacoma and even a few from overseas. Some of the unions
represented were ILA, ILWU, MEBA, IBT, UAW, UMW, mail and transit unions as well
as Labor Federations from Michigan, South Carolina, New York, and Georgia. Many
of the predominantly-black ILA locals from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida
had recently protested in Tallahassee against the police roadblocks excluding
blacks from voting in the presidential elections last November. In the forefront
of the march was the Drill Team from ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco proudly
strutting their stuff.
Just as South Carolina's riot police (SLED) provoked the
melee in the port a year and a half ago by bloodily clubbing the longshore union
president Ken Riley, the State Attorney General Charlie Condon has provoked the
wrath of the whole trade union movement by unjustly targeting the Charleston 5
for exercising their First Amendment rights to protest. He has promised
"jail, jail and more jail" for the longshoremen to protect that
state's anti-union laws. "Good Ole Charlie" who champions the
defeated slaveowners' Confederacy of the past, today fights for corporations to
keep South Carolina "free of unions". Behind him are Democratic
Governor Jim Hodges, who had Riley's nomination to the State Ports Authority
withdrawn after pressure from big business, and right-wing President Bush with
his anti-labor agenda. Provocations are nothing new to the state of South
Carolina. Confederate troops there started the Civil War by firing on the
Union's Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor. And as the Union troops won
that civil war, the union movement will win this class war.
Unlike in the port of Charleston, police gave protesters
a wide berth. However, one incident rattled nerves at the beginning of the march
when police, in an unprecedented move, confiscated the decorative cargo hooks
which ILWU Local 10's Drill Team uses as part of its longshore marching regalia.
The uniformed Drill Team wore their traditional black and white striped hickory
shirts, black Frisco jeans and white West Coast Stetson caps. Despite the
hot and muggy weather the thousands of animated demonstrators marched in a
disciplined manner to the capitol. There, an eerie pall was cast over the
demonstration with the Confederate flag flying overhead. Police sharpshooters
perched on the roof of the capitol building were reportedly there to shoot
anyone trying to bring down the flag of slavery.
The march and rally were organized by the South Carolina
AFL-CIO and the Progressive Network. Speakers included preachers, politicians,
celebrities, leaders of black organizations and union officials. Unfortunately,
not read from the podium was a message of solidarity from black political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal languishing on Pennsylvania's death row: "I
support the Charleston longshoremen's fight for freedom to protest free from
state violation and judicial repression. All working people should unite
behind this union fight in defense of the First Amendment right to assembly and
protest and to defend the right to fight for compliance with a broken shattered
contract." Speaking for organized labor were AFL-CIO Executive Vice
President Linda Chavez-Thompson, ILWU's International President Jim Spinosa and
Vice President Bob McEllrath, ILA President John Bowers and Cecil Roberts from
the Mineworkers' Union. It was Bowers' first public appearance in support
of the Charleston 5 since the police attack, hypocritically saying he would go
to jail with the Charleston 5 if he had to. In response to his uninspiring
speech, rank and file ILA and ILWU longshoremen loudly chanted for several
minutes, "Shut the ports down!". Jim Spinosa spoke and said ILWU
would do whatever the Charleston longshore union asked.
Swedish Dockworkers' Union President Bjorn Borg, of the
International Dockworkers' Council (IDC) which grew out of the militant
Liverpool dockers' struggle, announced that there would be a day of solidarity
action on docks around the world. It was the IDC affiliate in Spain, the
Coordinadora, which took action against the Danish Nordana shipping line which
helped win a contract for the Charleston longshore unions. In a history-making
step the Longshore Division of the ILWU voted for an international day of action
on the first day of the trial and is calling on the ILA to join us in shutting
down both coasts. The trial now appears to be set for the end of August.
This march and rally was an important, initial mass
action by labor in defense of the Charleston 5. More important was the
meeting of rank-and-file longshoremen from both coasts. We began to discuss our
common problems: attacks from global shipowners like Nordana which sparked the
Charleston struggle, privatization, non-union dock operations, especially in the
East and Gulf Coast ports. Like long lost brothers, we embraced and talked
seriously about the next step: organizing the first-ever nationwide industrial
action, not for a contract, but for a principle-- the fundamental right of labor
to picket.
Working longshoremen on both coasts agreed, "An Injury to One Is an
Injury to All!"
Jack Heyman #8780
(labor
donated)