June 2000

Police Terror and Economic Injustice:
In South Carolina, the Fight's about more than the Flag

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. <bfletcher4@compuserve.com>

At the Memorial Day national convention of the Coalition of
Black Trade Unionists, a story emerged about an appalling
incident in South Carolina. No, this was not about the
Confederate flag, though it did concern efforts to halt
progress. And, interestingly enough, as important as is
this incident, it has gotten precious little coverage,
particularly when compared to coverage which has gone
to the struggle around the Confederate battle flag.

The Charleston, South Carolina local of the International
Longshoremen's Association (ILA) -- Local 1422 -- a largely
Black local of dockworkers, mounted a protest against an
employer who took the position that, in the words of Local
1422 President Kenneth Riley, "...We are done with the ILA,
we are going with an alternative workforce." Put more
bluntly, the employer -- Nordana -- was going to bring
in non-union workers in order to break the back of the
worker's organization.

The local union initiated meetings about this situation with
Nordana and the Port Authority, but it became clear that not
only was the company not interested in negotiations, but as
the union's president indicated, political enemies in the
government of the state of South Carolina were choosing to
use this as a moment to move against the workers as well.

When the union scheduled a protest, the state mobilized law
enforcement officers in full riot gear. In response to a
peaceful protest by the dockworkers, the police moved in.
Riley's words sum up what happened:

"In less than 20 minutes after going down there [to the
docks -- my note], the law enforcement officers engaged
them. They began their riot march and started to push back.
The confrontation began. In less than 20 minutes we received
a call that the first guy [dockworker] was laying on the
pavement with his head busted open...

"...About the time we had fully established that buffer
[between the dockworkers and the police -- my note] and got
everything under control, one of the officers ran out of
formation, clubbed me on the head and ran back into the
formation. When that happened everything just went wild."

In response to a peaceful protest, the police attacked and,
as a result, several dockworkers were charged, first with
misdemeanor trespassing, and later with inciting to riot.
The story does not end there, however. In addition to this
attack on the workers, and -- according to Riley -- directly
as a result of this outrageous assault, there is legislation
pending in the state to inhibit the right of unions to
collect dues from their members, and separately, legislation
to prohibit any union member from being appointed to any
board, agency or commission in the state of South Carolina!!

So, what do we make of this? South Carolina, as a state, has
prided itself on the fact that union membership is so low --
about 3%. Advertisements, over the years, have been created
to suggest that the low percentage of unionized workers is
a good incentive to investment. So, in one sense what is
transpiring is just more of the same.

However, there is something new under the sun. The hostile
response to these workers -- who happen to be Black -- is
an example of the way that generalized repression in the USA
often begins. In order to undermine workers, you first pick
on Black workers because the assumption that business
regularly makes is that the Black workers will be left
stranded, i.e., that no one will give a damn. Then,
when the business world has achieved its aim, it
starts to spread the practice, and everyone else
comes under the lash.

Sort of like the selective way that the Nazis approached
who would go into concentration camps, and when.

Global capital has been in an all-out war with workers
across the planet, a war which intensified over the last 20
years. The cut-throat competition among these capitalists in
their mad dash for profits and supremacy encourages them to
erode, if not assault, any victories and achievements which
workers have won. This is part of what we see transpiring
in Charleston. The battle between Local 1422 and Nordana is,
more than anything else, a test case to see how unions and
their allies in the community will respond to de-unionization
and an elimination of our democratic right to participate in
the political process.

The terror which the Black workers on Charleston's docks are
facing is both similar and different from the indiscriminate
acts of violence which people of color regularly face at
the hands of law enforcement. It is similar in its random
nature. It matters little that Amadou Diallo was a
law-abiding small scale entrepreneur to the officers who
murdered him. He was a Black man in the wrong place and
with few rights that the officers felt bound to respect.
They did not check his background. They did not check
whether he was a citizen or not. They did not check
whether he had committed any crime.

As much can be said about the assault on the Charleston
dockworkers. The dockworkers were exercising their
constitutional right to freedom of assembly and the right
to concerted activity. Nevertheless, they were Black and,
therefore in the minds of many in law enforcement, a
marginal grouping.

But what is different here is that there was obviously a
well thought-through plan on the part of employers and their
political allies. That the attack on the workers would be
accompanied by a move to disenfranchise union members is
nothing short of incredible. There was no coincidence here.
The objective is to weaken workers in South Carolina even
more than they currently are, and increase the ability of
business to exploit workers unencumbered.

A final thought: what is striking and admirable in
this struggle is the willingness of the workers to resist,
despite the reality of being in an uphill battle. Unionized
dockworkers have been able to achieve a decent living
standard and are an important force in the Charleston
Black community, so the attack on them has additional
and very significant implications for Black South
Carolinians.

So, yes, we should protest the continued presence of the
Confederate battle flag in South Carolina's state capitol
and in the state's flag. But we should also remind those
who believe that the issue of the Confederate flag as being
simply symbolic, that the Confederacy stood for racism and
repression, which sounds a lot like the stand being taken
today by many of South Carolina's corporate and political
elite.

[For more information on the struggle in Charleston or to
offer support to the dockworkers, send inquiries and/or
contributions to: Dockworkers' Defense Fund, 910 Morrison
Drive, Charleston, SC 29403 -- attention Robert J. Ford]

Bill Fletcher
Assistant to the President of the
AFL-CIO, and the National Organizer of the Black Radical
Congress.