By Steven T. Jones and Amanda Witherell - San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 7, 2008

Workers, students, immigrants, and antiwar activists came together in historic fashion on May Day in San Francisco, but it was hard to tell from the next day's mainstream media coverage, which adopted its usual cynical view of the growing movement to end the war in Iraq.

Sure, there were articles in newspapers from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times about how the International Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down all 29 West Coast ports for the day, with far more than 10,000 workers defying both their employers and the national union leadership to skip work.

But each article missed the main point: this was the first time in American history that such a massive job action was called to protest a war.

"In this country, dock workers have never stopped work to stop a war," Jack Heyman, the ILWU executive board member and Oakland Port worker who spearheaded the effort, told the Guardian.

OEA Press Conference on ILWU May Day Action Against War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8lwKTguoo

On 4/29/2008, the Oakland Education Association held a Press Conference supporting the ILWU May Day Action Against the war. Speakers from UBC CWA UPTE, UTU 1740 and ILWU Local 10 rank and file leader Jack Heyman. Also joining the press conference was Cindy Sheehan who is running against Nancy Pelosi for Congress.

http://maydayilwu.googlepages.com/home

The Labor Video Project produces a bi-monthly labor tv show and also produces documentaries about working people and labor.
Labor Video Project
P.O. Box 720027
San Francisco, CA 94172
(415)282-1908
lvpsf(at)labornet.org

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/26/BUC610C2HA.DTL

Clash ahead over longshore union war protest
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union are proceeding with plans for a work stoppage at 29 West Coast ports on May 1 to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that union leadership has withdrawn its request to waterfront employers that they accommodate closure of the ports.

Planning for the protest began in February when the Longshore Caucus, the highest decision-making body for the 25,000 members of the longshore division within the ILWU, overwhelmingly approved a resolution in support of a day of protest.

According to its contract, the ILWU is entitled to schedule a "stop-work meeting" each month to discuss union business. It must give adequate advance notice to employers, who are represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, a group of shipowners, stevedore companies and terminal operators that negotiates labor contracts on their behalf.

The PMA routinely grants these requests, but only for meetings that are to be held during the second work shift, beginning in the evening. For the war protest, the ILWU said it wanted stop-work time during the day, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the busiest cargo-handling shift of the day.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080421185144522C574792

Independent Newspapers 21/4/2008

Zim arms ship 'not in Namibia'

April 21 2008 at 07:55PM

There has been no request by a Chinese ship carrying arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe to dock in either of Namibia's two ports, Namibian port authorities said on Monday.

Wessels Feris, acting manager for marketing and strategic business development at Namport, which operates both the ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz, said: "We have not had any request and there is no indication that she will come here."

The An Yue Jiang lifted its anchor off Durban on Friday night moments after the Durban High Court ordered it to dock in Durban and offload its controversial cargo into the custody of the sheriff of Durban.

On Monday afternoon, South African defence ministry spokesman Themba Gadebe said: "The SA National Defence Force is updated on regular basis with regard to the ship's movement through its maritime intelligence sources, and we will follow the best legal course of action should we be requested to act against the ship."

He would not say where the ship was located, except to say that earlier on Monday it was situated off the west coast of South Africa.

(http://www.cft.org/home_news/conv08adoptedres.pdf, page 52)

Late R E SO L U T IO N 32

May 1st Resolution

Submitted by Yvette Felarca, Berkeley Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1078 Committee Socio-Political

Be it resolved that the CFT will publicly support state-wide and local actions on May 1st against the war and in support of immigrant rights, including the ILWU’s port-wide, West Coast shutdown, marches, boycotts, and other mobilizations of labor, community, and student organizations.

Ship with arms for Zim flees Durban after court ruling

Durban, South Africa

19 April 2008 07:49

A ship that was carrying weapons and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe lifted
anchor and sailed from Durban less than an hour after the Durban High Court
ordered that its controversial cargo cannot be transported across South
Africa to that country.

The An Yue Jiang lifted anchor between 6pm and 7pm on Friday evening.

Several sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the
ship had set sail from the outer anchorage off the port of Durban, where it
had been at anchor since at least Monday.

The ship's master, who identified himself as Captain Sunaijun, told the
South African Press Association by radio phone on Friday night: "I am
awaiting orders from my owner."

He refused to answer any other questions.

It was not immediately known where the vessel, owned by Chinese state-owned
company Cosco Group, was headed.

Nicole Fritz, the director of the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC),
said she had been informed that as the sheriff of the Durban High Court
approached the vessel, it lifted anchor and began sailing.

She said that if the ship went to Mozambique, the SALC would seek similar

On Tuesday, February 12th, representatives from hundreds of Native American nations participated in a ceremonial and cultural commencement for the Longest Walk 2, the 30-year anniversary of the historic 1978 Longest Walk. More than two hundred participants of the Longest Walk 2 have embarked on a five-month long trans-continental journey on foot from San Francisco. The walk will arrive in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008, bringing attention to issues of environmental injustice, protection of sacred sites, cultural survival, youth empowerment, and eroding Native American rights.

Members of the IBU and ILWU local 6 rallied with the walkers in Berkeley calling for the protection of a sacred site slated for development by UC Berkeley and for the return of ancestral remains from the university. Over a year ago many of the longest walk organizers, including the International Indian Treaty Council and members of The American Indian Movement, honored 2 IBU picket lines at Alcatraz Cruises. Since then IBU and ILWU members have been working closely with activists in the Native community to further build relationships and mutual aid for each other's struggles. Recent support has included fundraising to help save an Oakland based Native American community center, attending panel discussions on union organizing in Native communities and supporting the recent, successful, organizing drive at The Native American Health Centers.

In 1987, when the National Railways had been privatized, 1047 Japanese National Railways Workers were fired. Since then, they have been struggling for withdrawal of their discharge.

The division and privatization of the National Railways was the most far-reaching union-busting and the largest mass firing after World War II. From 1981, when the privatization plan had been launched under the guise of "Administrative and Fiscal Reform," until the accomplishment of the privatization, 200,000 National Railways workers were forced to leave their jobs; union-busting became harsher and harsher in this period.