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AFL-CIO VP Calls For Massive Jobs Bill At Charleston 5 Ten Year Commemoration
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/feb/26/union-calls-for-massive-jobs-bill/

Union calls for massive jobs bill
AFL-CIO officer tells local workers about drive to put 'Main Street' back to work

BY WARREN WISE
The Post and Courier
Friday, February 26, 2010

America needs to get back to work and a new federal jobs bill that costs billions of dollars will do just that.

That's what a top organized labor official told a union-friendly audience at the International Longshoremen's Association headquarters in Charleston on Thursday during a two-day meeting to recognize and celebrate their struggles and victories.

Arlene Holt Baker, AFL-CIO executive vice president, said the group is launching a national grass-roots campaign this week to put 15 million unemployed Americans back to work by stressing the need for Congress to pass a new jobs bill.

The U.S. Senate, she said, has passed a jobs bill for $15 billion with some tax breaks for businesses.

"It's not big enough or bold enough to put millions of Americans back to work," Baker said. "We need a jobs program, a massive jobs program. Not just here in South Carolina, but in every city and every state in our country."

AFL-CIO VP Holt Baker Speaks At Charleston Five 10th Anniversary
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/02/26/holt-baker-we-have-to-be-bold-to-turn-economy-around/

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Holt Baker: ‘We Have to Be Bold to Turn Economy Around’

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Stacey Clark tells a South Carolina town hall meeting what life is like when you’re unemployed.

Steve Stallone is president of International Labor Communications Association and secretary/editor of the California Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521. Evelina Alarcon is chair of the Cesar Chavez National Holiday campaign. They are reporting from the 10-year commemoration of the free the Charleston Five campaign.

Even in this tough economy with its high unemployment, “Now is not the time to retreat,” AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told a town hall meeting in Charleston, S.C., yesterday. She urged unionists and activists “not to back down” on workers’ major goals: a good jobs program, theEmployee Free Choice Act and health care reform.

The town hall meeting was part of a larger 10-year anniversary commemoration of the victory to free the Charleston Five, members of the Longshoremen (ILA), who were arrested and charged with conspiracy to riot after state police attacked their picket line. A global movement to free them eventually led to the charges being dropped.

Charleston Five ILWU Dispatcher Stories and Videos From Labor Video Project

http://ilcaonline.org/content/ilwu-dispatcher-stories-charleston-five

Remarks by Kenneth Riley to the ILWU Longshore Caucus March 1, 2000
Picketing Longshore workers face felony charges, jail ILWU Dispatcher, October 2000
First Charleston defense committee set up on West Coast ILWU Dispatcher, November 2000
Free the Charleston 5 ILWU Dispatcher, November 2000
Support grows for Charleston Longshore Workers ILWU Dispatcher, January 2001
Charleston 5 campaign builds momentum ILWU Dispatcher, February 2001
ILWU and ILA stand together ILWU Dispatcher, March 2001
Charleston Five campaign spreads ILWU Dispatcher, April 2001
March on South Carolina capitol ILWU Dispatcher, April 2001
Charleston Five trial looms ILWU Dispatcher, May 2001
The labor movement stands with the Charleston Five ILWU Dispatcher, June 2001
Good news, bad news ILWU Dispatcher, July 2001
International dockworkers' conference focuses on solidarity ILWU Dispatcher, July 2001
International dockworkers' statement of solidarity ILWU Dispatcher, July 2001
Charleston Five trial date set ILWU Dispatcher, September 2001
Prosecution folds, offers plea bargain ILWU Dispatcher, October 2001

SFLC Resolution in Commemoration of the 10-Year Anniversary of the Charleston 5 and in Solidarity with the “Jobs with Rights Now” Campaign in the South

http://www.sflaborcouncil.org/ViewUpload/492

Resolution in Commemoration of the 10-Year Anniversary of the Charleston 5 and in Solidarity
with the “Jobs with Rights Now” Campaign in the South

Whereas, on the night of January 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 firm; and

Whereas, 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 by police, including Local 1422 president Ken Riley; and

Whereas, living up to the ugly legacy of the Old South, the right wing Republican State Attorney
General Charles Conon, 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

The Charleston Five--10 Years Later
http://ilcaonline.org/content/charleston-five-10-years-later

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.

Charleston 5 10th Anniversary Victory Celebration & Jobs with Rights Now Campaign

---
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
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.

By Yvonne Martinez‚ May 05‚ 2008 - Originally Published at beyondchron.org

Say it ain’t so. The City of Oakland issues May Day threats of suspension to union workers.

City of Oakland SEIU Local 1021 union members have filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges against the City of Oakland citing a long list of labor abuses including threatened disciplinary action against union members for their participation at a May Day rally in front of Oakland City Hall.

While ships were docked up and down the California Coast in a day-long ILWU protest against the War in Iraq, City of Oakland union members as part of a labor coalition that includes the City’s Firefighters, SEIU Local 1021, SEIU Local 1877, IBEW, and IFTE rallied to commemorate May Day and to protest labor abuses by the City of Oakland.

500 members of the four locals and their supporters rallied at City Hall in a first ever May Day Unity rally as they face simultaneous contract expiration dates this June.

City of Oakland, SEIU 1021 union members formed a lunchtime convoy of City trucks and vehicles at the May Day rally in front of City Hall, to both honor May Day as part of a day long West Coast Port shut down and to demonstrate concern about contentious City of Oakland labor contract talks.

South Carolina Primary Colors: Black and White?

By Greg Palast

27/01/08 "ICH

" -- - South Carolina 2000: Six hundred police in riot gear facing a few dozen angry-as-hell workers on the docks of Charleston. In the darkness, rocks, clubs and blood fly. The cops beat the crap out of the protesters. Of course, it's the union men who are arrested for conspiracy to riot. And of course, of the five men handcuffed, four are Black. The prosecutor: a White, Bible-thumping Attorney General running for Governor. The result: a state ripped in half - White versus Black.

South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity.

The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's an awfully good
reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman faced Southern justice.