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.