Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Revisiting the ‘Charleston 5’ Struggle, A Decade Later
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5933/the_charleston_5_struggle_a_decade_later/
Revisiting the ‘Charleston 5’ Struggle, A Decade Later
Monday
May 3
12:10 pm
By Kari Lydersen

It has been a decade since 600 state police were bused in to confront longshoremen in Charleston, S.C., picketing Danish shipping company Nordana’s use of non-union labor. The action kicked off one of the most high-profile and symbolic labor victories in recent history.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 and their supporters are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the struggle – which sparked an international solidarity movement, with workers in Spanish ports refusing to unload Nordana ships and. After a year of house arrest, the "Charleston 5" were cleared of trumped up felony charges.

Union longshoremen around the country continue to mark the Charleston 5 anniversary year in the context of ongoing struggles to protect jobs from automation and shifts in global industry. (The Longshore Workers Coalition will hold its 10th anniversary convention in June, as I mentioned in my post on Friday.) In this light, I talked with Suzan Erem, author (along with E. Paul Durrenberger) of On the Global Waterfront, a gripping chronicle of the Charleston 5 struggle published in 2007.

http://www.counterpunch.org/jw03182010.html
March 18, 2010

A Talk With Charleston Longshore Union Leader Ken Riley

"When You're Dying You Explore Radical Medication"

By JoANN WYPIJEWSKI

Ten years ago a major shipping company based in Denmark called Nordana brought in a nonunion contractor to supplant union workers on the dock in Charleston, South Carolina. Not an uncommon event in the anti-union South of anti-union America, it was extraordinary enough at the port of Charleston that three locals of longshore workers, two of them black and one white, protested together, and one night in January of 2000, police attacked them with clubs, gas and racist slurs.

The next day the state attorney general filed felony riot charges against five members of Locals 1422, 1422A and 1771, calling for “jail, jail and more jail.” They became known as the Charleston Five, and around them was built a dramatic struggle that galvanized dockworkers and others from not only the US but around the world. In the end the workers won: the criminal case was dismissed; Nordana dropped the civil lawsuit it had brought against the locals and entered negotiations. The campaign to free the Charleston Five was relentless, driven as much by a hunger for racial justice and fury at the repressive machinery of the state as by conviction in the rights of labor and by a dose of fear.

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/

Home

SEARCH

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

Share

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.

Labor holds SC rally decade after Charleston 5
http://www.thestate.com/2010/02/25/1174192/labor-holds-sc-rally-decade-after.html

Labor holds SC rally decade after Charleston 5
The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Labor leaders gather to begin an organizing effort to mark the 10th anniversary of an incident at a South Carolina port.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and other leaders hold a forum in Charleston on the economy on Thursday.
In the incident, 10 people were injured when a January 2000 protest on the Charleston docks over nonunion labor turned violent.
Five longshoremen, the Charleston 5, were charged with trespassing. Those charges were dismissed but then-Attorney General Charlie Condon went to a grand jury, which returned felony indictments.
The five were placed under house arrest but the following year pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of engaging in a riot where no weapon was used. Each was fined.

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.

S. Carolina ILA 1422 Workers Reform Their Union, Build Soliarity Ties, Stop Scab Labor, Fight Police Repression & Build International Solidarity
http://www.troublemakershandbook.org/Text/Running Your Local Strategic Planning/ILA 1422 La Botz.htm

Nationwide Campaign to Defend the 'Charleston Five'
SOUTH CAROLINA LONGSHORE WORKERS REFORM THEIR UNION, BUILD COMMUNITY TIES, STOP SCAB LABOR, FIGHT POLICE REPRESSION AND BUILD INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
by Dan La Botz

If we had to choose one story that showed both the kinds of attacks the labor movement faces and the unity and creativity that it takes to beat those attacks, we couldn't do better than to choose International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina.

As we entered the twenty-first century, shipping lines and stevedoring companies supported by the state government attempted to introduce a non-union operation on the Charleston docks. It was not their first attempt. Over a hundred years of workers' self-organization to create strong unions and high-paid jobs was threatened.

The local responded by mobilizing members to shut down the non-union facility. The authorities counterattacked with violence and repression that sent several workers to the hospital or to jail, and eventually indicted five workers on felony charges. Throughout 2000 and 2001 workers and unions around the country came together to defend the "Charleston Five."