TWSC Statement of Solidarity With Doro-Chiba Against Raid By Japanese Police Forces During G-8 Meeting

The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee TWSC protests the vicious assault on the offices and members of Doro-Chiba union on July 4, 2008. Using false pretenses, the Japanese police forces were alledgedly looking for evidence of illegal activity in the protest against the G-8 conference in Japan. This effort to intimidate and silence those unions, workers organizations and many others who are protesting this governmental meeting is a flagrant violation of democratic rights. The record of the G-8 is a history of trampling on the rights of working people not only in the under-developed world but in the more industrialized countries. This organization which is fundamentally a tool of the United States and the multi-nationals which run it has pushed deregulation, privatization and the destruction of democratic rights for working people. The world drive by the G-8 and other organizations representing the billionaires to destroy the labor movement through privatization, deregulation and other union busting policies must be stopped. These neo-liberalism policies have been opposed by US workers including the shutdown of all West Coast ports by the ILWU to protest the November 1999 meeting of the WTO. The ILWU also joined with many other protesters.

Anti-G8/Railroad Workers Union Doro-Chiba Protesters Denounce Tokyo Police Ban Of 6/29 Demonstration

June 27 2008

On June 27 the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission decided to ban the demonstration in front of Shibuya station planned on June 29 as a part of Anti-G8 Summit Workers’ National Rally against war, poverty, unemployment and privatization. (The application of the demonstration with a course passing in front of Shibuya railway station (downtown Tokyo) had been filed by the Organizing Committee of the Anti-G8 Summit Rally to the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission.) This ban is an impermissible brutal crackdown by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on the movement to oppose the G8 Summit.

The Organizing Committee of the Anti-G8 Summit Rally denounce this outrageous measure and declare our firm determination to carry out the demonstration as was planned in front of Shibuya station in defiance of the police ban.

The streets running in front of Shibuya station are usually open for marches and demonstrations of every kind and are regarded as the most popular course. The only reason given by the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Committee to ban the demonstration is that it could provoke disturbance. We shall never admit the right of workers to demonstrate to be regulated and infringed in such way.

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2290

News online

Tehran bus union man arrested in new attack

25 June 2008

The ITF has expressed acute concern following the arrest yesterday of Gholamreza Gholamhosseini, another member of its Iranian bus affiliate.

Gholamhosseini, a member of the Vahed Syndicate Executive Board
was arrested by police in Tehran while visiting Shirodi Stadium, where an event to mark Iran’s Women's Day was taking place. The gathering was sponsored by the municipality of Tehran and by the bus company, Sherkat Vahed.

Security personnel prevented Gholamhosseini from entering the stadium; police then apprehended him and took him to Gisha Police Station.

Today, June 25th, Judge Hassan Dehghan Dehnavi, who is also involved in the case of the union’s General Secretary Mansour Osanloo, ordered Gholamhosseini’s detention in Evin prison. Hassan Dehghan Dehnavi declared that Gholamhosseini, who is not charged with any crime, should be detained for an indefinite period whilst his case is investigated.

Gholamhosseini had been dismissed from the company for taking part in the strike action of January 2006. Although the court has ordered his reinstatement, the company is refusing to comply.

BBC NEWS, Friday, 18 April 2008

A Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe is reported to have left the South African port of Durban four days after failing to unload.

Earlier, a South African judge ruled that the cargo of rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and ammunition could not be transported overland.

Human rights groups had petitioned for a block on the arms and dockers had refused to unload the shipment.

Some fear Zimbabwe will use the arms to repress political opposition.

The country has yet to publish the results of its presidential election on 29 March, which the MDC opposition says was won outright by its candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.

President Robert Mugabe denounced the opposition on Friday in his first speech since the election, saying "thieves" were trying to steal the country.

Incommunicado

According to the South African news agency Sapa, the ship upped anchor between 1800 (1600 GMT) and 1900 (1700 GMT).

The ship's master, who earlier identified himself as Captain Sunaijun, could not be reached by telephone, the agency added, quoting anonymous sources.

By Philippe Naughton, and Jane Macartney in Beijing - The Times (of London), April 18, 2008

South African dockers are refusing to unload a Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tonnes of small arms destined for Zimbabwe

The arms, including three million rounds of ammunition suitable for AK47s and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, were ordered by the Zimbabwean military at the time of the March 29 election – which Britain and other Western powers have accused Robert Mugabe of trying to rig

The arms arrived at Durban, South Africa, on Wednesday aboard the Chinese-owned An Yue Jiang and must be taken by road to landlocked Zimbabwe, where the Government has been accused of arming rural militias before a possible run-off vote for the presidency. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has even accused Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) of preparing for a "war" against the people

January Masilela, the South African Defence Secretary, said yesterday that the shipment had been approved this week by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), which he chairs. "This is a normal transaction between two sovereign states and we don't have to interfere," he said

From The Matier and Ross report, November 28, 2007 - San Francisco Chronicle

Railroad reversal: Two years after Amtrak conductor Rebecca Gettleman was fired for injuring herself while keeping a passenger from stumbling down the train stairs, a federal arbitration panel has ordered her reinstated with back pay.

As we reported last year, Gettleman's Orwellian adventure began in August 2005 when she wrenched her right arm while preventing a drunken traveler from falling while getting off the train at the Amtrak station in Emeryville.

Faster than you can yell, "All aboard!" she was brought up on Railroad Labor Act safety charges - namely, allowing herself to get hurt helping the passenger.

Her Amtrak bosses wrote her a letter saying she had violated a rule that says, "Employees must be careful to prevent injuring themselves or others. They must be alert and attentive when performing their duties and plan their work to avoid injury."

By Jack Heyman - Nov. 12, 2007

In an unprecedented dictatorial move, the federal government has stopped Local 10 from holding union elections. For 70 years the federal government has tried but was never able to run our elections. How is that possible for such a democratic and militant union? Because two disgruntled members who were disqualified by our Constitution from running for office in 2005 and 2006, they went to the Department of Labor with their complaints. Rather than take their case to the membership for a democratic vote through a Constitutional amendment, they brought in the feds.

On Nov. 4, 2007, federal judge Vaughn Walker ordered the elections canceled and a Department of Labor-supervised election in its place. Is it an accident if the feds prevent the Local 10 membership from electing officers and delegates to the Contract Caucus which will determine our contract demands and negotiators? During the last contract negotiations, the Bush administration threatened to occupy the West Coast docks with troops if there were any job actions. Then after the employers, PMA, locked us out, Bush forced us back to work under the slave-labor Taft-Hartley Act. That’s the class nature of the government, pure and simple—to front for the employers, to do their dirty work.

Dear Friends,

Taxi workers are going out on our third strike! Support the New York Taxi Workers Alliance as we prepare for our upcoming October 22nd 24-hour Strike and 12noon demonstration at TLC Headquarters at 40 Rector St. to protest the GPS tracking, and to demand the right to health care, a retirement pension, and union recognition for all drivers

This is a historic moment in our struggle for justice and equity for 43,000 license holders. We have been organizing without a strike fund, mandatory membership and dues, operational support or collective bargaining which would require the bosses to come to the table and negotiate in good faith. Our strikes have become the building blocks to an independent union. We're looking for volunteers of all types, whether you have lots of time or only a little, whether you can help for months or just one day. Volunteer to hand out fliers, make phone calls to update our members, help us keep our office running smoothly, and more

For more information or to sign-up to volunteer

please contact Kavita Mehra at kavitamehra@gmail.com

You can reach New York Taxi Workers Alliance at 212-627-5248

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has refused to listen to the tens of thousands of strikers of September who sacrificed not only two days hard-earned income, but operating expenses which drivers pay up front to the bosses to lease the taxi and medallion for the shift. Rather than health care, retirement pension, an 8-hour work day or livable income, the Taxi and Limousine Commission would rather require costly equipment to track drivers and force riders to listen to ads on TV monitors in the backseat. The monitors heat up the partition against the driver's back for 12 hours. Drivers will also lose 5% of the fare, including tolls and tips, on every credit card transaction

It was a sunny day, right after lunch, when all hell broke loose for two longshoremen, sitting in their car, about to return to work.

Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison were approached by private security guards who demanded to search their vehicle.

The men asked to see the maritime security (or MARSEC) regulations, and one of them phoned the local business agent to try to clear up the matter.

Rebuffed at their search attempt, and angry that the two men didn't immediately acquiesce in this illegal and unwarranted search, the security guards called the West Sacramento cops.

While on the phone, both men were attacked, assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed by the cops, without provocation, and charged with trespassing.

Trespassing -- at the job! Previously, the guys showed their Port ID, and the driver showed his driver's license!

They were also charged with resisting arrest!

If these were just average folks, perhaps it never would've made the news; but they were union members of the ILWU, the historically militant International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10.

Local 10 didn't take this lying down. Along with Local 34, the ILWU has called for union protests against this naked, unprovoked brutality.