A KPFA 94.1 on the spot interview of Toussaint DuBois of Labor, Black and Brown perspective on police brutality and state repression and how to fight it.
Do Something.
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Greetings all,
Here is an article I wrote describing the movements of the ILWU,OEA, SEIU and Wisconsin Workers(see ILWU, OEA, SEIU- SHUT THE CITY DOWN! WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!? GET IT? THEN GET IT). Times are fast moving and the realities of having conservative a bureaucracy lead, mislead misdirect and demobilize essential struggle are ever present. The latest on the ILWU is that the more conservative elements of the ILWU Bureaucracy are backpedaling the unions rank and file by seeking to replace a port shut-down with a Wisconsin Flag raising show of “solidarity.” “Solidarity” such as this must be seen as a demobilization, a sign of weakness in the so-called leadership to fight for their own union brothers interests. I repeat, this is the bureaucracy pushing and perpetrating this the hardest, not the rank and file, although some of the rank and file may see this as enough of type of “solidarity.” So what type of message and what type of power is Wisconsin Flag raising amount to? Paper solidarity. Akin to watching a friend being beaten from the hands of the master but here one stands as an onlooker and does nothing but whisper in protest. We must understand that as Frederick Douglas said “power does not concede anything without a demand.” Nor without a fight either.
The demands of the most righteous people of the bay area was Justice for Oscar Grant! On October 23rd 2010 Longshoreman voted to shut down key ports in the Bay Area, for Oscar Grant! And they did! This was a clarion call to defend black people in particular, which they should be commended for. The problem is Longshoremen should not be the only ones doing this type of selfless act. In fact, acts such as these should be broadened to the whole of us working class people. We must support each other through many various selfless acts in defense of all oppressed people, all those under whole host of vicious attacks upon us! We are labor, and much now very rich slaves. Look abroad to the terror the U.S. inflicts upon Iraqis, Afghanis, and now Libyans. Look abroad to the sweatshop labor that fixes our fine outfits. They call it outsourcing, some call it globalization. I call it the same damn game rulers been playin, since before 1492! Imperialism, Colonialism! What have you people are dying don’t you see it! We must all do something.
Support Wisconsin workers not with paper, not with some dandy legislation, but with power. Your power to organize and turn the off switch on all acts of aggression and oppression. Support Longshoreman! And if not for anything or anybody else support yourself and do something, because if not, your next. Do you wish to be a slave anymore?
You might think you’re working for yourself but you’re still not a master, and if you are a master then I suggest you change professions and get with us.
We all got to eat we all got to support our families but we all got to do something. Don’t go to work, strike. And if you’re not ready to take a cut in pay then I suggest you get with us and find a way. There is power in numbers and unity, because the burden is to great for but one of us to handle. The plan of action is if you feel you can’t go out on strike get with us and we’ll devise a plan.
Monday April 4, 2011,
10:30am OEA sitin at the 12th and Broadway Wells Fargo.
11:45am Alameda Labor Council Rally at City Center.
6:00pm Labor, Black and Brown Shut the City Down at Laney College Cafeteria in Oakland
Toussaint aka LiberationPoet
also known with Labor, Black and Brown, Shut the city down!
For a Bay Area Wide General Strike. For the world workers to unite.
-Labor, Black and Brown for justice for Oscar Grant, against police brutality and state repression committee.
ILWU, OEA, SEIU- SHUT THE CITY DOWN! WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!? GET IT? THEN GET IT.
April 4, 2011! Is it too late?!?
Labor, Black and Brown- Shut the City Down!
Wisconsin Workers gather en mass against Governor Walker’s move to break collective bargaining!
ILWU Local 10 Rank and file members vote to shut down the Port of Oakland for 24 hours Monday April 4, 2011! Coordination act of solidarity for workers in Wisconsin. Pacific Maritime Association(the employers) target ILWU’s hiring hall, a crucial element to the power of longshoremen.
OEA teachers call a sit-in occupation of the 12th and Broadway Wells Fargo Bank, Monday April 4, 2011 at 10:30am!
The ILWU, SEIU and OEA Monday April 4, 2011 at 11:45 am at City Center Oakland then march to Wells Fargo Bank. This rally initiated by Alameda Labor Council.
Labor, Black and Brown for Justice for Oscar Grant against police brutality and state repression committee calls all to organize to shut the city down! Meeting at Laney College Cafeteria at 6:00 pm Monday April 4, 2011!
Key OEA members call protest against Wells Fargo against the trillions dollar bank bailouts, while pointing out budget cuts in education. Joining with Local 10 Longshoremen as part of a Bay Area wide labor fist.
Will it broaden to a Black and Brown Labor Fist? A fist of all Oppressed and exploited? Yes, white people too! Lol. Read on. Ask how and why this can and should be done.
“A collection of prominent progressive groups and unions, including MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union, are working to organize rallies in every state capital at noon local time on Saturday. The demonstrations, organizers said, are to show solidarity with union workers in Wisconsin and to protest the cuts to wages and public services proposed by Republican governors throughout the country.” reports Colorado.Indymedia.org.
As of this Saturday evening April 2, 2011, organizers ask, is it too late? Directing our attention to the reality that mobilization to support Wisconsin workers in their struggle has been ill prepared, this question has been asked. Arming ourselves with the understanding that their struggle is our struggle, that an attack on unions in another state is an attack on workers everywhere, is crucial. Where unions aren’t safe from attack all workers and oppressed face attacks. The hard fought gain of collective bargaining is a gain that must be fought for.
“The term “collective bargaining” was first used in 1891 by economic theorist Beatrice Webb.[2] However, collective negotiations and agreements had existed since the rise of trade unions during the nineteenth century.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Are we to roll back to labor conditions unseen since before the turn of the century? To answer that I will point to what type of struggles it took to even gain such rights in the first place.
“In October 1884, a convention held by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions unanimously set May 1, 1886, as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become standard.[9] As the chosen date approached, U.S. labor unions prepared for a general strik e in support of the eight-hour day.[10]” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Clearly it took the minimum of general strikes for the eight hour day to make such elemental strides towards human dignity. The eight hour day Legislation became a handhold for labor, which now Governor’s of the likes of Walker are trying to erode. When will we seize the grip of our own power instead of the handholds offered by this current system of capitalist government? This they threaten to take away at a moments notice. Why must anybody have to bargain for rights? Or do we think human dignity a privilege?
“The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square[3] in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers, mostly from friendly fire, and an unknown number of civilians.[4][5] In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four men were convicted and executed, and one committed suicide in prison, although the prosecution conceded none of the defendants had thrown the bomb.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Who threw the bomb? Who can say for certain? It could have been an agent provocateur, it could have been a policeman, yet none of the defendants could be identified and even so the defendants were persecuted. Clearly the capitalist state was not interested in justice only in unjustly incriminating the 8 anarchists, whose ideology seeks to end exploitation of the working class. Can we then draw the inference that the capitalist state was exercising a persecution and fear-mongering upon the working class in general?
I ask now is the working class to let these gains roll back?
“The Port does 30 billion dollars a year and charges zero rent to international shippers. We (the OEA) approached Golden West and other corporate entities in Oakland and told them as major employers that they have a responsibility to prepare Oakland youth so they are job ready. We called the $68 billion dollar Golden West just before they were bought by Wachovia. We’re now asking Wells Fargo who acquired Wachovia and received $fifty billion, half cash and half tax credits, to step up. Those tax credits allowed them to buy Wachovia. The major banks gave their executives 140 billion in combination salaries and bonuses . That figure happens to equal the total amount of state debt for all fifty states! It’s tragic and it’s criminal.” This from a report by Oakland Post Online.
According to Bloomberg.com totals for the bank bailout of 2009 was 11.6 trillion U.S. Dollars! … On behalf of the tax payers…! Count it $11,600,000,000,000. Is this robbery? In light of this, does the OEA have extremely moderate demands? Should we (speaking to the working class poor) collectively not be asking these questions? Joan Baez, where have all the flowers gone? And, where has all the money gone?
While Oscar Grant lay face down on the ground shot in the back, and all our young black men face daily police attack. Our brown people under the eye and boot of la migra. Our beautiful women destroyed inside and out, a man’s hand and paraded on society’s bandstand. Working class people exploited at home and abroad no matter what color or sex. Capitalism has, for a long time standing been at the reigns of our oppression. Therefore, we must unite as a single fist. Build a struggle based on our common interests. Where ever there is oppression there be found a common ally.
Is it too late? The reality is whether or not we have massive mobilization or not that day, our efforts must continue and become ever more thorough going. The work to build on a more massive and deep basis depends on our ability to organize ourselves and see that it is not just about a single action to change things, a protest, rally or march. It is in our ability to maintain the work that needs to be done, regather, regroup and rearm. To continue. To be continued… It is not to late.
Labor, Black and Brown- Shut the city down!
Keepin it lit… Resolutions on the Latest Struggles
San Francisco Labor Council Resolution Adopted unanimously on Nov. 8, 2010
Resolution Condemning Police Attack on Free Speech & Assembly following Oscar Grant Rally
Whereas, on Friday November 5, former BART cop Johannes Mehserle was given a jail sentence of 2 years for the ‘involuntary manslaughter’ of Oscar Grant. Subtracting time served and ‘good behavior’, Mehserle may be back on the streets in as little as 7 months; and
Whereas, the organizers of a November 5th Rally and Gathering in Frank Ogawa Plaza to honor Oscar Grant and Respond to the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, were refused a permit for an organized march after the rally to an indoor gathering at DeFremery Park; and
Whereas, after the rally many hundreds of community members spontaneously started marching toward Fruitvale BART, the site of Oscar Grant’s murder, and after the cops sealed off an entire city block, police did not allow people to disperse, called it a ‘crime scene’, and arrested 152 people, including San Francisco Labor Council Delegate Dave Welsh, resulting in more arrests than at any other Oscar Grant-related protest; and
Whereas, most arrestees have been cited on misdemeanor charges, held for 24 hours and have mass arraignments in the first week of December at Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington Street in Oakland.
Therefore be It Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council condemns this assault on freedom of speech and assembly and demands that all these misdemeanor assembly charges be dropped.
Presented by Marcus Holder, delegate from ILWU Local 10, and adopted unanimously at the regular delegates meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council held Nov. 8, 2010 in San Francisco , California.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-S.F. Labor Council Commends ILWU Locals for Oscar Grant Rally & Port Shutdown
The San Francisco Labor Council commends ILWU Local 10 and 34 for shutting down all Bay Area Ports on October 23 to demand justice for Oscar Grant, and in calling and helping organize the powerful Justice for Oscar Grant Rally in Oakland on the same day.
In the spirit of Harry Bridges, this is an example of a union looking beyond only narrow economic self interest to support the broader struggle for social justice and support for communities of color.
This kind of stand can strengthen the labor movement as a whole by building ties with broader communities outside the organized labor movement. Thank you for this progressive move.
Statement adopted at the San Francisco Labor Council delegates meeting, Nov. 8, 2010.
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S.F. Labor Council resolution adopted unanimously Sept. 13, 2010
Resolution in Support of October 23 ILWU Rally for Justice for Oscar Grant
Whereas, Oscar Grant’s killer, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle received a verdict of involuntary manslaughter on July 8, 2010 and will be sentenced on November 5; and
Whereas, video tapes show clearly that Oscar Grant was lying face down on the Fruitvale BART platform, waiting to be handcuffed with another cop’s boot on his neck posing no threat when he was shot in the back and killed in cold blood by Mehserle; and
Whereas, black and brown racial minorities, and especially immigrant workers today, struggling for equal rights have borne the brunt of police violence; and
Whereas, the 1934 General Strike was initiated after the murder of 2 strikers by police during the West Coast Maritime Strike; and
Whereas, ILWU Local 10 has initiated the call for a mass labor and community protest rally on Saturday October 23, 2010 in Oakland ‘s Frank Ogawa Plaza calling for justice for Oscar Grant in the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle,
Therefore be it Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorses this rally along with other labor unions, community groups, civil rights organizations, civil liberties organizations and will help to mobilize for this rally for justice for Oscar Grant by communicating their endorsement and the time and place of the rally to affiliated unions, area labor councils and community allies through Fax Blast and other means.
Submitted by International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, and adopted unanimously.
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