Defend longshore workers!

Sometimes the news about a struggle is so distorted or the struggle so complicated that it’s hard to know what is happening. Other times you don’t need much information to know which side to take.

That’s the case in the brutal and gratuitous assault by cops in the Port of Sacramento, Calif., against two longshore workers, members of ILWU Local 10, last Aug. 23. Using the lame excuse of “port security,” these cops first harassed and then attacked workers who had all the ID necessary for their presence at the port. In short, it was a cop attempt to apply the rules of Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo to the U.S.’s western ports.

Fortunately, the Local 10 leadership isn’t leaving this attack unanswered, nor is it relying on court legality alone to protect and defend the two union brothers, Aaron Harrison and Jason Ruffin. Local 10 is organizing a protest rally for Oct. 4 at the Yolo County Superior Court, at 213 Third St., Woodland, Calif., to make sure that all charges are dropped against its two members.

This local union has been an example of progressive unionism for the entire U.S. working class, and has carried out important struggles showing international solidarity—helping to bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa, protesting the war against Iraq, fighting racism inside the United States. Anyone in solidarity with these issues should find a way to show solidarity with Local 10 on Oct. 4.

As the union wrote in its statement announcing the demonstration, “This is our Jena—be there.” Anyone who can should be there with them.