Black-white solidarity in South Carolina
Dock workers battle riot cops
By Shelley
Ettinger
An electrifying outbreak of class struggle hit the
Charleston, S.C., waterfront the night of Jan. 19-20, as some
600 Longshore union members battled riot police. The workers
fought--in furious hand-to-hand combat--to stop the use of
non-union labor on the docks.
It was a worker rebellion against both the bosses and the
state violence that backs them. It was another indication that
the drive to organize the South is picking up steam. It was a
kick in the teeth to the "right-to-work" system, laws that
prevent unions from representing every worker at a work
place.
And it was a thrilling demonstration of Black-white worker
unity--at the very moment the forces of reaction were trying to
whip up racism with their campaign to keep the Confederate flag
flying over the South Carolina capitol.
What prompted the battle? An effort by shipping lines to
hire non-union labor to load and unload their goods.
The immediate target of worker wrath is a Danish firm,
Nordana Line. The company had employed union labor for 22
years. Recently, however, it teamed up with a local outfit,
Winyah Stevedoring.
Together, Nordana and Winyah seek to cut labor costs by
shifting hiring from unionized to non-union workers. The threat
is not restricted to Charleston. Companies that provide cheap
non-union labor to shipping firms have been trying to muscle
out union labor in Gulf and Atlantic ports from Houston to
Baltimore.
The outbreak in Charleston may have been only the first in a
series of struggles by International Longshore Association
members to save their jobs and all they have won through their
union.
There had been an earlier clash. On Jan. 2, nearly a hundred
longshore workers had blocked work at the Columbus Street
Terminal Gate to stop the non-union loading and unloading of a
Nordana ship. Charleston cops came down hard on the
unionists--and started planning a police-state crackdown for
the next time a Nordana ship was to arrive.
That next time came Jan. 19. The Nordana Skodsborg was due
to dock in the early evening. By early afternoon, close to
1,000 police mobilized from across the state had arrived.
The cops--in riot gear, equipped with nightsticks, guns,
tear gas and attack dogs--deployed throughout the terminal.
They established an anti-worker state of siege.
When the ship docked around 7:30 p.m., non-union workers
quickly started unloading cargo. Cops escorted them while
police helicopters hovered overhead.
Meanwhile, a meeting was under way at union headquarters
nearby. When it adjourned, all the workers stayed on hand.
Then, shortly before midnight, they lined up in formation and
began to march toward the terminal.
When the union force arrived, about 600 strong, the workers
surged forward, trying to break through police lines and get to
the dock.
The cops attacked with everything they had. They unleashed
the attack dogs against the workers. They drove police cruisers
into the workers. They fired smoke grenades and tear gas at
them.
But the workers gave as good as they got--or better. They
tore down police spotlights and hurled them at the cops. They
overturned a light pole and heaved that too, along with
railroad ties, bricks, bottles and punches. Throughout the
fight, they chanted, ! ILA! ILA!"
It was all captured on television videotape and in newspaper
photographs. Images of Black and white workers in the South
joined together fighting against cops shot across the
country.
Police arrested several ILA members. Several other workers
ended up in the hospital as a result of the brutal cop attack.
But it took hours until the worker rebellion ended. It was
nearly daylight before the last union members left the
terminal.
In the aftermath there were righteous denunciations of the
workers and their "mob violence" by police, politicians,
employers and the media.
South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon promised "a
comprehensive plan for dealing with union dock-worker violence"
whose centerpiece would be "jail, jail and more jail."
Lieut. Gov. Bob Peeler said the state "should move quickly
to strengthen right-to-work laws."
None of it seemed to scare the workers. Asked whether the
situation will escalate, ILA member Essau Brown said that while
he hoped it wouldn't, he couldn't rule it out because
"something has to be done."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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