CHARLESTON 5
Letter reaches out for labor/community support
ILA Local 1422 President Ken Riley was in New York May
21-24 to gather labor and community support for the struggle
to free the Charleston 5, whose struggle is described in the
letter below.
There are no borders in the workers struggle to combat
the assaults of U.S. trans national corporations. This is the
essence of international solidarity in the epic of
globalization. Mega-merger corporations, their subsidiaries
and subcontractors crisscross the globe, exploiting workers
under the most extreme and life-threatening conditions and
extracting from them billions of dollars in profits
daily.
The organized labor movement, here and abroad, has
shown signs of fighting back. From Spanish trade unionists to
the Canadian labor movement to the AFL-CIO, the struggle in
South Carolina by ILA Local 1422 has been a wakeup
call.
The anti-globalization and anti-sweatshop movements are
natural allies to the struggle of ILA 1422. The signers of
the following letter have been in close contact with
Riley.
Johnnie Stevens of the International Action
Center/Labor Community Outreach told Workers World the
signers have assisted Riley in contacting unions in New York
City and have begun a campaign to reach out to the Harlem
community, to dock workers in Newark and Port Elizabeth,
N.J., and community organizations in Brooklyn with leaflets
and posters.
Dear friend,
The International Action Center/Labor Community Outreach
wants to bring to your attention the plight of a small union,
predominately African American, under siege in Charleston, S.
C.
On January 20, 2000, the state of South Carolina sent in
600 riot-equipped cops to break up a peaceful picket line
organized by the International Longshore Association Locals
1422 and 1771. The workers were brutally beaten and arrested.
Five members were charged with "inciting to riot"--felony
charges. They are under house arrest with possible five-year
prison terms looming over them.
A Danish shipping company conspired to bring in scabs
illegally and violated union contracts in force for 20 years.
The sub-contractor that supplied the scab workforce has sued
the ILA locals' presidents and 27 individual members for $1.5
million.
Local 1422 is predominately African American. Their
members have been relentlessly subjected to anti-union
attacks by this "right to work" state. South Carolina has the
lowest rate of unionization (3.8 percent) in the country. The
vicious "right to work" laws pits the unions and their
communities against an increasingly racist legislative
assault and a contaminated judicial system.
This racist system allows the state to wage open warfare
on pregnant women, particularly African American and poor
women. Regina McKnight was one of its victims. Allegedly a
substance abuser, she was convicted in 15 minutes and
sentenced to 12 years in prison when her infant was
stillborn. The pro-choice, abortion rights movement is
confronted by the same enemy in South Carolina that has
framed the Charleston 5 to break their union.
The racist, anti-union drive in Charles ton has great
national and international significance in the struggle
against the U.S. drive to dominate and exploit the global
markets. From Maine to Texas, New Orleans, and in between,
corporate USA has tremendously accelerated the volume of
commodities and services shipped in and out.
Due to the North American Free Trade Agreement and
numerous other U.S. global agreements, dock workers are
victims of speed up, high-tech machinery, layoffs, safety
violations, downsizing and subcontracting. Wall Street is
determined to wipe out union-scale wages and working
conditions, and housebreak the unions that move the goods
from ship to shore.
Local 1422, President Ken Riley, the AFL-CIO and
affiliates, and communities are fighting back. This movement
is a strategic force bonded and inextricably linked to the
anti-globalization and anti-sweatshop struggles that have
attracted militant youth from Seattle to Quebec.
These fighters against the World Trade Organization, the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank--the institutions
that insure the capital used to exploit the poor developing
countries with the goal of exorbitant profits--are the
natural allies of ILA Local 1422. They can identify the
treatment of the ILA workers with the brutality they received
from the cops and courts.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, noted African American journalist
imprisoned on death row by a racist criminal injustice
system, eloquently framed the connection: " This
anti-globalist fervor showed the common interests of
students, of anti-imperialists, of human rights activists,
and labor."
Johnnie
Stevens,
Labor/Community Coordinator
Anne Pruden, 1199 SEIU
Henri Nereaux,
VP Masters, Mates & Pilots,
retired
Marie Jay,
Workfairness
Saturday, June
9
Columbia, S.C.
MARCH: 11 a.m.
Memorial Park,
Gadsden St. & Hampton St.
RALLY: 12 noon
South Carolina State House, Gervais & Main St.
For bus and other information:
Campaign for Workers' Rights
(888) 716-7362
South Carolina AFL-CIO
(803) 798-8300
International Action Center Labor/Community
Outreach
39 W. 14 St., #206, NY, NY, 10011
Phone (212) 633-6646
Fax (212) 633-2889
e-mail iacenter@iacenter.org
Web www.iacenter org/labor.htm
A contingent is planned for the march and rally
Free the Charleston 5
Free Mumia
Fight racism & union-busting
Organize the power of mass mobilization to unionize
here and abroad
Stop U.S.global domination
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
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