‘An injury to one is an injury to all’

Clarence Thomas, second from right, waiting to address the National Workers’ Rally in Tokyo. Photo: DORA-CHIBA

The following excerpted remarks were made by U.S. trade union leader Clarence Thomas at the National Workers’ Rally in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov. 5.

I bring you greetings and solidarity on behalf of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10, in San Francisco and the Million Worker March Movement.

One of our recent labor struggles is the destruction of the American Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina was a 21st century snapshot of the genocidal direction of the U.S. government. It exposed the reality of conditions faced by working class African Americans and peoples of color under U.S.-style democracy.

It also creates a new sense of urgency to mobilize power internationally to challenge racist and repressive legislation.

Today, the upsurge by Latin@ workers throughout the U.S. against criminalization and repression should be viewed as very important in building a rank-and-file workers’ fight-back movement.

The Immigrant Rights Mobilization and Boycott on May Day, 2006, represented one of the most successful general strikes in recent U.S. history. This was accomplished by workers that do not belong to unions, have no benefits, and without the support of organized labor.

Ninety percent of the cargo shipment at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach was halted as the result of immigrant truck drivers not going to work. Several large businesses shut down their plants for the day.

On Sept. 25, at the Port of San Francisco, Alcatraz Cruises took over the contract to run the Alcatraz ferry service using no union crews for the first time since the service began in the early 1970s.

This operation is within close proximity of longshore workers who work passenger ships in San Francisco. San Francisco is a union town, and this is a threat to our jurisdiction. Eight picketers have been arrested.

The ILWU-IBU and other unions have been negotiating in good faith with the owner for several weeks. Picketing goes on everyday. Negotiations have been unsuccessful.

If this threat isn’t stopped by maritime unions NOW, nonunion operations will spread throughout the maritime industry.

Workers today need to build a real rank-and-file global fight-back movement. The labor movement must embrace grassroots rank-and-file formations to unite Yellow, Red, Black, Brown and White workers into a militant international force for progress on behalf of the working class.

Workers today must be able to follow their work as it traverses the globe. Workers must be able to take their collective bargaining agreements and their unions and move to any country to which their work has been relocated.

Like the immigrant struggle, international workers must hit the streets and demand full protection for all eligible workers. We must have an international progressive program tied in to a workers’ agenda.

ILWU dock workers, trade unionists, workers, and anti-war and social justice activists from around the world, including Dora Chiba workers, gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on October 17, 2004, at the Million Worker March.

Thousands stood demanding an end to the war at home, the war abroad, international workers rights and an end to privatization.

It is occasions such as this that make it possible for workers to build real international rank-and-file unity.