Dockworkers honor picket, won’t unload Israeli ship

When an Israeli cargo ship pulled into Berth 58 in the Port of Oakland on the evening of June 20, there were no dockworkers on hand to unload it. Longshore workers refused to cross a picket line of hundreds of labor and community activists protesting Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its recent murderous attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

The day had begun at 5 a.m. at the West Oakland BART station. Members of the Labor/Community Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People had gathered before dawn to march to Berth 58, where an Israeli ship from the Zim shipping line was due to dock. By 5:30 a.m., a loud, organized, roving picket of hundreds of people had blocked all four entrances to the Port of Oakland berth.

WW photos: Judy Greensapn

Chants of “Free, free Palestine, don’t cross our picket line” were heard throughout the port area. Truck drivers making early morning deliveries to Berth 58 blew their horns and refused to cross the picket line. At 7 a.m., the first shift of dockworkers drove up and, one by one, drove back home, honoring the strong protest.

The picket line continued into the late afternoon and successfully turned away the second shift of dockworkers, who also honored the picket line and returned home.

Members of International Longshore Workers Union, Local 10, were out on the picket line all day talking to protesters and showing their support for the action. Clarence Thomas, an ILWU lineman and leader, thanked the Labor/Community Committee and the San Francisco and Alameda County Labor Councils for their support of this action.

Both labor councils recently passed resolutions criticizing Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and demanding that Israel lift the blockade of Gaza. Thomas called today’s picket line “historic” and “reminiscent of the 1977 action on Easter Sunday,” when dockworkers conducted a one-day job action to protest the massacre of South Africans in apartheid Soweto. Thomas noted that dockworkers around the world, in South Africa, Norway and Sweden, have declared that they will refuse to handle any Israeli cargo.

In a short interview with this reporter, Thomas talked about the 1984 organizing effort by progressive ILWU members that led to an 11-day work stoppage and boycott to protest South African apartheid. “Our actions helped raise the level of resistance to apartheid in this country, especially among workers,” Thomas stated. “This protest today will also help raise consciousness among longshore workers about the need to end the Israeli blockade of Gaza,” Thomas added.

The protest was endorsed by a broad coalition of progressive organizations, including Arab-American Union Members Council, Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, ANSWER, Palestine Youth Network, International Action Center, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, and many other labor and community organizations in the Bay Area.