Legacy of resistance: Oakland says no to apartheid, from South Africa to Palestine 

Oakland, California

The movement to stop U.S. military aid to Israel took a big step forward the last weekend in March in the San Francisco Bay area. First, there was a great showing at the record-breaking “No Kings Day” marches on Saturday — 8 million people at 3,300 events nationwide March 28 — opposing the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, as well as opposing ICE raids and the growing fascist measures here at home.

Then there was a packed house March 29 at Oakland’s First Unitarian Church. That’s where the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo held a spirited, coalition-building event calling for an embargo on the shipment of military goods to Israel out of the Oakland port.

Clarence Thomas, from the ILWU Local 10 longshore union, recalled how in 1984 his union members refused to handle South African cargo at the port of San Francisco as a protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela praised longshore workers

This groundbreaking action won the praise of Nelson Mandela at the Oakland Coliseum in 1990 on his world tour after being released from a South African prison. The longshore workers’ action also inspired a powerful movement for universities to divest from investments in South Africa, a movement in which the other speakers played a part.

From left to right: Kassem (moderator), Andrea Prichett, Michael McBride, Clarence Thomas and Nesbit Crutchfield. Oakland, Calif., March 29. WW Photo: Susan Sherrell

Joining Thomas at the podium in Oakland were movement leaders Nesbit Crutchfield of the Bay Area Free South Africa Movement back in the day; Andrea Pritchett, from Copwatch, also a singer and musician; and David Canham, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement in his native South Africa, who is now executive director of Service Employees Union SEIU 1021, a local union powerhouse.

Pastor Michael McBride from The Way Christian Center, said: “The best organizing is when people find links with each other and between their struggles. Define our struggle as a shared struggle. Start with getting to know your neighbors, and go from there.” The thoughtful moderator was Kassem from the Palestinian Youth Movement.

The program concluded with a stirring performance of South African and Civil Rights Movement songs by the Vukani Mawethu Choir, a 40-year tradition in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some of the singers, veterans from the early anti-apartheid days, have been part of the choir since the very beginning.