Dockworker power: race and activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay area
In: The working class in American history
47 Ergebnisse
Sortierung:
In: The working class in American history
World Affairs Online
In: The working class in American history
In: Cahiers d'histoire. Revue d'histoire critique, Heft 154, S. 45-65
ISSN: 2102-5916
In: The Yale review, Band 110, Heft 2, S. 72-72
ISSN: 1467-9736
In: International review of social history, Band 67, Heft 1, S. 143-146
ISSN: 1469-512X
In: Labor: studies in working-class history of the Americas, Band 18, Heft 2, S. 5-7
ISSN: 1558-1454
In: Journal of civil and human rights, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 158-181
ISSN: 2378-4253
Abstract
This article recovers the valuable role of perhaps the most important union in the U.S. anti-apartheid struggle, the San Francisco Bay Area's Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The ILWU first criticized apartheid in 1948 and most dramatically demonstrated its longtime commitment to democratic racial equality in South Africa through its refusal to unload South African cargo for eleven days in 1984. This case study documents and analyzes how rank-and-file longshore workers, Black and white, consciously linked domestic and international struggles for racial equality and working-class power. Generally, the history of the U.S. anti-apartheid struggle has neglected labor's role, but Local 10's actions demonstrate why unions demand inclusion in this historiography.
In: International review of social history, Band 59, Heft 3, S. 563-563
ISSN: 1469-512X
In: International review of social history, Band 59, Heft 2, S. 317-320
ISSN: 1469-512X
In: Safundi: the journal of South African and American Comparative Studies, Band 14, Heft 4, S. 476-481
ISSN: 1543-1304
In: International labor and working class history: ILWCH, Band 83, S. 210-225
ISSN: 1471-6445
Before dawn on Sunday morning, June 20, 2010, upwards of one thousand people gathered near the Port of Oakland, an industrial, sometimes barren section of west Oakland. They then converged on four gates operated by the Stevedore Services of America, one of the main shipping companies on the US Pacific coast and in the world. The protesters were awaiting the arrival of an Israeli cargo vessel in order to protest Israel's ongoing blockade of the Palestinian residents of Gaza as well as the recent Israeli assault on Turkish vessels in the Mediterranean that had resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, part of an international group sympathetic to the Gaza Palestinians. For hours activists protested, including a chant that referenced both the Wobblies and antiapartheid struggle: "An injury to one is an injury to all, bring down the apartheid wall." Crucially—and not coincidentally—members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross this picket line, citing safety reasons. After several hours of negotiations, an arbitrator agreed with the ILWU members that the situation could cause harm to the workers, who therefore could not be punished for not unloading the vessel. Subsequently, the Zim (Israeli shipping line) vessel departed from San Francisco Bay, looking to be unloaded in nearby Monterey Bay. Simultaneously, dock unions in Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey—all members of The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)—also announced that they would join the "Boycott against Israel campaign." These dramatic, militant, and overtly political actions by longshore workers across the globe are not unprecedented—at least for union dockers—though they are almost unheard of in the twenty-first century for other sorts of workers on any continent.
In: International review of social history, Band 58, Heft 2, S. 185-217
ISSN: 1469-512X
AbstractUsing a comparative methodology, this essay examines how and why longshore workers in both the San Francisco Bay area and Durban demonstrate a robust sense of working-class internationalism and solidarity. Longshore workers are more inclined than most to see their immediate, local struggles in larger, even global, contexts. Literally for decades, workers in both ports used their power to advocate for racial justice at home and in solidarity with social movements globally. While such notions might seem outdated in the twenty-first century, as unions have been on the decline for some decades, longshore workers grounded their ideals in the reality that they still occupied a central position in global trade. Hence, they combined their leftist and anti-racist ideological beliefs with a pragmatic understanding of their central role in the global economy. While not the norm, these longshore workers' attitudes and actions demand attention, as they challenge the notion that workers in recent decades are powerless to shape their world.
In: Labor: studies in working-class history of the Americas, Band 10, Heft 1, S. 11-20
ISSN: 1558-1454