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iraq
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports
Historic ILWU Dock Workers’ Action Points the Way
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn’t want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers’ Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an “illegal strike.” But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses’ mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers’ May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their “symbolic” action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party. May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (3 May 2008)
All Out on May Day!
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.
For Workers Strikes Against the War!
Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants!
All Out on May Day!
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.
The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.
Publisher:
NY TimesConclusions of Second Continental Conference in Mexico City (Part 1 of 3 Parts) -- April 4-6, 2008
SECOND CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE
- Against "Free Trade" Agreements and Privatization
- For the Defense of the Sovereignty of the Peoples
- For the Renationalization of All That Has Been Privatized
- For the Defense of Pubic Services and Enterprises and of
All Nationalized Industries on the Continent
- For the Defense of Pemex, the Electrical Sector and Social Security
- Against War
(Mexico City, April 4-6, 2008)
CONCLUSIONS
On April 4-6, 2008, the Second Continental Conference took place in Mexico City with 283 delegates in attendance. During the different phases of the conference, leaders, workers and activists from 16 countries participated: Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Costa Rica, Cuba, Martinique, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Anarchy/Socialism workshop added to Midwest Regional Peace Conference
The Campus Antiwar Network is hosting their Midwest Regional Peace Conference, "Our World, Their War: Building a Student Resistance" in Iowa City, Iowa on April 18-20, and brand-new speakers and workshop information is now available for the first-time.
All Locations on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa are TBA shortly:
Friday, April 18
Evening Meet and Greet/Assign Housing Party, 7:30pm-1am with guest speakers:
Frank Cordaro, a christian anarchist with the Des Moines Catholic Worker and Karen Kubby, director of Iowa City Emma Goldman Clinic and member of U.S. Socialist Party. Kubby was asked by the USA Green Party in 2004 to run for President but declined because she said running the local Emma Goldman clinic was more important.
Saturday, April 19
PBS's "Bush's War" Review
Lots of Sound but no Fury
by David Grace
Tonight PBS offered part one of "Bush's War" in it's Frontlines series. Generally the program was ok in it's calm, matter-of-fact way, but it left a lot unsaid.
It showed the medacity of evil well enough but it didn't give enough background information. The program leaned on tactics in propaganda and statecraft, but did not discuss motivation.
Publisher:
PBS / Frontlines5th "Anniversary" of the Iraq War Actions
March 15, 2008 1-3pm
Winter Soldier Hearings from the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.org) to be shown at the MO History Museum in Forest Park (www.insteadofwar.org)
March 16, 2008 2:30-4:30pm at the Julia Davis Branch Library (4415 Natural Bridge [at Newstead]) (www.insteadofwar.org)
March 19, 2008 4-7pm
Protest to mark the 5th “Anniversary” of the Iraq War Outside Kit Bond’s office in Clayton (www.insteadofwar.org)
RSVP here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9100684268
Date:
03/15/2008 - 1:00pm - 03/19/2008 - 7:00pm"Sir, No Sir!" @ Tap Room
Veterans for Peace presents another free film viewing at the Schlafly Tap Room Tuesday, March 11th at 8 p.m.
Date:
03/11/2008 - 8:00pmILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
For Workers Strikes Against the War!
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, “One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”
This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. It is doubly important that this mobilization of labor’s power is to take place on May Day, the international workers day, which is not honored in the U.S. Moreover, the resolution voted by the ILWU delegates opposes not only the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, but also the war and occupation of Afghanistan (which Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain all want to expand). The motion to shut down the ports also demands the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the entire region, including the oil sheikdoms of the strategically important Persian/Arab Gulf.
