Special thanks to the Brass Liberation Orchestra for their performances today.
In Oakland, California an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters from being unloaded, in protest of the Gaza siege, the recent massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara, and Palestinian rights to freedom and a country of their own. Reportedly 700-1000 protesters (probably around 500) blocked three different gates in the early morning Sunday, keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo.
ILWU members refused to cross picket line citing safety provisions in their contract. When management demanded instant arbitration, the arbitrator surveyed the picket lines at each gate and ruled that ILWU members were justified in refusing to cross.
The dockworkers were sent home with FULL PAY.
Today’s victory repeated a historic milestone back in 1984, when ILWU workers in San Francisco refused to unload a ship called the Nedlloyd Kimberley, because its cargo came from Apartheid South Africa. The similarity of these situations make the present protest especially meaningful.
The SFGATE (San Francisco) newspaper put it this way: Hundreds in Oakland protest Gaza blockade. The protest was also covered by Ynet, IMEMC, Al Manar, and Haaretz, thus far. We have to wait and see if the US mainstreat media respond to the protest or remain silent (censored).
At Mondoweiss, Henry Norr reported:
If anyone had any doubts that the movement for justice in Palestine is growing by leaps and bounds, in numbers, breadth, and determination, check out what happened this morning in Oakland, CA.
(snip)
Waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and chanting “Free, free Palestine – don’t cross the picket line” and “An injury to one is an injury to all – the Israeli apartheid wall will fall,” the demonstrators blocked three gates to the berth for more than four hours. The turnout was all the more impressive because the BART, the Bay Area subway system, doesn’t even start running until around 8 a.m. on Sunday, and even after people got to the assembly point in West Oakland, we had to walk more than a mile to get to the berth.
The event was organized by an ad hoc coalition of dozens of community and labor organizations. The main leadership came from Palestinian-Americans and other Arab Americans, with the Bay Area branch of ANSWER also playing a key role. The idea arose in response to a call issued in the wake of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, which asked workers around the world to stop unloading ships carrying Israeli goods.
Union dockworkers from countries like Australia, Ireland, and Norway have already voted to refuse to unload Israeli cargo ships. The boycotts are spreading, and perhaps the ILWU will eventually follow suit.