I found no entries on this and thought it deserved to be seen. In researching a comment by Teacherken on the latested outrage against our troops Water supplied by KBR making Iraq troops sick
I came across this stunning announcement:
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan.
The tainted water that our troops are being supplied with is just the latest (reported) travesty that the war criminals are perpetrating. Another tip of another iceburg. Our troops, drawn from the working class, step up to answer the call to protect our country and are horribly misused and abused. I was really surprised to find this report - will workers in the U.S. stand up and speak with one voice?
...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."... Union to shut down ports
I'm embarassed to say that I never knew that "industrial action" by workers had ever taken place and think that this could be the beginning of a huge movement. The story linked is well worth reading. I have been truly overwhelmed with outrage at our do-nothing democrats, the supposed defenders of the working-class.
"ILWU Local 10 has repeatedly warned that the so-called 'war on terror' is really a war on working people and democratic rights. Around the country, hundreds of unions and labor councils have passed motions condemning the war, but that has not stopped the war. We need to use labor's muscle to stop the war by mobilizing union power in the streets, at the plant gates and on the docks to force the immediate and total withdrawal of all U. S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq."
Hundreds of unions and labor councils have passed motions condemning the war and hundreds of communities have called for impeachment of these war-mongers. I, like so many others, find myself behind the looking-glass... where is the outrage? where are the people? Though they have most of the wealth, we far outnumber those who slaughter innocents in our name and we need to stand up and be counted. May 1 is May Day aka International Workers Day around the world though not honered in the U.S.
Diarist nike chiapas post of four months ago Workers, not politicians, will end this war. didn't get any takers I suppose because it's identified as: "anarchist communist"
Do we need a new label- say "Social Capitalism" wherein We the People have equal footing with the Corporations? Our elected "leaders" are supposed to equalize the footing for us. They have not, they will not until we demand it.
I'll take the day off on May Day. I salute the ILWU
"The greatest bulwark of capitalism is militarism, but an international feeling of solidarity is bringing all the workers to the point when they will say to their masters,
'Go and do your own killing. We have done it long enough for you.'"
– Emma Goldman, anarchist communist, New York City, 1917