be taking part in this coast-wide shut down on Juneteenth. Canada’s hands are not clean either, in the past or the present. We also had slavery; there was the internment of Japanese Canadians, the incident of the Komagata Maru and the residential schools. In the present day we have the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) and we see systemic racism in Canadian society.”
ILWU Canada Grainworkers Union Local 333 honored Juneteenth by stopping work for 9 minutes on June 19 in solidarity with West Coast port shutdown.
International solidarity
During his morning speech, President Adams announced that dock-workers in Genoa, Italy and South Africa were stopping work in solidarity with the protests.
General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi of the South African Federation of Trade Unions issued a statement saying, “Comrades in the ILWU, we applaud your action taken in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter uprising. Closing down 29 ports on the US West Coast, the United States gateway to the world during this deep economic crisis, is an extraordinary act. We celebrate Juneteenth with you, the ending of slavery in the US. We also have suffered such depths of racism and have watched the video of George Floyd’s murder in agony.”
Jerry Dias, National President of Unifor, Canada’s largest privatesector labor union, also sent a letter of solidarity. “On behalf of Unifor Canada members we salute your membership for their actions today, Juneteenth, in support of Black Lives Matter. ILWU has a proud history of standing up and speaking out for social justice and today you are once again showing the best of the labour movement,” wrote Dias.
High profile speakers
Trent Willis and Keith Shanklin served as emcees during the event. The issue of police violence has effected Shanklin and Willis directly; both had family members killed by police.
International Solidarity: ILWU International President Willie Adams brought word of solidarity actions by workers in Italy and South Africa.
Shanklin got the crowd fired up at the start. “We are going to make some noise. We want them to hear us coming. We are here to make a change. You matter. Black Lives Matter,” said Shanklin before introducing Bishop Bob Jackson from Oakland’s Acts Full Gospel Church,
The port rally featured high profile speakers including film star Danny Glover along with scholar and civil rights activist Angela Davis. Both Glover and Davis addressed the crowd remotely in order to maintain social distance. Glover called into the rally to deliver his message while Davis stood through her car’s sunroof, fist raised in the air, while her pre-recorded address was played.
Davis thanked the ILWU for shutting down the West Coast ports, noting the ILWU’s long tradition of using their collective power to stand up against racism in the US and across the globe. “Whenever the ILWU takes a stand, the world feels the reverberations,” Davis began.
“Thank you for shutting down the ports today, on Juneteenth - the day when we renew our commitment to the struggle for freedom,” Davis said. “You represent the potential and power of the labor movement.”
Davis added that if she had not chosen to become a professor, her next choice would have been to become a dockworker or warehouse worker “in order to be a member of the most radical union in the country, the ILWU,” she said.
Family members detail killings
The crowd also heard from family members who lost loved ones to police violence. Their powerful stories illustrated how widespread and systemic police violence is in Black and brown communities across America. Speakers included Michael Brown Sr., whose 18-year old son, Michael, was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
Also speaking was Richard Perez, who donated and drove the flatbed truck used at the Juneteenth event. He spoke about the 2014 shooting of his son “Peddie” Perez by police in Richmond, CA – and how that killing has devastated his family. “My wife cries every day,” he said.
Fired up, ready to go: Local 10 President Trent Willis fires up the crowd outside the SSA terminal on the morning of Juneteenth.
Another speaker was Taun Hall, mother of Miles Hall, a 23-year-old Black man who was killed in 2019 by police in Walnut Creek, CA. She said their family called 911 for mental health assistance because Miles was experiencing a schizophrenic episode – but their son ended up being killed by police.
Trent Willis spoke about the death of his own brother who was killed by Military Police who were called because of a verbal altercation in a bar. “The time when Black people are arrested, charged, tried, convicted and executed on the spot must end,” Willis said. “My brother was executed for talking back to a white person.”
International officers
At the morning rally, President Adams and International Secretary-Treasurer Ed Ferris spoke on behalf of the International. “We’re not working today. We’re standing in solidarity,” Adams said. He called on police officers to stop their fellow officers when they see them engaging in misconduct. “Good cops have got to start checking those bad cops. You can’t stand by and let something happen. You’re just as guilty,” Adams said.
Ferris spoke passionately about the impact that George Floyd’s murder has had on him. “That video changed my life,” Ferris explained as he referenced the ILWU slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
“Until the US addresses its deeprooted racial inequalities,” Ferris said, Americans will not be truly free. Until the color of your skin is as important as your hair color or your eye color, we are not all going to be free. I’m so grateful to see this diverse group of people because we are fed up.”
Rally at City Hall
Boots Riley, film director and frontman for the hip hop band, The Coup, was a featured speaker at the afternoon rally. Riley spoke about the power of workers to effect change by withholding their labor and the need for people to organize at work.
“We’ve had, these past two weeks, millions of people in the street all over the country in every single city in the United States. And right now we’re at a point where people are like, ‘What’s the next step?’ And a lot of that question is a question of power.” Riley continued, “What is power? How does it work? What is our power? And that’s what today is answering. Our power comes from the fact that we create the wealth. Wealth is power. We have the ability to withhold that power. Wherever you work, wherever you are during the day, that’s where you need to be organizing.”
Other speakers at the City Hall included young leaders from the Bay Area and across the country, including Chris Smalls, who was fired by Amazon after he helped organize a work stoppage at the company’s warehouse on Staten Island, New York, to protest the lack of protective gear and hazard pay for workers.
One of the youngest speakers was recent high school graduate and Bay Area activist Lauryn Campbell of Black Youth for the People’s Liberation. The group organized a march on June 8 in East Oakland to protest the killing of Oakland resident Erik Salgado by California Highway Patrol officers.
“Today we are here to say we’re done,” Campbell told the crowd. “We’re done hiding our Blackness. We’re done looking over our shoulders.
Labor takes a stand
The ILWU’s role in the Juneteenth actions was amplified by local, national and international media coverage that was overwhelmingly positive.
President Adams said the movement against police violence and racial injustice reflects the ILWU’s history and values.
“Our own union was forged out of violent police attacks during the 1934 strike. Two workers in San Francisco, Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry, were murdered by the police. From the beginning, Harry Bridges was committed to fighting racism in the labor movement because he understood that division undermines the power of the working class,” Adams said. “The ILWU has never been silent on the moral issues of the day. This historic moment required a historic response and the rank-and-file of our great union rose to the occasion.”
Editor’s note: this article has been modified slightly for length. For the complete article, visit www.ilwu.org