Thousands shut down port to demand Gaza cease-fire
www.workers.org
Oakland, California Block-the-boat protesters, calling for a cease-fire in the 100-day-old Israeli military assault on Gaza, shut down the port of Oakland starting at 5 a.m. on Jan. 13. Mass picket lines were honored by members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Locals 10 and 34, who

As early as 1962, ILWU members staged a boycott of apartheid South African cargo, picketing on the docks of San Francisco. In the late 1970s, after the 1976 Soweto massacre by the racist government, the ILWU protested the docking of the Nedlloyd Kimberley, which was carrying South African cargo, in various ports.

Then in 1984, the ILWU refused to handle South African cargo for 11 days when the Nedlloyd Kimberley docked in San Francisco. With that dramatic act, the anti-apartheid movement spread like wildfire across the U.S., especially on college campuses.

The recent block-the-boat action continues the decades-long history of class solidarity between West Coast longshore workers and workers living under apartheid in both South Africa and occupied Palestine.