“The Most Effective Way to Stop Police Terror Is Action at the Point of Production”
Longshore workers on the East and West Coast are stopping work today to demand an end to racist police murders. We spoke with one of the protest organizers about the action — and why labor must take the lead in the fight against police violence.
A container ship travels through the San Francisco Bay en route to the Port of Oakland on February 20, 2015 in San Francisco, California.Justin Sullivan / Getty
To honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and all victims of police repression, dockworkers on both coasts are taking action at noon today (ET), to coincide with the funeral of George Floyd in Houston. On the West Coast, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) will be stopping work and taking an eight minute, forty-six second moment of silence.
Jacobin’s Eric Blanc spoke with one of the protest organizers, Clarence Thomas — former Secretary Treasurer of ILWU Local 10 — about the action and the need for labor unions to take a lead in the struggle against police violence and racism. As the resolution calling for this action explains, “all lives will matter when Black lives matter because an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Eric Blanc
Why did ILWU decide to organize this work stoppage today?
Clarence Thomas
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