From IndyMedia, Seattle
“We did it, we shut down the Coast,” union speakers told the cheering crowd kicking off a rally at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco after a march from the hall of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 along the Embarcadero. All 29 West Coast ports were closed May 1 as a result of the action by the ILWU ranks to demand a stop to the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. Longshoreman Jack Heyman, a member of the Local 10 executive board, recalled a local radio announcer who used to say, “if you don’t like the news, then go out and make your own.” “Today we’ve not only made news, we’ve made history,” Heyman told the crowd of dock workers and supporters. They had indeed. On the fifth anniversary of President George Bush’s ill-fated “mission accomplished” speech, workers used their industrial power against the war.
