Monthly Review Press has just published a book by Suzan Erem and E. Paul Durrenberger, titled "On the Global Waterfront." It details an important laobr struggle on the Charleston, SC docks and tells us much about the US labor movement, racism, global capitalism, and the heroism of dedicated. mostly black dock workers.
"On the Global Waterfront tells the story of how longshoremen in South Carolina confronted attempts to wipe out the state’s most powerful black organization. When a Danish shipping company shifted its transportation to a nonunion firm in 1999, Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina, mobilized to protect their hard-won rights. What followed culminated in a protest in which 660 riot police were deployed against fifty dockworkers, a group that grew to 150 before the night was over. Four black and one white longshoreman — subsequently known as the Charleston 5 — were held for twenty-two months under house arrest on trumped-up felony charges of inciting a riot.
Within the politically conservative, racially charged, and intensely religious climate of the South, the unassuming local union president, Ken Riley — supported behind the scenes by key AFL-CIO staffers — crafted an international campaign in defense of the arrested longshoremen. Their ultimate success vaulted Riley to higher leadership in the powerful transportation union the International Longshoremen’s Association and laid the foundation for successful rebuffs in ports around the world. This compelling narrative of a local struggle, a transformed union leader, and a newly energized international worker movement highlights the resounding importance of the international labor movement that is not only still vital, but still capable of stopping global commerce on a dime."
Order the book, see the streaming video and read more at www.ontheglobalwaterfront.org
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Michael Yates