#ilwu

Liam O'Mara IV, PhDLiamOMaraIV
2026-02-11

of on in 1977 volunteer-loaded two shipping containers of aid for in , , & collected by community groups, another fine act by my old & why I'm proud to have been 4th gen. ILWU.

tools for commensality đź§żinquiline@assemblag.es
2026-01-31

oooohhhh this post says the ship actually departed from LA/Long Beach, though the photos were taken in Tacoma

#LosAngeles #LongBeach #PortOfLA #ICEProtests #ILWU #ReneeGood

A social media post from ILWU Local 23
showing stacked shipping containers, mostly green, but the red ones spell out "renee"

Text reads: "A powerful message of solidarity from our LA-Long Beach union siblings made its way through Tacoma today. RIP Renee Good & Alex Pretti"
*AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL"
tools for commensality đź§żinquiline@assemblag.es
2026-01-29
A cargo ship with “renee” spelled out of containers is seen at the Port of Tacoma, on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Tacoma

The NDP leadership race just got a little more exciting.

Rob Ashton: "The federal NDP needs to build on what's already working."

#ndp #canpoli #cdnpoli #robashton #ilwu

Liam O'Mara IV, PhDLiamOMaraIV
2025-12-28

In an early against the policies of , on in 1962 over 100 longshoremen from , over two separate shifts in , refused to unload a cargo from that country. It was unloaded the next day but showed growing solidarity.

Peter Rileypeterjriley2024
2025-12-27

@8 Dec 1962
San Francisco boycott of goods from apartheid South Africa.
Members of the local community set up a picket line at pier 19 when the Raki ship arrived, full of South African products including coffee, hemp and asbestos.
100 workers in Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross picket.

stories.workingclasshistory.co

More:
foundsf.org/index.php?title=Ba

Liam O'Mara IV, PhDLiamOMaraIV
2025-11-24

On in 1984, dockworkers in with my old refused to unload cargo from . They went without pay for eleven days, holding out until the administration, backing apartheid, threatened gaol time for the workers.

2025-11-24

Today in Labor History November 24, 1984: San Francisco longshore workers (ILWU) refused to unload cargo from a South African ship in solidarity with South Africans fighting to end Apartheid. They went without pay for eleven days, as they continued the boycott, until a federal court forced them back to work under threats of fines and prison. At the time, the U.S. government fully supported the Apartheid regime. Concurrent with this longshore boycott, there were encampments on many U.S. universities, with protesters demanding that their schools divest from South Africa. San Francisco’s ILWU had refused to load and unload South African ships in the past, too, with one of the earliest anti-Apartheid union protests back in 1962 (see image). In 1976, after the legendary Soweto uprising, an African American longshoreman from Oakland named Leo Robinson helped form Local 10’s Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee. The SALSC, was the first anti-apartheid group in an American labor union, helping to raise awareness up and down the West Coast.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #apartheid #racism #solidarity #union #boycott #directaction #ilwu

As early as December 28, 1962, San Francisco members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) staged a boycott of South African apartheid cargo. Photo: from the DISPATCHER, accessed at ILWU Archives
2025-08-01

Today in Labor History August 1, 1938: Police opened fire on 200 unarmed trade unionists protesting the unloading of a ship in Hilo Harbor, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in what became known as "the Hilo Massacre." The protest was in support of striking waterfront workers. 50 workers were injured. Police also used tear gas and bayonets. The workers came from numerous ethnic backgrounds, including Japanese, Chinese, Native Hawaiian, Luso (Portuguese) and Filipino. They belonged to several unions, including the ILWU. They were fighting for equal pay to dockers on the U.S. west coast and for a closed, union shop. Harry Kamoku (depicted in the original woodblock poster shown in this post) was the primary organizer and leader of the strike, as well as a member of Hawaii’s first union to be legally recognized. He was a Chinese-Hawaiian, a longshoreman, born in Hilo.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #hilo #hawaii #police #massacre #ilwu

Woodblock poster (which I purchased in Hilo, in 2005), depicting local labor organizer, Harry Kamoku. Other images in the poster include a close-up of a cop pointing a gun at viewers, and scenes from the strike. At the bottom it reads, An Injury to One is an Injury to All.
2025-07-16

The San Francisco General Strike began on July 16, 1934 in response to the police murders of two longshoremen, Howard Sperry and Nick Bourdoise, July 5, 1934, on Rincon Hill, near the Ferry Building, during the West Coast Maritime Strike.

This sidewalk mural commemorates these events. It is located in front of the ILWU Hall, near Fishermens Wharf.

I remember taking my son to Pier 39 once when he was about six or seven, to play games at the arcade there. On our way back to the car, we passed this mural. He was intrigued. As I was explaining it to him, describing the history, a young longshoreman came out and asked if we'd like to come inside, see the other murals and statues. He gave us the full tour, explaining everything, and my son was completely mesmerized, as was I.

#sanfrancisco #GeneralStrike #ilwu

Sidewalk mural in front of San Francisco's ILWU Hall, near Fishermens Wharf. Shows outlines of two people. Reads: 
July 5, 1934
Police murder 
Men Killed--Shot in Back
Killed during SF Maritime General Strike
Police Murder
2025-07-05

Today in Labor History July 5, 1934: Two strikers were shot and killed and more than 100 were injured by San Francisco police in what came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," leading to one of the last General Strikes in U.S. history. The West Coast maritime strike lasted 84 days and spread from San Pedro, in Los Angeles Country up to Puget Sound, in Washington. One of the strike leaders in San Francisco was Harry Bridges, a former member of the IWW who had immigrated from Australia. Teamsters supported the strike by refusing to handle “hot” cargo that had been unloaded by scabs. 7-9 workers, in total, were killed during these strikes (in San Pedro, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco); over 1000 were injured; and over 500 were arrested. In San Francisco, the National Guard, along with vigilantes, patrolled the streets with armored vehicles with machine guns mounted on them.

I used to have a neighbor who was a lifelong member of the typographical union. A really big guy named Herb, who told me that his most vivid memory of the strike was that the streets had become white from all the milk being dumped by dairy delivery drivers, in solidarity with the striking maritime workers.

The ILWU Mural General Strike Sculpture/Mural was created in 1984-86 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1934 SF General Strike. The artists were Miranda Bergman, Tina Dresher, Nicole Emanuel, Lari Kilolani, James Morgan, Ray Patlán, Eduardo Pineda, James Prigoff, O'Brien Thiele, Horace Washington. The artwork now stands at the corner of Mission and Steuart Streets, in the old Rincon Hill neighborhood, the epicenter of the 1934 San Francisco Waterfront Strike and Bloody Thursday. This photo of the artwork was taken by James Prigoff, and can be found in the Found SF project: foundsf.org/Artist!_Mike_Moshe

I’ve included a close-up of the artwork in its current home, at Mission and Steuart Streets, along with a commemorative plaque (both photos by me). The plaque reads:

“In memory of Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, who gave their lives on Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934, so that all working people might enjoy a greater measure of dignity and security.

Sperry and Bordoise were fatally shot by San Francisco police at the intersection of Mission and Steuart Streets, when longshoremen and seamen attempted to stop maritime employers from breaking their joint strike. Community outrage at these killings sparked a General Strike by all San Francisco unions.

The maritime strike continued through the middle of the summer, concluding with a union victory which brought decent conditions to the shipping industry and set the stage for the rebirth of a strong and democratic labor movement on the west cost.

An Injury to One is an Injury to all.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #sanfrancisco #GeneralStrike #BloodyThursday #IWW #longshoremen #ilwu #police #PoliceBrutality #HarryBridges #maritime #nationalguard #Teamsters #solidarity #mural

The plaque reads: 

“In memory of Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, who gave their lives on Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934, so that all working people might enjoy a greater measure of dignity and security.

Sperry and Bordoise were fatally shot by San Francisco police at the intersection of Mission and Steuart Streets, when longshoremen and seamen attempted to stop maritime employers from breaking their joint strike. Community outrage at these killings sparked a General Strike by all San Francisco unions.

The maritime strike continued through the middle of the summer, concluding with a union victory which brought decent conditions to the shipping industry and set the stage for the rebirth of a strong and democratic labor movement on the west cost.

An Injury to One is an Injury to all.”
2025-07-05

1997 Mural of the 1934 SF General Strike, by Chuck Sperry, inside the Redstone Building, at 2926-48 16th St, in San Francisco’s Mission District. The mural depicts workers talking and reading, with a zoomed-in bubble showing the two longshoremen (Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry) killed in the strike, lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

The Redstone Building is also known as the Labor Temple. It has been home to numerous lefty activist organizations, including an IWW office and the now defunct pirate radio station, Radio X. The building was a center of San Francisco labor organizing for decades. In 1916, there were 54 different labor organizations based there.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #SanFrancisco #LaborTemple #redstonebuilding #ilwu #GeneralStrike #IWW #pirateradio

2025-07-05

Today in Labor History July 5, 1934: Two strikers were shot and killed and more than 100 were injured by San Francisco police in what came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," leading to one of the last General Strikes in U.S. history. The governor called in the National Guard to suppress the strike by the International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU). Police and Guard violence led to 43 injuries due to clubbing and gas, and 30 more for bullet wounds. Two chemical companies used the unrest as an opportunity to test and sell their wares. Joseph Roush, from Federal Laboratories, shot a long-range tear gas shell at the strikers. He then told his company, "I might mention that during one of the riots, I shot a long-range projectile into a group, a shell hitting one man and causing a fracture of the skull, from which he has since died. As he was a Communist, I have had no feeling in the matter and I am sorry that I did not get more."

Mike Quinn wrote about the strike in his 1949 book, “The Big Strike.” Quinn was a working-class journalist and novelist. He was an active member of the Communist Party and a writer for the ILWU.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #GeneralStrike #SanFrancisco #longshoremen #BloodyThursday #ilwu #riots #communism #massacre #police #PoliceBrutality #acab #writer #author #fiction #novel @bookstadon

Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934 - NARA – 541926. By Unknown author or not provided - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17057595
2025-04-24

Today in Labor History April 24, 1999: The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union shut down all West Coast shipping in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was wrongfully imprisoned and held on death row for the murder of a cop—a crime he did not commit.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #MumiaAbuJamal #prison #journalism #FreeSpeech #police #union #solidarity #ilwu #blackpanthers #BlackMastadon

Demonstrators with yellow signs that read: Free Mumia Now!
Liam O'Mara IV, PhDLiamOMaraIV
2024-11-25

My old on the waterfront, , always had a radical streak (it was founded by communists). As late as 1984 on , they were willing to forgo pay by refusing to unload cargo from . A federal court forced them to do it or face prison.

2024-10-03

#Diversions are a key issue for the #ILA, w/the #union's president, #HaroldDaggett, threatening that the #longshoremen would travel to ports where diverted vessels attempt to unload their freight. Daggett has mentioned the #ILWU allowing ILA members to go to the port in the 1977 #strike to stop the unloading of a diverted vessel. Daggett was one of those longshoremen at that time who traveled to the #WestCoast.

#economy #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
cnbc.com/2024/10/03/ports-stri

Peter Rileypeterjriley2024
2024-10-01

@sunguramy

Been a while since 1977 ILA strike and from and other unions.
ilaunion.org/

Illustration “same as it ever was” Capitalist turns workers labour via meat grinder of wage-system into profits.

Green suit and Top Hat; monocle wearing, well heeled Capitalist feeds workers into meat grinder of wage system exploitation to produce gold coins (profits).

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