By Linda Gomaa
Chapel Hill, N.C.

Gomaa is a member of Student Action with Workers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill chapter of the youth group FIST. She has been an active participant in sit-ins against sweatshops at UNC. The following is Gomaa’s report of the arrest of students, in which she was singled out by police after making a press statement.

Five University of North Carolina students have been arrested after 16 days of peacefully occupying the office of UNC Chancellor James Moeser.

Students from Student Action with Workers and the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition began the sit-in because the chancellor had been refusing, for three years, to meet with us as well as his own labor licensing committee to discuss UNC’s ineffective labor codes. These codes still allow UNC apparel to be made under sweatshop conditions, including poverty wages and no freedom of association.

Because of the action of SAW and other student groups, Chancellor Moeser was forced to listen to the demands of the students and scheduled an emergency licensing committee meeting to discuss the Designated Suppliers Program. The DSP would ensure that labor codes that had been adopted by the university almost 10 years ago would be enforced.

The committee, however, had been advised by the chancellor to discuss options other than the DSP for the past year, so it was no surprise that when the committee met with the chancellor, many members expressed a lack of adequate knowledge about the program to make any informed decisions about its implementation. The committee voted 5 to 7, with two abstentions, against recommending the DSP. Only two students sit on the committee.

After the meeting was adjourned, the chancellor made it clear that he would not take a stand against the horrific conditions under which UNC apparel is manufactured. We refused to take his inaction as a defeat.

Moving from the meeting to the administration building lobby, I made a statement to the press, stressing that students would “not allow business as usual to continue” in the administration building while the chancellor’s inaction allowed the continuation of sweatshop conditions for UNC garment workers. I said that students were asking the chancellor to allow UNC to live up to its title, the “university of the people,” by improving conditions for all people, including UNC housekeepers, teaching assistants and adjunct professors, and the students holding jobs in order to pay for their education.

We then moved from the lobby into the chancellor’s office. Several students sat in the office and linked arms, while others stood near the door. We chanted “UNC sweat-free!” as the chancellor made a quick exit.

Police entered the room and the captain, giving no warning, pointed me out and had his officers arrest me, giving the rest of the students a warning and adequate time to leave the office. Four other students remained and were arrested, with UNC senior and SAW member Salma Mirza carried out by the police. We are charged with “failure to disperse” and Mirza carries an extra charge for “non-compliance” with the police.

Despite there being two police stations close to campus in Chapel Hill, we were transported to a further station in Hillsborough and were kept in handcuffs and zip-ties for two hours. Mirza’s entire arm went numb before the officers finally cut the zip-ties off; and we all now have bruises around our wrists. The five of us are currently out of jail with a promise to appear in court over the summer.

Chancellor Moeser has expressed no remorse over his decision to arrest students rather than even discuss the option of enforcing labor codes which would grant UNC garment workers the right to fight for their basic human rights. He stated publicly that he was “disappointed” with our actions.

SAW has responded by stating that we “cannot begin to express our disappointment in the Chancellor of a university that calls itself the ‘university of the people,’ who would prefer to arrest peaceful student protesters instead of ensuring that there is justice for the workers who make this university run.”

For more information visit http://dsp4unc.wordpress.com/.

Join FIST to Protest Bank of America in Chapel Hill
Friday, May 9th, 12 noon, 137 E. Franklin St.

FIST Youth Fight Back Against the Banks!
Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions, Now!
Bail Out the People Not the Banks!
Jobs for Youth, Not Jail!

FIST members picketing in Washington DC in front of Mortgage Bankers Association
to protest Foreclosures and Evictions

Bank of America recently stated they would “stop issuing loans to
students at schools where profits have not been satisfactory”,
which will inevitably effect youth of color first.

The Federal Reserve recently gave JP Morgan $30 Billion to bailout
Bear Stears. Where is our bail out?!

The War in Iraq has cost over a Trillion Dollars and Killed over
i Million Iraqis and over 4,000 US Troops. We Demand that this
money be spent on human needs, not War!

Losing our homes: A NATIONAL EMERGENCY: And it’s getting worse. One in every 4 subprime mortgage victims are either in or near fore­closure. Soon, almost 10% of the homes of working families across the country could be in foreclosure. For these families, this isn’t a recession—it’s a depression and a national emergency that calls for emergency measures.

A mORATORIUM ON FORECLOSURES & EVICTIONS —politicians have the authority to do it. Many may not realize that Governors, State Legislatures, the President and Congress (as well as the department of Housing and Urban Development) have the statutory authority to declare a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions during a time of either natural or economic emergency disaster (it’s important to include evictions because record numbers of renters are also losing their apartments).

This fight is for all of us. Come to Chapel Hill on Friday May 9th. Whether you are directly effected by the home foreclosure epidemic, or just outraged that the Government seems ready to give hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue banks from failing while doing nothing for those who are losing their homes, join students (highly victimized by student loan industry) to shake up the bankers and wake up the government. Let’s not wait until we’re all homeless.

UNITE AND ORGANIZE= SURVIVAL Whether it’s rising gas and food prices • the lack of health care • losing our jobs • having our wages cut • sinking further into credit card, student loan, or medical debt • or budget cuts • or the destruction of public housing • or ending this war that is costing lives and almost a half a billion dollars a day • surviving hard times is going require that we stick together and organize.

Bank of America recently announced its aqcuisition of Countrywide Mortgage which would make BofA the single largest holder of mortgages in the US.

By Linda Gomaa, Chapel Hill, NC

Several students and workers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are entering the sixth day of a sit-in in Chancellor James Moeser’s lobby, the longest sit-in at UNC since 1993.   About 25 students and workers entered the administration building on Thursday, April 17th and have been occupying it ever since.  These students and workers are affiliated with Student Action with Workers (SAW), a UNC group affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) international, as well as several other campus groups that are part of the Sweatfree Coalition and community-based youth group, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST).

Brand names such as Nike and Adidas are currently partnered with UNC to make apparel bearing the “Carolina” name.  These brands source the apparel from factories all over the world.  It is in the brands’ best interests to pay as little as possible to these factories for the clothing produced by the workers, and therefore have been paying increasingly lower prices for the apparel.  This forces factory owners to cut the wages of the workers producing the apparel.  Workers in these factories, however, have not remained silent.  Many have tried to organize their factories or become involved in union activities.  These attempts are met with harsh consequences, however.  Union organizers have been assaulted, harassed, fired, and even killed.  In addition, brands often “cut and run” from factories in which a union has been established, often leaving hundreds of workers without jobs or means of livelihood.

What is important in this crisis is the power dynamic.  While brands have power over the factories, administrations of universities have power over the brands and recently students have begun putting pressure on their administrations to pressure brands to pay enough to factories for a living wage as well as allow freedom of association among all workers.

In 1999, students at UNC held a 72 hour sit-in to pressure the university to adopt codes of conduct which would ensure freedom of association and a living wage for workers producing Carolina apparel.  However, almost 10 years later, these codes are still not being enforced because brands refuse to pay enough to the factories to allow for these worker gains.  In fact, when factories do follow these codes of conduct, they are penalized by losing orders to other factories that pay their workers lower wages.

The Designated Suppliers Program was designed to combat this practice of brands “cutting and running” from organized factories by requiring brands to source their apparel from factories that uphold these basic human rights, a living wage and the right to organize.  The DSP, once adopted by a university, would begin a gradual process of sourcing increasing amounts of apparel from fair labor factories.  These practices would be monitored in the factories by a third-party non-profit agency called the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).  Already, 42 universities have signed on to the Designated Suppliers Program, including Duke, Cornell, Columbia, and the entire University of California system.

For three years, students in SAW have carried out a campaign to ask the Chancellor to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program.  Because the students have been ignored for these three years, they decided to stage a sit-in, the fourth in the country in the past two weeks, all for the DSP, to pressure the Chancellor to adopt the DSP and uphold the labor codes that the university already has in place.  The first in the recent string on sit-ins took place at Penn State University on April 15th when 31 students were arrested on the first day demanding the DSP.  Later that week, 9 were arrested at Montana University followed by 6 students being arrested at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. With the UNC-CH sit-in currently in its sixth day, students at University of Florida have begun a hunger strike.

“The University tries to portray itself as a university for the people but this struggle around the DSP exposes their true motives – profit and friendly relationships with big corporations, “ stated Ben Carroll, member of both SAW and FIST.  “While the University likes to talk about respecting workers rights, they do everything they can to ignore the demand for a DSP for the apparel with the UNC logo.  This apparel brings in huge profits for the university because of the cheap labor they are able to secure by super-exploitation of workers.  The University won’t sign onto this program because it would contradict their established capitalist relationships.”

The following website contains more information on the students’ efforts and the campaign for UNC to adopt the DSP: http://dsp4unc.wordpress.com/

Gomaa is a member of both SAW at UNC and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill chapter of the youth group FIST.  She has been an active participant in the sit-ins.

Mumia Abu-Jamal

The following is a commentary from three members of the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) on the eve of the April 19 march and rally in Philadelphia to demand the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

here is a man in the state of Pennsylvania who has a street in France named after him. That man is Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and ex-member of the Black Panther Party—an organization classified as “terrorist” by the U.S. government. A former Black Panther, Mumia is now in his 26th year on Pennsylvania’s death row.

Mumia is a hero to Black youth and all people seeking liberation. The “voice of the voiceless,” he chronicles the legacies of people’s struggles worldwide. One of the greatest threats to U.S. imperialism is the uprising of “young Mumias” from the streets of Philadelphia to the streets of Paris.

At the age of 15, Mumia joined the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, one of the most racist and repressive cities in the country. He became the lieutenant of information for the Philadelphia chapter and later worked with the New York and Oakland chapters. Mumia performed a variety of duties, ranging from selling the Black Panther newspaper to armed security duty.

With his fellow Panthers, Mumia was a leader in the Black Liberation struggle of the late 1960s and earlier 1970s, which was demanding the right of Black people to self-determination, self-defense and, ultimately, complete liberation.

Since his time in the BPP, Mumia has dedicated his life to the education and liberation of Black people in the U.S. and across the world. He is a journalist and was integral in calling media attention to the attacks of the Philadelphia Police Department on local Black Panthers and the MOVE organization, including the 1985 bombing of the MOVE compound. In that act of state terrorism, 11 Black people died, including four children.

Is this man not a hero? Is Mumia not a freedom fighter? Why are there no holidays for him and other leaders of the Black Liberation struggle? Did he not dedicate his life to the liberation of the most oppressed?

In history the word “hero” has been used to define a variety of people. The men considered to be the “founding fathers” of the United States are often referred to as heroes, but it is undisputed that these men were active in racist institutions, including slavery.

George Washington owned slaves and at one point had teeth removed from the mouths of slaves in order to have them implanted in his own jaw. Thomas Jefferson raped Sally Hemings, a teenage slave he owned, said to be his wife’s half sister. In 1858 Abraham Lincoln, the man credited with emancipating Black people from slavery, stated the following: “While they [Black people and white people] do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

These three men, along with many other wealthy white men in U.S. history, have been labeled heroes. Youth and students across the country are taught daily that they are the type of people we should celebrate. Their histories of racism, sexism, capitalism and heterosexism are covered up and the mass murder and displacement they are responsible for is called the establishment of the United States.

But those are the oppressor’s heroes. Who are ours? Who are the heroes of people of color, women, lesbian/bi/gay/trans/queer folks and the working masses? One of them is definitely Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In 1981 Mumia was framed for the murder of Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to execution. The U.S. government, the Fraternal Order of Police and the racist mainstream media have waged a campaign against Mumia for 27 years, portraying him as terrorist and a murderer. But the people’s struggle has kept him alive.

The negative portrayal of Mumia and the Black Liberation movement as a whole is an aspect of the overall war against Black people, specifically Black youth. Like the omission from the history books of the 1935 Wiley College debate team, recently portrayed in the film “The Great Debaters,” the criminalization of Mumia is a deliberate attempt to erase the contributions of Blacks in the United States.

Combined with disproportionate military recruitment and incarceration, as well as the blatant murders of Black youth by the state, the eradication of Black Liberation history is a strategic tool in the oppression of Black people. Cases like the Jena 6, the Jersey 4, the state murders of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, as well as the case of John White, are all a part of the attack on Black people and our basic human right to self-defense. One must ask: Why is it that when people of color are forced to defend ourselves, it is considered by the state to be an unheroic, criminal act?

The Black Panther Party of the 1960s and 1970s and Mumia Abu-Jamal are our heroes and revolutionaries. They are the leaders of our national liberation. We as youth, especially Black youth, see the BPP as proof of Black agency in history, in opposition to the education we receive that portrays Black people as a historically passive people.

Though many of us can name Mumia as our hero, there are far too many of us who have no idea who he is and what he has contributed to human history. It is a product of the state’s attempted eradication of all liberation movements fighting against U.S. imperialism, specifically those led by people of color.

In the words of Mumia: “I’m fighting every day, not just for my freedom, not just for my liberation, but for all of our liberation. Unabashedly I’ll fight for revolution because I think revolution is our only solution. I’m not shy about using that word.”

Mumia: father, grandfather, journalist, freedom fighter, visionary, revolutionary. Mumia is not just a hero but a flame-sparker and we are the Inheritors of the Fire.

Members of Raleigh FIST will be riding a bus up to Philadelphia this Saturday. For more information or to buy a bus ticket please call 919-539-2051

The 25th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Support for Labor banquet, sponsored by Black Workers For Justice, took place on April 5 at the North Carolina Association of Educators building in Raleigh, N.C. The theme of this year’s program was “We Charge Genocide! Stand Up, Organize & Resist!”

Fruit of Labor singers. WW photos: Monica Moorehead

The impetus for the theme comes from a movement that began in 1951, when African-American activists William Patterson, Paul Robeson and others collaborated on a document called “We Charge Genocide, The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People.” It chronicled the countless lynchings of Black people that had gone unpunished since the end of the Civil War.

This historic document could easily be applied today, with continuing racist repression of Black people embodied by the public housing crisis for Katrina survivors, the Jena Six, police brutality, incarceration and much more.

Dante Strobino from FIST, left, listens to Robert Whiteside, one of the Freightliner 5.

The banquet came one day after the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, who became an important voice against the Vietnam War and was also pro-civil rights and workers’ rights.

BWFJ, since its inception 27 years ago, has been carrying on Dr. King’s legacy. Many of its members are involved in the Electrical Workers union Local 150’s drives to organize public sector workers in North Carolina, which still practices anti-union, right-to-work laws.

The keynote speaker at this year’s banquet was Cindy Wiesner, an organizer of the Global Grassroots Justice Alliance and an outreach organizer for the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta last June. Robert Whiteside, one of the Freightliner 5, gave a short update on their struggle for justice. The 5 are members of United Auto Workers Local 3520 who were terminated from their jobs for opposing a two-tier wage structure during contract negotiations with Freightliner LLC on April 3, 2007. (Read Dante Strobino’s article at http://raleighfist.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/charleston-5-support-fired-uaw-strikers/ and also go to www.justice4five.com.)

The Abner Berry Self-Determination Awards were given to longtime labor organizer Dorothy Edwards and youth/community organizer Angaza Mayo-Laughinghouse. Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble and spoken-word artist Neva Deva provided cultural entertainment.

By Larkin Coffey and Zac Morgan

The 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq did not pass quietly in Raleigh. On March 20th, students from Enloe, Broughton, Southeast Raleigh, and Cary High walked out of school to demand an end to the war in Iraq. Building on the walkout demonstrations of 2007, student organizers from all over the country worked hard to ensure success this year. In Raleigh, over 150 students picketed and chanted on the sidewalk along Hillsborough Street, near the NC State bell tower.

Despite attempts to intervene by campus and Raleigh city police, the students continued protesting and made it clear they would not be moved. A strong group numbering about 30 came in from Carolina Friends School in Durham to support the Raleigh students, with school approval. Raleigh FIST placards and banners all along the picket lines reflected the militant, radical stand being taken by the students, as well as the important role of FIST in organizing the walkouts and demonstration.

After picketing on the sidewalk and making sure they were heard, the demonstrators marched up Hillsborough Street to the NC State brick yard for a rally. Speakers at the rally emphasized the disastrous effects this war will have on jobs, healthcare, and education for youth in America and all over the world. “I have been opposed to the war the whole time, and knowing that my family is over there is really stressful”, said Hank S., an Enloe freshman. The demonstrator’s enthusiasm and conviction was summed up by an Enloe senior: “everyone should scream and shout and make a big fuss because that is our duty as citizens.”

Beyond the walkouts, FIST is organizing a youth conference on April 6th, 2008 from 6-8:30pm at the ACRe Space in Raleigh. This event will help determine how to best continue organizing with youth against the war, as well as to make the connections between the war and the falling economy, lack of good paying jobs and health care for youth, and how to move beyond elections and relying on the Democratic Party. We must build a movement for social justice!

Coffey is a sophomore at Friends High School in Durham, NC and Morgan is a junior at Enloe High School in Raleigh, NC. Both were main organizers for the Raleigh walk-outs and also members of Raleigh FIST.

A CALL TO THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT: Protest the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Conference Foreclose the War, Not Peoples’ Homes! Moratorium Now! Attention antiwar activists–dust off your protest signs and bring them to a national demonstration against home foreclosures and evictions in Washington DC, on Wednesday, April 16. Join the Ad Hoc National Network Against Home Foreclosures and Evictions in front of the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Conference, the biggest assembly of mortgage bankers in the country, to demand a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions. Almost everyone hates the war in Iraq, but until now many have seemed resigned to leaving it up to politicians to end it. That¢s because most people have felt that the war didn¢t affect them personally. That mindset is coming to an end. Mass anger over home foreclosures, rising unemployment, rising gas and food prices etc. is starting to transform passive opposition to the war into urgent and active mass anger at the war. More people are viewing the war¢s cost as one of the main reasons for economic hard times. People tend to pay a lot more attention to the money wasted on the war plus the fact that banks are being bailed out by the government when their losing their homes and jobs. Finally, there is the potential for forging the movement that can force an end to the war. We can give meaning to the 5th anniversary of this criminal war by making it the moment that antiwar activists, at the grass roots level, employ the strategy that the war makers have always feared–merging the fight against the war abroad with the struggle of working and poor people right here. Come to D.C. on April 16, and start giving the war- makers the nightmare that they hoped they could avoid. Foreclose the war, not peoples¢ homes! View endorsers from around the country (list in formation) at: http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/index.html#citiesandendorsers

ENDORSE - http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/stopforeclosuresendorse.shtml VOLUNTEER - http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/stopforeclosuresvolunteer.shtml DONATE - http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/donate.shtml DOWNLOAD FLYER - http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/april16.pdf CONTACT US - http://www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org/cmnt.shtml Contact: The Ad Hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures & Evictions A fast growing network of activists organizing in 22 states in every region of the country. www.STOPForeclosuresAndEvictions.org 212-633-6646 Atlanta 404-622-7517 n Baltimore 410-218-4835 n Boston 617-522-6626 Buffalo 716-604-9515 n Charlotte, NC 704-492-5226 Cleveland 216-531-4004 n Detroit 313-319-0870 n Keene, NH 603-357-6855 Los Angeles 323-936-7266 n Miami 786-985-9048 New York 212-633-6646 n Philadelphia 215-724-1618 Providence 401-837-7663 n Raleigh, NC 919-264-0201 Washington, DC 202-821-3686

Rides available from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area if you contact 919-539-2051 or email raleighFIST@gmail.com . We will be leaving early in the morning on Wed, April 16th and returning that night.

Now that a Black presidential candidate has a real chance of winning the Democratic nomination and even the presidency, we’re once again asked not to talk about oppression. We’re supposed to reject the teachings of, for instance, Malcolm X, and even Martin Luther King Jr. We’re supposed to deny what, for so many poor and oppressed peoples in the United States and throughout the world, is a clear-cut reality. We’re not supposed to be angry—and we’re definitely not supposed to speak up and fight back.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Such is the case in the media-bashing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In a media flooded with racist, sexist and anti-LGBT images and voices, the words of a Black man calling the U.S. on its violence and oppression are labeled “hate speech.” Obama’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, went so far as to put Wright on a par with Don Imus—who is back on the air even after his racist, sexist rants made international headlines.

The attack on the Rev. Wright is nothing less than nationalist baiting and anti-patriot baiting. It is being used not only to undermine Obama’s campaign, but particularly in an attempt to defeat the Black struggle.

The media, as they will often do when attempting to defile someone’s character, have reduced Wright’s comments to mere snippets and sound bites of supposedly inexplicable outbursts against the U.S. Even in that limited context, it is hard to find fault in his words.

For instance, the idea that HIV was created to target people of color (and LGBT people) is not new, and understandable given the overall government attack on those communities.

The warehousing of people of color in the prison industrial complex, as well as the flooding of drugs into poor people of color communities, has been well documented. Why, then, wouldn’t Wright say: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strikes law, and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America.”

However, the media was also careful to omit the obvious evidence Wright presented for some of his words. Here are some excerpts of Wright’s comments on 9/11, the video of which can be viewed at alternet.org:

“I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. … This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox news commentators to no end. … He pointed out that what Malcolm X said … was in fact coming true, America’s chickens are coming home to roost. We took this country, by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Rapaho, the Navaho—terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear—terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel; we bombed the Black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hardworking fathers. We bombed Qadaffi’s home and killed his child. …

“We bombed Iraq, we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy; killed hundreds of hardworking people, mothers and fathers who left home to go to work that day, not knowing that they’d never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima; we bombed Nagasaki; and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon—and we never batted an eye: kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians, not soldiers; people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yard.

“America’s chickens are coming home to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that, y’all, not a Black militant, not a reverend who preaches about racism.”

Elections in the U.S. are always an attempt to dampen militant people’s struggles, to silence our legitimate outrage at oppression and demands for justice.

With the attacks on the Rev. Wright, the continued attack on communities of color, an election season and a growing economic crisis that is sure to exacerbate misery for working people—now is the time to affirm the self-determination of oppressed peoples and stand together in solidarity with the Black struggle.

By Dante Strobino
Cleveland, N.C.

A March 4 community event here for the Freightliner 5—members of United Auto Workers Local 3520 who were fired after leading a strike—highlighted support the five are getting from other militant unionists in the South.

Ken Riley, President of ILA Local 1422, gives encouragement at Freightliner 5 meeting. FIST photo: Dante Strobino

After the workers refused to accept the company’s concessionary contract and initiated a strike on April 3, 2007, Freightliner bosses fired five members of Local 3520’s bargaining committee—Robert Whiteside, Allen Bradley, Franklin Torrence, Glenna Swinford and David Crisco—along with six other workers.

The contract had 22 articles with no tentative agreement and 86 unsettled sub-issues relating to health and safety. Among the concessions was a two-tier wage structure, which pays newer workers far less than their seniors.

The other six got their jobs back after signing “model employee” agreements; one was subsequently terminated.

Kenneth Riley, a dockworker and president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422, gave encouragement to the 50-plus Freightliner workers at the meeting. Local 1422 is home of the Charleston 5—workers who were put under house arrest in 2000 for leading a picket in Charleston, S.C.

Community support for labor

At the meeting, many spoke about organizing in the South and the need for community-labor support groups. In 2007, North Carolina and South Carolina ranked 50th and 48th, respectively, in union density in the U.S.

Riley spoke about the Charleston 5’s successful campaign after they faced conspiracy charges for leading a picket line at which more than 600 cops attacked 150 workers. Without being convicted of any crime, the Charleston 5 were then put under house arrest for almost two years.

“It was not until we got the community involved that things changed,” Riley said. They rallied churches, community groups and students. The case became an international campaign where trade unionists threatened to go on strike if the five were convicted. In the end, they were freed and given a fine of $100 each.

Local 1422 is “one of the largest and most powerful union locals in the state with the nation’s lowest rate of unionization,” stated Riley. “State troopers attacked the longshore workers only days after an historic march on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, at which 47,000 people demanded that the Confederate battle flag be taken down from the South Carolina State Capitol.

“Local 1422 is a largely African-American local, a very important segment of the Charleston community. It is significant that we are under attack because we are living proof that unionization is the best anti-poverty program ever created.”

Workers at Freightliner are finding ways to build a similar campaign. The Freightliner 5 recently returned from a tour of the Midwest and West Coast to gain support for their efforts.

Many Freightliner workers also participated with 7,000 others in the “Historic Thousands on Jones Street” (HKonJ) march in Raleigh, N.C. on Feb. 11, which marched on the North Carolina Legislature for the second year in a row. The HKonJ People’s Assembly has a progressive 14-point platform that includes livable wages, collective bargaining for public workers, ending the Iraq war, civil rights enforcement, better education and addressing chapters of racist history in North Carolina. Local People’s Assemblies are being organized throughout the year across the state.

Solidarity is key

“In a ‘right-to-work’ state, with only 3 percent of employees unionized, it is extremely important for the community to rally behind the workers to improve their lot in life. … When these workers are able to attain these goals, this betters the community as a whole,” said Glenna Swinford, one of the Freightliner 5.

“Solidarity is more than just a word, it is actions. Solidarity is when people come together with one common goal, to undo the wrongs and build a movement for justice for all.”

To learn more about how to support the Freightliner 5, visit justice4five.com. Strobino is an organizer with UE. The UE Eastern Region recently passed a resolution supporting the reinstatement of the Cleveland 5 and encourages other locals to do the same.