ILA members have been picketing at the port to protest the use of nonunion labor by the shipping line. A massive police mobilization January 20 turned into a cop riot when longshoremen held a march to the waterfront. Eight union members were charged with inciting to riot, but the charges were dropped later in face of widespread support for the workers. A court order was also handed down limiting the number of pickets to 19, and prosecutors are now threatening to drag workers before a grand jury.

At a February 2 news conference organized by the South Carolina Progressive Network and held in front of the U.S. customs building, a number of speakers pledged their support to the ILA.

George Hopkins, with the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment, moderated the well-attended news conference. Rev. Joe Darby, vice-president of the local NAACP, denounced the media for smearing union members as thugs. Tommy Crenshaw, president of the Charleston Central Labor Council, criticized the state legislature's current efforts to strengthen the state's antilabor "right-to-work" law.

In response to the dropping of the charges of inciting to riot, Leonard Riley, one of the previously arrested longshoremen, said that those arrested "were framed." The prosecutors "failed to prove anything. But they plan to get us indicted by an upcoming grand jury. The frame-up is not over yet."

At the union hall, longshoreman Harry Lincoln said, "They are just trying to bust the union through 'right-to-work' legislation. That wasn't a riot," he said, referring to the battle on the waterfront. "It was a conflict blown out of proportion. The cops provoked it."

A community support rally sponsored by a state senator drew 400 people January 31, prompting the local Post and Courier to worriedly write in its news headline: "Non-dockworkers may join fight." Held at the union's headquarters, speakers included state AFL-CIO officials, local clergy, the president of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and several lawmakers.

State Sen. Robert Ford helped organize the rally, which raised $3,600 towards the Dockworkers Defense Fund.

On February 1 the government again mobilized 600 state and city cops at the Columbus Street terminal to protect the Nordana Line, a shipping outfit that refused to allow union labor to unload its ships. The whole area around the terminal was occupied by cops on horseback and in patrol cars.

The Charleston police force took out an ad in the local paper offering a reward to anyone who would "identify individuals from photographs and videos taken by the local news media and police personnel on the night of the riot." ILA president Kenneth Riley said the ad was run on television as well as in the local papers.

"The guys are willing to take a stand to defend our union," Riley said. "Our goal is to preserve union jobs. Charlie Condon, the attorney general, is out to break the unions."

A convoy of 20 independent truckers, organized by the Teamsters union, drove through town to protest low wages.

Contributions to the Dockworkers' Defense Fund can be sent to 910 Morrison Drive, Charleston, S.C. 29403, Atten: Robert Ford.

Rosbene Shields, a member of United Auto Workers Local 882, and Dick Geyer, a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1201, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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