Leonard Riley, a member of the executive board of ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina, explained the stakes in this case June 2 at the southern regional conference of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) in Atlanta. "If these men are allowed to go to jail, it has a chilling effect on the labor movement," he said. "We have a constitutional right to picket."

The case stems from a dispute between the ILA and Nordana Lines, which in late 1999 began using a nonunion company to load and unload its ships. Dockworkers picketed these ships to defend their union rights. On Jan. 20, 2000, some 600 police assaulted 130 pickets, injuring several workers. Five of the longshoremen are now facing criminal charges that could carry up to 10 years in prison.

"Eighteen months later these men are still under house arrest," Riley told the UNITE conference. They cannot leave their homes at night except for work or union meetings, and must get special permission to travel. "These are fundamental civil rights," he emphasized.

On May 31, state attorney general Charles Condon issued a statement denouncing a press conference held by the South Carolina Progressive Network to publicize the June 9 rally as "ridiculous and absurd." He rehashed the government’s version of the police riot, and vowed to "prosecute these cases fully and vigorously.... The right of South Carolina citizens to refuse to join a labor union will be upheld."

The call for the June 9 rally got a warm response at the UNITE conference. Many locals have already been signing people up to go on buses--from Kannapolis, North Carolina to Columbus and Tignall, Georgia.

The rally was promoted at the May 26–27 conference of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists in Miami. Some of the young people demonstrating against police brutality in Cincinnati June 2 had heard of the Columbia rally and were making plans to attend.

Buses are coming from Atlanta, Detroit, New York, and ports up and down the East Coast. Riley said dockworkers on the West Coast and in Houston are also sending contingents. Participants will assemble at 11 a.m. in Memorial Park (Gadsden St. and Hampton St.) in downtown Columbia and then march to the South Carolina statehouse for a rally. The Charleston Five themselves will not be present, because the terms of their house arrest forbid their participation in any rallies.

On June 8, the ILA will host an event at its hall in Charleston where supporters can meet the five framed-up workers before boarding buses for the Columbia rally the next day.

Naomi Craine is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 1501.
 
 
Related article:
Justice for the Charleston Five  
 
 
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