Days before the framed-up dockworkers were to be tried on felony riot charges that could lead to long prison terms, the prosecution settled for a plea agreement on misdemeanor charges with no jail time. "The Charleston Five are finally free," said Kenneth Riley, president of ILA Local 1422. "This is a tremendous victory for the labor movement in South Carolina."

Over the past two years the union has turned back a company drive to begin using nonunion labor on the docks, defended the five framed-up workers, and joined with thousands of others in dealing a blow to racism today by forcing the state government to remove the Confederate battle flag from the top of the Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina. Thousands of workers across the Carolinas, where unionization hovers in the low single digits, have supported this battle as their own.

The battle started two years ago when the Nordana Lines shipping company tried to replace ILA labor with a nonunion outfit, Winyah Stevedoring, to unload its ships in Charleston. Winyah paid about $10 per hour, compared to the $16–24 that union members earn. The dockworkers responded to this transparent attempt at union busting with informational pickets against every Nordana ship that pulled into port.

Just past midnight on the morning of Jan. 20, 2000, some 150 ILA members began to march from their union hall to the docks to picket a Nordana ship. The workers were surrounded and attacked by 600 cops, from six different jurisdictions, in full riot gear. In the melee that ensued, the police used shock grenades, smoke bombs, dogs, and tear gas. The cops fired "bean-bag" projectiles and injured a number of workers, including the president of the union local. Photos of dockworkers defending themselves against the cop attacks were featured in newspapers across the country.

Eight workers were arrested on the scene and initially charged with trespassing. State attorney general Charles Condon had the charges increased to instigating a riot, which is a felony. A local magistrate soon threw out the case for lack of evidence, however.  
 
'Jail, jail, and more jail'
The attorney general then convened a grand jury and succeeded in getting five workers--Jason Edgerton, Elijah Ford, Kenneth Jefferson, Ricky Simmons, and Peter Washington--reindicted on felony charges. Condon said his plan to deal with "union dockworker violence and attacks upon police officers" is "jail, jail, and more jail." A press release from his office called for no bail, no plea bargaining, and no leniency for the dockworkers. The five were kept under house arrest, not allowed out from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. except to work, for more than 18 months. Condon and other state officials justified this stance by saying it was necessary to uphold South Carolina's antiunion "right-to-work" laws.

The local daily Post and Courier chimed in with a Jan. 21, 2000, editorial declaring that "those involved must know that with or without their approval, South Carolina remains a right-to-work state. Nonunion workers, by law, can load and unload nonunion ships at this port." The paper ran a feature spread entitled "Anatomy of a riot" which to this day is highlighted on their website.

Condon has continued to make inflammatory statements against the ILA, including smearing the union members as terrorists following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.  
 
Defense fight is example for labor
In response to this attack on the union, the longshoremen launched a militant defense campaign that set an example for the entire labor movement. ILA officials from Charleston traveled throughout the United States and to Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere explaining their fight and gaining support. From Atlanta to New York, Cleveland, and San Francisco, unionists, students, and others joined in rallies to support the Charleston Five.

Some 5,000 unionists and others marched to the state capitol in Columbia last June to demand the charges be dropped. Over the last few months bright yellow "Free the Charleston Five" signs went up all over working-class neighborhoods in the Charleston area, petitions called on the governor to drop the charges, and the case was highlighted at Labor Day celebrations this year and last.

The June 2001 rally for workers rights in Columbia, South Carolina, was a magnificent display of solidarity. It drew together thousands of workers from throughout the South and beyond, including many who had been through recent strikes and fights of their own, such as Steelworkers from Continental General Tire in Charlotte; members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees from Hollander Home Fashions in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The rally registered the increasing confidence and resistance to the bosses' attacks in the least unionized part of this country.

In mid-April 2000, Nordana reached an agreement with the ILA for union members to work on its ships under the terms of the union contract.

The dockworkers continued to join in other social struggles, such as the fight to remove the Confederate battle flag from atop the statehouse dome. Just days before the cops attacked their picket line, the ILA local in Charleston sent buses to a 50,000-strong Martin Luther King Day rally against this racist symbol.

In April 2000 another sizable contingent of dockworkers helped launch a march from Charleston to Columbia to protest the flag. In the face of such protests, the South Carolina legislature was forced to move the battle flag off the capitol dome, though it remains elsewhere on the statehouse grounds.

As the Charleston Five defense gained ground, a layer of politicians came to the conclusion that the prosecution was too politically costly. Charleston mayor Joseph Riley and others called for Condon to step aside from directly prosecuting the case, to allow it to be settled. He finally did so on October 10, handing the prosecution over to a Dorchester County solicitor just outside Charleston.

A few days later, the judge who was to try the case released the Charleston Five from their house arrest. This was shortly followed by the plea offer--even though Condon had sworn he would never allow a plea bargain. On November 7 two of the defendants pled no contest to misdemeanor charges and were sentenced to 30 days in jail, which was suspended upon payment of a $100 fine. A similar arrangement for the remaining three will be made official November 13.

The longshoremen still face a civil lawsuit filed by the nonunion stevedoring outfit against ILA Local 1422. The suit claims financial damages and names 27 officers and members of the union. The ILA is seeking to organize workers employed by the company.

The union and its supporters will be holding victory celebrations in Charleston and several other cities in the coming weeks.

Naomi Craine is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 1501.  
 
 
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