On Oct. 1, tens of thousands of members of the International Longshoremen’s Association on the East and Gulf coasts joined 33,000 Boeing workers on strike, labor battles with big stakes for all working people. These fights need organized backing by workers everywhere!
A delegation from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which organizes dockworkers on the West Coast, joined the ILA picket line at Port Elizabeth in New Jersey, Oct. 1. “When we fight, we win,” ILWU President Bobby Olvera Jr. told the crowd.
That’s an example to emulate.
Bosses rely on dividing workers in every way possible, including trying to keep word of strike battles out of the news, to try to undercut working-class solidarity. The port and other bosses are demanding the White House step in and shut down the strike, like President Joseph Biden did when he barred rail workers from striking in 2022. This underlines the fact that every class struggle is also a political struggle.
The working class has the great strength of its numbers along with its power to shut down production and transport. Every worker can make a difference. Get out the word, organize your union, your friends, family and co-workers to join the ILA picket lines and aid their fight.
The issues in the dockworkers strike confront all workers. They’re demanding a hefty wage increase to protect their living standards from the brutal impact of high prices. They’re fighting to ensure that bosses’ drive for automation doesn’t lead to union members being thrown out of work and create more dangerous working conditions.
Organizing solidarity is the road to winning this and other strikes today, and to expanding and strengthening the labor movement. That’s the road to advance the class consciousness and fighting spirit of working people!