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2013-03-19 "Community & Labor Self-defense political strike organizing"
Laney Student Center (located just off the main quad), [900 Fallon Street, Oakland, CA 94607]
Tuesday, 6 to 9pm
It is time for an organizing drive to unite Labor Unions and Community Justice campaigns towards self-defense against attacks by the state. They kill or lock us up, we shut them down with People's Pickets, defense guards, and a general strike!
Called for by "Labor, Black & Brown" solidarity organization
2013-02 photograph showing LB&B outreaching, talking and chopping it up towards building a community-labor alliance with ILWU Local 10 members at their hiring hall, with family members of victims of police terror and violence, including the "Justice for Mario Romero" and "Justice for Jared" campaigns of Vallejo:
More info about "Justice for Mario Romero" campaign in Vallejo [http://northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2013/02/justice-for-mario-romero-vallejo.html].
2013-02-25 message from "ILWU - Local 10" President Michael Villeggiante [local10president (@bayarea.net]:
To the Romero family -
At our February 21 union meeting my members voted to support the justice for Mario Romero foundation and we stand in solidarity with the Romero family and all the rest of the families that their loved ones have been fatally killed. The international Longshore warehouse union local 10 demand a full and transparent investigation of Mario's Romero killing, and that the Vallejo police and Solano County Dist. Atty. open up a full investigation on these killings.
Sincerely Michael Villeggiante, president ILWU local 10
---
Message from "Labor, Black and Brown" solidarity organizer Topaz DuBois to "ILWU - Local 10":
Thank you ILWU Local 10 for your impressive shining presence at yesterday's "Union" Press Conference, outside Vallejo City Hall.
We salute all of the ILWU Local 10 for standing in solidarity alongside the Families and supporters of Mario Romero, Jared Huey, Jeremiah Moore, Anton Barrett, Ernesto Duenas, Guy Jarreau, and Alan Blueford.
We were also joined by Indigenous People, Labor Black and Brown, Black Riders, Poor Magazine, Omega Boys and Girls Club members, OZCAT Radio, and rank and file (members of the following unions) SEIU Local 1021 Unionists, Drywall/lathers Local 68L, Transport Workers Union Local 250A, and AFSCME Local 444.
Your solidarity was felt by the children of these families and four year old Dasani, Mario's nephew (the one who spoke after Mario was murdered and witnessed his Uncle's murder: "What do I tell my niece [Mario's daughter] when she cries for her Daddy at night?") got to meet Frank Gaskin (ILWU Local 10, B.A.) and give him a big handshake.
Jared Huey's five year old brother Johnny felt safe with ILWU as he stood with his Dad holding a sign.
I share this-- because it was the first time that Johnny talked to adults in public since his brother was murdered by the Vallejo police June 30.
And Mario's daughter got to be there with her mother.
These families got to meet the ILWU. We saw that you were there to actively participate in the protection and defense of us, especially our children.
It was a historic day. The seed for uniting the community with the power and muscle of labor has sprouted here in Vallejo. We are not alone. We are One. It was a good day.
Thank you for staying through the end after the Vallejo Police, County Sheriff's, American Canyon police were called by Mayor Davis' Vallejo City Government in an attempt to intimidate,harass,instigate an incident with batons drawn.
The same Mayor Davis who had me seized by Vallejo Police, and pulled off the podium midway into my democratic right to speak on November 13, where a young African American was arrested for defending my Constitutional right to speak, as I had followed all protocol: (See Youtube Link: laborblackbrown).
The valiant crew of ILWU Local 10 men and women were disciplined, organized and effective.
We look forward to returning to ILWU Local 10 as the families were impressed by the courage, strength and organization shown. Plus it was a breath of fresh air for all.
The media will probably disappear the truth, but our legacy was honored to have ILWU Local 10 present. (See Link to today's Vallejo Times-Herald: [http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_22675814/protesters-briefly-take-over-vallejo-city-council-chambers])
United We Stand-- Divided We Fall-- An Injury to One is An Injury to All!
We shall see you soon ILWU Local 10!
[signed] Topaz Du Bois, SEIU Local 1021 Former Contract Action Team Co-Chair County of Solano
2012 Union Arbitration Winner Against the County of Solano
During July, 2012, "Labor, Black & Brown" solidarity organization organized a People's Picket as part of the "Justice for Kenneth Harding" campaign, in solidarity with other organizations [northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2012/07/2012-07-14-jusice-for-kenneth-harding.html]:
2012-10-12 "All of us or None! For Mumia and Leonard"
“Labor Black and Brown”, 2012-01
• Independent political organization and political action of labor Black and Brown people toward political and economic independence and power! rank and file must provide the labor leaders dedicated to class independence and united labor Black Brown strike action.
• Solidarity: In the fight for jobs, for our unions, for our schools, against police brutality, to defend native and aboriginal rights, against the prison industrial complex and with #occupy and the ILWU
• We say it is time to build the democratic working class/labor Black and Brown organizations, assemblies, and neighborhood and factory action committees!
• JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT-JUSTICE FOR RAHEIM BROWN AND ALL VICTIMS OF POLICE VIOLENCE. FOR GENERAL STRIKES TO JAIL KILLER COPS! We say down with phony police review commissions: Form up labor Black and Brown tribunals to try killer cops! Build a General Strike movement against police brutality! HANDS OFF WHISTLEBLOWERS SEAN GILLIS, DORIEN MAXWELL &TOPAZ DUBOIS
• We say cops out of our communities, out of our schools, off our campuses!
• Build labor Black and Brown self defense guards against racist attacks, against la migra, against police brutality; against scabs taking union jobs and to defend the #occupy activists!
• DROP THE CHARGES AND RELEASE ALL ARRESTED OCCUPY ACTIVISTS! Free all political prisoners! Free Hugo Pinell, Free Leonard Peltier Free Mumia Abu Jamal!
• Tear down the prison industrial complex!
• We demand full citizenship rights for immigrants. End corporate sweatshop exploitation! Organize immigrant workers! Defeat ICE!
• Poverty is the crime! Jobs for all! 30 hours work for 40 hours pay!
Open the books of industry! Provide a sliding scale of wages and prices! We demand billions for public works create millions of ethical, green, humane jobs now!
• Educate and train all willing workers, provide day care, public laundry and communal kitchens!
• We say health care is a right! Socialize the medical industry under health care workers and community control! End drug profiteering! Free medical science from corporate control!
• DEFEAT OF US IMPERIALISM! We stand for the defeat of imperialist exploitation across Africa, Asia and Latin America! We stand against imperialist war mongering in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and the saber rattling toward Iran! We stand with the colonized and native people in their struggle to save mother earth from the barbarism of the imperialist rape of the land and destruction of the people and their ancestral traditions. Free Hawaii! Free Puerto Rico! Defend sovereign people’s treaty rights!
2012-01-13 Labor Black Brown solidarity event
2011-09
LBB's announcement and explanation of their affiliation with the HRWS...
Next Labor Black & Brown Meeting: Tuesday, May 7, 2013. 6:00pm, Laney Colleg Student Center, 4th floor.
LBB is on the left-revolutionary-wing of the workers movement. We have worked with and had association with 3 political organizations, the Pan African People's Reuinfication Party, the Black Riders, and Humanist Workers (HWRS).
We have had the pleasure of sharing joint struggle with the Justice for Rahiem Brown Ctte., the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation, the Oscar Grant Foundation, the Sean Gillis Support Ctte, and various, honorable independent radical and revolutionaries.
We note the absence of most of the American "left". LBB has gotten the isolation - throttle treatment. The reformist misleaders and their reformist organizations wish and work to make us go away.
They may get their wish. We have been fighting for our existence, since LBB's inception. It is not easy to be in an organization that is villified by opportunists and ignoramuses. Back-talked and microphone-proofed. For seasoned communists, this is the "cost of business", the stacked playing board, if you will. For newer political people this is a hard regimen to abide.
I have found seasoned communist co-thinkers with HWRS. Labor Black & Brown is not, will not become a "front group". That is the unhealthy, unprincipled and historical practice of the "left" and so-called "socialists".
HWRS is opposed to this manipulative practice. LBB has always been open for anybody to join. This is still the case. Most of the "left" and chameleon pretenders are not attracted to an open, revolutionary-oriented organization championing Black, Brown and workers rights and POWER.
Our next meetings will determine what type of organizational and political form should serve this agenda.
Or will determine if Labor Black & Brown becomes a viable organization.
So please read the attachment, LBB's beginnings.
We need to determine our direction and political character in 2013 and beyond
(The attachment is posted below)
"Black and Brown Workers’ Solidarity -- Justice for Oscar Grant"
A Statement by Labor, Black, Brown committee members (formerly of the Oscar Grant Committee) Topaz, Charles, Toussaint, Christina, Cesar, Julio, issued November 23, 2010:
We have regrettably decided to withdraw from the OGC.
“Justice for Oscar Grant" advocates of “Labor, Brown, and Black power to shut the city down” are being systematically ‘shut down’.
Lately, small-minded bureaucratic players, personified by the [OGC Outreach subcommittee], went too far. A thorough, documented account will be forthcoming. For now, we will share a few of our observations of the OGC meeting of Nov. 16.
We will continue the struggle for “Justice for Oscar Grant”. We will carry on to help mobilize the workers and community to “Shut the City Down.” We intend on finding those forces to make this happen. We shall not be moved.
A footnote on the alleged “disruptions”: What is meant by “disruptions”? For now, instead of slogging through the entirety of this loaded and prejudicial tract, we will draw attention to 2 allegations:
1) “This behavior began at the beginning of the meeting when one of the disruptors voiced his disapproval about what he felt was an undemocratic self-appointment by the chair of the meeting.” [Quote from OGC Outreach subcommittee member's e-mail]
We ask: Did the so-called “disruptor” (Toussaint) raise his hand and then speak when recognized? What other means does [OGC Outreach subcommittee member's e-mail] suggest that one take when they detect an undemocratic self-appointment? The so-called “disruptor” (Toussaint) had already expressed these misgivings (with no effect!) to the OGC chairperson via e-mail on Nov. 13.
2) “…This person [Toussaint] felt that, not only was the leaflet bad. The way it was printed before being discussed by the whole committee was undemocratic.”
Again we ask: Did the so-called “disruptor” raise his hand, and speak when recognized? Did he “disrupt” the proceedings? Again, what should one do about your admitted “undemocratic procedure? A leaflet produced by the OGC should be discussed and approved by the OGC. Otherwise – it's undemocratic!
[OGC Outreach subcommittee member's] e-mail spreads confusion by saturating his text with variations of the word “disruption”. We would like to remind one that Goebbels -- the propaganda architect of the Nazi program of Hitler's fascist machine -- said that if you repeat a lie over and over again people will begin to believe you. Likewise, the pro-police media emulates Goebbels in smearing Oscar Grant. We do not take "tags" lightly. We are the voices that the slanderers of disinformation want shut down.
The “bad” draft leaflet was actually a finished leaflet (1,000 had already been printed). It was presented to the OGC of Nov. 16 meeting as an accomplished fact. (Another so-called “proactive” move, we suppose). Compare the leaflet headline and conception of [OGC Outreach subcommittee] to the leaflet headline and conception that we proposed.
(Their conception):
Drop the Charges!
Show your outrage against state terror and police lies,
Join us for a demonstration at the D.A.’s office
(Our conception)
Justice for Oscar Grant! Drop the Charges against the 152 Arrested -
We condemn the Police Attack on Protesters who were arrested!
We salute the S.F. Central Labor Council for taking the lead in condemning this attack.
This kind of approach -- one that mobilizes our allies to effect -- seems beyond the small-minded bureaucratic and reformist approach of the “sub-committee”.
The “draft" flyer missed the key issues: The Oscar Grant Committee was formed as a means to fight for Justice for those murdered by the racist police and State. The world saw that Oscar Grant was murdered by BART policeman Mehserle. It is key, that the voices of those who are the targets of such murderous assaults be heard. It is key, that in defending our right to self-defense, Black and Brown people especially need the kind of power shown by the ILWU-led longshore call to the community and others: An Injury to One is An Injury to All! On Oct. 23, key ports in the Bay Area were shut down in protest of the cold-blooded murder of young Oscar Grant. We seek to carry this show of power, in defense of the Black and Brown communities further by shutting down the City.
At the Tuesday, November 16 meeting, [OGC Outreach subcommittee] wanted to shove down our throats a “draft” flyer that was disgustingly “race neutral.” This leaflet also tagged the Oscar Grant Committee as being “we,” a part of the “runaway march”. This is significant, as it opens the door for the State to then add additional charges to the protesters and also to target the OGC. It implies that the OGC had knowingly taken part in the “runaway march,” as opposed to the OGC noting that a “runaway march” is a predictable consequence of any protest-- particularly following the white-supremacist court’s fake sentencing of Mehserle, giving him less than a “slap on the wrist” as well as a license for Police Departments to kill any Black or Brown person, because in the eyes of the State our lives mean nothing.
Oscar Grant’s life does matter to Black and Brown people around the world. The Oakland Police Department murdered Derrick Jones just 3 days after Judge Perry issued his white-supremacist ruling in favor of Mehserle, giving the police a green light to carry out murders. Nothing about this recent atrocity is mentioned in the “draft”. This is atrocious because the family of slain barber, Derrick Jones, expressed interest in joining their fight with those fighting for Oscar Grant. This is intelligent and encouraging. We will note in passing that it is fortunate that we (who have been smeared with the label of being “disruptors”) attended the funeral of Derrick Jones. We also put our solidarity into action by joining the town hall meeting that followed the funeral. We are happy to have saved the OGC from appearing too small-minded to show the support the family asked for.
[OGC Outreach subcommittee's] flyer has nothing to offer to our Brown and Black working-class community, which now more than ever needs to see their allies like the ILWU step up to the plate to shut the city down. The flyer buried any connection to the powerful ILWU-led protest and does not even mention the SF Labor Council’s Condemnation of the Police Attack. The flyer’s ignoring of the welcome presence of labor as an ally-- is glaring. It means that even those facing “charges” are being isolated from a very powerful ally. It means that those arrested are put on the front line to face the attack by themselves. How “small-minded”! It boggles our sensibilities that these folks cannot see workers’ power as exampled by the Oct. 23 rally and port shutdown. We must use every opportunity to educate the masses with a concrete example! We must share this concrete action so that the rest of the working class and its communities can follow this example.
The anonymous flyer did not name the “Oscar Grant Committee” as its sponsor! Who -- what organization -- is asking the people’s participation and support? Why should any Oakland resident risk following the lead of an unsigned leaflet? Why would any arrestee risk his/her neck again responding to an unsigned leaflet, that they can’t even contact to verify? People were subjected to a real police trap. We are constantly subjected to the pro-police lies and orchestrated vilification by the corporate media. An arrestee might think this unsigned flyer is perhaps another trap. But the OGC “sub-committee,” living in their tiny bubble, didn’t seem to think this omission important enough to correct. The flyer didn’t even have a phone number, or ‘labor donated’ on it. So anyone wishing to help, or calling for info are snubbed by [OGC Outreach subcommittee] “No time to worry about that bit of disruptive intellectualism, they had already printed 1,000” – “How dare you naughty ‘disruptors’ suggest we destroy them and do it right!” It is this type of insincere and mindless activism approach which throws away a very hard-earned momentary victory for Oakland, and Brown and Black people in particular, who have more to lose than anyone.
We suspect that these small-minded activists, schooled in the insular mind set of talking to themselves, don’t take the masses seriously. The standard details of contact info, identification of who is responsible for the leaflet produced are the ABC’s to serious activists.
This flyer could not be given to any serious Unionist who would see through folks that posture with words like ‘bullshit’, and who print leaflets without a union bug or ‘labor donated’. The flyer’s “f--- the police” comment is not the Oscar Grant Committee’s call: The ILWU Rally’s call was “Justice for Oscar Grant” and “An Injury to One is An Injury to All" -- never was it “f--- the police”. What we need now is to go further and organize to shut the City down! Does Gerald’s sub-committee agree?
In short, we pose “No business as usual!” In contrast, the fake flyer proposes monkey business as usual and more arrests and isolation from our allies of the labor movement. We already know that Oakland’s newly re-organized Police Department uses a black puppet (Chief Batts) who conspired to stage and cage protesters for arrests. Likewise, it is our time to organize real power:
Black and Brown Ready to Fight: Workers of the World Unite!
Justice for Oscar Grant! The Struggle Continues! Shut the City Down!
