AUT: Fwd: Repression vs US Liverpool Dockers Supporters

[sjwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Wright)]

-Forwarded

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 12:03:46 -0500
From: Charles Willett <willett@xxxxxxx
Subject: Legal Repression against Oakland Protestors Supporting
  Liverpool Dockers -Forwarded

I am pulling out all my e-mail stops to inform people about this
savage punitive attack, including McCarthy-type interrogatories, by
an association of large corporations and a California college
administration on the academic and intellectual freedom, First
Amendment rights, and labor law protections of students, faculty and
union members, following the dramatic action of longshoremen in the
United States, Canada and Japan (kept out of the news by the usual
mainstream media self-censorship) who successfully boycotted the
scab-loaded SS Neptune Jade out of Liverpool.  Please publicize this
case widely and pledge solidarity with Albert Lannon in his
courageous stand.

Albert Lannon asks that letters of protest be sent to:  A.J. Harrison,
Chancellor Peralta Community College District, 333 East 8th Street,
Oakland, CA 94608, and to Earnest Crutchfield, President, Laney
College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland, CA 94607.  He also would like
you to send him a copy at the Laney address or by e-mail: Albert
Lannon, Chair, Laney College Labor Studies Department, Laney
College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland, CA 94607.
email:<avlannon@xxxxxxxx>

Thanks to Mark Rosenzweig and the Progressive Librarians Guild for
relaying this news widely to activist librarians.

Charles Willett editor, Counterpoise: For Social Responsibilities,
Liberty and Dissent Gainesville, FL

From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Legal Repression against Oakland Protestors Supporting
Liverpool  Dockers

Please excuse my posting yet another item on this issue, but there is
a particular element of free speech and academic/intellectual freedom
at stake in this legal fight in Oakland which is not likely to get into
the Chronicle of Higher Education or the publications of ALA. That
has to do with the intersection of exercise of free speech rights and
the right to engage in public protest, the more likely to be ignored by
traditional Intellectual Freedom" advocates because it involves active
support of organized labor and industrial action. It is my feeling that,
as the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round
Table (SRRT) takes on Intellectual Freedom issues (as it should)
previously ceded to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom and the
Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), it should also try to expand
the notion of what librarians ought to consider important and relevant
concerns for themselves as defenders of free speech and the Bill of
Rights. The attack on the Labor Studies Department at Laney College
in Oakland --outlined below by its director, Albert Lannon-- is just
such an issue.

Please reply directly to Albert Lannon in this very important matter.

--- Mark Rosenzweig, PROGRESSIVE LIBRARIANS GUILD

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Colleagues:

I'm asking you to read this rather long message in hopes that you
will then act on it.  The Labor Studies Department at Laney College
in Oakland is being sued and the coordinator, myself, is being asked
to inform on students who participated in legal and peaceful
demonstrations. Here's the story:

A couple of years ago Laney tried out a Labor Studies class called
Organizing Across Borders: Unions in the Global Economy, taught
by Ellen Starbird. One of the aims was to introduce students to use of
the internet as a means of building global solidarity.  This was
around the time when the Liverpool dockers were fired and began
their strike which has won international support and solidarity
actions.  The student found that the dockers had no internet
connection, so he telephoned them.

 The result is that when the SS Neptune Jade, loaded by the
unionbusters, arrived at the port of Oakland, California on September
28, 1997, there was a picket line there to meet them.  There were
ongoing demonstrations for several days, and the longshore workers,
members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union,
refused to cross the line. The ship sailed to Vancouver, where
workers refused to unload it, and then to Yokohama, where it was
again refused.  The ship was finally sold to China.  Clearly this was
an important action, hailed by Rep. Ron Dellums as placing "a
square focus on the new economic battle lines in which global
corporate alliances seek to use their transnational economic and
political power to divide and defeat organized labor and collective
bargaining."

 On the first day of the demonstrations, Sunday, September 28, a
Laney College Labor Studies student went to the site for about two
hours with the colorful banner of the Laney College Labor Studies
Club.  The employers, not knowing who was demonstrating, cited
"radical militant labor organizations, i.e. the Laney College Labor
Studies group and John Doe Organizations 1 - 12" when they went to
court seeking an injunction on September 29.  They did not get the
injunction.  They did get a temporary restraining order (TRO) on
September 30, citing Laney, the Labor Party, Gold Gate Chapter, the
Peace and Freedom Party, and two individuals, picket captain Robert
Irminger (a member of the Inland Boatmen's Union) and Jack
Heyman, a member of Longshore Local 10's executive board.

 Despite the fact that the Laney student's participation took place on
one occasion, prior to the TRO, the judge left Laney named in the
complaint when she made the restraining order permanent.

 The Peralta Community College District, of which Laney College is
part, said that their lawyers would not handle the case as the action
was not one endorsed or initiated by their Board of Trustees.  It was
the Peralta District that was served with the original summons.
While taking this "hands-off" position, the administration at Laney
issued new rules for all student organizations:  no picketing,
boycotting or demonstrating in the name of the school, no off-campus
activities without the okay of the faculty advisor, and no use of the
banner which said "Laney College Labor Studies Club."

 The Club, in existence about two years as a duly-chartered campus
organization, has put on a number of successful campus events, and
over-filled two buses for the Farm Workers strawberry march on
Watsonville last spring.  At that time faculty, students, and
administrators, had no problems rallying around the Club's banner.
The most recent event featured UNITE V.P. Katie Quan and former
prime minister of Haiti Claudette Werleigh, and filled the Laney
Theatre.

 The attorneys for Yusen Terminals, Centennial Stevedoring, and the
Pacific Maritime Association are not dropping the issue.  They are
pursuing a contempt citation against picket captain Irminger,
demanding money and the names of everyone who participated in the
demos.  They are pursuing suits against the ILWU.  And they are
pursuing their action for damages against the Laney College Labor
Studies "group," demanding Club membership lists, minutes of
meetings, and that I name everyone I know that was at any of the
demonstrations.

 The demand for interrogatories and production of documents went to
the Peralta District Risk Manager who passed them along to me
saying "please handle."

 As of today, I have demanded that the school administration take up
the fight on the basis that no instructor should be compelled to inform
on students who participated in peaceful, legal demonstrations.  No
faculty member should be required to name names, to be a
stoolpigeon, and the Peralta Community College District has a
responsibility to protect both faculty and students in such situations.

 If part of a college's mission is to prepare students for the real
world, then we must, in fact, encourage such participation, especially
in a labor studies program.  Labor Studies is always a bit of a pain to
administrations which are becoming increasingly dependent on
corporate largesse and increasingly reflecting corporate ideologies,
and we had hoped to avoid this kind of confrontation.  But it is here,
and I have no intention of finking on my students.  Several attornies
who teach labor studies have offered to assist, and they are welcome,
but I am trying first to see that the administration lives up to their
responsibilities.

You can help:  please send a few words of support for Laney College
Labor Studies, for the obligation of the administration to protect
faculty and students, for the right of instructors not to inform on their
students, for First Amendment rights to peacefully demonstrate, for
concern about free speech, academic freedom, and common morality.

Send them to:  A.J. Harrison, Chancellor Peralta Community College
District, 333 East 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94608, and to Earnest
Crutchfield, President, Laney College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland,
CA 94607.  Copies can be sent to me at the Laney address, or by
e-mail.

Thanks in advance.  Let us fight the good fight together.

In Solidarity,
Albert Lannon,
Chair
Laney College Labor Studies Department

From: ALBERT LANNON  <avlannon@xxxxxxxx>

================================
NOTE:  On November 18th, Robert Irminger appeared in court to
defend himself against allegations by the PMA, representing the
shipping company that was picketed, that he violated terms of the
TRO referred to above.  Prior to the hearing, Robert was joined by a
large rally of supporters, including the Secretary-Treasurers of both
the Alameda and San Francisco Labor Councils. Several hours of
informal negotiations between the PMA, the judge, and Robert's
attorney failed to produce a satisfactory compromise settlement.  A
hearing was conducted in the afternoon.  The judge took the matter
under submission and will likely issue a decision shortly.  If adverse,
Robert has pledged to appeal.  A defense committee is being
established to defend the right to peacefully picket in support of
workers around the world and to defend the right of workers to
express their solidarity with others in struggle.  The employers
appear to be intent on punishing all those they can identify who
participated in this action as an example to others of what will happen
if they attempt similar actions.  If allowed to do so, their retaliatory
lawsuits will have a chilling effect on free speech and international
solidarity.  All those involved, however, are determined not to allow
the PMA to get away with this intimidation.

As part of its legal intimidation tactics, the PMA has demanded that
those served with its lawsuit answer a set of "interrogatories"
(questions). Failure to fully and honestly answer them could result in
further legal action being taken.  The interrogatories prepared by the
PMA come right out of the 1950s.  Here are just a few of the
questions that the employers demand the demonstrators who have
been served answer in preparation for the lawsuit.  M.E.

"Identify all persons, associations, and organizations known to you
who participated in one or more of the dmonstrations at Yusen
Terminals, Berth 23, Port of Oakland, at any time between the dates
of September 28, 1997 and October 1, 1997, inclusive.

"Identify all persons, associations, and organizations known to you
who participated in the planning, organizing, or arranging of any of
the demonstrations referred to in Special Interrogatory No. 1.

"Identify all labor organizations in which you are or have been a
member or with which you are or have been in any way affiliated.

"Identify all political organizations in which you are or have been a
member or with which you are or have been in any way affiliated....

"Identify the person or persons who first communicated to you the
idea of holding a demonstration at a Northern California Port with
any connection to dockworkers in Liverpool, England.

"Identify the person who first communicated to you the idea of
holding a demonstration over the cargo, or any portion thereof, on
the vessel Neptune Jade.

"Identify every person you believe was a member of or in any way
affiliated with the Committee for Victory to the Liverpool Dockers
prior to October 2, 1997....

"Identify ever person who assisted in preparing or distributing any
handbill that was distributed at Yusen Terminals, Berth 23, Port of
Oakland, between Setpember 23, 1997 and October 1, 1997,
inclusive, including but not limited to, communicating or providing
information about the Area Arbitrator, and providing the paper, or
the printing or copying services, for the handbills.

"Identify your current employer(s).  State your current job title(s)."

These are but a portion of the questions the employers demand be
answered. They might just as easily been lifted from the McCarthy
witchhunt or HUAC hearings of the 1950s.

For additional information, or to send letters of support and
contributions to help with legal fees, contact --

The Liverpool Dockers Victory Defense Committee P.O. Box 2574
Oakland, CA 94614

Please note:  The Liverpool Dockers Victory Defense Committee
does not represent or speak on behalf of Laney College, or the Laney
College Labor Studies Program and Club.  Expressions of support
and inquiries directed to them should be sent to the address provided
by Albert Lannon above.



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