Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas

Template:TOCnestleft Clarence Thomas is an Oakland, California, based labor unionist and activist.

Endorsed Communist Party fund raiser

Peoples Weekly World, September 11, 1999

In September 1999, Chair, East Bay Legislative Council ILWU, co-sponsored a Communist Party USA fund raising event in Berkeley. Rep. Lynn Woolsey co-sponsored the same event.

People's Weekly World Banquet 2000

Co-sponsors of the October 8 2000 Bay area People's Weekly World banquet, at His Lordships, Berkeley Marina, included San Francisco mayor Willie L. Brown, the vice mayors of Berkeley and Oakland.

Sponsors included Amy Dean, South Bay Labor Council and Walter Johnson, San Francisco Labor Council. Entertainment was provided by David Winters.

Honorees were;

• Judith Goff, Alameda County Central Labor Council
• The Northern California janitors of SEIU local 1877
• Evelina Alarcon, Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Camapign
• Clarence Thomas, East Bay ILWU

US Labor Against the War

Clarence Thomas, was ILWU Local 10 delegate to US Labor Against the War. He was also a member of the October 2003 US Labor Delegation to Iraq, with David Bacon and was Chairman of the ILWU AntiWar Action Committe.

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

In 2008 Clarence Thomas, Coordinator of Saving Lives Campaign ILWU Local 10, San Francisco, CA signed a statement circulated by the Partisan Defense Committee calling for the release of convicted “cop-killer” Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Fifth Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference

The Fifth Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference, with representation from eight countries and virtually every region of the U.S., took place the weekend of Dec. 5-7, 2008. in Tijuana, Mexico.

Sponsors of the conference included the US/Cuba Labor Exchange; Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas; World Organization for the Right of the People to Healthcare—Service Employees International Union 1199 NY; International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five; National Network on Cuba; Venezuela Solidarity Network; International Action Center; Cuba Solidarity New York; Southwest Workers Union; and Converjencia de los Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Americas; among others.

Clarence Thomas, executive board member of Local 10 of the ILWU, recounted the proud history of his local, noting that Local 10 organizer Harry Bridges was himself an immigrant worker who understood the connection between race and class. Thomas suggested that although the workers find it difficult to compete with lobbyists and corporate lawyers who defend the rich, we have the ability to take action at the point of production and must use that weapon.

Nov. 2. 2011 Port shutdown

Clarence Thomas, a former officer and long-time labor activist with ILWU Local 10, spoke to John Hamilton of MRzine about the prospect of a shutdown of the Port of Oakland November 2 -- a goal of Occupy Oakland demonstrators who called a general strike that day.

Clarence Thomas: "One of the reasons why they are doing it is because they are trying to defend ILWU workers in Longview, Washington, who are facing a behemoth of agribusiness, EGT. The driving force behind EGT is a leading agribusiness concern called Bunge. . . . Longshoremen have a debt of gratitude to the people who have organized this action today. . . . 30% of the funding of our pensions comes from that grain operation in the Pacific Northwest. This is an attempt to rupture the jurisdiction of longshore workers that we've had for over 77 years in this country. Wall Street is on the move, on the waterfront, looking for new profits, and the community are standing with the ILWU. They are standing with us for a reason. They know about 1984, when longshoremen refused to unload cargo from South Africa for 11 days. They know about the ILWU shutting down all 29 ports in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal. They know about the ILWU shutting down all 29 ports on May Day, International Workers' Day, to protest the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They understand about the ILWU and the actions that we took by not crossing the picket line in response to the murder on the high seas of those humanitarian activists taking supplies to Gaza. The ship was shut down for 24 hours, the Zim Line ship from Israel. They know about the actions that we took last October in support of Oscar Grant. And this resonates with the community. So now the community is saying: We want to stand in support of the ILWU. So, this connection is genuine, it's legitimate, and we embrace it."

Occupy Oakland West Coast Port Blockade Press Conference, 12/09/11

Clarence Thomas at the press conference

Following "police repression" of the Occupy Movement across the country as well as the successful blockade of the Port of Oakland during the November 2nd General Strike, the Occupy Oakland General Assembly issued a call to shut down all West Coast Ports on December 12th.

This Monday "Wall Street on the Waterfront" will be confronted with coordinated port blockades in San Diego, LA, Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, and Houston. The same day, Occupy Anchorage, Occupy Denver, and Occupy Wall Street will be targeting Goldman Sachs and Walmart. Local organizers of the West Coast Port Blockade held a press conference just outside the Port of Oakland at Jack London Square on December 9th to announce the reasoning behind and the plans for the mass demonstrations in Oakland.

Speakers at the press conference were Tim Simmons of Occupy Oakland; Boots Riley of Occupy Oakland, The Coup, and Street Sweeper Social Club; Betty Olson-Jones of the Oakland Education Association; Clarence Thomas of the ILWU and the Million Worker March; Mike King of Occupy Oakland; Jenna Woloshyn of Teamsters Local 70; Kimberly Rojas, Oakland Branch President of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union; Eddie Falcon of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Steve Zeltzer of the Committee to Defend the ILWU; and Bob Mandel of the Oakland Education Association. .

Workers World article "Longshore workers applaud Occupy Oakland’s port shutdown"

Clarence Thomas, an ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member and national co-chair of theMillion Worker March Movement, wrote an article nov. 8, 2011, which published in Workers World, Nov. 16, 2011. entitled "Longshore workers applaud Occupy Oakland’s port shutdown".

The eyes of the world were on the city of Oakland and the massive people’s march to the nation’s fifth-largest container port on Nov. 2 for the General Strike and Day of Mass Action called by Occupy Oakland. Not only has the Occupy movement gone global, Occupy Oakland has become the focal point of the movement. In fact, on Oct. 28, Egyptian pro-democracy protesters marched from Tahrir Square to the U.S. Embassy in support of Occupy Oakland and against police brutality witnessed in Oakland on Oct. 25, and commonly experienced in Egypt.

The unprecedented outpouring of a broad cross section of the community numbering in the tens of thousands is the most significant independent people’s mobilization in the U.S. thus far in the 21st century.

This call for a General Strike was in response to the coordinated military-style attack by 18 police agencies in the Bay Area that attempted to evict the encampment of Occupy Oakland at Oscar Grant Plaza, where U.S. veteran Scott Olsen, who served two tours of duty in Iraq, was critically wounded by a teargas canister shot to his head by Oakland police.

This call for a General Strike was not called by labor, and perhaps rightfully so, because only 12.9 percent of the overall workforce is unionized. In fact, in the private sector just 7.2 percent of the workers are unionized. This is the lowest percentage since 1900.

While it is true that it would take more than a week to organize a General Strike in this country, the fact of the matter is that organized labor would not get the blessing of their Democratic Party masters to take such an action. Remember, the Republican and Democratic parties are controlled by Wall Street and the 1 percent.

The rank and file of labor is ready to take militant action at the point of production or service. SEIU Local 1021 was able to get their city workers the day off to either participate in the “stop work” action or not to be required to come to work for health and safety reasons.

The Port of Oakland’s last two shutdowns came as the result of Local 10 members taking solidarity action. The first was the Justice for Oscar Grant — “Stop Police Brutality, Jail Killer Cops” — action, where longshore workers closed five Bay Area ports on Oct. 23, 2010.

The second Port of Oakland shutdown was the April 4, 2011, voluntary rank-and-file action to shut down the Port of Oakland for 24 hours on the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in solidarity with the Wisconsin public sector workers’ fight for collective bargaining.

The resolution by the Occupy Oakland Strike Assembly states on its website www.occupyoakland.org the reason for shutting down the Port of Oakland:

“We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital on the day of the General Strike, as well as to show our commitment to solidarity with Longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Wash. EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction. The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD, a leading agribusiness and food company which reported $2.4 billion in profit in 2010; this company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers. The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide-reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it. The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% — their wealth only exists because the 99% creates it for them.”

The importance of the Port of Oakland shutdown was that it linked up labor, the community and Occupy Oakland in a strategic action at the point of production. Not only was the Port of Oakland shutdown impacting the movement of cargo in the Pacific Rim, it also disrupted rail schedules, trucking scheduling and “just in time delivery” services for companies such as Wal-Mart, on Nov. 2.

The labor movement must take a leading role in building a broad-based, working-class movement that challenges corporate rule and power by putting forward a people’s agenda, such as the one put forward by the Million Worker March Movement in 2004, which includes the following:

• Stop corporate greed!
• Hands off Social Security!
• Slash the military budget!
• Universal health care!
• Stop dismantling public education!
• Bring the troops home now!
• Tax relief for the working class!
• Repeal corporate free trade agreements!
• Amnesty for all undocumented workers!
• Stop offshoring American jobs!
• Preserve and restore the environment!
• Workers right to organize!
• Tax the rich!
• National living wage!
• Truth in media!
• End to police brutality!
• Repeal Taft-Hartley!
• Enforce all civil rights!
• Guaranteed pensions!
• Repeal Patriot Act!

The Nov. 2 General Strike and Day of Mass Action in Oakland was more than just a day of protest against corporate rule, power and police repression. It was a day of resistance interrupting the flow of commerce, and the closure of banks and the Port. It sets the example for other Occupy movements throughout the country to follow. The General Assembly of Occupy Dallas has already called for a Dallas General Strike on Nov. 30, 2011.

References

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