Hundreds of workers rallied on May Day at ILWU Local 6 in Oakland to talks about the war and the attacks on the working class with the rise of fascism. They also discussed going to the Oakland Airport to protest the shipment of arms to Israel that are being transported from the airport to Israel and are being used in the genocide in Gaza and the bombing of Lebanon and Iran. Additional Media: Teamsters On May Day 2026, Lessons Of 34 Minneapolis Teamster General Strike & Life/Death Struggles • Teamsters On May Day 2026, Lessons Of 34 M… Production of Labor Video Project www.labormedia.net
0:00
0 secondswant to make sure everyone in this room is safe and everyone knows what’s happening. Okay, so we’re all going to get dropped off at the terminal,
0:08
8 secondsterminal one. Uh we’re going to start when we have like a again a mass number of folks. We’re going to start chanting start the program. My name is Grace
0:17
17 secondsMartinez. I am with ACE Alliance of Californiaifornians for community empowerment. Um we are one of many organizations that have organized this
0:24
24 secondsparticular event during Mayday. But there are so many things happening in Mayday today just in the Bay Area.
0:30
30 secondsAnd why [clears throat] is um what is this?
0:33
33 secondsThe lines of California for community empowerment. We are a community-based organization. Um we’re like the union in the community. Our members are
0:40
40 secondslow-income to moderate income community members who fight for social, racial, and economic change. Um, and this Mayday
0:48
48 secondsis like a part of like a broad effort to really send a message to um the government, the current regime, and to
0:55
55 secondscorporations that we want to put people and workers over billionaires. And how are you going to do that?
1:02
1 minute, 2 secondsOkay. I’m I think it’s by shutting down. So, you’re in favor of a general strike?
1:09
1 minute, 9 secondsum we have to you know like I think when with any type of exercise we’re going to have to flex our muscles and prepare that send a message that we’re ready to
1:17
1 minute, 17 secondsdo that we’ll disrupt what we can maybe that’s a part of the ploy today but um if elections are stolen if the this like
1:25
1 minute, 25 secondsas we continue to grow this movement there’ll be consequences because people are tired how does it feel that it seems like there’s unlimited money for war
1:34
1 minute, 34 secondstrillions of dollars for war for bombing Iran for the genocide Lebanon and yet people here are going hungry. People are homeless.
1:42
1 minute, 42 secondsWhat is that? Elizabeth, how do you feel about the fact that it seems like there’s unlimited amount of money, trillions for war, bombing people, genocide, and yet people are
1:50
1 minute, 50 secondsgoing hungry. People don’t have housing here in Oakland. Well, that’s why we’re here.
1:55
1 minute, 55 secondsWe have coffee. Um the pastries haven’t arrived and we’re ready to What are you going to do today?
2:01
2 minutes, 1 secondWe are going to be at the airport. Um there are three airports where there are planned actions. Um and we are going to
2:09
2 minutes, 9 secondsjoyously festively really send a message at the airport but you have to be at the airport to figure that out. So there’s something happening here in Oakland
2:17
2 minutes, 17 secondsthere is a big um big action in SFO and for the air cleaners the airplane cleaners.
2:23
2 minutes, 23 secondsYeah. And then we also have like in San Diego um our folks down there are also doing it’s a statewide action at the airports. Yes.
2:30
2 minutes, 30 secondsAnd what are you asking people to do?
2:32
2 minutes, 32 secondsDisrupt. Don’t go to school. Don’t go to work. Don’t consume. and disrupt shut down if you can.
2:39
2 minutes, 39 secondsFacing people on Mayday, labor, housing, child care, gas prices increasing,
2:49
2 minutes, 49 secondseducation, ICE, DACA, seniors, HUD, the unhoused community, veterans.
3:02
3 minutes, 2 secondsIt’s the litany is so long. I could go on and on, but our system has been decimated.
3:10
3 minutes, 10 secondsAnd uh yesterday was the vote in Louisiana which further eroded the voting rights act. And
3:18
3 minutes, 18 secondsyou think they want to bring back segregation? They already have.
3:24
3 minutes, 24 secondsThat’s what that’s what gentrification is about. Segregating those who have from those who have not. And even if you
3:32
3 minutes, 32 secondslook at the affordable housing that’s being built, most of the affordable housing, very little of it is actually for the low income, which is 20 to 30%.
3:40
3 minutes, 40 secondsThe majority of is for 50 to% and up.
3:43
3 minutes, 43 secondsEspecially when you look here in Alama County with the average medium income is so high because of the migration of those who were in San Francisco and
3:52
3 minutes, 52 secondsother places moved to this particular area. And so that’s why our numbers with uh for the
3:59
3 minutes, 59 secondsunhoused community uh is is rising at an alarming rate. And so even though they say that they’re housing people, uh no
4:06
4 minutes, 6 secondsone is talking about the people that who are are becoming unhoused, they’re only talking about the people that they’re housed. So it’s it’s just a multi
4:13
4 minutes, 13 secondsmultitude of issues, especially uh as we can’t forget AI and technology, you know. Um I think it’s a full litany of issues.
4:22
4 minutes, 22 secondsYeah, it really is. And especially when you think about the fact that they’re using AI and AI hasn’t been tested. I don’t know if you heard recently,
4:30
4 minutes, 30 secondsuh 55% of the cases that of of I I don’t know if it was Medicare or Medicaid were uh dismissed because they use AI. They
4:39
4 minutes, 39 secondsdidn’t use humans. And Social Security offices are closing at an, you know, at an alarming rate. So people, especially in rural areas, have to go really far.
4:48
4 minutes, 48 secondsAnd then the people that are there that have not been terminated uh are unable to answer their questions. So we just have we have a long list but the fight
4:56
4 minutes, 56 secondsis against fascism which has taken over our country. And if you even look at when he was initially
5:03
5 minutes, 3 secondselected number 47 look at all of the people that were surrounding him are all of the people that are propheteers.
5:09
5 minutes, 9 secondsCorruption is endemic. It’s it’s all over.
5:11
5 minutes, 11 secondsAll all over. It’s all over. But you know um how are you going to stop the fascists? Cuz it seems like they have state power. They do what they want. There’s no accountability.
5:19
5 minutes, 19 secondsUh the working class and so this is this is going to be have to become a revolution which it is becoming. That’s why we have hands off. That’s why we
5:27
5 minutes, 27 secondshave no kings. The assembling of people workingass people and it doesn’t matter your race. If you have to work for a living, you are going to be impacted.
5:37
5 minutes, 37 secondsYou are not the owners of production. And so they no longer even need workers.
5:42
5 minutes, 42 secondsAnd so we who are being impacted whether you receive a transfer payment from the government or you work for a living are
5:50
5 minutes, 50 secondsgoing to be impacted and we are going to have to unite to fight against these systems that are happening in our country.
5:58
5 minutes, 58 secondsYou think people are waking up in this country? Oh yeah, people are working waking up.
6:02
6 minutes, 2 secondsPeople who have not thought about it before, look at the Washington Post.
6:08
6 minutes, 8 secondsthey let go of how many people because knowledge uh AI is going to be doing knowledge work so they don’t need
6:15
6 minutes, 15 secondswriters writers people thought that they were excluded from this never mind robotics just the the manual in the
6:22
6 minutes, 22 secondsmanufacturer this is all AI is also going to be uh taking at least minimum of 30% of knowledge work and so
6:29
6 minutes, 29 secondseverybody is beginning to look at how this is impacting them before people didn’t what is the solution
6:37
6 minutes, 37 secondsuniting, educating people, speaking people where they are, working around people’s schedules to
6:46
6 minutes, 46 secondsbuild the force because we have to build an army to fight this. We have to get people registered to votes and especially and I’m not saying to vote for either or.
6:56
6 minutes, 56 secondsWell, is there going to be an election?
6:57
6 minutes, 57 secondsCuz Trump knows that he would lose an election.
6:59
6 minutes, 59 secondsWell, look at New I’m from New York, right? But I’m living here in California. When Mandami was running, nobody thought Mandami was going to win.
7:09
7 minutes, 9 secondsBut look what happened. And so never say never. And what would you do and what do you think people should do if he tries to prevent an election from happening?
7:18
7 minutes, 18 secondsI think people need to rise up. I mean, they’re already in the court systems and we’re already in the, you know, the
7:26
7 minutes, 26 secondscourt systems are flooded every time he does an executive order. And so I think that people people really need to take
7:34
7 minutes, 34 secondsseriously not the fact of who you’re voting for, but who allows you to get your agenda
7:41
7 minutes, 41 secondsmet or at least a part of it. We have to really begin to think more strategically because they already have. And that’s the point of this whole exercise. Even
7:49
7 minutes, 49 secondswe have this governance race coming up which is the you know everybody says well which is the less of the two evils.
7:54
7 minutes, 54 secondsNo, which is the one that’s going to help us move the agenda forward? I’m not even gonna say
8:02
8 minutes, 2 secondsI don’t I I’m not I’m not here to endorse or any of those any of any any of that.
8:07
8 minutes, 7 secondsYou think people have a political alternative to the election?
8:10
8 minutes, 10 secondsYeah, a lot of people do. A lot of people have political opinions and even if you look at if you look at who’s being endorsed, right, and and and the unions that are endorsing them.
8:21
8 minutes, 21 secondsWell, the nurses are endorsing this billionaire sty. What do you think of Styr?
8:28
8 minutes, 28 secondsI’m going to say no comment at this point, but I think that You think we need more billionaires in in the in the government?
8:35
8 minutes, 35 secondsWho needs more billionaires anywhere?
8:38
8 minutes, 38 seconds[laughter]
8:39
8 minutes, 39 secondsBut the thing about it is who who amongst the group
8:47
8 minutes, 47 secondscan help us meet our agenda. That’s my whole point. My whole point is what is our agenda? We need housing. We need uh
8:55
8 minutes, 55 secondsthe schools. We need workforce uh housing for for teachers. We need increased salaries. We need um better
9:03
9 minutes, 3 secondsresources, child care. Well, the Democrats just sheld the singlepayer bill in the legislature. People want singlepayer healthcare. They said, “No,
9:12
9 minutes, 12 secondswe’re not going to even have a hearing on it to talk about it.” What does that tell you about the Democratic party in California? Well,
9:19
9 minutes, 19 secondsI think the Democratic Party period and uh that’s why they’re falling short because they are not considering uh the
9:29
9 minutes, 29 secondsaverage person. They’re not who are they representing the working that’s a very good question.
9:34
9 minutes, 34 secondsIf you look at if you look at um many of the lobbyists
9:41
9 minutes, 41 secondsand if you look at the packs, look at those ads every every minute on TV. I mean, how do you how do you think that
9:48
9 minutes, 48 secondsthose are those those are paid? And so if they’re not representing us, then who are they representing? So we, you know,
9:55
9 minutes, 55 secondspeople have to think we we have to pay attention. I think it’s really important that we pay attention.
10:01
10 minutes, 1 secondI’m Aaron. And with East Bay DSA, I think it’s very important to push back on all of these violations against
10:08
10 minutes, 8 secondsrights. Um, you know, democracy to push back and push back hard and signal that
10:16
10 minutes, 16 secondswe’re not going to stand for it and we’re bombing Iran or blockading Iran. We’re supporting the genocide in Gaza. We’re attacking workers with the
10:24
10 minutes, 24 secondsattack on federal workers. Seems like there’s a war going on all over the world.
10:28
10 minutes, 28 secondsYeah. It’s like pick your issue and come join us cuz whatever you’re mad about, we’re probably mad about it too.
10:33
10 minutes, 33 secondsAnd what should working people in the United States be doing about this?
10:36
10 minutes, 36 secondsStanding together and remembering that they have power, people power, and that our labor is the gear that keeps the horrible machine turning. And if you
10:44
10 minutes, 44 secondswithdraw your labor, you can stop the machine.
10:47
10 minutes, 47 secondsSo, you’re talking about a general strike?
10:50
10 minutes, 50 secondsI mean, I don’t know if we’re ready for that yet, but I think it’s important to remind people that they are power and to powerful and to empower them. And there’s a rise of fascism in this
10:58
10 minutes, 58 secondscountry. President Trump has said he’s going to ignore basically the Constitution. Does what he wants. He probably will try to prevent an election. Uh it would probably be a wipe
11:07
11 minutes, 7 secondsout of the Republicans if there was an election. What should people do about an attempt to stop an election?
11:13
11 minutes, 13 secondsI think they should be aware first of all that it’s a very real possibility and that they have not been following the rules. So you can’t bank on there
11:21
11 minutes, 21 secondsbeing an election in November just because there always have been elections. And I think that they should be banding together, educating
11:27
11 minutes, 27 secondsthemselves, and being ready to hit the streets, um be ready to go to polls and make sure that they’re, you know,
11:34
11 minutes, 34 secondswatching out for any bad behavior. And as well demanding that the elections be um counted quickly and certified quickly
11:42
11 minutes, 42 secondsso that there’s no funny business if the elections do proceed.
11:45
11 minutes, 45 secondsAnd are you worried about ICE and these fascist raids because it seems like they $75 billion for militarization with ICE?
11:53
11 minutes, 53 secondsI mean, it’s uh communities are being terrorized, workers are afraid to go out. Does that concern you? What should be done about it?
12:00
12 minutesUm, yeah, I is terrifying. Um, and I think that we saw a little bit of what people can do in Minneapolis to protect
12:08
12 minutes, 8 secondseach other. I wish there was more help from above, but I think the reality is there’s we are going to be each other’s help. Um, so I think getting to know
12:16
12 minutes, 16 secondsyour neighbors, finding out who’s vulnerable in your communities and how you can help them. Um getting to know people so they know they can trust you and looking out for each other I think is the best thing we can do against ICE.
12:27
12 minutes, 27 secondsAnd what is East Bay DSA doing today?
12:30
12 minutes, 30 secondsUm today we are taking place in a day of action. It’s going to be um nationwide um on International Workers Day which is celebrated everywhere in the world but
12:39
12 minutes, 39 secondsnot here for some reason. Um and so we it’s a no day of no work, no school, no shopping. Um, we have demands that we
12:48
12 minutes, 48 secondsare standing behind. That is a starting point. So, um, get rid of ICE, no more wars, tax the rich.
12:54
12 minutes, 54 secondsMy name is D Lacy. I’m Local 10. I’m with Local 10. Um, I’m coming here to support Local 6 and Network and and you’re IL10 is closed on the port today.
13:07
13 minutes, 7 secondsIs that a work stop meeting? What’s going on?
13:10
13 minutes, 10 secondsIt’s Mayday. It’s Mayday, baby. It’s workers day. We out here. We going to be
13:16
13 minutes, 16 secondsat the Harry Bridges Plaza just, you know, rallying up solidarity together to togetherness workers. You
13:26
13 minutes, 26 secondssee that hook right there on this man’s shirt? That’s You see this injury to one is an injury to all.
13:34
13 minutes, 34 secondsWe we at the warehouse part right now, but I’m long shore, but we together.
13:40
13 minutes, 40 secondsSolidarity, baby. Do you think solidarity is building in this country against fascism? And do you think we have fascism?
13:48
13 minutes, 48 secondsWell, that’s a good question. Um, the leadership right now is
13:56
13 minutes, 56 secondsto me it displays that fascism. I can say it, you know,
14:04
14 minutes, 4 seconds[clears throat] it displays that. But I would hope that the workers in this country would not let that happen. I
14:13
14 minutes, 13 secondsthink that if the workers in this country get together, we could stop all of this in an instant.
14:22
14 minutes, 22 secondsSo yes, I feel like today we’ll see the solidarity. You’ll see workers together
14:30
14 minutes, 30 secondsstanding shouldertosh shoulder propping each other up. Today we’re celebrating [clears throat] one of the oldest men in the ILWU.
14:39
14 minutes, 39 secondsHe’s 106 years old. He worked here in Local 6, but he retired from Local 10.
14:48
14 minutes, 48 secondsUm, his name is Willie Dixon. You can look up I have a podcast myself. It’s called Injury to One. It’s on YouTube.
14:56
14 minutes, 56 secondsUm, Injury to One, all one word with the number one.
15:01
15 minutes, 1 secondHe is 106 years old. ILwu strong. So yes, you think you’re breaking the
15:10
15 minutes, 10 secondsinformation blockade with these podcasts and this kind of media? I think so. I think we’re trying to Yes.
15:17
15 minutes, 17 secondsI think we’re trying another way of galvanizing people, another way of getting people together, another way of
15:26
15 minutes, 26 secondsus coming together and and being around one another. So yes, I do think we’re I I do think we’re making some headway.
15:34
15 minutes, 34 secondsYes, I do. Are you optimistic about the future?
15:38
15 minutes, 38 secondsUh I have to be So I am have to be optimistic about the
15:46
15 minutes, 46 secondsfuture. I have to be optimistic about my brothers and sisters. I have to be optimistic about us being together
15:53
15 minutes, 53 secondsbecause if I if the industry goes away, I don’t have a job, right? trade war. Is that affecting launch?
16:01
16 minutes, 1 secondOf course, it’s affecting the world. I think um you think Trump is is destroying this country.
16:09
16 minutes, 9 secondsYou said what?
16:10
16 minutes, 10 secondsYou think Trump is destroying this country or he’s definitely pretending to?
16:16
16 minutes, 16 secondsI mean, in two more years, we’ll see. I think that um
16:25
16 minutes, 25 secondsthe election and you think there’s going to be an election.
16:29
16 minutes, 29 secondsThat’s the thing that I’m really glass half empty about. I I I I I hope
16:37
16 minutes, 37 secondswe don’t have a king dictator, but I don’t see the country
16:45
16 minutes, 45 secondsresponding in the way that I thought that they would just from this short time that he’s been back in office.
16:54
16 minutes, 54 secondsI I I I I see the country, especially his side of the country, backpedaling a lot from the issues that
17:03
17 minutes, 3 secondsare really important and propping up the stuff, the little things that that are not for the masses or for the elite.
17:15
17 minutes, 15 secondsUh I’m Rachel. Um and I’m with East Bay DSA. Um and um I’m here to to stand up
17:23
17 minutes, 23 secondsand send a message to uh the oligarchs and to the ruling class in this country.
17:29
17 minutes, 29 secondsUm this is just the first step um in organizing uh labor. Um and I know that everywhere else in the world uh today is Labor Day. Um not it’s not in September.
17:41
17 minutes, 41 secondsUm so I’m here for workers. I’m here for regular people. And I’m here for the people of the world. illustration of how
17:48
17 minutes, 48 secondsout of sync we are with the rest of the world. It’s the only country in the world that doesn’t celebrate Mayday and it it was initiated originally here. So,
17:57
17 minutes, 57 secondsuh how we can be so uh just disrespectful of everyone.
18:06
18 minutes, 6 secondsThere are Mayday rallies going on around the country, all over the world, actually.
18:10
18 minutes, 10 secondsWhat’s the IL doing today? I I’m afraid to say I have no idea what the IL I’m a bit uh removed.
18:19
18 minutes, 19 secondsWhat should they be doing?
18:21
18 minutes, 21 secondsUh well, the the the workers themselves don’t have a lot of
18:29
18 minutes, 29 secondsability to act independently from without jeopardizing their jobs, their positions.
18:36
18 minutes, 36 secondsThey’re afraid of going out.
18:38
18 minutes, 38 secondsYeah. But the international is not doing anything to uh encourage people to act appropriately, to have rallies, do whatever they do. That’s not happening.
18:47
18 minutes, 47 secondsAnd the state of labor movement right now, I mean, they’ve attacked federal workers, taking their union rights away.
18:54
18 minutes, 54 secondsUm there’s a major union busting, privatization, contracting out. What’s the state of American workers today? And the and also the war, how that’s going
19:02
19 minutes, 2 secondsto affect workers driving to work or taking taking their families out? Well, well, I I don’t know how to analyze that. The elections coming up are an
19:11
19 minutes, 11 secondsimportant bellweather of how people are really feeling, whether they’re going to support these politicians that are
19:18
19 minutes, 18 secondsmaking decisions that aren’t in our best interests. It’s it’s going to be uh it’s going to be a really interesting thing to see.
19:25
19 minutes, 25 secondsYou think there is going to be elections under Trump? Well, there will be in two weeks.
19:30
19 minutes, 30 secondsOh, the uh yeah, the the the primaries. So that’ll that’ll there’s no there’s no working class political alternative in the United States. It’s the Democrats and
19:38
19 minutes, 38 secondsRepublicans. A lot of people are angry with the Democrats. They feel they haven’t done what they should be doing.
19:44
19 minutes, 44 secondsWell, that’s that’s been true for years, you know, and then it’s it’s all about corporate money and and uh
19:52
19 minutes, 52 secondspolitics for sale and and how to get around that uh
19:59
19 minutes, 59 secondscan only effectively be done at at the at the ballot box. Now, they’re going to take that away from us.
20:05
20 minutes, 5 secondsAnd if they try, I don’t know what people people are are how they’re going to react. I don’t know. I can’t.
20:13
20 minutes, 13 secondsHow should they react? Oh, they should just march on city hall.
20:17
20 minutes, 17 seconds[laughter]
20:18
20 minutes, 18 secondsThey should just take over. This is way too important to let these politicians make decisions for us. What’s your name?
20:24
20 minutes, 24 secondsMy name is Gabbran. And uh there were a few different Mayday events that I was thinking about coming to. I felt very
20:31
20 minutes, 31 secondspassionate about the whole Palestine issue and the fact that this empire is using all of its resources to destroy
20:39
20 minutes, 39 secondsindigenous connection with the land. And you know, I also feel like just in general, people need to wake up about this, the assault on the working class.
20:48
20 minutes, 48 secondsAnd so like I feel like all of those issues are kind of coming together here.
20:53
20 minutes, 53 secondsAnd I just wanted to show show my support for that. You think people are starting to wake up in this country?
21:01
21 minutes, 1 secondPeople are waking up in different ways.
21:03
21 minutes, 3 secondsI think that there’s uh there’s a general sense that what Trump is doing is not right. But I don’t feel like most people’s political awareness
21:12
21 minutes, 12 secondsis at the point where they’re questioning all wars. I don’t think people’s consciousness is at the point where they’re questioning mainstream
21:19
21 minutes, 19 secondsmedia the way that needs to be questioned. I don’t think that people are at a point where they recognize that like this system it’s just like all of
21:28
21 minutes, 28 secondsthese things they happen they they they happen in uh different speeds at different times and u so it’s just like
21:36
21 minutes, 36 secondsthe genocide in Palestine was happening slow motion for a long time then after October 7th that sped up you know the
21:44
21 minutes, 44 secondsassault on working people has been going on for a really long time and you know it seems like now it’s speeding up under
21:51
21 minutes, 51 secondsTrump. And so I don’t know that people have that wider analysis of it, but people see that something’s wrong and they are waking up to that. So hopefully that’s the beginning of a wider process.
22:01
22 minutes, 1 secondAnd there’s some support for a general strike. Are you in favor of that?
22:05
22 minutes, 5 secondsAbsolutely in favor of that. I feel like that should have happened yesterday. I feel like the fact that politicians don’t ask for a general strike and the
22:13
22 minutes, 13 secondsuh the whole no kings rallies like they don’t link up with the work towards a general strike is a problem. Uh but I
22:22
22 minutes, 22 secondsthink that is the way out of this situation and Minneapolis demonstrated that.
22:26
22 minutes, 26 secondsLarry Wright, retired member of ILWU local 10 and you were involved in supporting the
22:34
22 minutes, 34 secondsstruggle against apathide in South Africa. Yeah, I was on a committee that uh Southern African Supports Committee
22:41
22 minutes, 41 secondsthat uh organized the union on that and uh got a lot of other groups uh other
22:50
22 minutes, 50 secondsunions, gay community, political organizations
22:57
22 minutes, 57 secondsand uh got a lot of people behind it which made it a very successful event.
23:04
23 minutes, 4 secondsstopped the ship for 11 days and really called uh uh the attention to uh the
23:13
23 minutes, 13 secondsanti-aparttheide movement. students started uh
23:19
23 minutes, 19 secondsworking on devestment in uh of uh US uh corporations in South Africa and it uh
23:28
23 minutes, 28 secondsled to a very successful uh campaign against apartheid which eventually 10
23:36
23 minutes, 36 secondsyears later caused it to collapse and there’s United States is now supporting military supplies to Israel
23:45
23 minutes, 45 secondsThey’re bombing Iran. They’re bombing Lebanon.
23:48
23 minutes, 48 secondsYeah. And well, that’s a big part of why people are here today, why I’m here today is to oppose uh this move of
23:57
23 minutes, 57 secondsashism in this country and uh the uh the wars, terrible things that are happening
24:04
24 minutes, 4 secondsto Lebanon where over a million people are displaced and uh looks like Israel might be trying
24:14
24 minutes, 14 secondsto do the same thing to southern Lebanon that they’ve done to Gaza and the rise of fascism in the United
24:22
24 minutes, 22 secondsStates. Are you concerned about it and what it will do to this country and the world?
24:26
24 minutes, 26 secondsOh, of course I’m very concerned about that. That’s what we have to be fighting now. Uh and it’s really important for
24:36
24 minutes, 36 secondslabor to uh stand up to it because uh if uh if it really takes hold then there
24:45
24 minutes, 45 secondsyou lose a lot of your rights to strike and uh to to even negotiate a good contract.
24:53
24 minutes, 53 secondsAnd what should working people do about it? There are Mayday rallies all over the country. There are more Mayday rallies that been held probably in
25:02
25 minutes, 2 secondsdecades and decades. You think we’re moving towards a general strike in this country?
25:06
25 minutes, 6 secondsWell, I hope so. That would take quite a bit of doing, but I think it’s a possibility because this Trump
25:14
25 minutes, 14 secondsadministration is doing so much damage to people that there’s more and more people are seeing it and are ready to
25:21
25 minutes, 21 secondsoppose it. I think that’s what we need is to get the general public uh out and
25:28
25 minutes, 28 secondsin opposition to it and and keep them from stealing uh the next election.
25:35
25 minutes, 35 secondsThey’re worried about they’re not going to prevent they’re not going to allow one election. Yeah.
25:39
25 minutes, 39 secondsThink that that might bring a general strike if they try to stop an election.
25:42
25 minutes, 42 secondsIt could. I think it’s enough that uh if they try to steal the election that it could really mobilize more and more
25:51
25 minutes, 51 secondspeople in opposition cuz it’s something that uh even people that aren’t paying
25:58
25 minutes, 58 secondsthat much attention to would take note if uh their vote wasn’t going to count anymore. I’m Craig Gordon.
26:06
26 minutes, 6 secondsIs the OEA taking off today? Uh no, there’s no official like uh you know, we’re not taking off. They’re not we’re
26:13
26 minutes, 13 secondsnot striking in Oakland, but they’re I guess encouraging people to participate in uh actions.
26:20
26 minutes, 20 secondsAnd you just had a contract. At the same time, the state of California is having layoffs. What’s going on with your struggle um as far as protecting your
26:29
26 minutes, 29 secondsjobs and your conditions? Well, you know, uh yeah, we got a contract that is
26:36
26 minutes, 36 secondsuh you know, provides a little bit of a compensation, but and some other things, but you know, at the same time, the
26:43
26 minutes, 43 secondsschool board approved layoffs of more than 450 workers in this Oakland Unified
26:50
26 minutes, 50 secondsSchool District as well as cuts to more than 150 of OEA positions. So, uh, you know, under the pretext that they
26:59
26 minutes, 59 secondssupposedly don’t have enough money to pay for to just some modest increases in pay and some other a few other crumbs and, um, it’s ridiculous. And, you know,
27:08
27 minutes, 8 secondsit’s like that we we have a majority of the school board that supposedly supports, uh, Oakland teachers, but voted for this.
27:15
27 minutes, 15 secondsAnd this whole we can’t wait campaign of the California Teachers Association. Is this part of we can’t wait?
27:22
27 minutes, 22 secondsApparently, it’s we can wait. I mean, we should be actually striking statewide to demand a redistribution of corporate
27:29
27 minutes, 29 secondswealth and billionaire wealth for public schools and public services. There’s plenty of money in this with the fourth largest economy in the world. And that’s
27:38
27 minutes, 38 secondswhat we can’t wait to be about. And I think what a lot of uh people members who first heard about it and got a little bit excited about it thought it
27:45
27 minutes, 45 secondswould be but so far it’s uh very very um you know it’s it’s pretty much missing and it’s by MIA
27:52
27 minutes, 52 secondsand the CTA says there is against the war the leadership what are they doing on Mayday today?
27:58
27 minutes, 58 secondsCTA supporting this action and any other actions I actually don’t know what CTA is doing.
28:03
28 minutes, 3 secondsYou haven’t heard what they’re doing. If they’re supporting Mayday, you don’t know about.
28:05
28 minutes, 5 secondsI think I think ECDA is part of so-called Mayday strong, which I think is not very strong from what I understand is, you know, supporting actions, you know, demonstrations. I
28:14
28 minutes, 14 secondsthink they publicize to all their members.
28:16
28 minutes, 16 secondsThey have 325,000 members of get anything.
28:20
28 minutes, 20 secondsSo, they’re not really calling for people to go out on Mayday, not to go out and strike. No, for certain, for sure not.
28:26
28 minutes, 26 secondsAnd you think it’s because of their relationship with the Democrats? They don’t really want to fight the Democrats. I mean, the Democrats control the legislature. They just tabled a
28:34
28 minutes, 34 secondsresolution for singlepayer didn’t not even have a hearing for it. There’s a lot of billionaires in California 200, but they don’t seem to be going after them.
28:42
28 minutes, 42 secondsYeah. I mean, the Democrats in California have been with supermajority for decades and uh usually support
28:49
28 minutes, 49 secondssinglepayer when there’s a Republican governor there to veto it. But um you know, so this is nothing new. And the
28:57
28 minutes, 57 secondsDemocrats are Yeah. I mean the our unions unfortunately are [snorts] very much you know so closely aligned and affiliated with the Democratic party
29:04
29 minutes, 4 secondsthat uh the actions are always sort of geared to support you know putting Democrats in power who are continuing
29:11
29 minutes, 11 secondsbusiness as usual unfortunately and I didn’t see any union leadership here. Were there any CTA officials with the head of the labor council Alama County here? Where where were they?
29:20
29 minutes, 20 secondsI don’t know. I haven’t seen them. Maybe they’re under the car here. Mia. Yeah.
29:26
29 minutes, 26 secondsOne action major action. That’s my union. Anyway, no, I mean, I don’t want to, you know, bash my union. My union is
29:34
29 minutes, 34 secondsmy the members. We just need to get organized and and become a fighting union. And really, I mean, the the one lesson that, you know, I take out of
29:42
29 minutes, 42 secondsthis in terms of the contract that we were talking about before is that uh we can win certain things within our school districts if we really organize a fight.
29:51
29 minutes, 51 secondsBut the it’s limited when we’re as long as we’re just fighting district by district. you know, we have to do this at least as a statewide fight where the
29:59
29 minutes, 59 secondsreal money is because that’s where everybody all the districts will always point to and they actually don’t have enough in the district to to fund
30:07
30 minutes, 7 secondshighquality public education. But there’s plenty of money in California to do that and that’s we have to fight billionaires and that’s obviously who you know funds both political parties.
30:18
30 minutes, 18 secondsSo uh you know we have to we have to really build a movement of rank file workers to to do that. My name is Chrissy Hoffman and I’m here to support
30:26
30 minutes, 26 secondsworkers. I’m here to support health care for all. I’m here to say no to war. Um and I’m just thrilled to be with all of
30:35
30 minutes, 35 secondsthese people who feel the same way as I do to make the Democrats just stalled the bill for healthcare. Yes. What do you think about that?
30:43
30 minutes, 43 secondsThey’re not serving us at all. They’re not serving us at all.
30:47
30 minutes, 47 secondsYeah. Well, it was a tremendous turnout here. uh and uh a lot of the speakers uh
30:55
30 minutes, 55 secondsuh hit many of the points about a nargo here. uh local 10W
31:02
31 minutes, 2 secondslocal 10 has taken a position since the 24 convention in Vancouver, Canada that we
31:11
31 minutes, 11 secondsare opposed to shipping military cargo in all the ports and it there is no
31:17
31 minutes, 17 secondsmilitary cargo being shipped out of the seapport but there is military cargo being shipped out of the airport and
31:27
31 minutes, 27 secondswith all the speeches here. The organizers of this action are only going to have uh pickets or a demonstration, a
31:36
31 minutes, 36 secondsrally at the passenger terminals. The point is that we need to stop these killer cargo from going to Israel and
31:45
31 minutes, 45 secondsthere’s no action plan right now. Maybe something spontaneous might happen. But
31:52
31 minutes, 52 secondsit h it has to be said that this rally here, this meeting was overall
32:01
32 minutes, 1 secondmore militant than what’s happening in San Francisco today, which is going to be just like a celebration
32:09
32 minutes, 9 secondsuh holiday kind of like the Labor Day in September when in fact the real Mayday
32:17
32 minutes, 17 secondswas started because workers died. They were assassinated. They were martyrs of the labor struggle fighting for the
32:25
32 minutes, 25 seconds8-hour day. It’s it’s not a celebratory thing. It’s a commemoration.
32:31
32 minutes, 31 secondsAnd this is bordering on doing an action, but they’re not really calling for an action, which needs to be done.
32:39
32 minutes, 39 secondsAnd that means picketing at the cargo terminal. In the 1980s, we organized the controgate action committee here at the
32:47
32 minutes, 47 secondsport of Oakland to stop illegal shipments of arms to the contras who were fighting the Sandonista government at the time.
32:57
32 minutes, 57 secondsAnd we picketed and picketed and picketed and this was an action being secretly organized by the CIA
33:06
33 minutes, 6 secondsto ship arms to the contest. And after some time of uh a month or two months, we actually ended up being successful.
33:17
33 minutes, 17 secondsThat action was uh stop the shipment of arms to the counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua. And that’s what needs to be
33:25
33 minutes, 25 secondsdone today to stop these bomb parts which enable 2,000lb bombs to explode
33:32
33 minutes, 32 secondsand destroy entire neighborhoods in Israel. But the action has to be at the point of production and that’s at the
33:40
33 minutes, 40 secondscargo terminal and that’s not what this meeting uh resolved unfortunately.
33:47
33 minutes, 47 secondsWhat about the trade union leadership here AFL CIO the unions here that have power to shut things down? That have what? Have the power to shut things down.
33:55
33 minutes, 55 secondsWell, the trade union leadership uh is by and large uh an arm of the Democratic
34:02
34 minutes, 2 secondsParty and they actually um haven’t [laughter] come out explicitly against
34:09
34 minutes, 9 secondsthe war in Iran, nor were many of them opposed to the genocide of war against Palestinians in Gaza. uh what’s what’s
34:18
34 minutes, 18 secondsneeded is for the rank and filers to organize themselves in their unions to organize actions at the point of
34:26
34 minutes, 26 secondsproduction under the hook on the docks as we say and I have to say that the international longshore and warehouse
34:34
34 minutes, 34 secondsunion that has always been approached opposed to US imperialist wars starting with the Korean War after World War II
34:43
34 minutes, 43 secondsto this day has not taken a position in opposition to the war, the US war
34:50
34 minutes, 50 secondsagainst Iran. Shame on them. This is what I’m talking about when I say the trade union bureaucracy is tied at the
34:57
34 minutes, 57 secondship to the Democratic Party. We need to break with the Democratic Party. We need to build a workers party that’s going to fight for workers interest like ending
35:06
35 minutes, 6 secondsthe genocidal war in Gaza and the war with Iran.
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