“War Is for Profit, Workers Can Stop It”
Ten years ago today, West Coast longshore workers celebrated May Day by walking out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A Maersk Line container ship sits docked in a berth at the Port of Oakland on February 19, 2015 in Oakland, CA. Justin Sullivan / Getty
May Day — a legal holiday for workers in most countries — was born in Chicago. On May 1, 1886, workers shut down America’s greatest industry city, and other cities too, to demand the eight-hour workday. In 1894, the US Congress intentionally created a Labor Day at another time of the year, but some Americans continue celebrating the original, real Labor Day.
On May 1, 2008, ten thousand members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), one of the strongest and most militant unions in the United States, walked in those Chicagoans’ footsteps. They did so by walking off the docks at all twenty-night West Coast ports, completely shutting down America’s Pacific trading network.
These workers did so, they said, “to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East.” Their action revealed the power of organized labor as well as ongoing frustration with US wars that continue to this very day.
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