Building Worker Power on the Docks
Dock workers in San Francisco and Durban, South Africa, have huge amounts of strategic leverage in the global economy. Both have long used that power not just to fight for better wages, but also to fight imperialism and racism.
Members of the Local 10 ILWU drill team join thousands of immigrants, union members and supporters march down Market Street in a send-off event for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a national movement to build support for reform of US immigration policy September 20, 2003 in downtown San Francisco. David Paul Morris / Getty Images
Dockworkers have power. Workers in the world’s ports can harness their roles at strategic choke points to fight for their rights on the job as well as broader social justice causes.
Peter Cole brings this reality to light in a comparative study, Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area. His research reveals how unions effected lasting change in some of the most far-reaching struggles of modern times. The book brings to light parallels in the experiences of dockers on different continents, showing how workers half a world away from one another can change their conditions and their world.
Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University. He was interviewed by Katy Fox-Hodess, a lecturer in employment relations at the University of Sheffield.
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