It’s just a few weeks after the most conservative Republican president in a generation convincingly won a second term, causing many to despair. Across the ocean from the United States, a country engaged in apartheid was condemned by most of the world’s people and nations, but the pariah nation remained loudly unrepentant and possessed a powerful ally in the White House. Meanwhile, an impressive, increasingly large global movement of people stood in solidarity with those who had suffered generations of violence, injustice, and settler colonialism.
While this might read like today’s news, the above describes 1984.
At that moment, a small and powerful yet weakened left-wing union with a history of fighting racism, fascism, and authoritarianism refused to unload cargo from apartheid South Africa. Union workers downed their tools in solidarity with black workers leading the resistance inside their country.
On November 24, 1984, the Dutch cargo ship Nedlloyd Kimberley docked at San Francisco’s Pier 80 loaded with goods from South Africa and other countries. Rather than do their job, the dockworkers — proud members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) — refused to touch the South African auto parts, steel, and wine after they unloaded the rest of the ship’s cargo. For the next ten days, the union dispatched members to this pier who continued refusing to unload the South African products, essentially striking against apartheid. Each day, hundreds of other workers and community members provided support for these workers.
The longshoremen timed their action quite well, just two weeks after the landslide reelection of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had proven himself to be fiercely anti-union, notoriously
Auteur: Peter Cole
