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May Day appeal for solidarity
Dear Comrades,
AS YOU MAY know, 600 ILWU borate miners employed by Rio Tinto in Boron, California have been locked out and are waging a desparate struggle. May Day will be the 3rd month of the lockout, an employer strike against the union. Rio Tinto, a global mining giant, has declared class war against the most militant union in the United States, the ILWU. Rio Tinto, which was nurtured under Franco's fascist dictatorship in Spain, has earned a reputation as rapacious capitalists who evict indigenous peoples off their resource-rich land, destroy the environment and bust trade unions. This is a struggle which workers in the U.S. can not lose because after the miners, the longshore workers will be next and then the organized labor movement. It is similar to the 1980 PATCO air controllers' strike broken by President Ronald Reagan. Workers of the world must stand together on May Day against this brutal attack. As the old syndicalist slogan goes: "An injury to one is an injury to all!"
I implore you in the spirit of working class militants on the barricades, carry a banner on May Day in solidarity with the locked out miners in Boron, California. On May Day 2008, the ILWU shutdown ALL West Coast ports to protest the imperialist war in Afghanistan and Iraq demanding an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Supporters of the ILWU around the world held banners and posters at May Day rallies in support of our strike, took photos and sent them to us. Could you please do the same to help build morale for our miners at a critical moment of this struggle and build international labor solidarity?
Victory to the ILWU miners!
Jack Heyman
P.S. You can also fax solidarity greetings to ILWU Local 30 760-762-5542
ILWU Local 10 415-441-0610
ILWU International 415-775-1302
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