Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

hundreds were hospitalized, and thousands were treated at the ILA clinic. Therewere 938 arrests in San Francisco alone. ')In arbitration, the workers won a raise and a thirty-hour week, but were onlygranted partial control of the hiring hall-falling short of their most importantdemand.Ho The strike delivered real gains, but not the decisive victory the workerswanted. In this case, they proved unwilling to accept even a partial defeat,and the class war shifted from a campaign of massive, often deadly, battles to oneof quick, bloodless, guerrilla actions. Both the longshore and the ship workersimmediately instigated a series of on-the-job actions against unfair and dangerousconditions.sl And, perhaps as importantly, they changed the face of theirunions and the labor movement overall. Looking back on the strike a few yearslater, Thomas G. Plant told a conference of longshore employers:Most of us heaved a big sigh of relief, and felt that the old peace and orderwould soon be restored. But the old order had changed. The old unionhad said to us, "We believe our interests are common with yours; we willcooperate with you in every way ...." The new union was to say to us, "Webelieve in the class struggle, that there is nothing in common betweenour interests and yours, therefore, we will hamper you at every turn, andwe will do everything we can to destroy your interests, believing that bydoing so we can advance our own." K2CLASS WAR IN THE 1990S AND TODAYThe role of the police in suppressing organized labor during the period beforeWorld War II is well documented and relatively un controversial. What is oftenoverlooked, however, is their continuation in this role since that time. The policehave undergone a great many changes in the half-century since World War II, buttheir vu::.iliuJl ill the class slructure and their roie in the class war have remamedvery much the same.For example, sixty-five years after the San Francisco General Strike, on the oppositeside of the country, dockworkers were again facing a threat to their union-arecalcitrant company backed by the armed might of the state. In October 1999,Nordana line, a Danish shipping company, announced that it would end itscontract with the ILA and started using non-union workers to unload its ships.Union members began picketing the port in Charleston, South Carolina, sometimesdamaging equipment, blocking access to machinery, and intimidatingnon-union workers.Hl On January 20, 2000, the police intervened with a massivedisplay of force. Six hundred officers from the State Law Enforcement Division,the State Highway Patrol, the Charleston County Sheriffs Office, and the policedepartments of Charleston, North Charleston, and Mount Pleasant assembledin riot gear at the port's gates, a helicopter buzzing overhead.s4 Just after midnight,about 200 workers marched from the union hall to the docks, chanting"ILA, ILA, IIA" As the workers tried to break through the police lines, the copspushed them back with their shields. 'The fight escalated from there, with workersthrowing rocks and bottles, and the police using clubs, tear gas, and rubberbullets to drive the crowd back toward the union hall. At least ten workers-andprobably many more--were injured, most of them African Americans.S5116