BY BARRY SHEPPARD
OAKLAND, California — Police in full riot gear attacked a peaceful anti-war picket line at the docks here on April 7. The cops shot protesters and wharfies, who were nearby, with 2.5-centimetre diameter wooden dowels that left huge welts on the victims, most of whom were shot in the back as they fled the police attack. These wood bullets could have been lethal.
Police also used rubber bullets, "bean bags" shot from shotguns, stun grenades and tear gas. That the police had orders to inflict bodily harm was indicated by the fact that they opened fire almost immediately after giving an order to disperse, which the protesters were attempting to obey when attacked.
The anti-war protest drew some 750 people. Their target was American President Lines (APL), which ships military goods to US forces in Iraq, and Stevedoring Services of America Marine (SSA), which the US government has anointed as the "manager" of the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
The pickets made no attempt to block access to the docks and did not expect to confront police. However, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) did not cross the picket line, and many trucks did likewise.
The ILWU has a clause in its contract that allows the union, if workers find a picket line at their workplace, to determine whether it is safe for the workers to cross it. Jack Heyman, business agent for ILWU Local 10, was conferring with the pickets and ILWU members when the police attacked. The cops targeted the ILWU members because they had expressed sympathy with the protesters, although they were not part of the picket. Heyman was dragged from his car, thrown to the pavement and arrested.
Nine wharfies were wounded. Clarence Thomas, a member of the executive board of ILWU Local 1, said that five of the nine wharfies injured had to seek treatment at a hospital. Eyewitness Jonathan Nack said one worker required surgery for a broken hand. Many more protesters were injured.
The cops and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown claimed the protesters threw rocks and bolts at the police, which justified the attack. However, Nack said this was a lie. "While it is possible one or two people might have thrown something at police, I saw none of it... No police were hurt. No individuals confronted police in any way, nor did anyone fail to move when ordered by the Oakland Police Department... Police could have easily cleared the area without firing a shot. The protesters conducted themselves in an organized, dignified, calm and non-violent manner at all times, even while being fired upon. Very many observers have corroborated this account."
The San Francisco and Alameda county central labour councils denounced the police attack and have sent letters of protest to Mayor Brown.
Michael Eisenscher, an organiser of US Labor Against the War, charged in a letter to Brown that the police attack was prepared in advance. This was confirmed the day after the police riot when the Oakland Tribune reported that at "a meeting last week, officials from the Police Department, port and two shipping companies targeted by protesters came up with a strategy to handle the expected gatherings".
Oakland police chief Richard Word added more fuel to Eisenscher's charges when he told the Tribune, "the concern I had today is that we would have been overwhelmed" by more protesters coming to the site. "They could have taken over the whole port and we did not want that to happen." So the chief ordered a "preemptive" strike.
The exact timing of the attack was ordered by the shipping companies. The New York Times reported: "Chief Richard L Word said the two shipping companies... had asked the police to disperse the crowd because the demonstration, which began early morning, was disrupting business."
Dropping the phoney "rock throwing" excuse, Brown said the police acted appropriately because the protesters wanted to "occupy and take over the port and shut it down. The city is not going to let that happen." That's the message the wood and bean bag bullets and tear gas were meant to send, to the protesters and the wharfies alike.
A meeting of the Oakland City Council the day after the attack saw many protesters and wharfies demanding a full investigation of the police riot. The meeting became so heated that council president Ignacio De La Fuente stormed out of the meeting. Brown and De La Fuente have cultivated a "progressive" image that has been badly tarnished.
Two days before the police riot there had been another important anti-war event in Oakland, a march and rally against the war that drew some 10,000 to 15,000 people.
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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