Rogers Has New Website

Marakay Rogers, whom I'm supporting for PA attorney general, has a new website up and running. You can view it at http://www.rogersforattorneygeneral.com/. A few months ago, in response to an Oklahoma state representative who called homosexuals "worse than terrorists," Dan Savage suggested people give to a gay candidate and inform her they were doing so in her honor. I was already supporting Rogers, who's an out lesbian, so I informed the wingnut that I would give to her campaign. As I'm currently not comfortable with organized political activity, this will take the form of handing out copies of her home page at my polling place. 

Is Asperger's a Double-Edged Sword?

I just submitted the following letter to Phactum, newsletter of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking.

In his recent letter to Phactum, David Leiter discusses anecdotal evidence that skeptics and atheists disproportionately suffer from Asperger syndrome. I considered for a while whether this diagnosis might apply to me, but ultimately concluded that it didn't fit. The therapist I was seeing at the time concurred. I hope it's not necessary to add that, whatever psychological correlates may be found for particular beliefs, they tell us nothing in themselves about those beliefs' validity or lack thereof. Assuming for the sake of discussion that the correlation does exist, I don't think the hypothesis of Leiter's anonymous correspondent, which might be summed up as "arrogance attracts arrogance," holds water -- not only because no clear mechanism is proposed, but because to my knowledge atheists, agnostics, and skeptics have not been shown to be any more "arrogant" than the general population. I suspect this attribution may simply reflect that some people are offended by anyone's willingness to state their disagreement with prevailing opinion. Instead, I conjecture the following: like any cognitive ability, recognition of social cues is most efficient and useful if it can function unconsciously. But this has the side effect of sometimes disadvantageous consequences. Since beliefs are a kind of social behavior that can be "mirrored" much like others, unconscious recognition of social cues may result in increased susceptibility to adopting other people's beliefs without perceiving any need to verify them independently, especially if they are beliefs that are prevalent in one's social environment (like theism). In this view Asperger's may be a double-edged sword, offering the advantage of reduced gullibility along with the drawback of greater difficulty in social interactions. 

Once Again, Surprised When I Needn't Have Been

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from Jim Tayoun at the Public Record. Before opening it I worried it would be something telling me not to write them any more letters if I was going to question his faith. Or telling me that since the paper had moved its offices I wouldn't get it free in the mail any more. Or telling me not to submit letters for publication if I was going to publish them here at the same time. Instead it was a friendly missive respectfully disagreeing with me. Perhaps I should have expected no less from a former politician, yet I had. Like my recent encounter with Connie Willis, this again illustrates how I still tend to anticipate the worst in how people will respond to me. But I suppose the more I test this expectation against reality and find it false (and see that it doesn't kill me when it's true either), the less it will worry me. The text of Tayoun's letter follows. Dear Eric Your response was well thought out by you. But seeing is believing and that is not the only miracle I have witnessed while in Lebanon. You probably would not believe what the people who benefited from these miracles will say. Sorry for you. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts. Jim Tayoun 

De-List Kink from the DSM

Kinky is NOT a Diagnosis!
DSM Revision Petition

A joint Project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

The DSM Revision Petition is gathering signatures from individuals
and organizations calling on the American Psychiatric Association
(APA) to adhere to empirical research when revising the diagnoses in
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Statements currently within the DSM Paraphilias criteria are
contradicted by scientific evidence therefore NCSF must conclude that
the interpretation of the Paraphilias criteria has been politically
not scientifically b based. This politically motivated
interpretation subjects BDSM practitioners, fetishists and cross-
dressers to bias, discrimination and social sanctions without any
scientific basis.

Petition:
"We, the undersigned, support the American Psychiatric
Association's (APA) own goal of making its Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual (DSM) a scientific document, based on empirical research and
devoid of cultural bias. A diagnosis of a mental disorder can
have a severe adverse impact on employment opportunities, child
custody determinations, an individual's well-being, and other areas
of functioning. Therefore we urge the APA to remove all diagnoses
that are not based upon peer-reviewed, empirical research,
demonstrating distress or dysfunction, from the DSM. The APA
specifically should not promote current social norms or values as a
basis for clinical judgments."

To sign, go to: www.thepetitionsite.com/1/DSMrevisionpetition
(You can make your signature anonymous on this secure petition site
so it doesn't appear on the Internet)

To find out more about the DSM and the Paraphilias section, read the
NCSF & ITCR: The Foundation for NCSF's "White Paper on the DSM
Revision" at www.ncsfreedom.org

For more information, email: DSMrevisionpetition@yahoo.com

Please distribute to organizations and individuals and ask them to
sign on!

###

A joint Project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization
committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in
the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who
practice forms of alternative sexual expression.

NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the
SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities, who often face
discrimination because of their sexual expression.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
917-848-6544
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org

Too Much Like Old Times

A situation has arisen that triggered unpleasant memories of my experience in the Socialist Workers Party's youth group as a teenager.

The director of a group I've been involved in the past few years has expelled one of the other board members. This was announced on the group's list a few days ago, but I only learned of it yesterday at the membership meeting. The director said that no explanation would be given because of the "sensitivity" of the situation. Unfortunately the expelled board member wasn't present to help explain things.

I don't make snap decisions, and the person who raised the issue at the meeting didn't have a very pleasant manner, so I didn't react immediately, but it didn't sit well with me. Early this morning I awoke with the certainty that this was not a situation I could tolerate. So I just posted the following message as a reply to the announcement of the expulsion on the list.


For me, this way of handling things is unacceptable.

Once before, I belonged to a group that -- without ever saying so outright -- expected me to accept what the leadership told me on faith. Because I didn't do so, I was driven out, and sustained considerable emotional damage in the process. On top of that, when I agreed under duress to resign (rather than face trumped-up charges) I found that I couldn't inform other members of the reasons for my decision since I was no longer a member and so could not attend meetings. I wrote a letter of resignation, but had no way of telling if it was actually ever read to the members.

I'm afraid the present situation just bears too much resemblance to that previous one for my comfort. To be sure, ----- says we can ask him questions off list, but in the end we'd still be in the position of having to take his word for things, wouldn't we? And that's simply not something I can do, especially where it appears that people's rights are at issue.

I'm not judging what happened, since I don't know what happened. What I do know is that I can't be part of a group that functions in this way. Consequently, I am resigning my membership in ---------.

To be fair, yesterday's meeting was at a public venue, so it wouldn't have been so easy to exclude someone. Still, there are ways of making people unwelcome. And it would be a moot point if the person responsible for the decision had explained it himself.

Update from Friday: Despite considerable anxiety, I did tell Connie Willis about what I'd found offensive in Passage (though I didn't make much eye contact while doing so). Her response was respectful, though I got the impression she didn't get the part about how the characters' stupid approach to advertising for subjects disrespected scientific method. I was also pleased that afterward, another person in attendance told me he agreed with my point about that. And, prior to the meeting, I'd run into someone I met at the cultic studies conference and found him readily agreeing with both points. So I'm glad I did it.

One thing that occurs to me, especially in light of my eye contact trouble, is that I probably need more to develop comfort in confronting people on a more strictly one-on-one basis, than in a group setting. So perhaps the next time I have an issue like this to raise with someone, even if I'll be seeing them in a group context, I should try to bring it up with them privately (e.g., in a case like this, expressing my feelings to Willis after the formal Q&A, when people were lining up to speak with her personally and get her autograph).

Getting Something off My Chest

A few weeks ago I decided that many of the activities I'd been involved in for some time were no longer helping me grow as a person. Organizations concerned with science fiction, bisexuality, and skepticism had helped me broaden my social circle and become less (ultimately, I hope, not at all) dependent on politics for my sense of meaning and purpose in life. But most of my activities with these groups were still of a relatively formal, group nature, and I came to feel that they were not helping me develop further my capacities for interacting with people on a one-to-one basis, or really expressing myself creatively. They seemed to have become a comfortable rut which was filling up some of my free time in a superficially social way, without challenging me to learn how to be more intimate with people. So on 15 August I decided to drop out not only from the Green Party, but also from the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, and the twice-monthly discussion group of BiUnity of Philadelphia. Nonetheless I will be attending tonight's PSFS meeting, because I have something to get off my chest. This month's guest is author Connie Willis, who previously spoke to the group about a decade ago. At that meeting she mentioned that she was working on a book that would concern Near Death Experiences, and after her talk I suggested she read Susan Blackmore's nonfiction treatment of the subject, Dying to Live, which is notable for simultaneously championing a materialist view of NDEs, and also looking sympathetically at why they can be so profound and transformative for some of those who go through them. In 2003 I bought the book Willis had been working on, titled Passage. But I was only about a fifth of the way into it when I found myself feeling profoundly offended. The two central characters were working together on a study concerned with NDEs. It had been learned that a certain drug caused experiences that shared many features typical of NDEs, and they had advertised for subjects who would be given this drug. What I found extremely offensive was how one of them reacted to interviewing a potential subject who, when asked why he was interested in participating, indicated he's be very interested in finding out what the experience of dying might be like. After the interview the scientist shared notes with her colleague and they agreed that this candidate shouldn't be included because of his "abnormal" interest. (I don't remember for certain if that term was used, but it's representative of the tone of the conversation.) Now, I was thinking, wait a minute. Doesn't it make sense to be curious about this experience that all of us are, presumably, going to have some day? It felt to me that the characters, and the author, were simply making fun of someone for having an "unusual" interest. For being different. Well, I spent most of my childhood feeling ostracized or excluded for being different. So I don't take kindly to this sort of thing. At the same time, I grew up believing very strongly in the value of scientific method and critical thinking -- not just for professional researchers, but for everyday life, as a means of protecting ourselves from falling into the trap of our own assumptions. One of the first books I ever read was a biography of Einstein, and the first quote I ever memorized was from him: "What many people refer to as common sense is nothing more than a collection of prejudices accumulated before the age of eighteen." Einstein became my hero, and the idea expressed by that quote helped me sustain my self-esteem in the face of so many peers who thought there was something wrong with me for not having the same interests as they did. This relates to the other thing that was offensive about that passage, because insofar as they didn't want their subject pool to be biased toward people with an unusual interest in death -- which one may allow could skew the results even if one doesn't think there's anything "wrong" with such an interest -- they could easily have avoided that by not advertising that the study had to do with NDEs! It seems to me that this would have been perfectly ethical, since no actual death or dying was involved. So, not only was Willis making a cheap joke at the expense of people who are seen as "different," but she willfully disregarded a rather obvious element of sound scientific procedure for the sake of making a cheap joke at the expense of such people. Given how deeply I feel about scientific method on what might even be called a moral level, this really made the passage doubly offensive to me. So, tonight I will tell Willis how offensive I found this. And that's what makes attending this month's meeting worthwhile for me, because in this case it will be more than an intellectual experience. It will be a chance to get more comfortable expressing my feelings and making myself vulnerable. 

Paranoid Guy -- Update

Yesterday I copied the trigger reframing worksheet in the book Recovery from Cults, which I bought at the ICSA conference a couple months ago, and filled it out in relation to the problem with Paranoid Guy. In the process, the questions it posed -- familiar to me from Cognitive Behavior Therapy-based forms in my social anxiety workbook -- led me to reconsider my previous decision to avoid him. I now think it's better to simply ignore him and learn by experience that his statements can't hurt me. (I called my friend Tricia yesterday and she agreed with this judgment.) In other news, I just bought a gift subscription to $pread magazine for Noam Chomsky. I had a quite frustrating email exchange with him some months ago in which he exhibited a closed mind about both sex work and kink. I'm hoping that regular exposure to the firsthand viewpoints of sex workers may make a difference. One reason the exchange was so aggravating is that it also triggered me in much the same way as Paranoid Guy does, because Chomsky kept attributing positions to me that I wasn't taking, even after I'd carefully restated my actual position. Because of my particular sensitivity to this sort of thing, I would go for weeks before opening his latest email to me, out of fear of the trauma of being misrepresented again. I had a similar experience a few years ago when first posting on Nina Hartley's forum board: I kept finding words put in my mouth, and putting off reading people's responses because this was so painful.

NPR Commentator Discovers That Self-Esteem Can't Be Built on Shame

For a refreshing change, here's something to applaud: a schoolteacher gave a commentary on National Public Radio in which she described how her experience with one of her students last year taught her that making an issue of how she dressed only had the effect of making that, rather than educational goals, the focus of their relationship. I've sent NPR a message applauding this insight and encourage others to do likewise. You can read or listen to the commentary at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94288145. 

Paranoid Guy

I understand now that Paranoid Guy triggers me. Paranoid Guy is a man I sometimes see in Suburban Station, usually in the men's room. Since I first saw him a couple months ago and approached him to suggest he get treatment for his apparent Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, whenever he sees me he tells me various things about myself which are actually true about him: that I'm paranoid schizophrenic, that I've been in a mental hospital and am homeless, etc.

The first time he did this I tried to argue with him, but he just responded by saying, "You lie." This time I tried telling him these same things about himself, with the idea that this would restore my sense of control in the situation. But I still got unsettled and anxious.

I see the problem is that he's imposing his reality on me while denying my reality. This is triggering me because that's what the cult did, particularly in the process of forcing me out. I'll avoid him in the future, since he can't be good for my mental health.

It's a Miracle... What Some People Will Call Proof

The other day I sent the following letter to the Public Record, whose publisher recently visited his ancestral home of Lebanon. Unless it was his son, the doctor, who made the trip. They both have the same name.

Jim Tayoun claims that Nohaid Al-Shamy is "monthly proof miracles do happen." She is nothing of the sort. What are the facts? She came out of a coma, apparently on her own. This happens all the time. She had an experience while comatose, which she characterizes as a saintly visitation. It is not uncommon for people to dream while comatose. For that matter, it's not uncommon for someone in a coma have some awareness of their environment, even though they can't show it. So, even if she hadn't known she had a medical problem before becoming comatose, she could have become aware of it from hearing people talk about her condition. Given that she's a religious believer, it's not surprising that this would have led her to thinking of supernatural entities in whom she believes (saints) in the hope of getting assistance from them. If the physiological event that caused the painful sensation in her throat and the "wound" (of which we're given no description) occurred while she was dreaming, she would have incorporated that into her dream, by imagining that one of the saints was touching her throat. This sort of thing happens to me all the time: someone is being interviewed on the radio, and in my dream that becomes someone talking to me. Finally, we're told that her "wound" becomes visible at the time of month that she visits the saint's shrine. We're not told that this has been documented but, even if it has, there could well be a naturalistic explanation. At this time of month she would be thinking more about her throat, resulting in a change of muscle tone in that area. This could make a scar more visible by stretching or compressing it, by increasing blood flow to the area, or a combination of these. Jim Tayoun can think Nohaid Al-Shamy recovered because of a miracle if he wants to. But he might do well to acknowledge that this is just something he's chosen to believe on faith, and withdraw the baseless claim that there's any proof that it's true.

You might wonder why I bother writing such a letter. After all it doesn't seem likely that it will be published, nor that it will change Tayoun's thinking (though perhaps it might influence the letters editor). I guess I just can't let people think that their sensibilities will protect religious claims from being challenged in the same way that others would be. You can read the original article at http://issuu.com/phillyrecord/docs/pr-446-p. It's on page 4. 

Tell the Times: You Don't Prevent Coercion by Practicing It

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation's newslist has forwarded an editorial from the New York Times which makes the Orwellian argument that in order to stop sexual slavery, we should criminalize consensual employment of prostitutes by "traffickers." Here's the letter I just sent them:

Your editorial "Taking On the Traffickers" is represented as being about concern for women and children "smuggled" into the country as "sex slaves." That is, it appeals to our revulsion at coercion. Yet, later you call for coercion to be removed from the definition of trafficking for purposes of the law. What sense does this make? Clearly if the government prosecutes people for a consensual activity, then it is the government itself that is practicing coercion, not preventing it. As for some traffickers' taking advantage of prostitutes' fear of police, the solution is plain even though you don't mention it: take away the reasons for that fear by abolishing legal restrictions both on prostitution and on immigration.

You can write the Times at letters@nytimes.com.

"ACTIN UP"

...says a license plate I saw today. And I think it was very punny, because the car was apparently driving out of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, right across the street from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I didn't get to ask the driver, but I'd be willing to bet she's a neurologist. "Actin." "UP." Get it?

Now you see me.

I just renewed my state ID and decided, while getting a better picture of myself taken, that I should put it up here. You can view it to your right.

Support Release of Records in the Death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey

Citizens for Legitimate Government has reported that the attorney for the late "DC madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is requesting the release of records relating to her death, which was described as an apparent suicide. Her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, says Palfrey specifically asked that he do so in the event that she were to die of an apparent suicide. The request is addressed to the police department of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Obtaining fulfillment of this request may be non-trivial because Palfrey's mother has sued to have the records withheld. In addition to other reasons for supporting this, whoever killed her may have believed they could get away with it because the public would not care about a sex worker's death, or be concerned about respecting her posthumous wishes. A public demonstration of support would prove otherwise and thereby set a beneficial precedent. The Tarpon Springs police chief is named Mark LeCouris. The address is: City of Tarpon Springs Police Department 444 S. Huey Ave Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 The non-emergency number is (727) 938-2849 and the email address is cityclerk1@ci.tarpon-springs.fl.us. (Note: "Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead contact this office by phone or in writing.") 

Pelosi tries not to see protesters

A few dozen people showed up to protest Nancy Pelosi's reluctance to impeach Cheney and Bush for their crimes, but it appears security did their best to keep her from having to see us as she left the library. Here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plTknEgP3co

My sign and I appear most clearly at 7 minutes, 34 seconds.

"Off the Table" Pelosi Is Hawking Books in Philly

I just learned the other day that Nancy Pelosi, who only recently started to balk at Bush's war spending requests under enormous public pressure, but has balked at impeachment proceedings "from day one" (to borrow a phrase), will be speaking at Philadelphia's central library tomorrow. I spent some time yesterday making a placard to bring there: "NO $$$ for WAR -- US troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq" on one side; "CINDY SHEEHAN for CONGRESS -- Those who don't impeach, don't impress" on the other. If you're in my area, I hope to find you there. BTW, it seemed remarkable how easy it was to eyeball the spacing of those slogans correctly; I didn't use to be able to do that. I guess it's just a mark of my increased self-confidence. 

A Studio Is Not a Prison

I sent a letter today to The Sun magazine, responding to an article in last November's issue which I received as part of a trial sub (I'd subsequently decided money was too tight to continue it, and only recently had gotten around to reading the issues they sent me). Here's what I wrote:

Dear editor, While I agree with Derrick Jensen's main point, I think he makes an inapt analogy in comparing zoos with pornography. He writes, "If I have a photograph, I have it forever, even if subsequently the woman withdraws her permission." This is different from a Wyeth painting or a Springsteen CD -- how? When I've made artworks for my mother or my friend Khristina, I didn't say they couldn't give them to someone else, and so there's no way I could be assured of being able to retrieve them. And when I sing at an open mike or in the subway, I don't tell anyone that they can't record me. In the same way, when I've offered to model for pornography, I haven't asked for any right to take back my image -- nor would I want to. Whether I'm giving someone my art, or singing to them, or modeling for them, I'm making a statement: This is who I am. If I kept a purchase on that piece of myself, so that I could take it back, I would be qualifying that statement -- making it with less confidence. It would, in fact, no longer be the statement I wanted to make. So far from the irretrievability of pornography, like any willfully public expression, making it less authentic -- as Jensen would have us believe -- for us who choose to do it, this makes it more authentic. 

A Remarkable Experience

Yesterday brought the close of the International Cultic Studies Association's annual meeting, held here in Philadelphia. While I've had fun and interesting times at conferences of other sorts in the past -- mostly either political or sf-related -- there's been nothing as meaningful as this. Almost every session had me discovering things that had a bearing on my own experience, often shedding light on memories that had made no sense or been disconnected before. This was especially true of the programming that was specifically geared to ex-members (i.e., former cult members).

And I think I chose well in attending these whenever possible. The more academically oriented sessions were doubtless interesting, but it was logical, at my first conference of this sort, to take the fullest advantage of opportunities to learn about things that could aid me in my recovery, as well as to meet and make connections with fellow survivors. I exchanged contact information with several before leaving, including a few who live in this area.

Actually, I was disappointed I didn't find more who live in this area. Since there have to be a great many more out there, this is evidence of the outreach that still needs to be done.

Quote of the Month

"The suicide bombers are not psychopaths -- they are victims." -- Janja Lalich, Ph.D., keynote speaker at the International Cultic Studies Association annual meeting, this morning.

US, Iraqi Dock Workers Strike Against Occupation

From protest to resistance
West Coast ports shut on May Day
By Clarence Thomas
Published May 5, 2008 9:19 PM

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU),
known for its militant and democratic traditions as well
as its economic and social justice activism, has written a
new chapter in its glorious labor history by shutting down
all 29 ports on the West Coast for eight hours on May Day.

This historic and courageous action on the part of the
ILWU came about as the result of a “No Peace No Work
Holiday” resolution adopted by the Longshore Division
Caucus, its highest ruling body, in February. The caucus
passed this resolution by an overwhelming majority of the
100 longshore delegates representing all locals on the
West Coast.

This resolution demanded “an immediate end to the war and
occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of
U.S. troops from the Middle East.” It also asked the
AFL-CIO and Change to Win for “an urgent appeal for unity
and action” to end the war. The resolution further
included a request for a May 1 coastwide stop-work union
meeting to accommodate the closure of the ports.
Contractually, the ILWU is entitled to one stop-work
meeting a month to address union business.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents
shippers, stevedoring companies and terminal operators,
and negotiates labor contracts on their behalf, denied the
request for a coastwide union meeting for May 1. Such
requests have been honored in the past with advance
notice. (PMA received nearly three months advanced notice
and still denied the request.)

The rank and file proceeded with plans for a stop-work
shutdown even though the International leadership withdrew
its request to the PMA for the May 1 coastwide meeting.

PMA then insisted that the union leadership notify its
members of the withdrawal of the request for May Day. The
PMA even went to an arbitrator to force the union leaders
to do this. The arbitrator ruled that the union is
obligated to notify members that the union’s request had
been withdrawn.

None of this pressure weakened the resolve of the rank and
file, who organized marches, rallies and other
demonstrations in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest.
Union locals continued to prepare for the May Day action.

In San Francisco, Local 10 members organized the Port
Workers’ May Day Organizing Committee, made up of union
members, immigrant rights, and anti-war and social justice
groups. In the Pacific Northwest, May Day organizing
groups were headed up by rank and filers: Gabriel Prawl of
Local 19 Executive Board in Seattle; and in Portland Local
8 members Jerry Lawrence, member of the Executive Board,
and Debbie Stringfellow.

Anti-war solidarity from West Coast to Iraq

There were numerous solidarity statements not just from
trade unionists but a wide array of individuals and
organizations from around the world in support of ILWU’s
unprecedented planned action. The first was called by the
National Association of Letter Carriers locals observing
two minutes of silence in all carrier stations at 8:15
a.m. on May 1 in solidarity with the ILWU action.
Independent port truckers on the West Coast were very
active in taking on solidarity actions in support of the
ILWU. In the ports of Newark and Elizabeth, N.J., as well
as the port of Houston, independent truckers protested
against higher gas prices and in support of the ILWU May
Day action. In Seattle, students at the University of
Seattle, University of Washington, and Seattle Central
Community College left their respective campuses to hold
their own rallies or join the march and rally of ILWU
Local 19.

The ILWU action resonated so much in the community that
one of the oldest movie theater venues in Oakland, Calif.,
the Grand Lake, had the following on its marquee for a
week leading up to May Day, “WE SALUTE THE LONGSHOREMEN’S
MAY DAY STRIKE TO PROTEST THE CRIMINAL OCCUPATION OF
IRAQ.” Due to its location near the central city
thoroughfare, thousands of people could see the marquee on
any given day.

The most significant solidarity action of all came from
Longshoremen in Iraq itself. Members of the Port Workers
Union of Iraq shut down the Ports of Umn Qasr and Khor
Alzubair for one hour on May Day in solidarity with the
shutdown of all West Coast ports by members of the ILWU in
opposition to the occupation of Iraq. This action was
taken in defiance of the Ba’athist legislation of 1987,
which banned trade unions in the public sector and public
enterprise.

The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq sent this
message to the ILWU, “The courageous decision you made to
carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war
and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against
occupation to bring a better future for us and for the
rest of the world as well.”

There was a second solidarity message received from the
Iraqi Labor Movement, a broad cross section of union
leaders from many different unions and labor federations
in Iraq. The message read in part, “On this day of
international labor solidarity we call on our fellow trade
unionists and all those worldwide who have stood against
war and occupation to increase support for our struggle
for freedom from occupation—both military and economic.”

Jack Heyman, Local 10 Executive Board member and Co-Chair,
Port Workers May Day Organizing Committee, was interviewed
by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on May 2 about the
significance of the May Day action. He responded to
several of her questions in the following way: “We’re
really proud here on the West Coast as longshoremen. The
ILWU is making a stand because it’s part of our legacy,
really for standing up on principled issues.

“This is the first stop work—work stoppage ever where
workers were withholding their labor and demanding an end
to the war and the immediate withdrawal of the troops. Not
only did we defy the arbitrator, but in a certain sense we
defied our own union officials. The union officials did
not want to have the actions we organized up and down the
coast despite the arbitrator’s decision. Simply, we don’t
take our orders from the arbitrator—we don’t take it from
judges. The rank and file goes out and does what it has to
do.

“We did that in 1984 during our struggle against apartheid
when a ship came in from South Africa. We, Local 10
members, refused to work that ship for 10 days. That was
in defiance of what the arbitrator said and what our union
officials were telling us. So, we’ve got strong traditions
in the ILWU, rank-and-file democracy where we implement
what we decide in a democratic fashion.”

In San Francisco, more than a thousand people marched from
Local 10’s union hall, led by the Local 10 Drill Team,
along the Embarcadero where the 1934 Big Strike took place
to a noon rally at Justin Herman Plaza. Actor-activist
Danny Glover; Cynthia McKinney, former congresswoman from
Georgia; Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq; and
many others spoke to the crowd.

Local 10 was the local of the legendary labor leader and
founding member of the ILWU, Harry Bridges. Local 10
initiated the Million Worker March (MWM), which took place
on Oct. 17, 2004, at the Lincoln Memorial. The MWM
movement calls upon the rank and file of the labor
movement, organized and unorganized, to wage a fight-back
movement for the working class. One of the aims of the MWM
following the 2004 mobilization was to reclaim May Day by
reclaiming our proud history of struggle and social gains
which International Workers’ Day stands for.

Rallies, marches and resolutions all play an important
role in terms of organizing, but the ILWU’s May Day action
of shutting down all 29 ports on the West Coast is an
example of how workers can exercise their power in the
workplace and move from protest to resistance.


The writer is a Local 10, ILWU Executive Board member;
Co-chair, Port Workers’ May Day Organizing Committee, and
National Co-chair, Million Worker March Movement.