On 1/25/08, Greg Palast <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > *The South Carolina You Won't See on CNN > South Carolina Primary Colors: Black and White?* > > *by Greg Palast* > > South Carolina 2000: Six hundred police in riot gear facing a few dozen > angry-as-hell workers on the docks of Charleston. In the darkness, rocks, > clubs and blood fly. The cops beat the crap out of the protesters. Of > course, it's the union men who are arrested for conspiracy to riot. And of > course, of the five men handcuffed, four are Black. The prosecutor: a White, > Bible-thumping Attorney General running for Governor. The result: a state > ripped in half - White versus Black. > > South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our > President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN > and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population > vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, > the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity. > > The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's > an awfully good reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is > the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow > where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman > faced Southern justice. > > But maybe there's more to South Carolina's story than Black and White. > > Let's re-wind the tape of the 2000 battle between cops and Black men. It > was early that morning on the 19th of January when members of International > Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 "shaped up" to unload a container ship > which had just pulled into port. It was hard work for good pay. An > experienced union man could earn above $60,000 a year. > > In this last hold-out of the Confederacy, it was one of the few places a > Black man could get decent pay. Or any man. > > That day, the stevedoring contractor handling the unloading decided it > would hire the beggars down the dock, without experience or skills - and > without union cards - willing to work for just one-third of union scale. > > That night, union workers - Black, White, Whatever - fought for their > lives and livelihoods. > > At the heart of the turmoil in South Carolina in 2000 then, was not so > much Black versus White, but union versus non-union. It was a battle between > those looking for a good day's pay versus those looking for a way not to pay > it. The issue was - and is - class war, the conflict between the movers and > the shakers and the moved and shaken. > > The dockworkers of Charleston could see the future of America right down > the road. Literally. Because right down the highway, they could see their > cousins and brothers who worked in the Carolina textile mills kiss their > jobs goodbye as they loaded the mill looms onto trains for Mexico. > > The President, Bill Clinton, had signed NAFTA, made China a "most favored > nation" in trade and urged us, with a flirtatious grin, to "make change our > friend." > > But "change," apparently, wasn't in a friendly mood. In 2000, Guilford > Mills shuttered its Greensboro, Carolina, fabric plant and reopened it in > Tampico, Mexico. Four-hundred jobs went south. Springs Mills of Rock Hill, > SC, closed down and abandoned 480 workers. Fieldcrest-Cannon pulled out of > York, SC, and Great America Mills simply went bust. > > South Carolina, then, is the story of globalization left out of Thomas > Friedman's wonders-of-the-free-market fantasies. > > This week, while US media broadcasts cute-sy photo-ops from Black churches > and replay the forgettable spats between candidates, the real issues of > South Carolina are, thankfully, laid out in a book released today: *On the > Global Waterfront*, by Suzan Erem and E. Paul Durrenberger. > > Erem and Durrenberger portray the case of the Charleston Five dockworkers > as an exemplary, desperate act of economic resistance. > > Thomas Friedman's bestseller, *The World is Flat*, begins with his > uplifting game of golf with a tycoon in India. Erem and Durrenberger never > put on golf shoes: their book is globalization stripped down to its dirty > underpants. > > While Friedman made the point that he flew business class to Bangalore on > his way to the greens to meet his millionaire, Global Waterfront's authors > go steerage class. And the people they write about don't go anywhere at all. > These are the stevedores who move the containers of Wal-Mart T-shirts from > Guatemala to sell to customers in Virginia who can't afford health insurance > because they lost their job in the textile mill. > > And the book talks about (cover the children's ears!) - labor unions. > > South Carolina is union country. And union-busting country. But who gives > a flying fart about labor unions today? Only 7%, one in fourteen US workers > belongs to one. That's less than the number of Americans who believe that > Elvis killed John Kennedy. > > Think "longshoremen" and what comes to mind is *On the Waterfront* with > Marlon Brando, the good guy, beating up the evil union boss. The union > bosses were the thugs, mobbed-up bullies, the dockworkers' enemies. The > movie's director, Stanley Kramer, perfectly picked up the anti-union > red-baiting Joe McCarthy zeitgeist of that era of - which could go down well > today. > > Elected labor leaders are, in our media, always "union bosses." But the > real bosses, the CEOs, the guys who shutter factories and ship them to China > they're never "bosses," they're "entrepreneurs." > > Indeed, the late and lionized King of Union Busters, Sam Walton, would be > proud today, were he alive, to learn that the woman he called, "my little > lady," Hillary Clinton, whom he placed on Wal-Mart's Board of Directors, is > front-runner for the presidency. She could well become America's "Greeter," > posted at our nation's door, to welcome the Saudis and Chinese who are > buying America at a guaranteed low price. > > So what happened those five union men charged felonious rioting in 2000? > Through an international union campaign, they won back their freedom - and > their union jobs - after the dockworkers of Spain, the true heroes of > globalization, refused to unload the South Carolina scab cargoes. > > Erem and Durrenberger ask themselves why they were so drawn to a story of > five Carolina cargo-handlers put in prison a decade ago. Maybe it's because > the Charleston Five show how courage and heart and solidarity can lead to > victory in the midst of a mad march into globalization that threatens to > turn us all into the Wal-Mart Five Billion. > > ************** > See video of the dockworkers' uprising and read more from the book, On the > Global Waterfront, by Suzan Erem and E. Paul Durrenberger (introduction by > Greg Palast) at > http://www.ontheglobalwaterfront.org/<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--www.ontheglobalwaterfront.org/> > . > > Note: Palast will be speaking this Saturday at UCLA on "White Sheets and > Black Votes: Race, Politics and Disenfranchisement." Free but RSVP > required<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-https--www.gdnet.ucla.edu/rsvp/--Q-Event--E-IACVOTE2008> > . > > Greg Palast is the author of the NY Times best-sellers, Armed Madhouse and > The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. View Palast's investigative reports for > BBC Television on our YouTube > Channel<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--youtube.com/profile--Q-user--E-GregPalastOffice>(Link). > * > Join our social networking sites on > Facebook<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--www.facebook.com/p/Greg_Palast/505970501>on > MySpace<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--myspace.com/theofficialgregpalast>and > on Google's > Orkut<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx--Q-uid--E-6779777223640067790>. > Sign up for RSS updates of our > site<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--feeds.feedburner.com/gregpalast-articles>(link) > and for our > podcasts<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--gregpalast.com/section/podcasts/feed> > (link).* > > *Support our work by donating to the Palast Investigative > Fund<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=66&e=NDAyNzMw&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/>(a > 501c3 educational foundation).* > > > > > > * > * > > To Unsubscribe, please click > here<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//box.php?funcml=unsub2&nl=1&mi=66&[EMAIL > PROTECTED]> > . > >
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