The ILWU’s Continued Legacy of Justice and Solidarity

I had a post the other day on Trump destroying jobs for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which is the longshoremen’s union on the west coast. As I noted in that post, the ILWU has a long history of left activism AND union members are the only demographic to vote for Harris in 2024 at higher rates than they did for Joe Biden in 2020, so comments about union members being Trumpers were pretty dumb. Inevitably, some ignorant chucklehead of a commenter couldn’t help themselves, and you can see that if you read in the comments. Now, that’s not everyone of course. But these kind comments about unions are all too common. So I wanted to highlight this to note to you what solidarity looks like from the ILWU–which is a very white and male union for what it is worth.

ILWU Local 34 have commemorated the life of Renee Good by arranging to spell her name on the ship they were loading in Oakland. The ship then went to Tacoma where other working people took notice.

Arranging containers to spell Renee Good’s name may not change the world, but it matters for people to see that and when you are a working class guy in Oakland, this is something you can do.

The idea that the rank and file white men of unions are all a bunch of Trumpers is just a flat out union lie, often propagated by liberals who never have been too sympathetic to the labor movement to begin with. Some are–it’s true. And that’s sad. But you can say that of almost any demographic. Some unions have good cultures of solidarity. Others can be cesspools. Teamsters president Sean O’Brien is a racist class traitor. But let’s be sure to not drop anti-worker stereotypes based out of our own ignorance. People can be better and that starts with you.

If you want to read more about the ILWU’s culture of solidarity, buy Peter Cole’s excellent book on it.