Activists and union members shut down the U.S.-Canada border in Detroit April 21 during a spontaneous action to protest the FTAA. The action came out of a legal anti-FTAA march scheduled during the biannual Labor Notes meeting.

Though there were no tear gas canisters or pig catapults in Detroit during the Summit of the Americas meeting on April 21, about 200 activists and rank and file union members managed to take control of the U.S.-Canada border and block the streets in a completely spontaneous direct action which broke off from a placid legal anti-FTAA march.

The action, led largely by the Chicago Direct Action network, occurred during the biannual Labor Notes conference, a meeting of progressive union members from around the country. While no direct actions had been planned for the area in advance, the spur of the moment movement stopped traffic at the border and in surrounding intersections for a total of about an hour. The Detroit police, who appeared to have been taken by surprise, brought in close to 100 riot cops and tried to muscle protesters off the streets and cherry pick several protesters out of the crowd, including knocking a megaphone-wielding man to the ground.

After shutting down the border for close to half an hour and taking control of a main street for some time, activists logged the action as a victory and marched back to the conference. Upon reaching the Cobo Convention Center where the Labor Notes conference was being held, several Chicago Direct Action Network activists burned a U.S. flag.

Later that afternoon and at a Direct Action workshop the following day, union members and leaders expressed some reservations but overall support for the direct action.

“For years the labor movement has been trying to expunge the left from its ranks,” said one union member at the direct action workshop. “What we need are more activists in our ranks, more actions like we saw here.”

In addition to the anti-FTAA march, the conference featured a variety of panels and workshops about free trade, globalization and other issues facing union members today.

Ken Riley, president of the International Association of Longshoremen Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina, and Jose Ramirez, leader of the Colombian Oilworkers Union (USO), both spoke about how globalization and free trade are already wreaking havoc on their jobs and human rights.

Riley spoke of the “conspiracy” that is going on in South Carolina, “the worst state in the country for unions,” to crush the powerful and progressive Longshoremen.

Riley joined the union in the mid-70s and became president a decade ago. When he took over the presidency, he said, the leadership and members were conservative and loathe to take any action. That quickly changed, as the union became the focal point for the Progressive Network of South Carolina, working with other community and religious groups on a wide range of civil rights and labor issues and getting involved in electoral politics. The local government, which had long enjoyed having a right-to-work state with only 3 percent of workers in unions and wages 26 percent below the national average, has been doing all it can to beat the union into submission.

“South Carolina companies advertise around the world about their cheap and productive labor force,” said Riley.

Last session legislators attempted to pass a bill that would bar any union members from running for public office, dubbed the “Ken Riley Bill.” The bill passed in the House and failed in the Senate, and is being reintroduced this session.

In late 1999, a Danish shipping company which had employed union workers for 23 years abruptly announced it was going non-union, and would be paying workers only $6 an hour with no benefits. The Longshoremen responded with a walkout in January 2000 that turned into a bitter and violent strike. Riley needed 12 stitches on his head after being clubbed by a cop, about 200 members were jailed and nine union members were arrested on charges including inciting a riot. An ad was placed in the paper offering a reward for witnesses who could identify union members at the scene, and eventually five were indicted. Since then, the five have been on house arrest from 7pm to 7am every day, and the company is suing 27 named individuals for a total of $1.5 million. The union is waging a defense campaign for the “Charleston 5,” with a national day of action planned for June 9.

With dockworker jobs being one of the few decent-paying industries available in the poverty-stricken area, Riley noted that the assault on the Longshoremen is critical not only for the union but for the community as a whole.

“The Old South still remains, with cheap labor and no benefits,” said Riley. “But since this campaign there are more organizing drives going on in South Carolina than you can imagine.”

Ramirez also spoke about the need for an international action campaign against the evils of Plan Colombia. Ramirez said that among other things, U.S. labor activists can help the people of Colombia by spreading the word about the true motivations of Plan Colombia, by demanding U.S. politicians oppose the plan and by accompanying Colombian activists and union members during their daily routine to protect them from paramilitary violence and execution. Addressing the anti-FTAA march of about 400 people, Ramirez talked about the overall evils of globalization and the obligation of people around the world to fight against imperialism and colonialism.

“We don’t need oppression and helicopters, we need industrial development, we need education, we need low interest loans,” said Ramirez, who has seen at least four members of his union killed by paramilitaries in the past year. “The only alternative we have left is unity between all ethnicities to win this fight against imperialism.”