Oakland police brutally attacked peaceful, unarmed longshore workers and other antiwar protesters peacefully picketing the American President Lines on the early morning of April 7. Demonstrators were protesting against the shipment of war materials out of the Port of Oakland to Iraq. The police declared the demonstration illegal “because it was on private property” and ordered the demonstrators to disperse. But even as demonstrators had begun dispersing the police launched concussion grenades and teargas and fired rounds of wooden bullets upon the backs of retreating demonstrators. Many were injured and taken to the hospital and many long shore workers were arrested.

Jack Heyman, Business Agent for ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10, was thrown to the ground and held down and handcuffed, then dragged away as he vainly attempted to tell the police he was there in response to a complaint by ILWU workers that the company was violating safety conditions, in line with the terms of the union contract with this and other shipping companies.

Trent Willis, another business agent for the ILWU, angrily said that dockworkers were attacked as they wer leaving the docks after the incident: “They shot my guys. We’re not going to work today. The copse had no reason to open up on them.”

Bay Area trade unionists and antiwar protestors assembled soon afterward at Oakland’s Civic Center to protest this criminal attack on peaceful pickets and to demand that all those who were arrested be released immediately.

Supporters of Constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly are urged to protest against this unwarranted attack upon the Bill of Rights to Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. The mayor’s office can be reached by phone at: (415) 238-3141, 444-2489, 238-3161