[West Coast meeting to stop South African trade]

The mailing invites people to a meeting to stop trade with South Africa, to be held on August 17, at 9 am at Longshore Local 10 Hall in San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf). The meeting is sponsored by the Labor Committee of BAFSAM; their enclosed letter is signed by John George, Chairperson, Bay Area Free South Africa Movement and Alameda County Supervisor; Leo Robinson, Chairperson, ILWU Local #10 South Africa Support Committee; David Reed, Co-Chairperson, San Francisco Anti-Apartheid Committee; Tom Lupher, Secretary-Treasurer, International Longshoremen and Warehousemen Union Local #10; Gerald Johnson, Chairperson, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, S.F. Chapter; Blanche Bebb, Secretary, SEIU Local #250 Southern Africa Solidarity Committee; Paul Varacalli, Executive Director, United Public Employees Local #790 (SEIU); Timothy Twomey, Secretary-Treasurer, Hospital Workers Union Local #250 (SEIU); and Ignacio De La Fuente, Business Manager, International Molders and Allied Workers Union Local #164. The Labor Committee has maintained a picketline in support of the longshoremen at the offices of the Pacific Maritime Association for a solid eight months. A previous mailing contained four resolutions to be acted on and sent to your international union. This mailing includes another resolution expressing support for independent unions in South Korea. On November 23, 1984, members of San Francisco Bay Area longshoremen Local 10 took the historic step of refusing to unload South African cargo from the Dutch ship "Nedlloyd Kimberley." The boycott lasted 11 days. Since then, S.F. Bay Area Port Commissions have declared that doing business with South Africa is "morally repugnant." On May 23, 1985, picket-lines in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle protested the movement of South African cargo. On the same day, 79 trade unionists and ministers were arrested at the San Francisco offices of South African Airways (SAA). The U.S. movement against apartheid is growing, especially on the West Coast. Demonstrations and arrests have taken place in Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle in the struggle to shut down South African consulates. The national movement for divestment is growing. We would like to call a meeting to discuss West Coast-wide cooperation how to end U.S. trade with South Africa and invite the Free South Africa Movements in each West Coast port city to send representatives. Port workers and unions who are forced to handle this cargo, or whose members are affected by the trade, are especially invited to send representatives, along with representatives of unions, churches or community organizations who want to participate in the movement to put a halt to trade. The mailing discusses the freedom movement, jobs, grassroots and rank-and-file activities, Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), Black South African workers, passbooks, the vote, U.S. and South African corporations, David Bacon, Molders Union Local #164, profits, slave-labor conditions, steel companies, auto glass, auto parts, and fruit juice.