THE CLASS WAR FROM LONGVIEW TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE GLOBE

THE BATTLE WITH BUNGE:

THE CLASS WAR FROM LONGVIEW TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE GLOBE

by Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Leith Kahl and Brian Wiles, Malcolm X Solidarity Committee

Friday, February 10, 2012


The Port of Longview, Cowlitz County, Washington State, is a small, depressed, rural, and overwhelmingly white logging town on the banks of the Columbia River. It is not necessarily the place one might have predicted that a struggle would develop which could be a critical turning point for organized labor and the multi-national working class in the United States as a whole.

On July 14th, 200 longshoremen sat down on a railroad track into Longview to block a train full of corn bound for a newly constructed grain export terminal built on the riverbank by a consortium of capital called EGT. The purpose of this sit-down action was to demand that EGT adhere to the coast wide system of labor agreements between Pacific coast grain transport operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that have been in effect since the late 1930’s to obtain the human labor for this export terminal. In a deliberate effort to contravene, and ultimately destroy, the bargaining position of the ILWU and the coast wide agreements, EGT co-opted the conservative leadership of the Operating Engineers Local 701 and hired its members to work this port facility under sub-standard working conditions.

On September 7th through 8th, the ILWU's International President was assaulted by a cop while leading another protest to block the same EGT grain train's second attempt to reach the export facility. The longshoremen of the Pacific Northwest responded by shutting down all ports between Portland and Bellingham for 24 hours, and by mobilizing hundreds to Longview that night, where the train’s contents were dumped all over the railroad tracks. These actions demonstrate the determination and militancy of the ILWU, and the escalation of the struggle to a regional level well beyond the boundaries of one small timber town. ILWU Local 21, which consists of the longshoreman of that small timber town, has also shown outstanding fortitude and resolve over the many months of struggle, defying the injunctions of the capitalist courts, sustaining over 200 arrests and physical assaults by law enforcement, and standing up against the local county sheriff who has decided to behave as if he was a captain of EGT's private army of mercenaries.

In late January, after pressure mounted on EGT from the ILWU and its allies, particularly the Occupy Movement, following militant actions on December 12, 2011 to shut down ports all along the Pacific Coast, and the pending threat of a major mobilization to stop the next grain shipment to Longview, Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire was able to mediate a tentative agreement with EGT and the ILWU. The details of this contract agreement are actively being worked out with ILWU Local 21 and the International. However, it appears that EGT will comply with the coast wide system of labor agreements established with the ILWU. But, only time and struggle will tell.

However, this agreement, in and of itself is not going to stop a behemoth like EGT. EGT is an arm of one the largest conglomerates of capital in the world: Bunge Limited, a transnational agribusiness monopoly. Headquartered in the United States, it was originally founded by Dutch and Belgian slave traders[1]. It is now one of four companies that literally control more than two-thirds of the world’s grain production and distribution. Bunge is a global powerhouse on a mission. That mission is to divide and weaken the working class on a global scale. EGT/Bunge’s attack on the ILWU is not just an attempt to break this strategic union, it is a deliberate effort to eliminate the gains of organized labor in the United States and to firmly discipline and control the multinational working class contained within it.

The full magnitude of the EGT/Bunge attack on the multi-national working class only comes into full focus when you examine the following map of Bunge's established operations in North America (taken from EGT’s website[2]):

As this map clearly illustrates, Bunge has concentrated its operations along what is essentially the fourth coast of the United States: the mighty Mississippi river and its tributaries. From this placement it is clear that their North American strategy has been to control the transport of grain from the Midwest and Great Plains regions to the rest of the country and the world. In order to control production and distribution on this level, Bunge has to control the labor of the region. It is no historic accident that most of the strategic states where Bunge operates are “right-to-work”[3] states. Bunge has been and remains an avid promoter of “right-to-work” legislation for decades. “Right-to-work” legislation is historically enabled by the division of the multinational working class, which is divided by the system of white supremacy developed by the European settlers of North America and their descendants to ensure their continued domination of the continent and its peoples. Organized labor's failure to defeat white supremacy in its ranks provides monopoly capital enterprises like Bunge with the ability to press its advantages and initiate campaigns like the one aimed at destroying the ILWU.

The Battle against Bunge is a critical battle for the multinational working class of the United States, one that must to be won if any of the historic gains of organized labor are to be retained. To win this decisive battle, the working class, organized and unorganized, is going to have to go on the offensive and take the Battle to Bunge. The Malcolm X Solidarity Committee (MXSC) believes that an offensive campaign must be mounted against Bunge that includes a range of tactics including non-violent civil disobedience, mass industrial action, and most importantly, strengthening the organization of the workers in the port and transportation industries along the Mississippi River. In effect, we need an “Operation Black Belt”[4] to organize and win where “Operation Dixie”[5] failed.

Operation Black Belt is a conceptual organizing campaign that addresses the necessity of organizing the multinational working class in the South, particularly concentrating on organizing Black workers in the region who form the core of the oppressed Black or New Afrikan nation that has been superexploited for centuries and to whom reparations are due to rectify the crimes against humanity and colonial oppression it continues to suffer. Operation Dixie was a heroic but failed effort of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to organize the multinational working class in the South from 1946 – 1953. It failed due to the CIO’s capitulation to white supremacy and the suppression and expulsion of the radical left wing forces within that labor federation during this period.

With militant leadership, democratic coordination, unrelenting determination, and principled partnerships with oppressed peoples (First Nations, Blacks, Chicanos, immigrants, etc.) and the unorganized sectors of the multinational working class the EGT/Bunge assault can be defeated and enable a radical reorganization of the Mississippi River and the Black Belt South via “Operation Black Belt”.

We encourage everyone to stand in solidarity with ILWU Local 21 and support solidarity formations like the Committee to Defend the ILWU and the Million Worker March in taking action to stop EGT/Bunge. We also encourage everyone to spread the research information that we have compiled to educate the multinational working class about who and what it is up against in this struggle.

We would also like to encourage everyone to support the call for launching and organizing an “Operation Black Belt” campaign. Defeating the initiative of EGT/Bunge in Longview is not going to be enough to stop their onslaught against workers. In order to effectively push them and other capitalist behemoths like them back, we are going to have to effectively organize the historic rear base of capitalist domination in the US, the South. To join us in this initiative, please contact us at operationblackbelt@gmail.com .


If you would like more information about the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee, please contact us at malcolmxsolidaritycommittee@gmail.com .