Oakland—Some 500 demonstrators returned to the Oakland docks April 7, marking the one-year anniversary of the Oakland Police attack on anti-war protestors, longshore workers and the right to dissent. The protestors first gathered outside the Alameda County Courthouse in downtown Oakland for a rally, then reassembled at the West Oakland BART station before marching to the port. This year the police kept their distance from the demonstrators and the employers didn’t order any workers dispatched. The action had an effect larger than intended—the port was shut down for the entire second shift.

Anti-war demonstrators marched to the Port of Oakland on the one-year anniversary of the protest that ended with police shooting demonstrators and ILWU longshore workers.

Two weeks later, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Julie Dunger surprised the 25 people arrested after last year’s protest by suddenly dropping all the remaining charges against them. Judge Don Clay’s Superior Court hearing room erupted in cheers April 22 as defendants hugged each other in relief at the end of a year-long ordeal that saw injured protestors falsely charged.

Police fired rubber bullets, beanbags filled with metal shot and wooden pellets at demonstrators who were peacefully picketing APL and SSA terminals at the Oakland docks April 7, 2003 for their roles in the Iraq war. SSA snagged a no-bid contract to run Iraq’s most important port, Umm Qsar, early in the war. APL gets more than $18 million per year in subsidies to make nine ships available to ship war materiel.

Longshore workers reporting for duty that day stood down, awaiting an arbitrator’s ruling on the validity of the picket line. Police attacked the demonstrators without warning, shooting their “less lethal” weapons to disperse the crowd.

As many as 50 protestors were injured. Many of them were shot in the back and several were hospitalized. Nine ILWU members were hurt, including Billy Kepoo, a steady crane driver at SSA, who sustained serious injuries when he was struck in the hand. Then police brutally arrested longshore Local 10 BA Jack Heyman while he performed his duties in trying to get ILWU members out of the area.

In a pre-emptive strike, the District Attorney’s office filed charges against Heyman and 24 other protestors last June 23. Heyman was charged with obstructing justice and failing to comply with a police officer’s order. The other 24 were charged with failing to disperse and interfering with business. Three days later, the accused and injured filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Oakland and the Oakland Police Dept.

During the last year, unions all over the world wrote protest letters to the city. The United Nations Commis-sion on Human Rights condemned the Oakland police tactics. Numerous rallies turned out hundreds in support of the “Oakland 25.”

In dropping the charges against the 25, Dunger said the police had changed policies on the use of force and demonstrators had changed to “peaceful” tactics, according to the Oakland Tribune. The federal lawsuit will continue, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.

The arrest of Heyman and the other 24 protestors echoed the attacks on free speech and union rights in the Charleston Five case. And as in that case, broad exercise of those rights helped preserve them.

“I’m thankful for all the support from dockworkers’ unions around the world,” Heyman said. “Their efforts helped us win this victory for the entire labor movement.”

—Tom Price