Police Fire on US Wharfies

OAKLAND, April 7: Nine ILWU members were shot with concussion grenades and wooden bullets, five hospitalised and an ILWU union leader dragged from his car and imprisoned as police dispersed an anti-war protest in the port.
Peace activists assembled outside the port to demonstrate against American President Lines and Stevedoring Services of America - key players in the US led invasion of Iraq.

Port workers, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), stood by awaiting word from an independent arbitrator on whether it was safe to work while the protest was underway.

According to eyewitness accounts police in full riot gear and gas masks opened fire on the crowd without provocation. They used pepper spray, stun grenades and wooden projectiles. This was despite protesters retreating on request. Most were wounded in the back.

Police also fired into a group of longshore workers standing to one side waiting for the call to go to work.

Five workers were hospitalised, one requiring surgery. But when Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10, went to inform police that his members had been shot and that he was instructing them to leave the area, the police dragged him from his car, threw him onto the pavement, handcuffed and imprisoned him for 14 hours.

Trent Willis, ILWU, responded by declaring his members would walk off the job.

"They shot my guys. We're not going to work today," Willis said. "The cops had no reason to open up on them."

The Maritime Union of Australia joined the International Transport Workers' Federation, and its affiliates worldwide to condemn the paramilitary attack on a peaceful protest.

Stevedoring Services of America came under scrutiny during the war when it was awarded a $4.8 million contract to manage the Umm Qasr seaport in Iraq. American President Lines receives millions of taxpayer dollars every year for shipping military cargo through the Department of Defence Maritime Security Program.