The support of global unions was a key part
of gaining freedom for the five union dockworkers indicted on felony
rioting charges who are known as the Charleston 5, and who spent
almost two years living under house arrest and the threat of long
prison sentences on false charges. In short court appearances Nov. 7
and 13, 2001, the five Longshoremen pled no contest to misdemeanor
charges and paid fines of $100 each. The pleas were not admissions of
guilt. The dismissal of the original felony charges, imposed on the
men by South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, removed the
possibility they would receive harsh and unjust prison sentences.
The charges stem from an incident just after midnight on Jan. 20,
2000 when 600 heavily armed police attacked about 150 members of the
International Longshoreman’s Association locals 1422 and 1771 who
were peacefully protesting the use of non-union workers to unload a
Danish freighter in the Charleston, SC harbor. Officers beat several
dockworkers, including Local 1422 president Ken Riley who was clubbed
on the head, and used tear gas and other anti-riot equipment to break
up the protest.
Eight dockworkers were arrested and charged with misdemeanors,
mainly trespassing, by Charleston municipal police and prosecutors.
But then Charlie Condon, an announced candidate for governor,
intervened and raised the charges to rioting and conspiracy to riot,
which are felonies, and took over the prosecution of the Charleston 5.
Although a Charleston judge dismissed these charges for lack of
evidence in preliminary hearing, Condon secured felony indictments
against the men from a secret grand jury.
The men were then placed under house arrest for more than a year
and a half. While they were under house arrest, the five union
dockworkers were prohibited from leaving their homes between 7:00 p.m.
and 7:00 a.m. unless they were working or at a union meeting. Travel
restrictions prohibited them from leaving the state.
The day after the protest, Condon promised "jail, jail and
more jail" for anyone who took part but even city and business
leaders weren’t happy about the prosecution, saying that the charges
were too severe and they feared that a trial would only lead to more
ill will, reported the Charleston Post and Courier. Charleston
Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. wrote Condon that the case "should be
resolved far short of these defendants proceeding to trial on the
current charges against them."
Condon, however, continued using a harsh tenor in his remarks
regarding the Charleston 5. In a May 31, 2001 press release responding
to charges against him by the South Carolina Progressive Network,
Condon said "the attack launched today against me ... is
ridiculous and absurd. This is nothing but a propaganda ploy by labor
union sympathizers. ..."
"By using code words like ‘sympathizers’ and
‘comrades,’ Condon is engaging in the lowest form of
race-mongering and union-bashing," said AFL-CIO President Sweeney
and Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP, in a June 5 joint statement.
"It’s called ‘redbaiting’ and it draws to mind the words of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘the labor-hater and labor-baiter is
virtually always a twinheaded creature spewing anti-Negro epithets
from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other
mouth.’"
The groundwork for the pleas and freedom was laid when Condon, a
candidate for governor, withdrew from the case after the union filed
suit charging him with conflict of interest. (As this JOURNAL went to
print, the Condon for Governor Campaign has not updated its website
since May 18, 2001.) The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions, along with
civil rights and community allies rallied, marched and supported the
workers’ cause for almost two years. U.S. unions also joined with
members of the International Transport Workers’ Federation to
provide financial and legal support for the Charleston 5. |