Meet the Author

Clarence Thomas is a 3rd generation retired member of International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 in San Francisco and a leading radical African American trade unionist. Past-secretary-treasurer and executive board member of his local, he has led or been a part of many historical rank-and-file struggles and solidarity actions at the point of production.

A labor and community activist, Thomas has championed the struggles of African Americans, the oppressed, and the working class at home and abroad.

In October 2003, Thomas was part of an international labor delegation that met with Iraqi trade unionists in Baghdad. Other travels involved building solidarity with workers from around the world as co-founder of the Million Worker March (MWM). This has included meeting with workers in Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, Japan, Mexico, and Spain.

Thomas’ activism started in the late 1960s as a member of the Black Student Union at San Francisco State College and as a member of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California. During his college days at San Francisco State, he was a part of the leadership of the longest student strike in American History which resulted in the establishment of the first Black Studies Department and School of Ethnic Studies in the country, and both still exist today.

Clarence organized and lead such courageous and rank-and-file actions such as: the Million Worker March Movement in 2004, calling for workers to break away from the Democratic and Republican parties and organize independently mobilizing and organizing in their own name; in 2005 the reclaiming of May Day; in 2008 shutting down all 29 West Coast ports on May Day to oppose wars in Iraq and Afghanistan;  in 2010 shutting down 5 Bay Area ports action for Justice for Oscar Grant and Jail for Killer Cops; in 2011 on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., shut down Bay Area ports for 24 hours as a Day of Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers; also in 2011 shutting down docks on December 12th  in solidarity with West Coast Occupy Wall Street; in 2014, port shut down solidarity action for Palestine; in 2015, May Day 2015 port shut down action for Resisting Police Terror; and on May Day 2016, rally and port shut down in Support of Black Lives Matter and the Minimum Wage Demand of $15 per hour; universal health care, workers rights for all and justice for victims of police murder; in 2019, organized a community forum featuring actor and activist Danny Glover to keep the Oakland A’s in East Oakland and out of the Port of Oakland (West Coast 3rd busiest port); mobilizing Local 10 for the 29 port stop work action commemorating Juneteenth 2020, to Stop Police Terror, End Systemic Racism and Stop Privatization of the Port of Oakland.

Thomas’s soon-to-be-released book, Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March, is an anthology about African American trade unionists from one of the most renowned radical labor unions in the world. Included in the anthology, is how ILWU Local 10 defied the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, and organized the Million Worker March on October 17, 2004, at the Lincoln Memorial; and other historical struggles and actions at the point of production.

Although he is retired from the waterfront, he is not retired from the struggle.