Reckoning With the Black Radical Tradition: A Conference in Honor of Jack O’Dell. A profile of Leo L. Robinson.
Reckoning With the Black Radical Tradition: A Conference in Honor of Jack O’Dell. A profile of Leo L. Robinson.

Solidarity greetings to all assembled here for this important conference in honor of Brother Jack Hunter O’Dell.

I had the honor and privilege of meeting Brother O’Dell in Oakland, California, in 2012. The occasion was a lecture sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris. It was part of a series of civil rights lectures by veterans of the movement. I shall always remember our relatively brief but memorable and meaningful conversation about the ILWU and Local 10 specifically.

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Mildred Center
Book Review, "Cleophas Williams: My Life Story in the ILWU Local 10," by Gloria Verdieu

When I received this beautiful book from Delores Lemon-Thomas and Clarence Thomas, I could not wait to begin reading it.

I had the honor of meeting and talking with Sadie Williams, wife of Cleophas Williams, on two occasions. Once in Oakland at her home at the Cleophas Williams Rose Garden dedication shortly after the book “Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March” was published and again about a year later at the ILWU Pacific Coast Pensioners Association convention in Long Beach, Calif.

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Mildred Center
ILWU to Celebrate Juneteenth With a Shutdown

Many ILWU locals are following the call by Locals 10 and 52 to shut down all West Coast ports on June 19 — Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when news about the emancipation from slavery finally reached the last workers in Texas. Prawl added, “It is a day for workers to protest conditions rising out of slavery that are currently getting worse — homelessness, child labor, hunger. … The ILWU needs to celebrate Juneteenth with a shutdown to show the PMA that they are a strong and angry workforce.”

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Mildred Center
Mundo Obrero Workers World, Book review: “Mobilizing in Our Own Name”
Mundo Obrero Workers World, Book review: “Mobilizing in Our Own Name”

By Martha Grevatt posted on April 19, 2022

This article originally appeared in Mundo Obrero Workers World

Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March – An Anthology by Clarence Thomas

DeClare Publishing, 2021

In a commentary introducing his anthology on the 2014 Million Worker March and its impact, Clarence Thomas writes: “On January 15, 2014, when he called me, brother Trent [Willis, now president of International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Local 10] was a young, emerging, rank-and-file leader and business agent for the local. He wanted my opinion on an idea: What did I think of organizing a Million Worker March in Washington, D.C.?”

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Mildred Center
A Letter From Mumia Abu-Jamal Written to Trent Willis, International Longshore & Warehouse Local 10 President
A Letter From Mumia Abu-Jamal Written to Trent Willis, International Longshore & Warehouse Local 10 President

On Feb. 1, author and Black trade union activist Clarence Thomas spoke on a webinar called: "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Anti-Racist and Anti-Imperialist Freedom Fighters!" organized by International Workers Action to Free Anti-Racist Political Prisoners.

In Thomas' talk he read the letter, right, that Mumia wrote on Oct. 5, 2021, to Interna­tional Longshore & Warehouse Local 10 President Trent Willis.

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Mildred Center
Free Mumia! – Free All Freedom Fighters! Interview with ILWU Local 10 Rank-And-File Leader Clarence Thomas
Free Mumia! – Free All Freedom Fighters! Interview with ILWU Local 10 Rank-And-File Leader Clarence Thomas

Question: Brother Clarence, you're a convener of the February 1st International Forum and its Call to Action to free Mumia Abu Jamal and All Anti-Racist and Anti-Imperialist Freedom Fighters. You issued your own personal Call to Action for this forum in which you underscored the need to put an end to the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, Apartheid and racial violence perpetrated against African Americans, in particular.

Why is this International Forum so important today? And what are the new developments with the Mumia case that make it absolutely imperative that Mumia should be freed immediately?

Clarence Thomas: Mumia is an innocent man. He was framed because as a revolutionary journalist he documented the repression facing African Americans in Philadelphia and other crimes committed by the ruling class in Pennsylvania. He was listened to widely. He was, and remains,

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Mildred Center
Replay the Zoom Webinar for "Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March"

Replay the Zoom Webinar Event
 "Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Millions Worker March"
Original Event Date and Time: November 18, 2021 | 5:00 pm Pacific Time

The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies hosted a Zoom Webinar with labor activists Gabriel Prawl, Chris Silvera, Clarence Thomas, Brenda Stokely, and Trent Willis to discuss the new book "Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March." The event was moderated by Professor Peter Cole (Western Illinois University).

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Mildred Center
From Anti-war Protest to Resistance, West Coast Ports Shut on May Day

By Clarence Thomas

First Published in Workers World, May 5, 2008 9:19 PM

The writer is a Local 10, ILWU Executive Board member; Co-chair, Port Workers’
May Day Organizing Committee; and National Co-chair, Million Worker March Movement.

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), known for its militant and democratic traditions as well as its economic and social justice activism, has written a new chapter in its glorious labor history by shutting down all 29 ports on the West Coast for eight hours on May Day.

This historic and courageous action on the part of the ILWU came about as the result of a “No Peace No Work Holiday” resolution adopted by the Longshore Division Caucus, its highest ruling body, in February. The caucus passed this resolution by an overwhelming majority of the 100 longshore delegates representing all locals on the West Coast.

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Mildred Center
Maritime Town Hall

The East Oakland Stadium Alliance is a coalition of Oakland community leaders, businesses, and labor unions deeply concerned about the A's plans to abandon the East Oakland community in favor of building a waterfront stadium at Howard Terminal.

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Mildred Center