Work a Day for Freedom! – A Short History of the Free South Africa Labor Committee

In November of 1984, members of ILWU Locals 10 and 34 refused to unload the Nedlloyd Kimberley at Pier 80 in San Francisco for eleven days, because it was carrying South African cargo. That action was organized by a group of people in those locals that included Leo Robinson, Dave Stewart, Larry Wright, Alex Bagwell, Jack Heyman (then IBU), A.J. Mitchell, Tom Lufer and perhaps a dozen others. They had all been involved in one way or another in the 1978 conference on solidarity with the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), and had been talking for some time about taking action.

Daily picket lines went on for a year, and then on a weekly basis for a year after that. The Bay Area Free South Africa Movement (BAFSAM) was born in those demonstrations. It was headed by John George, and had two co-coordinators, Franklin Alexander and Lorenzo Carlisle. Later, two others were added, Natalie Bayton and David Bacon. BAFSAM then began holding regular meetings at the First Universe Baptist Church on International Boulevard in East Oakland. With BAFSAM’s participation, the church set up a homeless shelter to connect the issues of racism and apartheid in South Africa to racism and economic oppression in Oakland. This was the period of big plant closures in Oakland, which were having a devastating impact on Black workers.