Hi there,

From our first broadcast nearly 30 years ago, Democracy Now! has always been fiercely independent. Over these last 3 decades, our daily global news hour has been a source of truth in a media landscape all too often bought by commercial interests. Can you start a monthly donation? Monthly donations are the lifeblood of Democracy Now!.Thanks to a group of generous donors, all monthly donations started today will be DOUBLED, which means your $15 gift is worth $30. If you believe that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to the functioning of a democratic society, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

The Neptune Jade Sparks Lawsuit Against Activists

Listen
Media Options
Listen

In late September of this year, the SS Neptune Jade, owned by the Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines and carrying some 160 containers, slowly pulled into the Port of Oakland, California. A picket line of longshore workers and labor and human rights activists greeted the ship. Also on the line was a student from Laney College, a local community college, carrying the colorful banner of the Laney College Labor Studies Club.

The problem, the picketers said, was that the SS Neptune Jade was carrying cargo that involved a union-busting company which has locked out some 500 dockers in Liverpool, England, for the last two years.

Seeing the picket, the longshore workers — members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union — refused to cross the line and unload the SS Neptune Jade. The ship sat in the harbor for three days before sailing to Vancouver, Canada. Workers there also refused to unload it, and so the ship then went to Yokohama, Japan, where it was again refused. The ship was finally sold to China.

The action was hailed by Representative Ron Dellums as placing “a square focus on the new economic battle lines in which global corporate alliances seek to use their transnational economic and political power to divide and defeat organized labor and collective bargaining.”

But that’s not the end of the story.

Guests:

  • Albert Lannon, the chair and coordinator of the Labor Studies Department at Laney College, a community college in Oakland, California.
  • Jack Heyman,an executive board member of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in San Francisco.
  • Robert Irminger,of the Inland Boatman’s Union in San Francisco.

.
.
.

Related Story

StorySep 11, 2025“Moment of Great Peril”: Jeff Sharlet on Killing of Charlie Kirk & Rising Political Violence in U.S.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top