Join Workers World Party for a special political discussion:
Why the workers must fight white supremacy
Special presentation by:
Clarence Thomas
Retired longshore worker;
founding member of Million Worker March
Tuesday, OCT 10 7 pm – 9 pm
Solidarity Center
147 W. 24th St., 2nd fl., Manhattan
Refreshments provided
Clarence Thomas’s life of struggle
Clarence Thomas is a third generation longshore worker, who has 31 years of service in the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 in San Francisco.
Clarence’s 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 U.S. history which resulted in the establishment of the first Black Studies Department and School of Ethnic Studies in the country and both still exists today.
He has served as an officer in his Local and has been a part of many historical economic and social justice struggles for the working class and the oppressed.
Clarence organized and lead such courageous and rank-in-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 2008 shutting down all 29 West Coast ports on May Day to oppose wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; in 2010 shutting down five 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; May Day 2015 port shut down action for Resisting Police Terror; and on May Day 2016, rally and port shut in Support of Black Lives Matter and the Minimum Wage Demand of $15 per hour.
Although he is retired from the longshore industry, he is not retired from the struggle.
