Photo by David Bacon
Local 10 activist Leo Robinson passed away on January 14th at the age of 75, leaving behind a legacy of passionate advocacy for his union, for the working class, the struggle against racism and the battle to end Apartheid in South Africa.Robinson was outspoken and not afraid of controversy. He frequently challenged officials and union policies, using his passion and public speaking skills to command respect from his audience. “When he took the floor to speak, people always listened and gave him respect – even if they didn’t agree with him” said ILWU Local 10 President Mike Villeggiante.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1937, Robinson moved with his family to the East Bay during World War II. Both parents found jobs at Moore’s Ship, one of many shipyards in the Bay Area’s booming wartime economy that hired African Americans because of a labor shortage, executive orders signed by President Roosevelt and organized protests to end discriminatory hiring. Along with his parents and four siblings, he lived in the Cypress Village housing project, located in West Oakland with many other African-Americans who settled in communities where color-lines were tightly drawn.
After the war, Robinson’s father got a job on the waterfront and became a member of ILWU Local 10, which had been founded on the principle of racial equality. Robinson attended Oakland Technical High School, but quit in the 12th grade to join the US Navy where he served almost four years following the Korean War. After an honorable discharge, Robinson was briefly a member of the ILWU Ship Scaler’s Local 2, then took a job at GM’s Fisher Body plant in Oakland, but hated the monotony of the assembly line.
In 1963, ILWU Local 10 accepted Robinson as a “B-man” where he enjoyed the great variety of tasks and cargoes that came before containerization. He earned his A-status around 1967 while containers were making an impact in Oakland, but disliked working as a lasher and decided to became a winch driver instead.
Robinson became politicized in the late 1960’s during the war in Vietnam. He remembered a day when he and others in his gang were talking about the war when a co-worker asked some questions that he couldn’t answer. Robinson responded by educating himself and looking to others for help, including Archie Brown, Local 10’s well-known, proud and public member of the Communist Party. From that time onward, Robinson became an activist who dedicated himself to protecting fellow workers, promoting union democracy, and defending the contract. He frequently spoke at meetings, served several terms on the Local 10 Executive Board and was elected as a Longshore Caucus delegate.
Inspired in 1976 by the uprising of South African students in Soweto, Robinson helped form Local 10’s Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee (SALSC) – the first anti-apartheid group in an American labor union – and proudly noted that SALSC was created by a vote of Local 10’s rank-and-file. Along with Larry Wright, Dave Stewart, Bill Proctor, and others, their group led a successful one-day boycott of South African cargo in 1977. They also collected donations and tons of food and medical supplies that were shipped to help freedom fighters in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. They worked closely with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and community groups in the anti-apartheid movement.
Robinson’s most impressive action occurred in 1984, just weeks after President Reagan’s landslide re-election, when members of Locals 10 and 34 organized the longest boycott of South African cargo in US History. When the vessel Nedlloyd Kimberly docked at San Francisco’s Pier 80, Robinson and the SALSC were ready. Workers dispatched to Pier 80 refused to touch the South African cargo, although they unloaded the rest of the ship. For eleven days, as thousands rallied outside the port in support, the cargo remained in the hold – despite pressure from the PMA and a federal injunction. Six years later, when Nelson Mandela toured the US, after being released from prison, he thanked the ILWU before a sold-out crowd at the Oakland Coliseum.
Robinson remained active during his later years. “He was concerned about people all over the world,” said Larry Wright, a fellow SALSC leader. As a pensioner, Robinson attended Local 10 meetings and continued making persuasive speeches, including one that encouraged members to pass a resolution opposing the war and shut down ports on May Day of 2008. He also invested his own money in social causes – including a $50,000 donation made in 2004 to support the dream of a Million Worker March. “Brother Leo Robinson was ruthless when it came to the question of economic and social justice,” said Local 10 member and fellow activist, Clarence Thomas.
Robinson and his wife Johnnie spent their final years together in the Sierra foothills town of Raymond, but he regularly returned to the Bay area to see union friends and family. A memorial service is being planned for the Local 10 hall. – Peter Cole
Peter Cole is a Professor of History at Western Illinois University. He conducted lengthy interviews with Leo Robinson for a book that will cover the history of Local 10 and longshore worker activism in Durban, South Africa.