Every year on July 5, ILWU Local 10 holds a commemoration of the 1934 bloody attack of the police and National Guard on maritime workers striking on the Embarcadero. Their attack resulted in the deaths of two maritime workers. This year’s celebration was particularly vibrant in light of the Trump administration attacks on immigrants and all working people. 

The closing address was by Poet Nairobi Williese Barnes, the daughter of a Longshore clerk. Her dramatic reading roused the crowd to sustained applause and acclamation.

Bloody Thursday 

Brothers and Sisters, 

Do you hear the horns in the harbor? 

Do you feel the rumble in the rails, the cry in the crane? 

There was a time when they told us to carry the weight— 

But not the power. 

To bleed for the profit— 

But never touch the throne. 

Brothers and Sisters, 

The docks remember. 

The waters recall the names. 

Bloody Thursday, 1934— 

When the hands that built this nation 

Stood still in defiance. 

Not in weakness—no, 

But in will.

Brothers and Sisters, 

Let me tell you about July 5th, 

When bullets rang out like betrayal in the wind. 

Let me tell you about fallen Brothers, 

Struck down not for violence— 

But for daring to dream of something just. 

Their blood stained the streets 

So we could walk free with dignity. 

Brothers and Sisters! 

This wasn’t a riot— 

This was a rising. 

This was Labor shouting back: 

We are not your machines. 

We are men. 

We are women. 

We are more. 

Brothers and Sisters, Can I get a witness? 

A witness to pain, yes— 

But also to power. 

To the hands that fed ships and stitched sails, 

That dug in, locked arms, and said: 

We will not move until you see us. 

We remember Bloody Thursday 

Not for defeat— 

But for the victory that came after. 

For the general strike that shut down a city 

With nothing but solidarity 

And the sound of boots refusing to march alone. 

Brothers and Sisters, 

This is sacred history. 

And the pulpit isn’t just in the church— 

It’s in the union hall, 

The breakroom, 

The picket line. 

It’s in the mother feeding three kids on one paycheck. 

It’s in the old man whose back gave out to finish the job. 

Brothers and Sisters, 

We are not just workers. 

We are the ones who make the world move— 

And we can make it stop if we stand still! 

Can I preach a little longer, Brothers and Sisters? 

They’ll try to divide us: 

Black against white, young against old, 

Dockworker against teacher, 

Nurse against patient— 

But solidarity doesn’t speak the language of division. 

Solidarity doesn’t care what the color of your collar is 

When your hands are calloused just the same. 

Solidarity is gospel, Brothers and Sisters! 

And the gospel says: 

An injury to one is an injury to all. 

The gospel says: 

You touch one, you fight us all. 

The gospel says: 

From every port, every factory, every school, every field— 

We rise together or not at all. 

I ask you, Brothers and Sisters— 

Are you ready to lock arms again? 

To shoot down injustice, 

To know when to walk off to a better world? 

This isn’t nostalgia—this is a torch. 

Carried from 1934 to today, 

Pass the torch in remembrance, Brothers and Sisters, 

In memory, and In might! 

For every soul who dared say, no! 

So we could one day say yes to fair wages, 

Say yes to dignity! 

Say yes, to the unbreakable union of the working class! 

Say yes, to the ILWU!

…

Nairobi Williese Barnes (Nye-ROE-bee Will-ee-ESS Barnes) is a lifelong resident of Oakland, CA. She is a poet, artist, and activist whose work centers the Black experience, womanhood, and inclusion for all diversity. Her creative journey has included producing educational videos with KQED and PBS that explore topics such as voting rights, discrimination against Black women, and the cultural significance of Black hair. These projects aim to shift the conversation, challenge harmful narratives, and encourage accountability in the ways we support and uplift one another. As Oakland’s 2023 Youth Poet Laureate, Nairobi has traveled across the Bay Area, leading poetry workshops in schools and empowering young people to find their voices through verse. Her poetry echoes the themes she lives by: justice, identity, and transformation. A woman who leads with her heart, she lets poetry follow and flow naturally from every part of who she is.