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   Vol.65/No.41            October 29, 2001 
 
 
Dockworkers fight to defend Charleston 5
 
BY NAOMI CRAINE  
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina--South Carolina attorney general Charles Condon announced October 10 that he was transferring the prosecution of the "Charleston Five" from his office to a solicitor in Dorchester County, just west of Charleston. This decision by the notoriously antiunion politician registers the growing impact of the national and international campaign in defense of the five union dockworkers, who are facing frame-up "riot" charges. In addition, union officials say the house arrest of the five workers has been lifted.

The Charleston Five are members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in Charleston, South Carolina. Their case stems from a January 2000 assault by 600 cops against a union picket line. None of the police who rioted against the longshoremen has ever been charged with a crime.

A local judge dismissed trespassing charges that were initially filed against eight unionists. Then Attorney General Condon convened a grand jury and secured felony riot and assault charges against five of the workers, with penalties of up to five or 10 years in prison. The Charleston Five, as they have become known, had been subjected to 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. house arrest and other draconian restrictions for nearly two years.

Condon relinquished the prosecution of the case the day before a court hearing on motions filed by the unionists' lawyers asking that the attorney general be disqualified from the case. They pointed to a number of inflammatory statements by Condon, such as an ad last year supporting George Bush's presidential campaign in which he stated, "The Charleston union riot reminds us why South Carolina is a right-to-work state."

More recently, Condon attempted to equate the supposed riot to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "I'm against forcing people to join unions in order to get a job," Condon said on a TV show. "And so this whole idea of ends justifying the means, as we know these terrorists killed so many people, that's exactly their argument."

This statement was just "the latest outrage," said Leonard Riley, a member of the executive board of ILA Local 1422 in a phone interview. Riley said there was a "good showing" of union members at the October 11 preliminary hearing before Circuit Judge Victor Rawl. Now the new prosecutor will have two weeks to prepare a list of the particulars detailing the actions the Charleston Five are actually accused of. When this list is presented to Rawl, he will have the option to dismiss the case entirely, or move toward a trial.  
 
 
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