Longshoremen

We wanted to go see a movie last night, so of course we drove past the McMenamin's Mission Theatre on Glisan. G saw that something called "Eye of the Storm" was playing right then, so we decided to give it a shot.

Our first surprise was that the movie was free - when we inquired, the girl at the ticket counter said, "it's a longshoremen deal, the longshoremen got it." We looked at each other, shrugged, and went on in.

The place was more packed than I'd ever seen it - I swear we were the only non-longshoremen there. I still wasn't sure what the movie would be about, or even what the longshoremen were really about, but my interest was piqued.

The thing was a documentary on the history of the longshoremen, and also the 2002 ILWU contract struggle and PMA lockout. Quite interesting indeed. The most interesting part was that every person featured in the film, as well as every member in the audience, had an almost overwhelming pride in their jobs, their union, and their brethren. It was amazing to watch they cheering their on-screen friends and heroes, and booing their perceived enemies (large corporations, President Short Bus, etc).

The only thing I got indignant about was that whenever a longshoreman from another country, with a funny name, accent, or language, spoke about the same things these guys cared about, the guys in the audience would make fun of them. I was angered by their ignorance and/or racism. I mean really, Bjorn Borg was exactly like them, but he got made fun of simply because he wasn't American. Another example was this Spanish guy who was speaking eloquently of the cause and the fight to maintain, but all the guys in the audience were doing was saying things like "Andale, arriba, arriba." It was ridiculous, and pissed me off.

I left the theatre with improved knowledge of these workers the common consumer doesn't even think about, which was part of the filmmaker's intent. I also came away with a very good quote from one of the old-timers who'd been around the block a time or two, but unfortunately I didn't catch his name.

His quote goes thusly: "You gotta take a big bite and hold on. Because you're gonna be hungry down the road...we gotta keep our teeth sharp, that's for damn sure."