David Bacon receives DMF grant
to exhibit photos

David Bacon is a well-known photo journalist who was funded by the Diane Middleton Foundation to exhibit photos of Iraqi Oil and Longshore Workers. This project was enormously successfull at linking the Iraq war to the United States by raising consciousness about the similarities between workers in both countries. DMF Board Member Lewis Wright, a retired longshoreman, reviews the photo exhibit.

“You know longies here in L.A. or over there in Iraq are just working stiffs trying to do right by their families. You can see it here in these pictures. They remind me of some of the guys I worked with", said Joe Kordich retired ILWU Local 13 longshoreman.

Joe was visiting a photo exhibit this past march entitled Iraqi Worker Organize (Iraq’s Oil and Port Workers and Their Union), displayed at ILWU Local 63’s hiring hall in San Pedro, California. The photos some of which appeared previously in the Dispatcher were taken during visits to Iraq by David Bacon, labor writer- photographer, and depicted Iraqis working on the docks and in the oil fields of Basra, Iraq. The photos showed workers unloading ships, rigging oil wells, attending union meetings, as well as depicting regular family life.

One photo showed working families living next to a military dump containing radiation-contaminated scrap metal. “These are hard living conditions”, said Kordich, pointing to the photo of the dump, “but these workers look tough and that woman, pointing to a photo of an Iraqi union leader, looks like she could hold her own at any longshore meeting.”

Joe smiled as he left the exhibit pointing his thumb back over his shoulder at the photos saying, “You know with their strength combined with ours we could kick ass.”

In February, the exhibit had been at the Steelworkers PACE Local 8-675 in Los Angeles where the hat was passed, and money was sent to pay for surgery for a war injury to a oil worker’s daughter.

The exhibit is now at the LA Labor Center. The photo exhibit funded by the Diane Middleton Foundation of San Pedro and is co-sponsored by the Steelworkers PACE Local 8-675, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, ILWU Local 63, and the United Teachers of Los Angeles.