John
Lennon may have been just
a dreamer about world peace, but he was willing
to walk the line when it came to issues of
workers' justice. On the day of his death,
Lennon was making
preparations to fly to
San
Francisco to attend a rally
with striking Teamsters.
Lennon was an ardent
activist and supported many causes, most
notably the anti-war movement. But the strong
interest he and his wife,
Yoko
Ono, took in labor
affairs is less familiar to the public.
In California, the Teamsters
represented workers at three Japanese food
companies in Los
Angeles and
San
Francisco. The largest of
these Japanese-owned companies was Japan Foods
Corporation, a subsidiary of Kikkoman, producer
of the popular soy sauce. When negotiations
reached a halt, the workers went on strike on
November 13, 1980.
Family
Matters
Shinya
Ono, a shop steward
from Local 630 in
Los
Angeles, was a seasoned
organizer and advocate for immigrant workers
and known as the Japanese-American Woody
Guthrie by fellow Teamsters and friends in the
little Tokyo neighborhood of
Los
Angeles. He knew they
needed something big to bring attention to
their cause. So he called his cousin
Yoko and her husband to
ask for help.
It did not take much
effort to convince Yoko and
Lennon to make a statement
in support of the strikers. The statement was
released by the Teamsters and picked up by
media across the country. But
Lennon went a step
further. He asked
Shinya
Ono if there were any
marches or rallies planned. When told yes,
Lennon agreed to come out
and participate in a march or rally in
San
Francisco the week of
December 8.
Working Class Hero
"Yoko is helping because
she is Japanese and my cousin.
John is coming even
though he is a superstar because he understands
our situation and knows how we feel - he came
from the working class," Ono told fellow
workers. "She has sympathy, he has sympathy."
Lennon was happy about
participating and excited about taking his son,
Sean, 5, to the rally.
He had purchased airline tickets and was making
preparations to travel. He made arrangements to
call one of the strikers with a new statement
on December 8. He never got the chance.
Mark
David
Chapman, a mentally ill
fan, assassinated him outside his home in
New York
City that evening.
Lennon once said that your way of life is a
political statement. He did not just believe in
the labor movement's quest for fairness,
equality and justice. He joined in.
Taken from the January/February 2008
issue of teamsters.
