Wildcat Strikes By Multiple Sports Teams Against Systemic Police Violence Is Without Historical Precedent In American Labour Or American Sports

What we are seeing from scores of athletes in professional basketball, baseball, football, hockey, tennis, and soccer is unprecedented in American labour history and American sports history.

Athletes taking public stands for various causes has been going on for more than half a century, but this collective action in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against unchecked systemic police brutality is, in the words of Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, "without historical precedent, in terms of its breadth, its reach, and its power. We are in uncharted territory."

It's more than a boycott. It's them withdrawing their labor. It's not just an example for racial justice protesters around the country. I think it's a challenge to the labor movement as a whole to say, if this country is in fact nonfunctioning at the moment — and many believe this is not a functioning country — then labor has to assert itself in this battle and stand up. And that's exactly what the athletes are doing with this sports strike wave.

Salon's Matthew Rozsa provides the background:

On Wednesday, the National Basketball Association team boycotted a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, scheduled for that day, as a form of protest on behalf of Jacob Blake, an African American man who was shot multiple times in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin as he leaned into his car. Three of Blake's children were in the backseat of his vehicle when the officers shot at him.

The Bucks players' decision was not made in a vacuum. According to ESPN, many NBA players had expressed reservations about playing before the Blake shooting because of other cases of allegedly racially-motivated police violence, most notably the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Breona Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. Yet when the Bucks decided to sit out their game against the Magic, they set off a chain reaction: The Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder also decided to sit out their games, and then the NBA postponed both those games and an upcoming game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. The NBA players agreed later on Thursday to resume the playoffs on Saturday.

Then, in solidarity, a number of NFL teams decided to either not practice on Thursday or postpone their practices in order to discuss social change. These included the Arizona Cardinals, Washington Football Team, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears. Many teams that cancelled their practices also used that time to talk about how to fight for meaningful social change — at which point the Bucks-Magic boycott evolved into a full-blown strike.

Meanwhile, Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) teams decided not have any games on Thursday and three Major League Baseball games were postponed, including one with the Milwaukee Brewers who have expressed solidarity with the Bucks.

Each of the Washington Mystics (WNBA) players wore a T-shirt with seven holes in the back. The fronts of the shirts spelled out "Jacob Blake", with each woman wearing one of the letters of his name.

Sports commentator and former basketball star Kenny Smith walked off the set of TNT's Inside the NBA in solidarity with the protesters: "As a Black man, as a former player, I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight, and figure out what happens after that. I just don't feel equipped to do that."

The Houston Rockets announced that their NBA arena would be used as an early in-person voting center.

The NBA has a long history of Black activism:

Elgin Baylor, a star rookie for the Lakers in 1959, boycotted a game in his rookie season after a hotel in West Virginia told the team’s Black players could not stay in the same accommodations as white players. It was something that had happened before, earlier that season. Bill Russell, the leader of legendary 1960s Boston Celtics teams, and some of his black teammates also sat out a game in 1961 after they were also turned away from a hotel while on a road trip.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski:

The NBA, owners and front offices didn't see this wave of player boycotts coming today. Hours ago, they all expected to be playing these games tonight. This is a pivot point for the NBA and professional sports in North America.

These strikes are properly seen as part of the larger US labour movement.

David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati who specializes in the intersection of sports and politics, emphasized the Bucks' important precedent:

Political athletes have taken a knee, raised a fist, draped themselves in words and symbols, but those things happen in brief moments before the game. The Milwaukee Bucks didn't trade away a moment of quiet reflection to advance a cause, they traded away the game itself. The Bucks' decision is a great example of how important the first spark is in a resistance movement. Without the Bucks, the NBA rolls on. Without the NBA's example, no baseball team would have sat out. ... Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf [a former NBA player] conducted a one-man anthem protest in the NBA in 1996. He was suspended by the league, and that was largely the end of it. Today, entire teams can literally refuse to play moments before a game and the league does not even consider suspending anyone.

Maria Svart, National Director of the Democratic Socialists of America:

There is enormous precedent with workers in a position to disrupt profits withholding their labor and thus forcing the hand of the owners. From Tommie Smith and John Carlos to Colin Kaepernick, athletes have made symbolic protest, but collective action like a strike has a direct material impact on profits. Workers in such a high profile position as this can ... influence popular culture and prompt much broader swaths of workers to see the power we hold if we exercise it. ... We do the work to make the economy run, and we can shut it down. These players striking for black lives are part of a long tradition of people who work for a boss saying enough is enough. The question is whether we realize that not only can we shut it down for one night or season — we could run society ourselves, without the owning class insisting on doing it for us. ... No strike is successful without a broad majority among the workers to do it, whether wildcat or not. It's clear here that the players felt that what they had negotiated so far was insufficient so they collectively pushed farther. Wildcats can have a huge impact, such as in 1964 [when players for the first NBA All-Star Game threatened a strike in order to get their union recognized], because it's a demonstration of tremendous unity and resolve.

Zirin, the author of several books concerning politics and sports, including A People's History of Sports in the United States):

While there were incidents in the 1960s when teams — led by Black athletes — refused to play games in protest of racist treatment, what we are seeing right now is without historical precedent, in terms of its breadth, its reach, and its power. We are in uncharted territory. ... There is no historical precedent so it is impossible to say if the athletes are going to make a tangible difference in terms of policy. But they have already accomplished two important things: (1) they have raised awareness and recentered the discussion around Jacob Blake, where it should be. Not on 'anarchists' or whatever right wing talking points are being spewed about the demonstrations. (2) They are providing hope for people during a time when hope is in short supply.

Dr. Richard D. Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst:

It is a recognition outside of the official labor movement that the labor movement isn't doing what needs to be done and these workers — whether they would put it that way or not — are recognizing that they don't have a mode of expression through the labor movement and they don't have a mode of expression through the political parties. ... There will be no business as usual, even though this is a sports business, unless people sit down and work out with some sort of compromise, some sort of arrangement that addresses our concerns. The Democratic Party isn't doing that. The Republican Party isn't doing that. ... [The current strike] is a prod to those two establishments — the labor movement on the one hand and the political parties on the other, they had better read the tea leaves here and understand that if they don't once again become a means or an agency for the working class to express its concerns and grievances, then they will be left behind as new and different political forms emerge — new parties, new movements, new labor unions.

Robert "Scoop" Jackson, sports journalist, ESPN contributor, and author of The Game is Not a Game: The Power, Protest and Politics of American Sports:

[I]t's still — to a degree — workers versus structures of power using their sweat equity as leverage to be heard/felt/taken seriously. [Can they make a difference?] [T]hat all depends on how far they are willing to take it, how determined and committed they are, how fed up they are and how willing ownership is willing to work with them and not in the future hold their actions against them when CBAs and contracts are on the table. Keep in mind that the athletes, specifically the NBA players during this moment, are reaching out to government officials directly and trying to find out both locally and nationally how they can implement change. They are rushing into this and being led strictly by emotions. They're thinking this through as much as possible and trying to strategize as much as they can. They are trying to dive deeper than the surface. ... [T]rust me on this: If another unarmed black man/woman is killed or shot by someone sworn to "protect and serve" and NOTHING immediately happens in its aftermath before the finals or leading into the season opening, this will no longer be "wildcat." It will be "Part 2" and permanent.

Zirin was also a guest on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now":

For years, the world of sports has been a site of resistance to the racism of this administration, starting when Colin Kaepernick took that knee almost exactly four years ago to the date that the players made this decision. And this is just another chapter in that story about how the world of sports has been a site of resistance, an invaluable site of resistance, against the depravities of this administration. ... Sterling Brown [of the Milwaukee Bucks] has his own lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department from when he was tased in 2018. So the players are not bystanders to this process. The players are looking at this world and saying what John Carlos said in 1968 before the Olympics, which is, "Why should we run in Mexico City only to crawl home?"

Craig Calcaterra, Cup of Coffee, August 27, 2020:

The most important thing that happened last night was what did not happen. ...

Stories from around the league reveal that discussions about playing or not happened in every clubhouse, with most teams opting to play due to there not being enough time to fully consider sitting out, but many suggesting that they'd revisit that decision today. This is not over. ...

What happened yesterday ... was activism in a time when there are some pretty strong forces trying to tell athletes to shut up and dribble, pitch, or hit. This is especially true in baseball whose fan and player base skew overwhelmingly white and, at least if demographics can be trusted, conservative. It was brave of those players who walked off the job to do so. There will be politicians, commentators and entire TV networks railing against them today. It was no small gesture. ...

For its part, Major League Baseball issued the following statement just before 10 PM last night:

"Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight. Major League Baseball remains united for change in our society and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice."

That's fine, I guess. I'll note, however, that when MLB forges a partnership with, like, a fertilizer company, the press release is eight paragraphs long. Last night we got this. You can tell the league is not at all comfortable with this. It's out of their control, though. And any attempts they make to control it are not going to go well.

In a culture where sports are so prominent, athletes have power. If they choose to truly use it, there will be nothing authority can do to stop them.