[Marxism] USLAW calls for mass spring demo, union-sponsored military families fo rums

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

"A massive broadly based national demonstration in Washington DC
in April 2006, with labor playing a major role along with a wide
ranging coalition of national organizations.
"Union-Sponsored Vet-Military Families Forums. A nationally coordinated
series of forums to be held at union-sponsored events to include Iraqi
vets, Military Families Speak Out representatives and members of Iraqi
Veterans Against the War in order to engage rank and file members in
anti-war education and activities."

full text below:

Subject : USLAW Statement on the "Growing Labor and Popular Opposition to the 
War in Iraq and the War on Working People at Home" 
   
Date : Tue, Dec 06, 2005 10:52 AM 
           
  
<bold>Growing Labor and Popular Opposition to the War in Iraq and 
the
War on Working People at Home


(Statement of the USLAW Steering Committee, adopted 12/3/05)


</bold>From its very beginning, USLAW has publicly opposed the war in
Iraq. We stated that Bush was lying, that we had no right to invade
Iraq, that oil was more the issue than weapons of mass destruction. We
predicted that war with Iraq would lead to a prolonged and bloody
guerrilla war, while encouraging terrorism in the Middle East and
elsewhere in the world. We warned the war would divert our nation from
the essential tasks needed to provide for our own people.


Since February 15, 2003, when more than 10 million people across the
globe went out into the streets to say much the same thing, it has been
clear that the people have been smarter than our political
representatives. If members of Congress and leading opinion makers in
the United States wanted to believe the Administration's lies, it was
not because the truth was not there for all to see.


Almost three years after USLAW was founded, the peace movement has
resoundingly won the public debate. Most polls now show more than 60%
of all Americans and more than 73% of Democrats want the U.S. military
to leave Iraq as soon as possible. A November 2005 New York Times/CBS
news poll found that more than 8 in 10 Americans are concerned that the
$5 billion spent each month on the war in Iraq is draining away money
that could be used in the United States. Only 19% of military-related
people polled in the heavily militarized state of North Carolina said
the war was "worth fighting."


In the labor movement the USLAW-initiated effort to call for rapid
withdrawal from Iraq passed overwhelmingly at the July convention of
the AFL-CIO, and many of the largest national unions are on record
against the war. Such opposition to a war in progress within the U.S.
labor movement is unprecedented and bespeaks the depth of antiwar
sentiment among working people.


This of course is a reflection of the disastrous effects of the war:
more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers dead, more than 10 times that number
wounded, many seriously scarred or maimed for life. More than 100,000
Iraqis are dead, much of Iraq has been destroyed by U.S. military
actions, and most of the Iraqi people are still without jobs, water,
electricity, basic sewage services, health care and any minimal sense
of personal security.


Meanwhile our money pours into Iraq at $8 million an hour, much of it
directly to the coffers of corporate cronies of the Bush
Administration.


U.S. policies in the Middle East, and the war and occupation of Iraq in
particular, have made our country and the world more vulnerable to
terrorism, not more secure. The occupation is fueling the violence in
Iraq and has turned Iraq into a school for terrorism. Attacks there are
up from 150 last year to 700 per week today. Polls in Iraq show 80% of
Iraqis want U.S. troops out. 


It was recently reported that after almost 3 years of training Iraqis
to serve as U.S. proxies in this war, less than 1% of Iraqi military
units can act independently of the U.S. military. In desperation the
United States is bringing back Saddam loyalists to run the army, the
very brutal enemy we claim to have gone to war to eliminate. Many of
the Iraqi military units are under the control of religious and
sectarian militias. At home, military recruiters are in a panic and
despite all their rosy promises, inducements and monetary incentives,
young Americans are refusing to enlist.


The use of torture against Iraqi prisoners, the use of chemical weapons
like white phosphorous on cities like Fallujah, the U.S. refusal to
permit international monitoring of detention camps and operation of
secret CIA prisons, our government's flouting of international law -
all these have turned international public opinion against the United
States and have destroyed any claim our government might make to the
moral high ground. Congressman John Murtha (Dem-PA) made it clear: the
occupation is the problem and can't be the solution. 


As the Iraqi trade unionists said in the joint statement they signed
with USLAW at the end of a 25-city USLAW-sponsored tour in June: "The
principal obstacle to peace, stability and the reconstruction of Iraq
is the occupation. The occupation must end in all its forms, including
military bases and economic domination." The Iraqis cannot work out
their differences under occupation. It must end now!


Those politicians who claim to support the troops yet call for "staying
the course 'til victory is won" are compounding the tragic and needless
slaughter that has already occurred there by adding still more lives to
the tragic cost the Iraqis and we have borne. A failed policy cannot be
made right by doing it longer, harder or better.


It is important to realize that the essential goals of the war were in
fact to secure control over Iraq's oil reserves, take out a leader who
had slipped from under the thumb of the United States, and strengthen
U.S. military presence in the Middle East. The Bush Neocons also seek
to make Iraq into an unregulated free market, privatizing the large
public sector industries and opening the economy to foreign corporate
control, just as they seek to use the disaster in the Gulf Coast to
privatize the schools and remake New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in
their corporate image. None of these "alternatives" has anything to 
do
with democracy or the genuine interest of Iraqis. They are more about
preserving prerogatives for U.S. power abroad and greater corporate
domination at home.


The most serious threat to the real security of the American people
today comes from the White House and its Congressional supporters. With
the 2006 elections looming, we need to seize the opportunity to move
members of Congress and all elected officials to publicly and
decisively oppose the war and occupation.


For too many political leaders, "victory" means having the Iraqis 
fight
as our proxies while U.S. troops remain in permanent military bases and
the Pentagon's control over reconstruction funds and armed forces
results in a compliant Iraqi government. We reject and must oppose such
phony schemes for ending the war. The challenge before us is to
escalate the demand for immediate withdrawal within the labor movement,
to join forces with the growing opposition to the war across the county
to force our political leaders to remove all U.S. troops, to provide
the Iraqis with the funds they need to reconstruct their country, and
to redirect our tax money to taking care of the serious social problems
we face at home.


Our labor movement is fragmented and divided over organizing and
politics, power and leadership. Despite these divisions, in 2005 USLAW
made dramatic strides, mobilizing for national demonstrations,
organizing the discussion that led to an historic resolution at the
AFL-CIO convention, touring Iraqi trade unionists to 25 U.S. cities,
spawning large Educators to Stop the War conferences, and holding
numerous union educational events around the country. Though most
unions are caught up in a fight for survival against hostile employers
and a hostile government, the struggle to end the war and to reorder
national priorities can be a unifying force between the AFL-CIO and
Change to Win, both of which have affiliates in USLAW.


USLAW has grown to over 125 affiliates representing millions of
workers. Today we have an opportunity, given the climate and the
success of our work in 2005, to double the number of our affiliates.
Our support and credibility in the labor movement are much greater than
our affiliations - many labor organizations are working with us that
are not officially part of USLAW. Many more share our goals but are not
yet in our network. USLAW provides the vehicle for the labor movement
to effectively fight against the war in Iraq and to link it to the war
against working people at home. It is a vehicle through which organized
labor can break with decades during which it blindly followed Cold War
foreign policies that were crafted in the interests of global capital,
not the interests of American or international labor.


Local, regional and national sectors of the labor movement, as well as
the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, need to step forward in 2006 to make
this effort effective. We must move the antiwar message and
conversation down from the leadership level of our organizations to the
rank and file, and then move our members into action for a new foreign
and domestic policy agenda.


The labor movement is in a position not only to be an integral part of
the antiwar movement, but to actually lead the movement. That is the
role that unions and workers should play; it is the role that unions in
many other countries do play. We in the labor movement should be the
conscience of U.S. workers on the war. We must make our voices heard.


<bold>Why should labor lead the movement against the war?


</bold>* This is not an "extra issue." This issue is at the 
center of
the national crisis our nation is in. We cannot achieve any of labor's
goals such as major health care and pension reform, the
government-funded rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and the strengthening of
our endangered public services, without ending this war.


* It is a budget issue, a Patriot Act issue, it is tied to the
political club called the "War on Terrorism" that is used to attack
labor rights and much that we hold sacred, and it is the horse that
many right wingers in office have ridden for political gain.


* Our credibility as a labor movement in the rest of the world is at
stake. As we strive to organize multinational corporations across
borders, we cannot be for U.S. aggression and the domination of U.S.
capital and claim to be in solidarity with workers in developing
countries or even in Europe-no one will believe us.


* Defeating the U.S. policy in Iraq must be accompanied by a new vision
of genuine solidarity, based on the mutual interests of workers, and on
respect for international law and national sovereignty. .


* We can no longer let the issue of war and the false patriotism of
tyrants and demagogues be used to drive an anti-worker agenda, as has
occurred since 9/11.


<bold>In consideration of all of the above, USLAW calls for:


- Expanding the USLAW Network:


</bold>Doubling the number of USLAW affiliates to 250 labor
organizations. Working to deepen the participation of International
Unions, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. This work will culminate in a
National Labor Leadership Assembly on December 2nd, 2006. Legislation
to End the War


Put the issue of the war at the center of the political agenda for the
2006 election year. This includes a broad based effort in the labor
movement, in conjunction with the peace movement, to promote federal,
state and local legislative initiatives aimed at ending the war and
occupation and to ask political candidates to take these positions.


<bold>- Massive Spring 2006 Anti-War Demonstration:


</bold>A massive broadly based national demonstration in Washington DC
in April 2006, with labor playing a major role along with a wide
ranging coalition of national organizations.


Union-Sponsored Vet-Military Families Forums. A nationally coordinated
series of forums to be held at union-sponsored events to include Iraqi
vets, Military Families Speak Out representatives and members of Iraqi
Veterans Against the War in order to engage rank and file members in
anti-war education and activities.


<bold>- Iraqi Labor Solidarity:


</bold>Continue to work in support of labor rights for Iraqi workers
and unions and explore sending delegations of US trade unionists to
Iraq and bringing Iraqi trade unionists, including women, to the US. By
mobilizing the labor movement at every level to end the war in Iraq,
with an informed membership, we set the stage for labor to play a
stronger role in the future in setting our
natio<color><param>00FF,0000,0000</param>n</color>'s 
priorities at home
and abroad.


----------


To Contact USLAW:

PMB 153, 1718 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

www.uslaboragainstwar.org 



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