|
|
|
U.S. Labor Campaigns for Iraqi Labor RightsDelegates Oppose Occupation
By gathering together unions representing more than half a million workers six months after the Iraq war began, US Labor Against the War (USLAW) achieved a goal that even its organizers must, at times, have doubted was possible. Over 150 delegates met at the National Labor Assembly for Peace in Chicago on Oct. 23 and 24, representing 60 local unions, eight labor councils, three national unions and 10 grassroots Labor for Peace and Justice chapters from around the country. Most delegates were white, but the participation of African Americans and Latinos was greater than in many other sections of the peace movement. Delegates agreed on a mission statement and found common ground on an overarching purpose--making labor opposition to the Iraq occupation and the Bush administration's "war on terror" a majority among U.S. workers and unions. Today the leadership of the AFL-CIO is deeply divided over the war. But most national leaders have become extremely cautious, saying that labor is "too divided" to come out openly against it. This attitude came under fire from the Assembly's keynote speaker, Bill Fletcher, former AFL-CIO Education Director and currently president of TransAfrica Forum. "When does silence become complicity? When does ignorance become culpability?" asked Fletcher. "These are two questions with which organized labor must today grapple with, because these two questions haunt our movement like an apparition in the night." Bob Muehlencamp, USLAW national coordinator, listed the last year's accomplishments, including initiating an international union appeal to prevent the war. Then assembly task forces covered work areas ranging from attacks on immigrants and people of color to organizing among families of soldiers. INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS KEYBy building a base in various national unions, delegates hope, USLAW will be able to win these unions' open opposition to the occupation and to Bush's wars at home and abroad. That base would make possible changing the policy of the AFL-CIO itself. Some delegates cautioned, however, that defeating the war project requires more than formal positions taken at union meetings. "We shouldn't be afraid of a debate among our own members," said Michael Zweig of New York. USLAW's most important tool is international solidarity. Just prior to the assembly, Clarence Thomas, former secretary-treasurer of San Francisco's longshore workers local 10, and David Bacon, a labor journalist and photographer, traveled to Iraq on behalf of USLAW. They reported that the two new union federations they established contact with both faced open hostility from the occupation authorities. "The Bush administration openly intends to privatize the country's factories, refineries, schools and workplaces," warned Thomas. "They don't want workers who will lose their jobs by the thousands in that process to have unions they can use to fight this policy." Delegates agreed to mount a national campaign for Iraqi labor rights. Publicizing attacks on Iraqi unions will be a key element in convincing U.S. unions and workers that the occupation itself is the problem. USLAW plans to connect those attacks to Bush's budget cuts and attacks on labor and immigrants at home. Linking war at home to war abroad, most delegates felt, will be the key to defeating Bush in the 2004 elections. They plan to directly challenge the AFL-CIO's decision to campaign against Bush only on his domestic economic "mis-priorities." Instead, USLAW intends to expose the links between war abroad and austerity, racism and attacks on unions at home. David Bacon, an Oakland-based labor journalist and photographer, has a book on NAFTA's first 10 years, The Children of NAFTA, coming in January. |
|
|
War Times/Tiempo de Guerras is a fiscally sponsored project of the |
