[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:14282] Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to Occupation of Ir

[Alfred Kagan]

>From: "Kathleen de la Pena McCook" <kmccook at tampabay.rr.com>
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 22:29:32 -0400
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:14282] Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to 
>Occupation of Ir
>Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>Priority: normal
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>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Issued 6/22/04
>
>Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to U.S. Occupation
>of Iraq and Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
>
>Nearly 4000 delegates of Service Employees
>International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest with
>1.6 million members, voted unanimously at the union's
>national convention in San Francisco today to end U.S.
>occupation of Iraq and to bring U.S. troops stationed
>there home.
>
>The strongly worded resolution pointed to military
>intervention aboard and attacks on workers at home.
>The resolution charged the Bush administration (backed
>by a majority in Congress) with responsibility for
>declining wages and benefits, deunionization, cuts in
>public services, crumbling health care and educational
>systems, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public
>debt, and eroding economic, social and personal
>security.
>
>The union proclaimed, "We cannot solve these economic
>and social problems without addressing U.S. foreign
>policy and its consequences."
>
>It accused the Bush administration of using "deception,
>lies and false promises to the American people and the
>world" to launch a "unilateral, preemptive war" in
>Iraq, causing the death of thousands of Iraqis and
>hundreds of U.S. soldiers, and costing taxpayers
>hundreds of billions of dollars.
>
>The resolution aligned SEIU with the principles
>contained in the Mission Statement of U.S. Labor
>Against the War (USLAW), a national network of labor
>organizations founded in 2003 to oppose war in Iraq and
>the Bush administration's foreign policies of
>unilateralism, militarism and preemptive war.  USLAW
>has more than 70 affiliated labor organizations,
>including a dozen SEIU's largest local unions.
>
>Those principles include
>
>     * a just foreign policy based on international law
>     and global justice; * an end to U.S. occupation of
>     Iraq; * redirecting the nation's resources from
>     "inflated military spending" to meeting human
>     needs; * supporting U.S. troops by bringing them
>     safely home; * protecting labor, civil and
>     immigrant rights and civil liberties; and *
>     solidarity with workers around the world struggling
>     for labor and human rights, and those in the U.S.
>     who support U.S. foreign and domestic policies that
>     "reflect our nation's highest ideals."
>
>The union resolved to work with all religious,
>community, political and foreign policy groups (such as
>USLAW) that are committed to a set of principles
>delineated by SEIU President Andy Stern in a letter to
>President Bush in January 2003, which include: war as a
>last option, not first resort; peaceful multilateral
>solutions to international disputes; a foreign policy
>that prioritizes improving the lives of people around
>the world; and protecting at home those rights and
>freedoms the administration claims it seeks for people
>abroad.
>
>The resolution was adopted without dissent after a half
>dozen or more local union leaders rose to passionately
>advocate its passage.  The resolution had been
>submitted by the SEIU International Executive Board for
>convention action based on resolutions submitted by
>Locals 49, 250, 535, 615, 715, 790, 1199NE, 1199P, and
>1199NW.
>
>The full text of the resolution is available on the
>USLAW website at
>http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=5382
>
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>U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
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>www.uslaboragainstwar.org info at uslaboragainstwar.org
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu