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Announcement :: Labor |
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U.S. Labor Unites Against War, Jan. 10, 2004, Chicago |
Current rating: 0 |
by via ML
Email: chi_labor_antiwar (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
22 Dec 2003
Modified: 09:27:47 AM |
Chicago Labor Against the War meeting
Saturday, January 10, 2004, 11am
UNITE Union Hall
Ashland and Van Buren, Chicago |
The next meeting of Chicago Labor Against the War will discuss the Bush assault on civil and labor rights in Iraq, as well as the denial of benefitss to union members and others in the National Guard and Reserve. CLAW will also be planning a meeting featuring representatives from the first postwar U.S. labor delegation to Iraq.
Chicago Labor Against War meeting
Saturday, January 10, 2004, 11am
UNITE Union Hall
Ashland and Van Buren, Chicago
For more info: chi_labor_antiwar (at) yahoo.com
This meeting will occur at the one-year anniversary of the founding of U.S. Labor Against the War. Here is some background info on what USLAW has accomplished in its forst year.
In the months preceding the invasion of Iraq, hundreds of local, state and national unions, central labor councils and other labor organizations took official positions opposing war on Iraq. This led to the founding, on January 11 in Chicago, of U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW). By the time the invasion of Iraq was actually launched on March 20, labor organizations representing almost one-third of all organized workers in the U.S. were on record opposed to the war. This laid a foundation for the unprecedented decision of the AFL-CIO to break with the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq.
USLAW is a network of unions and other labor organizations opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq and to the misplaced priorities of the U.S. government that have resulted in a bloated and growing military budget paid for with severe cuts in domestic social programs. USLAW organizes labor movement resistance to the Bush administration’s ‘War on Workers’ – the assault on labor and human rights, on unions, social programs, immigrants, and the very idea of a public sector. USLAW opposes the so-called ‘Patriot’ Act and other administration initiatives that constitute a direct assault on cherished Constitutional liberties.
In its short history, USLAW has –
* Organized a network of labor organizations opposed to the direction the Bush administration is taking the world;
* Organized a National Day of Labor Antiwar Action last October 12th;
* Mobilized labor participation in the major national antiwar protests that preceded the war and that occurred after the war began;
* Initiated an international declaration in opposition to the Iraq war that has been endorsed by unions and labor federations around the world;
* Published a report that exposes the labor, human rights, environmental, social and criminal records of eighteen corporations given contracts for work in Iraq, now translated into Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese;
* Helped initiate an international call for a Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq and is participating in organizing an international labor delegation to visit Iraq to investigate how workers there are being treated;
* Launched a website to provide news, analysis and organizing resources, and distributed thousands of antiwar buttons and bumper stickers to labor organizations and individual workers across the country;
* Initiated a call on behalf of union members and retirees who are veterans or members of military families for an immediate end to the U.S. occupation and safe return of all U.S. troops;
* Has joined United for a Fair Economy in developing popular education workshops that make the connection between the war and military budget and their economic consequences for working families;
* Is participating in the national campaign to demand a thorough independent investigation of the Bush administration’s deception, misrepresentation and outright lying to justify and build support for its war policy.
* USLAW organized a National Labor Assembly for Peace held in Chicago on October 24-25, 2003.
USLAW invites local, regional and national unions, central labor bodies, and allied labor organizations to affiliate, become active in, and support this important work. JOIN US!
For more info on the national campaign:
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/ |
