* SF CLC Resolutions: End Occupation in Iraq, Bring Troops Home....
* Oppose AFL-CIO Acceptance of National Endowment for Democracy Funds
* SF CLC Adopts Million Worker March Mission Statement
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San Francisco Labor Council Resolution

 

Whereas, the people in Iraq want the US occupation to end, and the US soldiers in Iraq want to come home. We ask: who is benefiting from this war, and who is paying the price?; and

Whereas, every day, people are dying as a consequence of this illegal occupation… Every day human misery expands in the drive for world Empire and corporate globalization… Every day, jobs are lost and vital social programs that serve and protect working people are being looted and destroyed, as the Bush administration cynically manipulates the so-called "war on terrorism" to carry out the social transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top; and

Whereas, the Bush administration lied to the people, to the Congress, and to the United Nations as it raced to wage war against Iraq. Now tens of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of GIs have been killed or maimed. As the anger of the Iraqi people has inevitably grown, the body count on both sides has sharply increased; and

Whereas, as the anti-war movement predicted, the Iraqi people view US forces as colonial occupiers, not liberators. American soldiers are killing and being killed in a war that serves only the interests of U.S. oil monopolies and corporate elites - George W. Bush's real constituents; and

Whereas, the Pentagon admits they will have about 150,000 troops in Iraq for the "foreseeable future," at a cost of Billions of dollars every month -- on top of the cost of maintaining US troops and bases in 130 other countries – and this rapid rise in the power and reach of the military is closely linked to the unprecedented assault on the civil rights, union rights, benefits (including veterans’ benefits), and living standards of working people going on right now in the United States; and

Whereas, the Bush administration - which only came to power due to racist disenfranchisement and voting fraud -- has used the excuse of their "endless war" to sponsor a wholesale assault on the Bill of Rights, institutionalize racial profiling, assume extraordinary powers for the Executive branch, and adopt new repressive laws like the Patriot Act; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, raise these demands: 1) an immediate end to the US/British war and occupation in Iraq – Bring the Troops Home Now; 2) repeal of the Patriot Act and other repressive laws; 3) reordering of national priorities toward the human needs of our people. We need jobs and real security, not militarism and empire-building.

-- Adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council, June 14, 2004, by unanimous vote,

for submission to the 2004 Convention of the California Labor Federation, 6/14/04
 

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution

Oppose AFL-CIO Acceptance of National Endowment for Democracy Funds

 

Whereas the AFL-CIO and unions generally in the U.S. are deeply committed to the concept of solidarity with labor movements in other countries, and

Whereas the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has served as a front for U.S. government foreign policy objectives, including acting in the past as a front for U.S. government intelligence operations and subversive interference in the internal affairs of the labor movements of other countries, and

Whereas the AFL-CIO leadership, through the Federation's Solidarity Center, has announced its intentions to apply for $3 to 5 millions in funding from the NED for its operations in Iraq, and

Whereas the conventions of the International Labor Organization guarantee workers of every country the right to choose to be represented by the labor organization or union of their own choosing, free from government, corporate or foreign interference or constraints, and

Whereas AFL-CIO acceptance of NED funding for its solidarity work in Iraq would have the appearance, if not the effect, of interfering in the internal affairs of the Iraqi labor movement in furtherance of U.S. government foreign policy objectives,

Therefore be it resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, affirm its support for the principles of autonomy, independence and self-determination embodied in the International Conventions of the International Labor Organization, and

Be it further resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council oppose the AFL-CIO and its Solidarity Center seeking or accepting funding from the U.S. government, its agencies and any other institutions which it funds such as the NED for its work in Iraq or elsewhere, and

Be it further resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council urge the AFL-CIO to fund its international programs and activities from funds generated directly by its affiliates and their members.

 

-- Adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council, June 14, 2004, by unanimous vote, for submission to the 2004 Convention of the California Labor Federation.

 

San Francisco Labor Council Adopts the Million Worker March Mission Statement

 

Whereas, on April 28, 2004, the San Francisco Labor Council adopted unanimously a resolution in support of a Million Worker March in Washington, D.C.; and

 

Whereas, the Million Worker March mission statement is a stirring clarion call for labor, summing up what we in the labor movement are fighting for;

 

Therefore be it Resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council adopt the Million Worker March mission statement and send it to the California Labor Federation convention, recommending adoption by that body.

Thirty-six years ago Martin Luther King, Jr. summoned working people across America to a Poor Peoples’ March on Washington to inaugurate "a war on poverty at home."

"The United States government," he proclaimed, "is one of the greatest purveyors of violence in the world….America is at a crossroads in history and it is critically important for us as a nation and society to choose a new path and move on it with resolution and courage."

The crisis facing working people today is even more acute. Under the cover of systematic lies and deception, wars of devastation have been launched at the expense of working people everywhere.

In our name, a handful of the rich and powerful corporations have usurped our government.

A corporate and banking oligarchy changes hats and occupies public office to wage class war on working people. They have captured the State in their own interests.

The vast majority of working Americans are under siege. Social services and essential funding for schools, libraries, affordable housing and health care are slashed and eliminated.

Decent paying jobs are disappearing through outsourcing and privatization whose real purpose is to break unions and roll back the gains of one hundred years of struggle.

Sweat shops and starvation wages are imposed on workers across the world and deployed against workers at home to undermine our jobs and our benefits.

This undisguised class war is waged without restraint against working families and our children, enforced by anti-labor legislation and decrees, and by courts serving our exploiters.

The aim or [sic (of)] repressive legislation such as the Patriot Act is to terrorize and suppress the struggles of working people for their rights, and to destroy democratic control of the economy and of society. The pretext of enemies afar becomes a smoke screen for repression and autocratic rule.

The time has come to mobilize working people for our own agenda. Let us end subservience to the power of the privileged few and their monopoly of the political process in America.

Come together, brothers and sisters. Join the Million Worker March on Washington October 16, 2004, as we launch a great movement for social change. Let us forge together a social, economic and political movement for working people. We are the many. The secretive and corrupt who control our lives are the rapacious few.

Let us mobilize together through our unions, labor councils, social and community organizations, friends and neighbors everywhere. We are on the move and we shall not be denied.

--Adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council, June 14, 2004, by unanimous vote