Taking the war to the unions
By Deirdre Griswold
One of the thorniest problems for progressives in the labor
movement is how to raise the issue of imperialist war. The
pressure on the union leaders to line up behind any military
adventure is very heavy and it comes from both the government
and the bosses. Even more difficult has been the question of
U.S. support for the racist Israeli settler state, which has
been off limits for criticism in most of the labor
movement.
At the present time, when protests are breaking out all over
this country and the world over the barbaric repression of the
Palestinian people by the U.S.-armed and U.S.-funded Israeli
military, there is at last the beginning of a debate on this
subject within the unions. The working class in the U.S. today
has a large component of nationally oppressed people, many of
whom have fled repressive U.S.-supported regimes in their
homelands. Sympathy and solidarity with the downtrodden, exiled
Palestinians would seem to come naturally to them.
On the West Coast, where labor has traditionally been more
militant and progressive than in most of the rest of the
country, several unions passed resolutions in the recent period
opposing the Bush administration's belligerence and supporting
national anti-war demonstrations on April 20 in Washington and
San Francisco. However, on April 8 the San Francisco Central
Labor Council took a vote rescinding an earlier resolution that
had called for an end to the violence in Israel and Occupied
Palestine. The rescinding motion narrowly passed with 67
percent of the votes.
The more progressive trade unionists vowed to continue the
struggle.
In New York on April 9, an important resolution was passed
by nearly 200 health care union delegates. It contained four
demands: that Israel end its occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza immediately; stop U.S. military aid to Israel; support the
right of return of Palestinian refugees; and endorse rallies,
like those on April 20 and others that support these
demands.
A Jewish delegate introduced the resolution at a meeting of
the 1199 Delegates' Council, Health Systems I-V. Earlier, he
had passed out a flyer headed "Palestinian people are being
killed ... Our tax dollars are paying the bills." The
resolution passed with just one "no" vote. This delegates'
council represents over half the unionized health care workers
in New York hospitals.
As the movement grows in this country against U.S.
imperialist aggression in the Middle East, progressives in the
unions will be giving a lot of thought to finding effective
ways to reach their sisters and brothers with the information
and fighting spirit they will need to break with the positions
laid down by the class enemy and its political
establishment.
Reprinted from the April 18, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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