Stop the war--at home and abroad
Longshore workers ratify struggle resolutions
The following resolutions were adopted by the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Convention in San
Francisco on May 1. The ILWU's militant, progressive history
extends back decades, to the 1934 general strike in San
Francisco. During the struggle to end apartheid, union members
refused to unload cargo from South Africa. They shut down every
West Coast port in April 1999 to support death row prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal. And they took part in the historic 1999
Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. The ILWU
opposed U.S. intervention in El Salvador and today is standing
up against the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.
Opposition to the U.S. occupation of
Iraq
WHEREAS: The ostensible purpose of the U.S. military
invasion of Iraq was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction,
facilitate "regime change" by ending Saddam Hussein's brutal
dictatorship and "liberate" the Iraqi people; and
WHEREAS: The real purpose that war was waged by Bush was for
control of Iraq's nationalized oil fields and to impose its
influence in the Middle East; and
WHEREAS: To realize those aims the U.S. is occupying Iraq
and imposing its own military dictatorship while the Iraqi
people have been angrily demonstrating in the streets demanding
U.S. military withdrawal; and
WHEREAS: This war cost $75 billion dollars while the U.S.
economy is in shambles, leaving people jobless, homeless,
without universal health care, and public school systems in
major cities like Oakland bankrupt; and
WHEREAS: Over a billion dollars is being cut from veterans'
benefits as many who fought in the 1991 Gulf War are still
suffering from debilitating diseases while hundreds of millions
of dollars in contracts are being given to U.S. companies
closely connected to the Bush administration like Stevedoring
Services of America to run the port of Umm Qasr and the San
Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation to rebuild the
infrastructure destroyed by U.S. bombs in Iraq; and
WHEREAS: The war in Iraq is over and Bush is now making
threats in that region against Syria and Iran, not to mention
North Korea, China and Cuba;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That we demand that the U.S.
military immediately withdraw from Iraq and the Middle East and
recognize the right of the Arab peoples to self-determination
free of foreign interference.
Submitted by ILWU Local 10
Oppose the U.S war against Iraq
WHEREAS: Working people in the U.S. will pay for the war on
Iraq by cuts on health, education, workers' safety and social
services; and
WHEREAS: The war in Iraq is being used to escalate attacks
on the working class, workers' democratic rights, and our civil
liberties, through the use of the Homeland Security Act,
Patriot Act, and Port Maritime Security Act; and
WHEREAS: Workers throughout the world, and in every trade
union, must stand together to oppose this war; and
WHEREAS: United labor action internationally has the power
to stop the war against Iraq; and
WHEREAS: The ILWU had opposed the Vietnam War and the first
U.S. invasion against Iraq in 1991;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the International Longshore
and Warehouse Union opposes the war against Iraq and stands in
defense of labor and people's democratic rights throughout the
world.
Submitted by ILWU Local 8
Stop allowing the threat of war to attack our civil
liberties and workers' rights at home
WHEREAS: The Bush Administration has carefully crafted a
strategy of distracting Americans from its anti-civil
liberties, anti-labor and anti-worker agenda at home by an
endless war on terrorism; and
WHEREAS: Wars have been waged in Afghan istan, Iraq, with
Syria and Iran possibly being next; and
WHEREAS: The Bush Administra tion has used the issue of
patriotism to silence the dissent of working people who oppose
the wars and who speak out against the growing infringement on
our civil liberties, civil rights and workers' rights; and
WHEREAS: The anti-labor agenda of the Bush Admin istration
using the cover of the economy and national security intervened
into our contract negotiations; and
WHEREAS: Taft-Hartley was invoked against us subsequent to
the lock-out by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) during
an impending war against Iraq;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That in the tradition of the
ILWU's progressive history, we take an active role in building
labor and community coalitions to organize to protect our
workers' rights and civil liberties here at home.
Submitted by ILWU Local 10
General strikes and Taft-Hartley
WHEREAS: This Union was born of a general strike; and
WHEREAS: The current national and international political
environment restrains the rights of workers to such a degree
that they are unable to rise above the oppression; and
WHEREAS: The achievement of the Longshore hiring hall, the
elimination of the shapeup, and the current right for all
members to attend every Longshore Local Union General
Membership meeting followed the San Francisco general strike of
1934; and
WHEREAS: Since the inception of Tart-Hartley, workers have
been unfairly and unjustly fettered in their ability to
organize, to strike in sympathy with other workers, to engage
in secondary boycotts and pickets and engage in large-scale
acts of solidarity;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the ILWU will publicize and
champion the goal of regaining the right of workers to engage
in a general strike, in plain and proud view of all workers for
further consideration; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED: That the ILWU will work with other
Unions and coalitions towards repealing the Taft-Hartley
Act.
Submitted by ILWU Local 5
Reprinted from the May 15, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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