Socialist Viewpoint

Resolution adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council on August 26, 2002

Whereas, the San Francisco Labor Council has for many years opposed the U.S. bombing and sanctions against Iraq, which have resulted in dire shortages of food and medicine and contributed to the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis, including 500,000 children; and

Whereas, now the Bush administration is beating the drums for a new war against Iraq, despite mounting opposition to this war at home and abroad; and

Whereas, in early 1998 the U.S. government’s drive to launch a new war against Iraq was abruptly halted by a rising opposition movement that included the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the San Francisco Labor Council, the Alameda Central Labor Council, and the students who debated Defense Secretary Cohen and Secretary of State Albright on national television at Ohio State University, which showed that the labor movement and people’s movement do have the potential to force a reversal of unjust government policies; and

Whereas, wasting billions of dollars on the Iraq war buildup translated into cutbacks of essential job-producing social programs at home such as education, health care, social security and housing, and threatening the rights of labor to strike and organize; and

Whereas, the Bush administration’s war drive has a domestic component threatening to turn his “endless war” against the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) as an opening wedge against the entire labor movement, by threatening government intervention on the West Coast docks under the guise of “Homeland Security,” on the side of the Pacific Maritime Association bosses and a coalition of anti-union corporate interests, including WalMart and The Gap; therefore be it;

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO) reaffirm and join the growing movement in opposition to any U.S. war against Iraq, and call on the unions and AFL-CIO at all levels and Congressional representatives to publicly oppose this war; and be it further

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council strongly condemn any attempt by the government, at any level, to introduce troops or otherwise intervene in the contract dispute between the ILWU and the employers, and call on Congressional representatives to publicly oppose this interference; and be it further

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorse the “Stop-the-War” marches and rallies taking place September 14-16 in Oakland, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities, as well as International Day of Protest on October 26, 2002, behind the banner, “No New War Against Iraq—Keep the Government Off the Docks!”

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan (R) and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud meet in Beirut August 30, 2002. Ramadan is on a trip to Lebanon and Syria to request diplomatic support for Baghdad in the face of increasing U.S. threats to attack—supposedly to prevent a terrorist attack involving Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz spoke to journalists September 3, 2002 after talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. He asserted that Iraq had offered to work with the United Nations on the issue of weapons inspectors to defuse the crisis with a skeptical United States. U.S. Vice President Cheney has repeated that UN weapons inspectors “would be a waste of time.” A waste of whose time, you might wonder.

Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters