Unionists chart antiwar drive
by Ben Sears
previously published by People's Weekly World Newspaper
[link to article]|CHICAGO How
can union activists make sure the unfolding discussion in the AFL-CIO includes
the issues of international solidarity and peace? How can we move the foreign
policy debate forward in the labor movement? How can we support the growing
sentiment in labor for bringing the troops, predominantly workers and the sons
and daughters
of workers, home from Iraq and out of harm's way?
U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) discussed these questions and more at its
Dec. 4 conference here. More than 150 trade union leaders and rank-and-file
members wrestled with these urgent questions. An organization of more than
100 affiliated
national, state, regional and local unions, other labor bodies and members
of labor-affiliated groups, USLAW was founded in October 2003. USLAW activists
joined
with others in labor working to defeat George W. Bush in 2004, but planned
this conference to continue the work on ìfundamental issues of war and peace Iraq
in particular and the diversion of expenditures from human needs to the military
and its corporate backers, which go beyond Election Day.
In the wake of Bush's re-election, the mood at the conference was serious but
upbeat.
Bill Fletcher, executive director of TransAfrica, keynoted the conference.
Fletcher said the right wing used national security issues to re-elect an unpopular
president
and move forward its own plans for world empire. The AFL-CIO chose not to address
these issues, he said.
But noting labor's stake in peace, Fletcher asked, ìCan our security be won at
the expense of the rest of the planet? He urged delegates to ìthink through
how to bring the debate on imperialism into the labor movement.
He said labor cannot continue to ìbash trade agreements but ignore military
aggression, and labor should be expected to support a minimum program of international,
working-class
solidarity, including nonmilitary solutions to problems and a democratic foreign
policy.
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson, longtime trade unionists and co-founders
of Military Families Speak Out, received a warm reception as they told the
delegates of the growing opposition to the Iraq war among parents and relatives
of men
and women in the armed forces those already in Iraq and those being threatened
with extended tours of duty, or ìstop-loss orders. Several GIs have filed suit
against the ìstop-loss orders, claiming their contractual rights are being
violated.
Delegates and observers spent most of the day in active discussion on strategy
and tactics, and agreed to build support in labor for coming peace actions
in March 2005. USLAW plans to continue building trade union solidarity with
Iraqi
unions, including raising money for material aid and sending a U.S. labor delegation
to Iraq in 2005.
USLAW sits on the national steering committee of United for Peace and Justice
(UFPJ), the nation's largest peace coalition, which has organized the major
peace demonstrations starting with the Feb. 15, 2003, ìThe World Says No to
War action.
The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.
Why is gov't spying on us?
by Tim Wheelerpreviously published by People's
Weekly World Newspaper
[link to article]
Peace,
religious groups protest infiltration
PORTLAND, Ore. Peace and justice leaders across the nation hailed an American
Civil Liberties Union project, announced Dec. 2, to spotlight FBI spying and
infiltration of grassroots organizations that oppose the Iraq war and other
right-wing policies of George W. Bush.
The ACLU has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the FBI
in 10 states and the District of Columbia asking for release of files of illegal
FBI surveillance of law-abiding organizations over the past four years. Attorney
General John Ashcroft seized on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to ram
through the USA Patriot Act, and FBI spying and infiltration was drastically
escalated.
ì
We have evidence that the FBI and local police working through so-called Joint
Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) are spying on environmental, political, and faith-based
groups, the ACLU said in a statement. ìWe think the public deserves to know
more about who is being investigated and why.
Benjamin Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, told
the World in a phone interview from his Des Moines office, ìMaking government accountable
is one of the ACLU's highest priorities. We want to help the citizens of this
nation understand the kind of tactics the FBI is using in the name of ëwar
on terrorism.'
He recalled the subpoenas obtained by the FBI task force in Des Moines last
February targeting a peace group at Drake University as well as the Iowa Peace
Network
and Catholic Peace Ministries. The sub-poenas ordered Drake University to turn
over any records, including surveillance by campus security, about a Nov. 11,
2003, campus meeting titled ìStop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home. The
following day, 12 people were arrested on ìtrespassing charges while peacefully
protesting the Iraq war at a nearby National Guard base. The nationwide outcry
against the subpoenas was so loud that the subpoenas were withdrawn.
ì
Surveillance of innocent people is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, Stone
said. ìWe still live in a representative democracy. People need to remember
that because if we forget, it's going to be hard to hold on to it.
The Rev. Calvin Morris, executive director of the Community Renewal Society,
is one of dozens of Chicago-based leaders who joined in the FOIA request filed
by the Illinois Civil Liberties Union. ìPeople are treated as suspects because
their views are contrary to those of the administration, Morris told the World. ìThe
administration proclaims a ëstate of emergency.' But we are not in that situation
at all and we should challenge that assumption. Freedom is not served when
we become a police state, when we become like those we are struggling against.
Kareem Irfan, chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago,
charged that Ashcroft and the FBI put the Arab and Muslim communities ìunder
siege with massive religious and racial profiling in the wake of the Sept. 11
attacks. Thousands have been detained and interrogated solely based on their
religion or national origin. ìWhile all of us, as Americans, desire a safe
and secure homeland, we simply cannot tolerate members of our community being
singled
out for FBI spying and investigation on the basis of racial or ethnic background
or simply for practicing our faith or speaking out on matters of public concern,
he said.
Here in Portland, the City Council is scheduled to debate Dec. 22 whether to
renew cooperation by the Portland Police Department with the FBI's JTTF. Oregon
ACLU Executive Director David Findanque said 17 peace and justice groups in
Portland are demanding that the FBI lay bare its spying and infiltration against
Oregon's
Muslim community and peace movement.
Among the victims is Lumumba Ford, whose parents are respected leaders of Portland's
African American community. Ford has a master's degree from The John Hopkins
University Center in Nanjing, China, and is fluent in Chinese. He is married
and the father of a child. He converted to Islam several years ago. FBI stoolpigeons
testified in the ìPortland Seven trial that he was a member of Al Qaeda.
Ford is now serving an 18-year sentence at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.
His ìcrime was being arrested in China on his way to Afghanistan. ìThey never
accused my son of a single act of terrorism, said Sandra Ford. ìBut they said
he is a ëmember of Al Qaeda.' They know it is a lie. The government has decided
that anyone who is a Muslim is a terrorist. It's another case of railroading
you if you are poor and Black.
The U.S. Attorney in Portland had agreed to a plea bargain, setting the sentence
for Ford at seven years. ìBut the Justice Department intervened. They wanted
to make an example of him. We are now in the process of setting up a defense
committee, Sandra Ford said.
Last spring, the city was rocked by the FBI's arrest of Portland attorney Brandon
Mayfield, a Muslim convert falsely accused of involvement in the Madrid train
bombing. He was jailed for weeks without legal representation. He was released
and the FBI apologized for falsely accusing him of terrorism.
The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com