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Voices of Peace
Vol.VI
Labor & Peace
Petition Protesting Sweeney/AFL-CIO's
Support For Israeli Invasion
To: AFL-CIO Executive Council and Officers The Executive Board AFL-CIO Washington,
D.C.
We, the undersigned labor unionists, deplore the fact that
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney recently associated U.S. labor's name with support
for the Israeli invasion of the West Bank which has resulted in the widespread death
and destruction of the Palestinian people and property.
We are shocked that President Sweeney appeared at a Washington,
D.C. press conference with Bush administration officials, and among others, Benjamin
Netanyahu of the Israeli extreme right-wing.
It would be more appropriate for the highest official in U.S.
labor to be meeting with peace groups in Israel and the United States. It would be
a sign of great leadership to call for teach-ins in every U.S. Labor Council so that
workers could learn and debate the complexities of the Mid-east crisis.
We fail to see how collaboration with U.S. foreign policy in
this horrific aggression can advance the cause of world peace or improve the lives
of the U.S. people or the Israeli and Palestinian people.
All the world knows the murderous assault on the Palestinians
with the most modern tanks, helicopters, and missiles is financed by our taxes. It
is imperative that our labor leadership demand the demilitarization of our economy
and specifically educate workers on the perils of an almost $400 billion military
budget that undermines funding for our schools, housing, health care, and social
security. The present situation invites the U.S. military industrial complex to reach
into every corner of the globe to protect U.S. multi-national corporations as they
loot the world's resources and exploit foreign labor.
We recognize that to dissent from U.S. foreign policy would be an act of courage.
It would also be an electrifying act of hope for working and poor people everywhere
who have so much to lose from what appears to be permanent war.
To sign this petition online , please go to We
Object
Please repost and circulate widely among union members.
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