Petition Protesting Sweeney AFL-CIO Support For
Israeli Invasion

Please repost and circulate widely among union
members.

TO SIGN THIS PETITION, GO TO --
www.petitiononline.com/WeObject/petition.html


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.