On December 9, 2002, the San Francisco Labor Council
(AFL-CIO) unanimously adopted the following resolution:
"Labor Needs to Take a Clear Stand Against the War."

The resolution also includes an endorsement of the January 18 National March in Washington DC and joint action in San
Francisco, and of the People's Anti-War Referendum.


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RESOLUTION OF THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL

Labor Needs to Take a Clear Stand Against the War

Whereas, since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we
have seen the beginning of a relentless new assault on
labor -- from the employers, and from the government
acting on their behalf; and

Whereas, using the so-called "war on terrorism" and
"national security" as a pretext, the Bush Administration
has spearheaded a renewed assault on organized labor,
starting with the use of Taft-Hartley (and threats to
militarize the ports) against West Coast
dockworkers...wholesale threats to the job security and
union rights of 170,000 federal workers...the racist
firings of experienced airport screeners...threats to
curtail the right to strike and organize…and the
impending contracting out of hundreds of thousands of
federal jobs. On more than one occasion, government
spokespersons have referred to union actions defending our
jobs, working conditions and living standards as akin to
terrorism, or as "aiding and abetting terrorists", or as a
"threat to national security"; and

Whereas, Bush's war (on Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, the
Philippines, where next?) has become the main engine for
the repression of labor. "National security", in the hands
of a thoroughly anti-labor Bush Administration, is being
used as a bludgeon against labor, with the intent of
rolling back all the gains workers have won since the
1930s, including collective bargaining itself, and
including social programs championed by the labor movement
like welfare, social security, unemployment insurance; and

Whereas, a strong fight-back requires that labor make it a
priority to stake out a clear, forthright and fighting
stance against Bush's war, and see the anti-war and
anti-globalization movements as our strategic allies,
needed if we are to defeat the assault on labor and move
to the offensive. We got a glimpse of the potential power
of this combination during the 1999 showdown in Seattle;
and

Whereas, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied the
coming together of the labor, anti-war and civil rights
movements during the tremendous upsurge of the mass
movement in the 1960s, and we need to revive this powerful
combination of the people's forces to defeat Bush's war
and the racism that underlies it and that it promotes; and

Whereas, our opposition to the Bush Administration's war
on the Iraqi people, and to their attacks or threats
against other smaller, sovereign countries around the
globe, fits hand in glove with labor's fighting defense of
the interests of the working people of all races and
nationalities here at home; therefore be it

RESOLVED: That the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO,
endorse the Martin Luther King weekend anti-war activities
-- the January 18, 2003 marches in San Francisco and
Washington, DC in opposition to the war on Iraq, and the
Grassroots Peace Congress being held in Washington, as
well as the People's Anti-War Referendum ["VoteNoWar"] by
which millions of Americans are casting their "votes"
against this war; and be it further

RESOLVED: That this council work to ensure that organized
labor and the national AFL-CIO take a clear and early
stand against Bush's war.

-- Adopted unanimously by the San Francisco Labor Council,
December 9, 2002