LABOR AGAINST WAR
by Adam Ritscher

As Bush continues upon his march to war with Iraq, the
anti-war
movement has continued its efforts to reach out and
build as broad of
a movement as possible to oppose this war. Hundreds of
thousands of
students, activists, leftists, religious folks and
others have come
together to organize some of the largest anti-war
rallies and teach-
ins this country has seen. But perhaps the most
dramatic of these
efforts to build a mass anti-war movement that
involves broad
sections of everyday people has been made in regards
to the labor
movement.

The labor movement has a long and militant history,
but in recent
decades has tended to either stay clear of taking a
stand on foreign
policy issues, or supporting Washington's military
adventures
abroad. Fortunately though with this war, that is
beginning to
change.

To date dozens of local unions, central labor bodies,
and even
international unions have joined the Duluth Central
Labor Body in
coming out against Bush's threatened war with Iraq, or
have at least
urged the administration to use war only as a last
resort. Among
these labor bodies has been the United Electrical
Workers (UE), the
San Francisco Labor Council, the California Federation
of Teachers,
Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago, Transit Workers Union
Local 100 in
New York and the Albany, NY Central Labor Body.

The Bush administration's attacks on West Coast
longshore workers
under the guise of national security, its banning
certain federal
workers from joining unions and its announcement that
it will be
privatizing hundreds of thousands of federal jobs have
all combined
to make more and more workers realize that Bush's war
abroad has a
direct connection with his war on working people at
home – and that
connection is pursuing corporate interests at the
expense of all else.

But this development is not simply one that is
happening in big
cities in the United States, in fact the labor
movement of the upper-
Midwest is very much part of this historic stand by
labor. At its
November meeting, the Duluth Central Labor Body, which
represents
some 15,000 AFL-CIO members in northern Minnesota,
unanimously passed
an anti-war resolution. The resolution has since been
passed on to
the Minnesota AFL-CIO to urge it to adopt a similar
resolution.

This anti-war resolution was followed up at the CLB's
December
meeting where it voted unanimously to co-sponsor the
January 25
regional anti-war rally that has been called by the
Northland Anti-
War Coalition (NAWC) and Students Against War (SAW).
This rally,
which will take place at noon on the corner of Lake
Ave. & Superior
St. in Duluth, is projected to be to the largest
anti-war rally this
region has ever seen.

To get involved in building the Jan. 25 rally, or to
be part of the
Labor Against War contingent that will be
participating in the rally,
you can call (715) 394-6660 or send an email to
<mnsocialist (at) yahoo.com>.