On Saturday, December 13, the Vermont Workers' Center, together with a wide variety of community organizations, is sponsoring the ELLA BAKER HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE. The event will take place from 9am-3pm at the Davis Center at UVM. [ Register now ]
This is a major gathering of workers, students, youth, educators and health professionals to build a broad- based movement for human rights in our communities. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations, however many of the most basic rights remain unmet in the wealthiest country in the world. Skill-building workshops and activities will explore using a human rights framework to organize together in order to create fundamental change. Issues include: workers' rights, the economic crisis, the right to healthcare, anti-racism & indigenous issues, gender rights, rights of the child, war and militarism, environmental justice and building healthy communities.
The conference takes place on December 13th, the 105th anniversary of the birth of Human Rights activist Ella Baker. Ella Baker was one of the most important leaders in the Civil Rights Movement working as an organizer in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and later in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). With Ella Baker's influence, SNCC became the leading advocate for human rights in the country.
Sixty years after the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, still inspired by Ella Baker's commitment to justice, we are coming together at this conference to build a movement for fundamental change.
This event is accessible for individuals with disabilities. We will make accommodations for people with disabilities (including ASL Interpreters) upon request. Please make your request by Dec 5th by emailing conference@workerscenter.org.
Guest Speakers
US Senator Bernie Sanders
Ai-jen Poo, Domestic Workers United
Ashaki Binta, Black Workers For Justice and former director of the International Worker Justice Campaign
This event is free and lunch will be provided. Pre-registration is encouraged. To register, or learn more about the conference, please visit workerscenter.org/hrconference.
REGISTER TODAY: Ella Baker Human Rights Conference
Vermont Labor Against the War shows Winter Soldier Hearings
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” In 1971, a courageous group of veterans exposed the criminal nature of the Vietnam War in an event called Winter Soldier. Once again, we will demand that the voices of veterans are heard. (from Iraq Vets Against the War website)
Schedule of topics:
Friday, March 14th
4:00PM - 6:00PM Rules of Engagement: Part Two
7:00PM - 8:30PM Aims of the Global War on Terror: the Political, Legal, and Economic Context of Iraq and Afghanistan
9:00AM – 10:30AM Divide To Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military
11:00AM - 1:00PM Racism and War: the Dehumanization of the Enemy: Part One
2:00PM - 3:30PM Racism and War: the Dehumanization of the Enemy: Part Two
4:00PM - 6PM Civilian Testimony: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan
7:00PM - 8:30PM The Cost of the War at Home
We'd love to have you join us!
Workers' Center to Join Worldwide Mobilizations January 26
On January 26, 2008, people around the world will take to the streets for a worldwide mobilization to demonstrate that "Another World Is Possible," and a determination to converge our many struggles — for workers' rights, against war, for climate justice and others — into one movement.
The Vermont Workers' Center has joined with the Vermont chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Global Justice Ecology Project to initiate a "Call to Vermont Organizations" to participate in these mobilizations. We are proposing the themes of war, healthcare and climate change for a united public demonstration because we believe these are the three largest issues facing Vermonters today, but in keeping with the spirit of openness of the World Social Forum, from which the call for mobilizations originated, we are encouraging other organizations to plan additional events and activities during the week of January 21-27 around the theme that "another world is possible." Workshops, educational forums, direct actions, and social events are all encouraged.
To view the call, visit wsf2008vt.blogspot.com
We encourage Workers' Center members, supporters and allied organizations to:
1) Sign on to the call (as an organization or an individual) by emailing globaljustice [at] workerscenter [dot] org
2) Stay informed by signing up for the listserve (sign up at wsf2008vt.blogspot.com)
3) Propose (or plan) additional activities. The Workers' Center will publicize a comprehensive list of all activities during the week, so let us know what you're planning at globaljustice [at] workerscenter [dot] org
Workers' Center members join 10,000+ at Boston March Against The War
Over two dozen members of the Vermont Workers' Center and Vermont Labor Against The War marched in Boston on Saturday, October 27th as part of a national rallies against the war.
See more photos
See Boston Globe Story
Benefit a success
Matt Howard from Iraq Veterans Against The War (IVAW) spoke powerfully at the IVAW and Workers' Center benefit show Friday night, where there was a big turnout despite some serious pouring rain outside. The weather delayed Bernie Sanders' flight home, but we had great music and a lot of fun.
Much thanks to everyone who came out in the rain to support the cause and special thanks to all the bands and Julie Winn and Brendan Hatch who organized the show! Stay tuned for some exciting Workers' Center news coming soon...
Sept 21st -Workplace Action to End the War
Let’s Engage Our Members to Bring Our Troops Home . . .
and Take Care of Them When They Return
70% of Americans are against the war in Iraq. Yet our political leaders have failed to end it. We must find new ways to force an end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq. It is up to US to provide the 70% Solution! That’s what this letter is about.
President Bush wants another $190 billion to continue the occupation and war. He now seems intent on attacking Iran as he sends more forces to Iraq. Doing so will not only kill numerous innocent Iranians, but will also expose our troops in Iraq to a horrific backlash by pro-Iranian Iraqis. Such a reckless attack will only further isolate the U.S. in the world.
It’s time to show the politicians that we’re not as apathetic as they apparently think. We elected them to get us out of this mess, not to drag it on. We don’t want more of their empty promises, phony compromises, contrived goals and meaningless benchmarks. We want this war ended now. We won’t accept anything else.
Since President Bush refuses to end it, we must tell Congress to exercise its authority to stop funding the war and instead to fund an immediate rapid withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. It is the only way to truly support our troops, and end this nightmare. Let’s use our resources to fully fund services to vets, provide universal health care, rebuild the Gulf, and meet numerous other human needs.
We need to draw more of our members who have yet to take action to actively oppose the war. Let’s press our demands for an immediate end to the bloodshed, shattered lives, wasted resources, abuses of power, and inadequate funding that has deprived the VA system the resources needed to provide world-class care our vets deserve.
Let’s ask our members to join the Nationwide Iraq Moratorium
The Iraq Moratorium is a simple, powerful organizing idea. On the 3rd Friday of the month, starting September 21st – and again on October 19th and November 16th – all those who oppose the occupation of Iraq are asked to take an action to call for bringing our troops home now from Iraq, and taking care of them when they return.
We want to encourage locals to explore what you can do with workplaces actions. We favor actions that can be built in an organized way. Here are some ideas:
· Wear stickers
· Distribute a handout on the cost of the war to Vermont
· Organize a call-in, write-in or petition signing to Congress during breaks
· Ask people to do Congressional district office visits
· Show “Meeting Face to Face,” a documentary about the U.S. tour of Iraqi labor leaders
· Vigil near the VA hospital with signs saying, “Fund Vets’ Services, Not the War.”
For stickers, flyers, or the video, contact Vermont Labor Against the War - a coalition of the Vermont AFL-CIO, Champlain Valley and Washington-Orange-Lamoille Labor Councils, and Vermont Workers Center – at: traven_L@earthlink.net or 55 E. Bear Swamp Rd., Middlesex, VT 05602; tel. 802-522-3484
Working together, we in organized labor can provide a big part of the “70% Solution.” We do it for our troops. We do it for our families. We do it for our country. We do it to defend our democracy. We do it for peace. If we don’t do it, who will?
Vermont Labor Against the War work plan for discussion
Draft for discussion
1. a. Work more closely with Iraq Veterans Against the War & Military Families Speak Out. Including Workers Center/Iraq Vets Against the War Fundraiser October 19th.
b.Identifying union members who are Iraq war vets, or family members, for one on one discussions.
c. Organize IVAW & MFSO talks at union meetings, e.g. September VSEA and AFl-CIO and October NEA conventions – other union meetings as possible.
d. Dawn go on Bert Thompson's (Green Mtn Vets) TV show in Burlington, on 8/5.
2. Build a strong VTLAW contingent in the Burlington Labor Day parade with Adrienne (IVAW, AFGE & VWC) speaking. Also tabling there, and have info about all the events available at Labor Day event.
3. Participate in the Iraq Moratorium by planning actions that people can bring to their work places in hopes of turning people from passive to active (even if in a small way/small step) – like wearing stickers, calling politicians on cell phones during breaks, signing petitions at work, etc. Have well known union folks sign & send a letter to all union locals urging unions to organize their rank and file to participate in Iraq Moratorium days and letting them know these leaders will be participating on those action days.
4. Campaign, along with workers at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, to adequately fund the V.A. so we don't continue to have the disgraceful situation that we currently do, and to end to the war that is causing the casualties in the first place. Requires internal organizing with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
Could include working with Sen. Sanders, who’s on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, to increase resources to adequately support the veterans who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, plus all of our older veterans,
Nationally, we are working with USLAW to explore a major campaign with AFGE, which represents roughly 150,000 employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), as well as Iraq Veterans Against the War & Military Families Speak Out to demand that Congress fully fund and staff the VA, and end the war that is causing the casualties.
Such a campaign’s demands might include:
· meeting the demands of AFGE members at the VA hospitals - which include increased staffing, a better nurse- and staff-to-patient ratio, and extended bargaining rights to include doctors hours, nurses assignments and staffing.
· full funding of the Department of Veterans Affairs
· separating VA funding from war funding
· ending the war which is causing the casualties
5. Do more to educate people about how the war is costing jobs and public goods and benefits. This is particularly true for public sector workers. Would a workshop be a good way to get people educated to talk to their co-workers? Produce popular written materials by Labor Day, like those from the National Priorities Project, into peoples' hands.
6. Build VTLAW’s Organizing Committee – a requirement for carrying out this ambitious work plan – and seeking another union affiliation to USLAW.
Meeting with Iraqi trade unionists at USSF
After an inspirational opening march with over 10,000 working people, the VWC delegation had dinner with two Iraqi trade unionists, including the first women elected president of a union in Iraq. Delegate Adrienne Kinne, from Iraq Veterans Against the War, got a chance to speak Arabic with them. We're all looking forward to the plenaries and workshops beginning this morning. More details and more photos to come...
Worker Center V-P Raps War in Iraq & War at Home
Speech given at Montpelier Anti- War Demonstration Jan. 20th - rough transcript:
I’m Dawn Stanger. I’m a Teamster who works up at UPS and I’m Vice President of the Vermont Workers’ Center. The Workers’ Center usually struggles locally, trying to gain power for Vermont’s workers, but we can’t ignore global issues. We are an affiliate organization so many unions in Vermont support our work.
In the past the labor movement pretty much supported U.S. wars. But the military consumes half of our tax dollars, and gets our brothers and sisters killed, and we knew that Iraq had nothing to do with the crimes of 9/11. It was obvious that this would have a huge effect on our friends and co-workers who’d be called up. So we joined a group called U.S. Labor Against the War back in January of ‘03’. Shortly thereafter, Vermont’s AFL-CIO also affiliated with USLAW and there’s now hundreds of union locals across the country calling for Troops Out Now.
Death and violence still hang over Iraq, post-Saddam, and union leaders are still being murdered but their fears have multiplied a hundredfold. They say that they still have a chance to get back to that secular society, if we get out now. They see us as the cause of the sectarian violence. And USLAW sees no choice now but for the Democrats to cut off the funding. Bush is crazy, offering us an escalation. After that election. No way. Not one more life. Not one more dollar, but what it takes to bring them home safely. Iraqis voted for those who promised to get us to withdraw. Yet almost immediately, those they elected were singing a different tune. What happened, they must wonder.
Congress created a fund to take care of the heroes of 9/11, workers who raced into Ground Zero before and after the EPA said it was safe. Then we discovered the truth; it wasn’t so safe and the EPA knew it. But they wanted Wall Street up and running. 32,000 workers are still suffering serious health effects, and their funds are running out, while we spend billions in Iraq. ¼ of this war’s budget would have fixed Social Security for 75 years. We maintain that Iraqis and us have the same enemy – greed.
And the conclusion is that we all need to struggle together, workers in every country. We need to try to make Reverend King proud of us as we root out racism and classism. We need to figure out a way to fix our democracies before we fly around the globe spreading bs. We’ve got imperial aims and we can’t even take care of ourselves, Katrina being the glaring example. I can’t believe they’re now talking about expanding the military – both parties. No. Not until the corporations get out of our government. They’re about to sign agreements to privatize Iraq’s oil - agreements meant to last 30 years. We‘re building military bases there, one of the things that has been acknowledged by the “terrorists” as a cause of terrorism. And we’re threatening Iran now with air strikes. Madness. Being done because someone, somewhere, sees a profit in it.
Bush is not the problem, though, but the symptom. The real disease is corporatism. A country that’s run by corporations is not one that cares about Vermonters who enlist for schooling, or because they can’t find a decent job. And the biggest risk is the moral and financial bankruptcy of the country. Where is the truth? We need to investigate how we got where we’re at, and pass laws to ensure we don’t get here again.
Vermont Labor Against the War Needs You…
On April 29th, Vermont union members joined the largest labor antiwar contingent ever in New York City. The spirited 15,000-20,000 trade union contingent came from across the country. Altogether, 350,000 people joined the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy.
The war in Iraq is the single most important fact of life in the U.S. today. Some still ask why is labor against the war? That’s easy: health care, education, housing, jobs, heating assistance, our schools, you name it – on every front where community needs are not being met are directly linked to the resources are being squandered on this war.
- National Guard and Reserve members taken from their jobs, families and communities for indefinite service (essentially a backdoor draft);
- Veterans’ benefits and services cut at the very time their need is growing;
- A war costing hundreds of billions of dollars has siphoned funds from programs to meet human needs – for jobs, health care, housing, education, infrastructure, care for victims of disasters, rebuilding the storm-ravaged Gulf area, protecting our environment and more;
- Millions of our tax dollars funneled to corporate cronies of the Bush administration and growing corruption in government;
- A war that has served as a smokescreen for a corporate assault on working people and our unions: pensions canceled, jobs outsourced & privatized, plants shuttered, immigrants scapegoated, and the safety net we fought to create in tatters;
- Tax breaks for the rich, subsidies for corporations, and the shaft for the rest of us.
The official opposition of our unions to the war opens space for rank and file activists to educate and organize among our co-workers against the war. We are building a movement that links the war abroad to the war at home against working people and our unions.
The working class is the social force with the self-interest and power to end this endless war and injustice. At present, our labor movement’s consciousness, activity, and organization are far below the levels we needs to fulfill our urgent tasks. Intensive labor antiwar organizing can, and will, change that.
What We’re Doing About It
To that end Vermont Labor Against the War has been:
- Working closely with Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans Against the War to bring speakers into union meetings and have discussions about the reality of what it means to be against the war in the military and to support our troops by bringing them home.
- Organizing labor contingents in anti-war demonstrations.
- Using flyers as tools to initiate respectful discussions with coworkers who believe “you can’t do anything” to end the war, or that supporting our troops means supporting the “war on terror.”
- Educating about the real, democratic, and secular opposition to the U.S. in Iraq, especially Iraq’s growing labor movement. Organizing discussions around the documentary “Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq-U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour” at union and public meetings.
- Organizing material aid for Iraqi unions, pressuring the government to allow Iraqi speakers into the U.S., pressuring the occupation authorities/Iraqi government to give the Iraqi labor movement space to organize, sponsoring a forum with a speaker from the Iraqi Freedom Congress, and an Iraq labor leader tour.
- Affiliating Vermont unions to US Labor Against the War, a national organization of over 125 labor organizations
We need to do much more! We’re talking about showing up at events to demand that politicians take a position for withdrawal and to hold them accountable. What are your ideas? Vermont Labor Against the War needs your input and energy. Please contact us at traven_l@earthlink.net.
Not One More Dollar, Not One More Day!
Bring Our Troops Home Now!
Take Care Of Them When They Return!
Iraqi labor leader visits Vermont, calls for troop withdrawal
From the Montpelier Times-Argus:
Published: June 19, 2005
Adnan Rashed spent years in exile when labor unions were outlawed in his native Iraq. The 56-year-old was a prime mover in the Workers' Democratic Trade Union Movement, which was a giant thorn in the side of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Rashed returned home shortly after the end of Hussein's brutal regime — which murdered thousands of workers — and promptly got to work organizing fellow laborers. The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, on whose executive council he sits, is now 200,000 strong, with workers from all walks of Iraqi life.
It's an impressive accomplishment in an occupied country brutalized first by a madman dictator and now, for three years, by the ravages of war. Organizing labor in a country where 70 percent of the workforce is unemployed, and in which unions had been outlawed for nearly three decades, is a daunting task.
Rashed was in the United States last week to talk about what he and fellow workers face in Iraq.
But, more importantly, his planned visit to Vermont — he was expected to attend a potluck supper in Montpelier on Saturday night — should give us pause about the state of labor worldwide and about the delicate thread by which most of the world's workers hang onto a sustainable livelihood.
"The state of labor has only gotten worse," said Dawn Stanger, vice president of the Vermont Workers' Center, a member of the Teamsters union and a 16-year employee of United Parcel Service. "Someone else has used the line, 'trade unions are the canary in the coal mines.'"
And the canary is dying. In Iraq, the signs are obvious and not wholly unexpected.
According to Vermont Labor Against the War — the workers' center is part of the group — the war and occupation have brought on "the illegalization of their unions, the imminent threat of the privatization of most of the public sector by foreign corporations and a 70 percent unemployment rate."
The signs are obvious here, too. Union membership is at an all-time low in this country, driven in part by hard-line bargaining by multinational corporations who routinely decide that workers are expendable "assets."
Promised pensions are being yanked, wages are stagnant and government is increasingly hostile to workers.
A perfect example of that right here in Vermont is the recent fight over the elimination of an early retirement program that had been a part of the benefits package promised to full-time faculty at the Vermont State Colleges.
In addition to losing a retirement option — a disturbing and far-too-common trend in American businesses — the professors bore the brunt of name-calling by Gov. James Douglas.
He suggested that professors were receiving a too-generous benefit that was no longer affordable. He called them "big labor" and "special interests." And he excoriated their political benefactors for having the temerity to stand up to the eradication of worker security.
On a national level, the current political leadership is indifferent to labor most of the time, and, when it comes to issues such as wages, benefits and trade, it is downright hostile.
In Iraq, Rashed and his fellow workers are living under the shadow of Washington-forced economic and political policies that are not bringing stability or security to vast swaths of people.
To Stanger, Rashed should not be fighting against the interests of America and its multi-billion dollar corporations. She said, unions should be exploited for what they are best at fostering: a democratic lifting of their members' economic boats.
"I think we've given the troops in Iraq an impossible mission," Stanger said. "You can't push democracy, it has to rise from within. Trade unions are an effective way of doing that."
I think the reverse also is true. In America, ignoring the plight of workers can only serve to weaken our own democracy.
Darren Allen writes weekly about Vermont issues, people and events. You can reach him at darren.allen@timesargus.com.
From the Burlington Free Press:
Adam Silverman
Burlington Free Press
June 20, 2005
U.S. assistance has helped Iraq build a democracy, but troops should leave now so a truly free, self-governing Iraq can emerge, Iraqi union leader Adnan A. Rashed told a crowd Sunday in Burlington.
Speaking through interpreter Maher Elhashami, the 56-year-old Rashed was the featured guest at a rally following an anti-war march along Church Street to City Hall Park. About 70 people marched, chanted and listened to Rashed, an executive officer with the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metals Workers.
"Our job right now is to right the equation in Iraq," Rashed said. "We demand for our freedom and sovereignty as Iraqis."
Rashed is one of six leaders of Iraq's emerging trade-union movement who are spending two weeks touring the United States, a visit coordinated by U.S. Labor Against the War. Vermont labor groups organized two local stops, one Saturday in Montpelier and the other Sunday in Burlington.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein outlawed unions in the 1970s, a move that forced labor organizers into exile or underground, according to U.S. Labor Against the War. Rashed spent 2 years in hiding in Iraq, and another 2 years in exile in Syria, he said. Hundreds or thousands of fellow labor activists were killed, he said.
After U.S. forces toppled Saddam's regime in 2003, trade unions regrouped and exiled leaders, including Rashed, returned. He lives in Baghdad, he said, where he works as part of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.
Sunday's event started at noon outside the Unitarian Universalist church at the top of Church Street. The crowd began marching toward City Hall.
"No justice! No peace! U.S. out of the Middle East!" people chanted.
Curious Church Street shoppers and diners looked on as the group, including Rashed, marched past. One man carrying an obscenity-laced sign referring to President George W. Bush drew applause and disgusted rebukes from onlookers.
Mayor Peter Clavelle greeted the marchers at City Hall Park and welcomed Rashed. Two city police officers watched the proceedings.
Rashed said that truly representative government and fair labor practices in Iraq can occur only after the U.S. military leaves. The United States has helped democratic government emerge in a country once ruled by Saddam's "most horrible regime," Rashed said.
"Your support is very important so as to help us be a free country," he said.
Vermont union leaders also spoke, voicing their opposition to the U.S.-led war. Labor leader Ellen David Friedman said the anti-war viewpoint is shared by a majority of Americans. Jonathan Kissam, secretary and treasurer of the United Electrical Workers of America Local 221, said U.S. unions are in solidarity with their Iraqi counterparts. That support, Kissam said, is necessary because of an expanding corporate culture.
"We are facing enemies with a global vision of privatization and endless war," he said.
Rashed praised the relationship between Iraqis and Americans.
"We will stay friends," he said, "no matter how many tanks in Iraq and how many people get killed."
Adam Silverman is a Burlington Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Speech for Iraqi Trade Union Tour (Jonathan Kissam)
By Jonathan Kissam
We are living in an era when the United States government, both at home and abroad, has committed itself to defending the fortunes of a very small group of people. The result of this is exorbitant military funding and the substitution of military force for peaceful diplomacy. The result of this is ruthless budget-cutting of public services -- schools, health care, and, ironically and appallingly, services for veterans. And the result of this is that well-established public institutions and essential government services -- like Social Security -- are not seen by our government as a common treasury for all, but as potential profit centers for their corporate cronies.
When public services are privatized, the most common way for the privatizers to make money is to fire all of the public employees who used to do those jobs, often at decent wages and benefit levels, and replace them with low-wage, no-benefit, often part-time or temporary jobs. They pocket the savings in payroll, while our communities suffer the loss of decent jobs. Furthermore, privatization, with its motive for profits, compromises essential government services. Privateers forced to choose between quality services or higher profits invariably take the money and run, leaving the public with the worst of all worlds: poorer services at higher costs. And privatization cuts at the very heart of democracy itself. Public services are created through the democratic process; they are the collective decisions we make about how to meet our own needs as a society. When they are turned over to unaccountable private corporations, we give up control, we give up the very "rule of the people" which is what democracy means.
Privatization can be beat, as when school district workers in Barre, with the assistance of the Vermont Workers' Center and other community activists, turned back a privatization plan almost ten years ago, or when service and maintenance workers at UVM, members of UE Local 267, worked with students to fight off a plan to privatize the shuttle services. It requires struggle, but this should be no surprise. Our standard of living, our rights of free speech and assembly, our civil rights, our democracy itself are not gifts from benevolent governments and corporations, they were won through struggle.
This is why we are in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the Iraqi trade union movement, because, just as working people and the labor movement have been an essential part of making our own country live up to its democratic ideals, the Iraqi trade unions are the best hope for a democratic and peaceful Iraq. But more than that -- we must stand in solidarity with our trade union sisters and brothers in Iraq, and everywhere in the world, because we are facing enemies with a global vision of privatization and endless war. Only with global solidarity can we have a democratic and peaceful world.
Jonathan Kissam is Secretary-Treasurer of UE Local 221 and a member of the Vermont Workers' Center Coordinating Committee
Speech at Iraqi Trade Union Tour (Dawn Stanger)
By Dawn Stanger
I'm Dawn Stanger. I'm a Teamster who works up at United Parcel Service in Williston. I'm also vice president of the Vermont Workers' Center. My fellow activists and I hope you will join our struggle, and there are sign up sheets on our table. The Workers' Center and affiliated unions and community groups joined the national group US Labor Against the War-USLAW, in 2003 and the Vermont State AFL joined us, creating Vermont LAW and we organized this leg of the tour. Without financial help from the Champlain Valley Labor Council, it was impossible, so a tip of the hat to them. USLAW has more than 4 million union members who opposed attacking Iraq, and we wanted you to hear from these union leaders. There are officials touring the Midwest and the West too, 25 cities in all, and it's cost big, so we'll be looking for some help. Burlington has spent 16.3 million dollars already "freeing" Iraq, but donations today will be better directed toward democracy. There are USLAW donor cards circulating and we hope you'll be kind enough to chip in to help us cover costs and help the Iraqis.
Sure I know, most of you turned out here to hear Adnan Rashed talk, and Vermont union folks are a bit of a distraction from the "real" story. We're proud in USLAW that Iraqi unionists will even talk to us after we devastated their country. We want to share information, tactics and money to help them attain democracy from within. And we know they can help us confront some problems here. Vermont's trade unionists are speaking today because the "real" story has been ignored for far too long. Workers are under siege worldwide, not just unionized workers like me who are down to 8% in the U.S. private sector, and public workers like Marty who make up the other 4%, but all workers. Corporate greed is driving U.S. foreign and domestic policy. I'll read you the USLAW Mission Statement because it lays it out well:
"We're living in an era in which the government has manipulated our nation's fear of terrorism to launch wars, destroy our economic security, undermine government services, erode our democratic rights and intensify divisions among working people…Under the mantle of National Security, the present Administration seeks to reverse decades of victories won by working people to regulate corporate conduct, protect the environment, strengthen the rights of workers, defend civil liberties, end racism, sexism and discrimination, and provide an adequate social safety net. But democracy as we know it is under threat. The USA Patriot Act threatens our fundamental rights under the Constitution. This crisis is aggravated by the government's policies of military intervention abroad and attacks on working peoples' rights at home. Only corporations and the wealthy have benefited. Our nation faces a domestic calamity - unemployment, declining wages and benefits, de-unionization of the workforce, privatization and reduction of public services, crumbling health care and educational systems, underdeveloped communities, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public debt and decreased economic, social and personal security…We cannot solve these economic and social problems without addressing U.S. foreign policy and its consequences. The foreign policy of the Bush Administration, with the consent of Congress, is based on military aggression and the threat of force. It has weakened, rather than strengthened security in the U.S., creating enemies around the world and alienating friends. This policy has done immense harm to innocent civilians abroad and to our friends and family members in the military. The policy of Permanent War has been based on lies and false promises to the American people and lucrative contracts to large corporations. This is coupled with a strategy of unbridled economic globalization with so -called 'Free Trade' Agreements aimed at exploiting workers, controlling natural resources and destroying jobs and communities. War has become a strategy for advancing the interests of US corporations in international markets."
USLAW pretty much sums it up. Union activists are particularly well placed to frame this mess. We were the first targets in the corporate shooting gallery. Corporations had to crush unions. Unions help workers keep up standards their grandparents fought for in the labor movement; 40 hour a week jobs, pensions, weekends, social security, public schools, health insurance, and wages high enough so only one wage earner was necessary per family. But those standards are pretty much gone. The attacks have been relentless. Unions are the canaries in the coalmine of democracies. And it has become almost impossible to organize unions here in "supposedly" the greatest democracy in the world. When the Vermont AFL joined USLAW in September of '04, their resolution called on the governor to release from duty and return to Vermont all our Guard personnel. In DC, John Sweeney invited the Iraqis to attend their convention in July. And we're working to get the national AFL-CIO to call for the end of the occupation. But we know the fix isn't in Iraq. We gotta get the corporations out of our government.
They're wrecking everything. Look all around in the news. Look at Enron, Social Security- look at United's pensions. This is how we're treated? Corporations contract by law to pay for certain things, in lieu of wages, and then won't comply. And taxpayers are forced to bail them out. Have you seen the movie, The Corporation? It's called "externalizing" costs. The "real" story is that corporations run the world. Working families need to become just as "ruthless" and just as global in our support for each other. Working class solidarity must reach beyond borders and the distractions of corporate politicians and misguided union leaders.
To Vermont labor activists, it is only natural that Iraqis call for the profits from their oil to be devoted to Iraqis. We're glad to hear that Iraqi workers chased Kellogg, Brown, and Root from the oil fields and defeated lower wages. We're psyched to hear that port workers expelled Mersk shipping company and ejected Stevedoring Associates from Um Qsar. Labor victories are rare for us here. Worldwide, people catch on faster because things are worse. We're heartened by the recent EU votes, the rebellion in Bolivia, where Bush has referred to the workers and farmers as "terrorists", and the rejection of 'free trade' by workers in Central and South America. We're proud of Specialty Filaments' workers in Burlington who refuse to go quietly while their company tramples them. The task ahead is huge though, and we need everyone engaged. When I hear neighbors dissing teacher's benefits, saying how they should be less because taxpayers don't get healthcare, I think, oh my god, the working class here is so far from where it needs to be.
Bush just gave big tax cuts to the rich and corporations. In 1945, corporations paid 1/3 of all taxes collected. By 2003, their share was 7%. 3/5ths of corporations paid no taxes at all between '96 and 2000. Given huge tax cuts, they free-traded our manufacturing away. Huge tax cuts to the rich and our president proposed 5.3 billion in cuts for veteran's medical services by 2010. Huge tax cuts, while productivity increased, but real wages dropped, and families only kept up by working ridiculous hours. Every Vermont tax dollar: 30 cents goes to defense spending. 19 cents goes to paying old military debt and 3 cents goes to veterans' benefits, an expense no citizen begrudges. But that's before Iraq's costs are tallied. 205 billion has been spent, so far. And that means less public service for every worker who falls through the cracks.
And what is the state of Vermont's democracy? Union folks here are just sick about the occupation and our friends, relatives and coworkers suffering. Many people don't want to question the military at all. Some are uncomfortable talking about it as if, for their kid's sake, they just want to cross their fingers and parrot Bush's rhetoric about freedom. Their kids in Iraq are confident they can "win" democracy, and they're afraid to "undermine" that. But we desperately need to talk about all this because we have given their kids an impossible mission. Democracy has to rise from within. No democracy has ever been created under occupation. And union activists know that the last thing Bush's cronies want anywhere is democracy. The Iraqis would immediately boot us out, our 17 military bases and all our damned corporations too. Sure Iraqis want investment, but no Iraqi citizen agreed to wholesale looting. Iraqis need the right to organize to fight corporate vultures. The U.S. should enable democracy, help these secular, progressive organizations, but we aren't. If fact, we kept Saddam's anti-union law specifically to keep a thumb on Iraqi labor. See, despite Bush's vow to promote freedom and democracy, U.S. arms sales policy tells us the real truth. Most major recipients of our arms sales in the developing world are undemocratic, as defined by our own State Department. And U.S. supplied weaponry is present in a majority of the world's active conflicts. Does this benefit us? No, it makes more danger. But it does benefit corporations.
And our democracy is being squashed. 52 Vermont towns voted to have the legislature study our National Guard's involvement. We petitioned because it's logical to contact your representatives if you care for your soldiers and your country's moral ideals, and sense both going down the wrong road. Our legislators were blackmailed, you might say; the military insinuated they could take away our air base in Colchester, and our citizen legislators caved and tabled the discussion. And it's desperately needed. This was not a defensive war. The guard are defenders. Vermont's working class soldiers signed up to protect fellow citizens, not corporations. These kids are deployed in areas of Iraq where there's depleted uranium. DC Democrats are wisely talking about mandating testing for returning troops, but under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency, that same EPA that allowed all our union brothers and sisters in NYC to go back to work before the air was fit to breathe, so they could get Wall Street up and running. And now 11 of Vermont's sons have been buried. 53 others carry scars. Workers, soldiers, and our ideals must not be sacrificed for corporate profits.
We need to examine our own democracy, right away. And we have to help Iraqis achieve democracy, but from afar. We should assume Saddam's debt. He was our guy. Resources should be redirected from the military to things workers really need, while providing adjustment assistance for those displaced. In the end, the best way to support our troops is to make sure they don't fight wars that shouldn't be fought, wars for oil and empire, wars that don't serve working class interests here or elsewhere. We must repudiate bullying foreign policies, comply with international law, dismantle our worldwide military bases, and renounce offensive wars. Otherwise we will only send more loved ones to die for no good reason in a world made more dangerous by the arrogance of our government. We want our troops home now.
Dawn Stanger is a Teamster and Vice-President of the Vermont Workers' Center
Speech at Anti-War, Anti-Budget-Cuts Rally
By Dawn Stanger
Hello. I'm Dawn Stanger and I'm a Teamster. I work up at UPS in Williston. And I'm here representing folks from the Vermont Workers Center, and U.S. Labor Against the War - USLAW. The Workers' Center is a coalition of trade unions, community groups, and individual workers pushing for economic justice. We are also Vermont's only Jobs with Justice chapter. In January '03 the Workers' Center affiliated with USLAW, the union group opposed to attacking Iraq, and in September '04, I'm proud to say that Vermont's AFL-CIO joined millions of union workers across the U.S. in opposing the occupation. Over the last two years, major national unions and state labor federations have demanded the troops home now.
So USLAW has built ties with Iraqi trade unionists and some will tour the U.S. soon. Hopefully they'll visit Vermont. Their labor movement has a proud history, including resistance to British occupation with strikes suppressed at gunpoint. Unions were outlawed then, and then again by the Baathists after a general strike in '68. And Saddam executed union activists. Since Saddam's overthrow, the Iraqis worked quickly, organizing unions in 12 industries. They organized a union of the unemployed, 150,000 strong, and marched and demonstrated for survival payments. They held a 45-day sit-in across from American headquarters. In Basra, Iraqis stopped working 2 days after British troops arrived, demanding the right to organize. Refinery workers struck demanding better wages. Leather factory workers stormed out of work and marched to the Labor Ministry. Though they've been imprisoned by the U.S, and tortured and killed by the resistance, Iraq's union folks are the single most important force fighting for a democratic, multi-ethnic Iraq. In recent coverage of the Pope's death, we saw how he helped Labor in Poland leading to the overthrow of a repressive government. Unions help create and maintain democracy. We condemn all attacks on Iraq's trade unionists.
When WTO protestors like me look at the U.S. plan for Iraq, we see the same old free trade. There's the privatization of public services, ownership rights for foreign firms, repatriation of profits, a 15% flat tax, opening banks to foreign control, structural adjustment programs, and national treatment for corporations. Trade barriers have been eliminated. Iraq will join the WTO and sign MEFTA , the Middle East Free Trade Area announced last May. But Saddam's law that barred union membership and representation - that was not changed. War makes privatization easy. First you destroy society. Then you let corporations rebuild it. And we're busy building and maintaining 14 military bases in Iraq with your hard-earned tax dollars.
On the home front, thousands of workers were de-unionized in creating the Department of Homeland Security; the Bush administration felt their unions a security threat. Now our president proposes new rules called the "National Security Personnel System" that would tear up union contracts and eliminate protections our federal workers have against political pressures. Whistle-blowers and critics could simply be transferred away. When the shipping firms locked out the Longshore Workers, the Attorney General declared commercial shipping a matter of national security, and got an injunction so the President could send troops to work the docks. Yet today, cargo containers are still uninspected. Three Republican governors have now negated their state workers' right to bargain and 9 million dollars of the first 87 million for Iraq was used to arm police in Miami against free trade protestors, union folks, while U.S. chemical plants are still unsecured. Our nuclear plants are vulnerable. You just gotta ask "Who's really being protected?"
Corporations squash our collective interests. Watching the fake Social Security crisis, it occurred to me that privatization and deregulation are most often not done at gunpoint. Here, after trumpeting decades how government is bloated and wasteful and how privatization and de-regulation work, corporate politicians have convinced many Americans that government programs are bad. This way Wall Street can sneak in and rob us of the safety net that our grandparents in the labor movement struggled years to build after economic downturns forced families to the breadlines. Workers' Center folks are increasingly alarmed about our nation's priorities. We live in a country where the top 1% has more income each year than the bottom 100 million people combined.
Look at the bankruptcy bill if you want a nutshell of our system. The credit companies made 30 billion last year, charging people outrageous interest rates to compensate for their risk. And 90% of bankruptcies were caused by lost jobs, death in the family, divorce, or medical bills. But no longer will a judge be allowed to look at your case and say, ah, oh yes, we'll forgive your debt because you were forced into this by your kid's diabetes or your husband's death. No way. This bill makes judges ignore your circumstances and set payments, creating debtors for life, doing at home what the World Bank has done overseas for years. Yes, the corporate politicians will teach us responsibility 'til it hurts. Media deceives, but workers can't miss the connections over time.
In the wealthiest country in the world, huge tax cuts combined with military expenses make debt for our grandchildren and cuts in our services. But we have needs. We need retirement security; half our grandparents would live in poverty otherwise. We need insurance so if we get killed and can't work, our children are protected. We need medical care that keeps folks healthy, separate from jobs and paid for collectively and progressively. If we had proper preventive care in Vermont, we wouldn't have a third of our soldiers returned home for medical reasons. We need our government to help solve real collective crises like childcare costs, healthcare, and fossil fuels, but political donations cannot be the deciding factor. This is supposed to be a democracy. And taxing the rich is never discussed. We're the ones who sacrifice. It's a neo-con game.
And neo-cons are not working for democracy, either here or in Iraq. Unions increase democracy. Unions indicate how well workers are doing overall, and unions are now down to 11% here. This means American families are hurting. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants… It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 … This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Eisenhower got it. But in 1945, corporations paid 1/3 of all taxes collected. By 2003, their share was down to 7%. 3/5ths of corporations paid no taxes between '96 and 2000. Given huge tax cuts, they free-traded our manufacturing away. Huge tax cuts given while real wages dropped since the 70's and families could only keep up by working ridiculous hours. Huge tax cuts to the rich, and they dare to come back to us now to pay for their war. The military consumes 50% of our taxes and corporations and the rich pay even less now. The wealthiest country in the world and we are continually trying to stave off cuts. And we know what rending our social fabric means. It means less food stamp eligibility, less FDA inspections, less highway improvements, less health care, less small business assistance, less for veterans, less foster care, less Medicaid, less Medicare, less for poverty, less for farmers, seniors, students, cops, veterans, the homeless, and the hungry. All so the rich can have more money.
Vermont's soldiers are our co-workers, neighbors, friends, relatives, and our children. Yes, they're volunteers, but most are economic draftees looking for a better life. Turned down at Wal Mart, Jessica Lynch went to Iraq. This war betrayed soldiers' faith that their government wouldn't deceive them. This was not defensive. Vermont's soldiers signed up to protect people, not corporations. And to those who say this is not a local issue, I say this; we pay for the war here. We're buried here, and we'll all live here with Vermont vets and any ghosts they bring home. At the Workers' Center we're urging workers to stand and fight. The workers who build the wealth are under attack. The Iraqis struck at gunpoint. Who dies in wars? We do. Who pays? We do. Who mourns? We do. Who profits? Not us. This folks, is class war and it's fought locally, with wages, taxes, jobs, retirement, healthcare. Our working class soldiers are fighting for a system that is stacked high against them, there and here. We stand here today demanding justice, a society of our priorities, not those pushed down from the 5% at the top of the economic ladder. "Never have so few taken so much from so many for so long."
Our troops should not be sacrificed to make the world safe for corporations, or to distract us from economic disaster brewing at home. Resources should be redirected from the military to things workers really need, while providing adjustment assistance for those displaced. In the end, the best way to support troops is to make sure they don't fight wars that shouldn't be fought, wars for oil and empire, wars that don't serve working class interests here or elsewhere. We must repudiate bullying foreign policies, dismantle our worldwide military bases, and renounce offensive wars. Otherwise we will only send more loved ones to die for no good reason in a world made more dangerous by the arrogance of our government. We want our benefits and we want our troops home now.
Dawn Stanger is a Teamster and Vice-President of the Vermont Workers' Center
Vermont Workers' Center Resolution Against the War
Adopted at 1/18/03 Steering Committee Meeting
WHEREAS, the Vermont Workers' Center has, in its mission, already resolved to fight for economic justice for all workers; and,
WHEREAS, the burdens and dangers of war would fall disproportionately on working people, the poor, and people of color, both at home and abroad; and
WHEREAS, we have no quarrel with the working-class in Iraq who will suffer most, having already suffered long under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and sanctions; and
WHEREAS, under the ongoing war on terrorism, corporate interests received taxpayer bailouts and tax cuts, yet ordinary workers face serious economic problems that are not addressed; job losses, falling wages, health-care insecurity, pension and 401k losses; and
WHEREAS, the war will dramatically increase military spending. Vermont's share is estimated now at $143 million. The cost of the war necessitates cuts in essential services; education, housing, social security, unemployment benefits, healthcare, transportation, clean water and air, all at a time when our tax dollars could be used for retraining and jobs, and to plug local deficits caused by tax cuts.
WHEREAS, the war covers for corporate corruption and union-busting; the federal government's use of Taft-Hartley against the ILWU, the privatization of public jobs (AFGE) under the Homeland Security Act, and other offenses to the right of workers to protest, organize, and strike; and
WHEREAS, workers responded to 9/11 with heroism, and have always responded with the public at heart. The USA PATRIOT act and similar measures invade privacy and expand government's ability to detain workers based on mere suspicion, to conduct telephone and internet surveillance and secret searches, and to define people engaged in political protest as "domestic terrorists". The TIA and TIPS programs will further scrutinize our economic and personal lives; and
WHEREAS, all of Vermont's Congressmen voted against this war, and the AFL-CIO's John Sweeney expressed concern about the motives for this war and its domestic components; and
WHEREAS, fear increases racism, and U.S. citizens feel no more secure after war in Afghanistan; and,
WHEREAS, there is no credible evidence linking Iraq to the 9/11 attacks; and
WHEREAS, we value the lives of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, who will have to fight in this war, more than control of Middle East oil; and,
WHEREAS, "pre-emptive", "unilateral" policies do not represent the necessary global perspective; genuine security will be achieved only by fighting world-wide for social and economic justice, therefore:
BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED that the Vermont Workers' Center publicly opposes the war on Iraq; and we urge supportive members and affiliates to get involved in local efforts to stop this war.
Labor Statement Against the War
At Montpelier Antiwar Rally, January 18, 2003
By Jonathan Kissam
Good afternoon.
I bring greeting on behalf of the national executive board of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE). UE was the first national union to denounce this war, back in September, but we have been joined by many others in the trade union movement, including the 1.3-million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and dozens if not hundreds of local and regional labor organizations. Just last Saturday, over 100 trade unionists representing more than 2 million workers gathered in Chicago to found U.S. Labor Against the War. And just this morning, the Vermont Workers Center, a labor-community coalition including many Vermont unions such as the Vermont State Employees Association, the United Nurses and Allied Professionals at Copley Hospital, the Alliance@IBM and the Washington-Orange County Central Labor Council, passed a resolution against the war.
The mission of the labor movement is to fight for justice for working people. This war is a threat to the lives, the economic well-being, and the civil liberties of workers, both here and in Iraq, so we in the labor movement must speak out against it.
This war is a threat to our lives. The history of warfare is for the most part the history of some rich guy getting into an argument with some other rich guy about some stuff - land, oil - and then large numbers of working people have to go fight other working people who we really have no quarrel with. This war clearly fits the pattern - it's one unelected oil tycoon wanting to grab oil from another unelected oil tycoon. As UE has unequivocally stated, no one, not a single American and not a single Iraqi, should die to boost the profits of oil and military corporations.
This war is a threat to our economic well-being. Over the past year, we have witnessed a tidal wave of corporate corruption, as the con artists and kleptomaniacs in charge of corporations like Enron have looted their employee's retirement funds, laid off tens of thousands of workers, and rewarded themselves richly with stock options, golden parachutes, and the ill-gotten gains of insider trading. Meanwhile, Bush has skillfully used the threat of war with Iraq to distract the American public from this corporate malfeasance, and to prevent any meaningful reform. Furthermore, the costs of this war will preclude the federal spending we so desperately need for infrastructure and schools, and for rebuilding our manufacturing base -- investments that would provide real economic stimulus and put people back to work. And this war will push the economy even further into recession, while war spending draws money away from our already inadequate social safety net. It is criminal that in the richest country on earth, twelve percent of the population, including twelve million children, live in poverty, and it is doubly criminal that Bush is proposing to divert resources away from social spending to pay for an unjust war.
This war is a threat to our freedom. The assault on civil liberties is an integral part of this war, and part of that assault is a vicious attack on trade union rights. When workers being merged into the new Department of Homeland Security were excluding from collective bargaining rights and civil service protections, we were told that it was justified in the name of "national security." Last week, workers at the Transportation Security Administration were told, in effect, that the clause in the UN Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing all workers the right to collective bargaining does not apply to them, again in the name of "national security." And last November, also citing "national security," the Bush administration used an injunction to force the west coast longshore workers to work essentially under government supervision, stripping workers in this highly dangerous industry of their rights to take collective action to protect their own safety, life and limb. Despite all this, there is hope. If we stand together, we can stop this war. If we stand together, we can build a peaceful and just tomorrow.
No War on Iraq!
Fight for a Fair Economy!
Defend Our Civil Liberties!
Thank you.
Jonathan Kissam is Secretary-Treasurer of District 2 of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)