Bring the troops home now - End the occupation of Iraq

Resolution of the San Francisco Labor Council

Bring the troops home now - End the occupation of Iraq
- Money for human needs, not war - Repeal the
Patriot Act Whereas, the people in Iraq want the
US occupation to end, and the US soldiers in
Iraq want to come home. We ask: Who is
benefiting from this war, and who is paying the
price?; and

Whereas, every day, people are dying as a consequence
of this illegal occupation—Every day human misery
expands in the drive for world Empire and corporate
globalization—Every day, jobs are lost and vital
social programs that serve and protect working people
are being looted and destroyed, as the Bush
administration cynically manipulates the so-called "war
on terrorism" to carry out the social transfer of
wealth from the bottom to the top; and

Whereas, the Bush administration lied to the people, to
the Congress, and to the United Nations as it raced to
wage war against Iraq. Now tens of thousands of Iraqis
and many hundreds of GIs have been killed or maimed —
by Rumsfeld’s count over 1000 attacks on US forces
since May 1st. As the anger of the Iraqi people
inevitably grows, the body count on both sides will
sharply increase; and

Whereas, as the anti-war movement predicted, the Iraqi
people view US forces as colonial occupiers, not
liberators. American soldiers are killing and being
killed in a war that serves only the interests of U.S.
oil monopolies and corporate elites - George W. Bush’s
real constituents. Soldiers and their families are
realizing that high government officials, mostly
millionaires who shuttle between corporate boardrooms
and government posts, are using U.S. troops as a
private security detachment for the multinational
corporations’ plunder of Iraq’s oil riches; and

Whereas, the Pentagon now admits they will have 150,000
troops in Iraq for the "foreseeable future," at a cost
of nearly $4 Billion a month — on top of the cost of
maintaining US troops and bases in 130 other countries
— and this rapid rise in the power and reach of the
military is closely linked to the unprecedented assault
on the civil rights, union rights, benefits (including
veterans’ benefits), and living standards of working
people going on right now in the United States; and

Whereas, the Bush administration - which only came to
power due to massive racist disenfranchisement and
voting fraud — has used the excuse of their "endless
war" to sponsor a wholesale assault on the Bill of
Rights, institutionalize racial profiling, assume
extraordinary powers for the Executive branch, and
adopt new repressive laws like the Patriot Act; and

Whereas, on October 25, 2003 the anti-war, civil
rights, social justice and labor movements — joined in
ever increasing numbers by family members of military
personnel and veterans and international delegations —
will march on Washington, D.C. to demand an immediate
end to the US war and occupation in Iraq, repeal of the
Patriot Act, and money for human needs, not for war;
therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-
CIO, demands: 1) an immediate end to the US/British war
and occupation in Iraq — Bring the Troops Home Now; 2)
repeal of the Patriot Act and other repressive laws; 3)
reordering of national priorities toward the human
needs of our people. We need jobs and real security,
not militarism and empire-building; and be it further

RESOLVED: that the council endorse the October 25, 2003
International March on Washington, D.C. behind the
banner: Bring the Troops Home Now-End the Occupation of
Iraq-Repeal the Patriot Act-Money for Human Needs, not
for War and Empire — and will urge affiliated unions,
other labor councils, state federation and AFL-CIO to
do the same.

Adopted unanimously, July 28, 2003.