Fw: SEIU letter to Bush on Iraq

[Mark Rickling]

> SEIU Executive Board Outlines Principles on Iraq
>
> On January 27, the SEIU International Executive Board -- which includes
> 60 local union leaders representing more than 85% of SEIU members --
> sent the letter shown below to President Bush.
>
> While our union cannot deal with every issue facing our nation and our
> communities, some issues rise to such importance and have generated
> enough activity by members and local unions to require our attention as
> the largest union in North America.  The board decided that the pending
> U.S. invasion of Iraq is one of those issues.
>
> The board agreed that it is important to allow for a discussion within
> the union on this issue so members can participate in a national
> decision that could seriously affect all of us.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> January 27, 2003
>
> President George W. Bush
> The White House
> Washington, DC 20500
>
> Dear President Bush:
>
> SEIU members, like other Americans, have a wide range of opinions about
> important policy issues, but we all care about human life and about our
> country.  It is the working people of America and our children whose
> lives will be on the line if our government cannot resolve conflicts
> without war. In that spirit, we want to express our concerns and outline
> our principles:
>
> First, war involves enormous risks to our families and our communities
> and must be the last option, not the first.  Many SEIU members serve in
> the Reserves, and many have relatives in the Armed Forces whose lives
> would be at stake in an expanded war in the Middle East. Additionally,
> any attack on Iraq runs the risk of sparking a new cycle of violence and
> provoking new acts of terrorism here at home, as well as distracting our
> government from combating terrorists abroad. A war also will drain away
> billions of our tax dollars at a time when our economy, our health care
> system, our schools, and vital state and local services desperately need
> to be strengthened.
>
> Second, the goal of our foreign policy must be to promote a safer and
> more just world – promoting peaceful, multilateral solutions for
> disputes. The U.S. should not take unilateral action unless our country
> or its close allies are under attack or face a clear, imminent threat.
> If we proclaim the unilateral right to attack and invade countries that
> have not attacked us, what is to stop others around the world from doing
> the same, creating a spiral of war that has no limits?
>
> Third, U.S. foreign policy must give high priority to improving the
> lives of people around the world.  In the labor movement, we have known
> for generations that when there is no justice there is no peace. America
> must work with other industrialized nations to fulfill our obligation to
> help developing countries reduce hunger, homelessness, and preventable
> disease.  Our country should promote democracy, education, and
> opportunity; negotiate new trade agreements that raise living standards
> and environmental protection in all nations; and focus on finding a just
> peace in the Middle East.
>
> Fourth, the rights and freedoms our government says it is fighting for
> abroad must be protected here at home.  It is unacceptable to tell
> American workers in the Homeland Security Department or Justice
> Department or who screen baggage in airports that they are not entitled
> to the right to form a union that they have enjoyed for forty years.
> One of America’s greatest strengths is our basic civil liberties –
> including the right to free speech, to privacy, and to due process.
> Today, hard-working, taxpaying immigrants are being targeted, held
> without rights, and forced to live in fear in a country they love. It is
> in moments of crisis like this that we test our commitment to our
> fundamental constitutional freedoms.
>
> Our government’s current policies do not live up to these four tests.
>  We urge you not to invade Iraq in violation of these principles and ask
> you to work with the Congress and the United Nations to set a course
> that will provide lasting security for all.  That is the best way to
> honor those who died on September 11, who serve in our armed forces, and
> who work hard every day to make America work by providing the services
> our communities depend upon.
>
> Sincerely,
> Andrew L. Stern, International President
> on behalf of the SEIU International Executive Board