[lbo-talk] ILWU Resolution to Oppose the US Occupation of Iraq

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu May 8 13:54:31 PDT 2003


***** Resolutions Adopted by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Convention in San Francisco May 1, 2003

OPPOSITION TO THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

WHEREAS: The ostensible purpose of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, facilitate "regime change" by ending Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship and "liberate" the Iraqi people; and

WHEREAS: The real purpose that war was waged by Bush was for control of Iraq's nationalized oil fields and to impose its influence in the Middle East; and

WHEREAS: To realize those aims the U.S. is occupying Iraq and imposing its own military dictatorship while the Iraqi people have been angrily demonstrating in the streets demanding U.S. military withdrawal; and

WHEREAS: This war cost $75 billion dollars while the U.S. economy is in shambles, leaving people jobless, homeless, without universal health care, and public school systems in major cities like Oakland bankrupt; and

WHEREAS: Over a billion dollars is being cut from veterans' benefits as many who fought in the 1991 Gulf War are still suffering from debilitating diseases while hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts are being given to U.S. companies closely connected to the Bush Administration like Stevedoring Services of America to run the port of Umm Qasr and the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by U.S. bombs in Iraq; and

WHEREAS: The war in Iraq is over and Bush is now making threats in that region against Syria and Iran, not to mention North Korea, China and Cuba;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That we demand that the U.S. military immediately withdraw from Iraq and the Middle East and recognize the right of the Arab peoples to self-determination free of foreign interference.

Submitted by ILWU Local 10....

<http://www.labornet.org/news/0503/longres.htm> ***** -- Yoshie

* Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>



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