---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Charlotte Kates <charlotte.kates at gmail.com> Date: Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 4:11 AM Subject: SIGN ON: Initial Signatories Needed for Labor for Egypt letter and statement! To: info at laborforpalestine.net
Labor for Palestine and other labor activists, including New York City Labor Against the War, are organizing the following statement of labor for Egypt, in support of the Egyptian revolution. *WE WOULD LIKE TO RELEASE THIS STATEMENT WIDELY AND ARE SEEKING INITIAL SIGNATORIES! * * * *If you would like to be an initial signatory of this statement, please email charlotte.kates at gmail.com or info at laborforpalestine.net by 5 PM Tuesday, February 22. Please include your name, location and labor affiliation!* * * *Thank you! * *Labor for Egypt Statement *
As trade unionists, we join our Egyptian sisters and brothers in welcoming the fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak. We salute the courage of the Egyptian people who have shed blood and endured many sacrifices in their struggle for democracy, which continues to unfold. The revolution has already inspired people from Algeria to Wisconsin to resist the same system of economic injustice and repression.
The roots of this revolution are in a decade of labor revolt against policies that made Mubarak the richest man in the world, while impoverished Egyptian workers earn forty-three cents per day.
By forming independent trade unions and striking, these workers toppled Mubarak and have continued to challenge a neoliberal regime of privatization, deregulation and union busting engineered -- and brutally enforced throughout the region -- by the United States and its allies.
Moreover, Egyptians want an end their government's complicity in U.S. wars of conquest in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere, and in Israel's brutal siege on Gaza.
To keep these detested policies in place, Egypt has long been -- after Israel -- the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Thus, while mouthing democratic platitudes, the Obama administration backed Mubarak to the very end, even allowing him to draw on the $1.3 billion in U.S. funding that killed more than 300 democracy protesters.
First, the U.S. and Israel sought to replace Mubarak with Vice President, CIA asset and torturer-in-chief, Omar Suleiman. Suleiman, who has helped Israel to strangle Gaza, and openly threatened the revolution with a "coup." Now, it backs the Army, which already has refused to rescind repressive emergency laws, has evicted democracy protesters from Tahrir Square, and has threatened to ban independent unions and strikes.
While Egyptians are standing firm, they need support to ensure that this revolution is not -- like those in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), the Congo (1961), Chile (1973), and so many others -- drowned in a sea of blood by the U.S. and its client regimes.
Therefore, we demand that the U.S. cut off all aid to the Egyptian dictatorship -- right now.
We also call on all supporters to immediately converge on Egyptian embassies, missions, consulates, and at U.S. government offices, in response to any further attack on the revolution.
We also join with millions of Egyptians to say:
No Mubarak, No Suleiman, No U.S. Puppet Dictator! Don't Leave the Streets! Support Egyptian Strikers! Free the Political Prisoners! Arrest the Killers and Torturers! No Neoliberal Economic Austerity! Open the Border to Gaza! FULL REGIME CHANGE!
-------- *Labor for Egypt Resolution*
Whereas, as trade unionists, we join our Egyptian sisters and brothers in welcoming the fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak;
And whereas, we salute the courage of the Egyptian people who have shed blood and endured many sacrifices in their struggle fordemocracy, which continues to unfold;
And whereas, the revolution has inspired people from Algeria to Wisconsin to resist the same system of economic injustice and repression;
And whereas, the roots of this revolution are in a decade of labor revolt against policies that made Mubarak the richest man in the world, while 40% of the Egyptian population live on under $2 per day;
And whereas, by forming independent trade unions and striking, these workers toppled Mubarak and have continued to challenge a neoliberal regime of privatization, deregulation and union busting engineered -- and brutally enforced throughout the region -- by the United States and its allies;
And whereas, Egyptians want an end their government's complicity in U.S. wars of conquest in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere, and in Israel's brutal siege on Gaza;
And whereas, to keep these detested policies in place, Egypt has long been -- after Israel -- the largest recipient of U.S. military aid;
And whereas, while mouthing democratic platitudes, the Obama administration backed Mubarak to the very end, even allowing him to draw on the $1.3 billion in U.S. funding that killed more than 300 democracy protesters;
And whereas, the U.S. and Israel now seek to replace Mubarak with Vice President, CIA asset and torturer-in-chief, Omar Suleiman. Suleiman, who has helped Israel to strangle Gaza, and openly threatened the revolution with a "coup";
And whereas, the Army regime has refused to rescind repressive emergency laws, has evicted democracy protesters from Tahrir Square, and has threatened to ban independent unions and strikes;
And whereas, while Egyptians are standing firm, they need support to ensure that this revolution is not -- like those in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), the Congo (1961), Chile (1973), and so many others -- drowned in blood by repressive regimes backed by the U.S. government;
RESOLVED, that we support our Egyptian brother and sister workers in their struggle against the military government to demand an end to the repressive Mubarak-era emergency laws and full democratic rights;
That we support the continued protests and demonstrations to achieve those basic democratic rights;
That we demand freedom for the political prisoners of the Mubarak dictatorship who remain behind bars;
That we call for the arrest and prosecution of the Mubarak regime's killers and torturers;
That we stand with Egyptian workers in their resistance to privatization and other pro-corporate policies pushed by the U.S., the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank;
That we support our Egyptian brothers and sisters in their call to open the border to Gaza to end the hunger and suffering created by the U.S.-backed economic blockade of 1.6 million Palestinians;
That we support Egyptian workers in their struggle for independent trade unions and a workers' party. -- Charlotte L. Kates charlotte.kates at gmail.com
-- Charlotte L. Kates charlotte.kates at gmail.com
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."