Press Release
For immediate release: April 18, 2002
Contact: 917.282.0139; laboragainstwar@yahoogroups.com
NYC Labor Antiwar Endorsers Reaches 1,000 Mark
As thousands of people gather this Saturday in Washington, D.C. to protest the war, the number of New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) endorsers has passed the 1,000 mark.
Those endorsers now include 1012 trade union bodies, elected officers and members: 619 from New York City, and 393 from other cities and countries.
This number has continued to grow despite a post-9/11 atmosphere of official intolerance for dissent from U.S. government policy.
Unless otherwise noted, the endorsers’ positions are listed for identification only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of their unions.
The NYCLAW statement (attached) was first issued by an interracial group of union members on September 27, 2001, with the purpose of showing that labor—including many trade unionists at “Ground Zero”—is not united behind George Bush’s “war on terrorism.”
The statement:
- Condemns the September 11 World Trade Center attack;
- Opposes U.S. war against any nation or people for the crimes of individuals;
- Supports an impartial, independent international tribunal in response to September 11;
- Opposes attacks on people of color, immigrants, and civil liberties in the wake of 9/11;
- Calls for government aid to the victims’ families and displaced workers; and
- Opposes exploitation of 911 by the wealthy to plunder the economy, while attacking workers’ living standards, programs and other rights.
In line with the initial statement, the NYCLAW organizing committee dissents from official AFL-CIO support for Israeli policy.
Specifically, the NYCLAW co-conveners call for:
- An end to the Israeli government’s war on Palestinians—and to the U.S. government’s money, weapons and encouragement that makes it possible;
- Immediate Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza; and
- Palestinian self-determination, including the Right of Return.
- Support for the Israeli peace movement—especially those soldiers who, by refusing to brutalize Palestinians, honor millennia of Jewish resistance to oppression, and pursue an end to violence against both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
NYCLAW works closely with the Labor Committees for Peace and Justice in the San Francisco Bay Area, D.C. and Albany; helped organize a March 23 Day of Labor Solidarity with 9/11 Immigrant Detainees in Brooklyn; and is one of the host organizations for this Saturday’s national antiwar protests in D.C.
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