PRESS RELEASE: October 16, 2002
Contact:
Michael Letwin (917) 282-0139
JoAnn Wypijewski (212) 533-8366
LABOR AGAINST THE WAR ORGANIZING CONFERENCE SET FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
New York City trade unionists, veterans, and community groups will meet on October 19 to develop strategies for opposing the Bush administration’s war on Iraq and on workers, immigrants and others at home.
The conference, sponsored by New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW), will be held at the headquarters of AFSCME District Council 1707, 75 Varick Street near Canal, from 9A.M. to 6 P.M.
A growing number of U.S. labor organizations have adopted antiwar resolutions. Last week, SEIU Local 1199, the largest union in New York State, placed a full-page antiwar advertisement in the New York Times.
Specific issues addressed by the conference include the Bush administration’s open-ended war on other countries; its imposition of Taft-Hartley against West Coast dockers; its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from 170,000 federal workers; its promotion of economic injustice; and its secret detention of immigrant workers.
“War means your children will die–it means other people’s children will die,” says Michael Letwin, a NYCLAW convener. “A decade of U.S. sanctions and bombs have taken the lives of thousands of Iraqis; Bush’s escalation will kill untold more, while American workers pay dearly with their wages, jobs, rights, and blood.”
The conference has also been endorsed by AFSCME Local 215, 1199ers for Peace & Justice, NY Taxi Workers Alliance, Transit Workers Against the War, Citizen Soldier and Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Clarence Fitch Chapter), among others.
NYCLAW is an organization of trade unionists formed in the wake of 9/11 to insist that war is not the answer.
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