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Resolution Against the War,
Attacks on Civil Liberties
and Cuts in Public Services

Passed at the AFSCME 2626 membership meeting,
May 17, 2002, Los Angeles, California

WHEREAS, President Bush's ever-expanding "war on terrorism" has been cynically used to justify a $48 billion hike in next year's military budget, bringing it to $383 billion, in addition to the $15 billion bailout of the airline industry and $25 billion in tax refunds for corporate America; and

WHEREAS, Congress is forcing AFSCME members and other working and poor people to pay for this war drive and subsidize corporate profits by raiding the Social Security Trust Fund and cutting funding for economically distressed states and vital government programs such as subsidies for low income housing and services to the homeless and the youth; and

WHEREAS, the billions spent on armaments, domestic repression and bailouts could be better used to provide re-training programs and jobs to the 800,000 workers across the nation who lost their jobs after September 11th, and to plug the $50 billion deficit in state and local budgets that has resulted in a major loss of union jobs and cuts in essential socials services such as fully staffed libraries, education, quality public transportation with reliable access services to the disabled, providing clean water and air, healthcare and treatment for the mentally ill; and

WHEREAS, in the aftermath of September 11th over 1,000 immigrants were imprisoned in detention centers, thousands of airport workers (many of them immigrants of color at Los Angeles' LAX and other city airports) were fired simply because they were not citizens, and Muslims, people of Middle Eastern descent and other immigrants suffered increased violence sparked by racial profiling by the INS and FBI; and

WHEREAS, the federal "USA PATRIOT" anti-terrorism act and similar state measures undermine labor's right to organize and fight anti-immigrant attacks (which particularly affects many Southern California workers) and other union-busting tactics by expanding the government's ability to detain non-citizens based on mere suspicion, to conduct telephone and internet surveillance and secret searches, and to define people engaged in political protest as "domestic terrorists;" and

WHEREAS, the national AFL-CIO's uncritical support for this profit-driven war has derailed labor opposition to increased military expenditures, corporate subsidies and government spying; provided political cover for Democrats to jump on the anti-terrorism bandwagon; and callously withheld solidarity from labor's working class and poor allies in other countries who are suffering and dying as a result of this conflict;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that AFSCME Local 2626 calls on the AFL-CIO to expand its efforts to defend civil liberties by:

1) campaigning for the repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act and defeat of similar "anti-terrorism" measures in state legislatures; and

2) pressuring local and state law enforcement to refuse to cooperate with FBI spying on political, union, and anti-globalism activists or comply with INS harassment of Arabs and other people of color in the U.S.; and

3) demanding the immediate release of the hundreds of Middle Eastern, Arab and other people of color immigrants who are still being held without legal justification; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME Local 2626 oppose the U.S. government's open-ended "war on terrorism" and participate in rallies, marches and other activities to pressure President Bush and Congress to stop the war and redirect money from corporate handouts and the military budget to assist laid-off workers, restore and expand public services, and promote global justice by providing humanitarian and economic aid-administered by unions-to our brothers and sisters in other countries; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that this resolution be forwarded to state and national AFSCME conventions for concurrence and forwarding on to the AFL-CIO.