International ILC Newsletter
Number 11
January 27th 2003
Contents:
1- Introduction
2- Manifesto of the Committee "International Labour Movement
against War"
3- Call for a day of International mobilization on March 8th, 2003
4- Appeal for an International Liaison Committee of Young People against
War
**********
1) Introduction:
The Emergency International Conference Against War took place in Paris
on January 23-24, 2003.
Delegates coming from 25 countries discussed how to organize the
struggle against war.
They decided to form the committee "International labour movement
against war" and they voted a Manifesto as the basis of that
committee.
They supported the call of working women to celebrate the 8th of March
by organizing an international day of struggle against war, for peace
and social justice. Youth present at this Conference also adopted an
Appeal to form an International Liaison Committee of Youth Against War.
We publish below those three documents.
Several messages were addressed from around the world to the Emergency
Conference. They will be published in the coming issues of this bulletin.
**********
2) Manifesto of the Committee "International Labour Movement
Against War"
Around the world, workers and people already burdened by much suffering
-- hunger, poverty, unemployment, child labour, epidemics, wars ... all
imposed by the system of oppression and exploitation based on the
private ownership of the means of production -- are turning towards the
Middle East with ever-increasing anxiety.
War or peace?
That is the key question.
The war prepared by the Bush administration against Iraq, with the
support of numerous governments around the world as well as
international financial institutions (UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO) is not
just any war.
We delegates of labour organisations have come from Germany, Belgium,
Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Ukraine,
Yugoslavia, South Africa, Algeria, Burkina-Faso, Burundi, Cameroon Chad,
Tunisia, Brazil, United States, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Bangladesh,
India, and Sri Lanka. We have also received messages of support from
Korea, Hong-Kong, Pakistan, Congo, Morocco, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Mexico, and Switzerland. We have convened in Paris today, 24 January
2003, in an International Emergency Conference Against War and
Exploitation, initiated by the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples. In our own countries, we have waged a fight in
defence of workers' rights, social and democratic rights, and in defence
of the independence of working class organisations.
We have discussed the situation. On the basis of the facts, we hereby
solemnly declare: All the speeches to the effect that the impending war
would be motivated by the defence of freedom and democracy are untrue.
* War against Iraq would be first and foremost a war for oil: Iraq
possesses the second largest oil resources in the world.
* War against Iraq would not be a war for democracy; it would be a war
against independence and against national sovereignty. That is true even
inside Iraq; indeed the meeting of the "Iraqi opposition" --
convened in London, monitored by the US, and composed of a majority of
ayatollahs -- stated in their final declaration that the future Iraqi
state would be an Islamic state with a sharia-inspired constitution.
They claim that they are bringing "democracy" to the Iraqi
people, whereas the plans that are on the agenda for a constitution
would set Iraq back centuries. That would be equally true for every
country where, in the name of the so-called "war on terrorism",
the number of measures threatening liberties and democracy are
multiplying.
* War against Iraq would first and foremost mean carving up nations. The
official plans concerning the future of a "post-war" Iraq make
provisions for a division of Iraq into 4, 5 or 6 chunks. The excuses put
up for the carving process are "ethnic", "religious"
or other such criteria.
This is a fact in a much broader way.
All over the world, when faced with peoples that state their
determination to create free, sovereign nations, world imperialism wants
to impose the carving up of nations. This applies to Iraq, but also to
Africa, to Asia, to Latin America, to Europe.
Twenty-seven Yugoslav union delegates, who gave a mandate to their
delegate to our conference, sent us a warning:
"We workers from the Balkans have drunk the bitter cup of war for
the last twelve years. Deaths by the hundreds of thousand, refugees by
the millions, towns and facilities laid to waste, governments serving as
mere puppets on strings in rump "national" states - such is
the aftermath of the war in former Yugoslavia. With this war, many of
our political and social conquests have been ruined".
It is fact in Europe. At the very moment when the "Europe of the
Regions" is being put into place to dismantle the European nations,
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld levels his criticism at France and
Germany, deriding them as being part of the "old Europe". The
"New Europe", according to Bush, is one where the eight
central European countries joined an enlarged Europe by joining NATO in
order to assert their allegiance to the USA; it is a Europe integrated
into NATO, which, in turn, integrates it into its drive toward war.
What do they want?
If Iraq is carved into seven "states", plundering oil will be
much easier than if Iraq is a single sovereign nation! (We have already
witnessed the result of such a policy in Somalia, in AfghanistanŠ The
nation is carved up, the state is non-existent, the population is prey
to endless war.) Once Iraq is carved up, this will be the starting point
for the dismantling of all the countries in the region; not one will be
spared: from Turkey to Afghanistan, from Syria to the republics of
central Asia. No one can say when or where the process will stop.
A France and a Germany broken up into regions will make it much easier
to put an end to all the rights won by the workers through struggle
within the framework of the nation: labour codes, collective bargaining
agreements, social protection and welfare!
This is exactly the sort of war that imperialism is determined to wage
in order to dismantle all the nations across the world, the better to
exploit the working classes and to avail itself of the countries'
natural resources.
What is the purpose of all this? We know: what is at stake is to
implement the plans of the IMF, of the European Union, of the World Bank,
of NAFTA, and concerning the Americas, the threat posed by the ALCA-FTAA
-- all those plans dictated by the system of oppression and exploitation
based on the private ownership of the means of production. This is the
goal announced by the Bush administration: endless war in the name of a
fight against terrorism. Yesterday, it was Afghanistan, today, it is
Iraq, tomorrow, which country, what people will be the target? What is
at stake is to use those plans in order to impose deregulation,
privatisation, de-industrialisation, the end of all rights. What is
more, they would like to harness the labour organisations to this
destructive policy!
Peoples say NO to war!
We already know the results of that policy: Two billion human beings
live on less than one dollar a day, and, according to the World Health
Organisation, 40 million people will die of AIDS in Africa in the next
few years. The majority of African, Latin American and East European
states are crushed under the burden of a foreign debt that often
swallows up over 40% of their domestic budgets just to pay the interest
on the debt.
We can see it: throughout the world, more and more peoples are standing
up to say NO to war.
We read the founding resolution of the coalition "US Labor Against
War" that was set up on 11 January 2003 in Chicago in the United
States, by representatives of trade unions regrouping over two million
members. Among other points, the resolution states:
"Members and union leaders have the responsibility to inform all
the working people on issues concerning their lives, their work, their
families and to get their voices heard in the national debate over those
issues. [They have to say that] the main victims of any military action
in Iraq will be the children and families of the working class who will
be drafted, as well as innocent Iraqi civilians that have already
suffered so much; that there is no feud opposing us to the ordinary
Iraqi working class men, women and children nor of any other country;
that the billions of dollars spent on organising and realising that war
are taken from our schools our hospital, our Social Security; that war
is merely an excuse to hit the rights of workers and democratic
rights."
Then, it is up to labour organisations in every country to take the lead
in mobilising against war, in other words for social justice and labour
rights.
Our brothers and sisters of the American labour movement are showing the
way forward; they are setting an example to the international labour
movement.
For our own part, we have decided to set up together the committee
"International Labour Movement Against War"
Our committee does not stand in the way of any initiative or
organisation mobilising against war; it does not try to compete with any
of those. Rather, what we want is to contribute to uniting all efforts
against the war. There is nothing more important than peace.
As we set up our international committee, we demand:
* An immediate end to the military escalation against Iraq;
* An immediate end to the embargo and the sanctions that hit the Iraqi
people;
* An end to military budgets, and that all those sums be allotted to
works of peace, of social protection and of education;
* The dismantling of military bases across the world, and that all the
troops return to their home countries;
* That the unity and sovereignty of nations be respected, an end to any
form of "intervention" of whatever kind aimed at dismantling
nations;
* We take a stand in favour of the unity of workers and peoples, as the
only possible way of preventing the murderous plans that pose a deadly
threat to the entire human civilisation.
As we set up our committee "International Labour Movement Against
War", as we appeal to you -- men and women -- to join us and
circulate this manifesto:
We state that we trust the capacity of peoples worldwide to break free
from the chains of exploitation and oppression, their capacity to build
a world in which the harmonious collaboration of nations and workers
will replace the determination to send us reeling into a world of
barbarism.
We hereby declare: no one can know what precise form the events will
take in the days, weeks and months to come, but we commit ourselves,
whatever may happen, to follow up on what has been undertaken. We pledge
to continue the fight to prevent the shattering of the Iraqi people.
DOWN WITH WAR! DOWN WITH EXPLOITATION!
UNITED, WORKERS WILL BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD!
The committee will have its headquarters and contact address in Spain,
in the name of comrades, union leaders Roberto Tornamira (rtornamira@madrid.ugt.org)
and Luis Gonzalez (luisgon@arrakis.es)
I wish to join the Committee "International Labour Movement Against
War"
First signatories:
Algeria: Amar Takdjout, Executive Board, Cloth and Garment Federation,
UGTA; Rachid Matassi, Executive Board, Oil Workers Federation, UGTA;
Youcef Merrouche, Workers Party; Louisa Hanoune, member of the Algerian
Parliament, spokesperson of the Workers Party.
Azania-South Africa: Tiyani Lybon Mabasa, President, Socialist Party of
Azania (SOPA).
Bangladesh: Tafazzul Hussain, General Secretary of National Workers
Federation of Bangladesh
Belgium: Philippe Larsimont, MDT.
Brazil: Julio Turra, member of the Executive Commission of CUT; Markus
Sokol, member of national leadership of Workers Party.
Britain: Stefan Cholewka, editor of The Link, member of Labour Party
Burkina Faso: Richard Tiendrebeogo, trade unionist, Deputy General
Secretary of General Workers Confederation (CGT-B).
Burundi: Paul Nkunzimana, member of the Executive Board of University
Workers Union (STUB).
Cameroon: Martin Mbille, member of the Executive Bureau of CGT-Liberté.
France: Michèle Simonnin, trade unionist; Marie-Edmonde Brunet, trade
unionist, education; Véronique Pepers, trade unionist, chemical
industry; Olivier Doriane, Workers Party; Jean-Claude Loew, trade
unionist, chemical industry; Jean-Charles Marquiset, trade unionist,
public sector; Subhi Toma, activist, Against the War on Iraq;
Jean-Pierre Barrois, activist, Against the War on Iraq; Daniel
Gluckstein, National Secretary, Workers Party, co-ordinator of the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples; Patrice Sifflet,
Le Manifeste des 500 pour l'indépendance syndicale; José Nicol, trade
unionist, Post Office workers; Marie-Claude Schidlower, Working Women
Commision of the International Liaison Committee, Workers Party; Patrick
Hébert, trade unionist; Jean-Jacques Melloul, railworker, Workers
Party.
Germany: Cornelia Matzke, former member of the Saxony Parliament, member
of Verdi trade union; Klaus Schüller, DGB official, member of workers'
commission of the SPD in Thuringen; Michael Altmann, workers' commission
of the SPD in Hesse, member of "Social Democrats' Initiative
against the War"
Greece: Dimitri Koumas, trade unionist, public sector.
Guadeloupe: Jocelyn Lapître, Movement for a Workers and Peasants Party
of Guadeloupe (MPTPG); Serge Apatout, Administration Secretary of the
General Workers Union of Guadeloupe (UGTG).
India: Nambiath Vasudevan, General Secretary of the Blue Star Union.
Italy: Guido Montanari, Permanent Committee for the Defence of Public
Services and Workers Gains
Portugal: Carmelinda Pereira, former member of the Constituent Assembly;
Joaquim Pagarete, POUS.
Romania: Florin Constantin, editor, Tribuna Sociala.
Spain: Angel Campabadal, trade unionist, services federation, General
Workers Union (UGT); Luis Gonzalez, trade unionist, Healthcare
Federation, Workers Commissions (CCOO); José Miguel Villa, trade
unionist, services federation, General Workers Union (UGT); Roberto
Tornamira, trade unionist, services federation, General Workers Union
(UGT); Juan José Llorente, trade unionist, Public Function Federation,
CCOO; Isabel Cerda, trade unionist, Public Services Federation, General
Workers Union (UGT); Yagoba Álvarez, student unionist; Blas Ortega,
trade unionist, Public Services Federation, General Workers Union (UGT);
Jesus Bejar, trade unionist, Metalworkers Federation, CCOO; Jesús Mª
Perez, trade unionist, Allied Industries Federation, UGT; Vincent
Alcover, trade unionist, Public Services Federation, General Workers
Union (UGT).
United States: Clarence Thomas, International Longshoremen Workers Union
(ILWU, local 10) San Francisco.
Sri Lanka: Mallawa Avachelinge, JVP; Saman Mudun Kotuwage, JVP; Prasan
N.-H. Chathurara, JVP.
Tchad: Gami N'Garmadjal, General Secretary of Teachers Union (SET).
Ukrainia: Vitali Kulik, "Borotba".
Yugoslavia: Pavlusko Imsirovic, Alliance for a Workers Policy.
I hereby agree to be a member of the
Committee "The International Labour Movement Against War"
---
The conference also received messages of support from:
Yugoslavia: 27 trade unionists;
Brazil: Joao Felicio, President, Workers Unity Central (CUT);
Brazil: José Genoino, President, Workers Party;
Brazil: Claudio Willer, President, Brazilian Writers Union;
Brazil: Heloisa Helena, Senator, Workers Party, state of Alagoas;
United States: Michael Eisenscher, coordinator, Bay Area Labor Peace and
Justice Committee, member of the Continuations Committee of US Labor
Against the War.
United States: Larry Duncan, TV producer (Chicago);
United States: Hal Sutton, United Auto Workers (personal capacity);
United States: Marta Ames, Executive Director, Pride at Work, AFL-CIO;
United States: Michael Letwin, on behalf of the "US Labor Against
the War" (New York);
United States: Fred Glass, Executive Board, CFT (Oakland);
United States: Connie White, Labor Party activist (Los Angeles);
United States: Julian Kunnie, Free Mumia Committee (Tucson, Arizona);
Ecuador: Fernando Guerra, General Secretary, Electricity Workers Union
central region.
Ecuador: José Limaico, on behalf of Revolutionary Socialist Workers
Organisation.
Mexico: 30 trade unionists and personalities;
Mexico: Mexican committee "No to war, not in our name".
Costa Rica: Pablo Hernandez Arias, Executive Committee, POS;
Switzerland: Christine Sayegh, lawyer, former President of the
Confederation Parliament and of Geneva canton.
Great Britain: Dave Green on behalf of the National Executive Committee,
Fire Brigades Union
Morocco: the co-ordinator of Continuations Committee, Conference against
Deregulation.
India: H. Mahadevan, Deputy General Secretary, All Indian Trade Unions
Congress (AITUC);
Pakistan: Rubina Jamil, President, All Pakistan Trade Unions Federation
(APTUF); Aima Mahmood, Secretary of the Working Women Organisation
(WWO); Shabbir Hussain Shah, General Secretary of the Cloth and Garment
Federation; Nasir Gulzar, President of the Progressive Youth
Organisation; Fazal-E-Wahid, General Secretary, Railworkers Union;
Belgium: delegation of General Workers Federation's (FGTB) section in
Cockerill-Chertal; Roger Somville, painter; Hefida Bakious, physician;
Jean Cornil, senator; Denise Vindevage, filmmaker; Henri Jean Ruttiens,
trade unionist SETCA Industry (Brussels);
France: Roger Sandri, retired trade unionist; Jean-Paul Neau, trade
unionist;
Hong-Kong: Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU)
**********
3) CALL FOR A DAY OF INTERNATIONAL MOBILISATION ON MARCH 8TH, 2003
- STOP WAR, STOP THE GENOCIDE OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE
- FOR PEACE, FOR DEMOCRACY, FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE,
- FOR THE RIGHTS OF WORKING WOMEN!
We -- women union activists present at the Emergency Conference Against
War convened by the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
People -- launched an appeal "Women against War" and we now
call on women all over the world.
Faced with the imminent threat of war against the Iraqi people, we
propose to take up the anti war traditions adopted by our sisters during
the first World War and re-establish the historical tradition of the
working class movement in the forefront of resistance to the barbarities
of war. This coming 8th of March, let us organise an international
day of mobilisation against war and for our rights, in whatever
form each of us chooses.
* 500,000 Iraqi children have died as a result of the embargo between
1991 and 1998. That is not enough for them. They intend to destroy and
reduce to dust all the people, a whole nation.
* 200, 000 U.S. soldiers are already massed in the Persian Gulf. The
British government has just called up 20, 000 reserves.
* According to a "strictly confidential " UN report that
reached the CASI (Campaign against Sanctions against Iraq in GB) they
are getting ready for a true genocide of the Iraqi people: The coming
war, states the report, should not be compared to the 1991 war: It
would be "a vast and lasting operation on land, supported by air
attacks and conventional bombing."
The consequences are dramatic, judge for yourselves
Still, according to the confidential UN report:
"500,000 people would need medical care as a result of wounds
and trauma."
The food situation for 3.3 million people would be critical. This figure
includes 2.3 million children under five suffering from severe
malnutrition and a million pregnant or nursing mothers."
The destruction of the water supply, of the chemical treatment of water
has been planned leading to " cholera, and dysentery
epidemics with widespread outbreaks of mumps and meningitis."
STOP THE WAR, STOP THE GENOCIDE OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE!
WE WON'T LET THEM KILL THE IRAQI PEOPLE!
WE STAND BESIDE THE IRAQI WOMEN!
We -- women, union activists present at the Emergency Conference Against
War -- stand alongside the North American working class movement
against war . We are with all those who in Germany, Spain, France, Great
Britain, Brazil , India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and in the African
countries ... are saying Stop the war and are summoning their
governments and the U.S. embassies through actions of all kinds, doing
everything they can to stop this war.
This war is a war against all the people of the world , including the
working class and their organisations in the U.S., France, Germany,
Great Britain, Spain ... as their rights and social gains are also
threatened by the same powers that threaten the Iraqi people with
destruction, alongside the other people of the area.
We have our place in the International Committee of the "Labour
Movment Against War"
Arms budgets are on a massive increase as they prepare for war.
Billions are subtracted from school and hospital budgets, which
are already largely underfunded.
Not a cent for war, funds for our schools, our children our
hospitals!
Billions are spent in preparing for this war, which is used
as an excuse for undermining social rights and destroying the right to
work, the ILO conventions, the statutes and collective bargaining
conventions, pensions and social protection systems.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are being laid off or are going
to be laid off. Women are often the first victims. Aren't
these workers right in saying: "We have worked hard for
years, for wages at poverty level , we've been exploited and now
we are thrown away, like a kleenex. What shall we do with
our children ?"
STOP FIRING WORKERS!
Everywhere insecure jobs are on the increase, as are part time jobs.
Jobs in the informal sector now concern millions of women throughout the
world and no rights are recognised. Is this legal ?
STOP PRECARIOUS JOBS, STOP INFORMAL JOBS!
THE ILO CONVENTIONS, LABOR LEGISLATION. MUST BE APPLIED TO THE
"INFORMAL SECTOR"!
REAL JOBS! REAL WAGES ! EQUAL JOBS! EQUAL PAY !
And they are the ones who talk of equality between men and women, and
who dare, in the name of equality, reintroduce night work for women in
industry and denounce or otherwise undermine the ILO conventions while
applying European union directives without any consideration for
people's health. Millions of women are today forced to do night
work and this leads to night work becoming commonplace for all.
Stop night work for women in industry!
And our pensions! No, the pensions we have earned through years of
work, and won in the framework of the Nation State cannot be undermined:
All women's specific rights must be maintained.
A Pension is a right not a privilege!
Women give birth, nothing is more precious than their children.
The don't want war, they don't want their children to die under bombs.
They don't want their children to be thrown on the streets subject
to drugs and sexual exploitation. They want their children
to have the right to schooling , they don't want their children to have
to go out and work.
Stop child labor ! A child's place is at school, not in a factory! Not
in a workshop, not in an office!
We all know that this right is being undermined in every country. Cases
of pregnancy tests, of promises not to get pregnant when taken on,
of the firing of pregnant women, especially in insecure jobs are
on the increase. In Great Britain hundreds of thousand of women in
insecure jobs are excluded from maternity protection by the Law . That's
why we do not give up our fight to maintain ILO conventions 3 and 103.
That's why we say "Don't ratify convention 183."
In Spain, the administration is putting on pressure so that women
"come out early" after giving birth -- between 24 and 28
hours after! There won't be time to do all the prevention
tests on the new-born children . Their medical check-up and follow-up
won't be done in hospitals.
In France, where the social protection system --including
maternity insurance, maternal and infant protection -- has meant a
great decrease in mothers' and infants' mortality rates, the right to
give life is being threatened. Doctors are launching a cry of
alarm. "Pregnant women are in danger". We can no longer assure
their follow-up. "Deaths could have been avoided. "We
have had to refuse premature new borns in our hospital ."
Women and doctors cannot allow this.
Maternity protection is an inalienable right. No maternity clinics
should be closed!
For the right to complete social protection for women and their
children!
Funds for our hospitals, not for war!
Let us get down to preparing the 8th of March 2003:
* Against war, for Peace
* For democracy, for social and economic justice
* For women's rights
I endorse this appeal
Name
Address
Organisation/Title
E mail
The international women's conference convened on February 21st
2002 in Berlin to win back the ILO convention 103, for women workers
right launched an appeal to make the 8th march 2002 a first day of
international mobilisation.
We invite you to make known our proposals; we shall be publishing them
in a review in preparation for the 8th March.
For all correspondence : The International Liaison Committee's Women's
Commission.
C/o Parti des travailleurs
87, rue Faubourg-Saint-Denis - 75010 Paris - E mail : eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
**********
4) Appeal for an International Liaison Committee of Youth Against War
We young people from the United States, Ukraine, Spain and France
participated in the International Emergency Conference convened in Paris
on January 23-24, 2003, by the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples. As young people from 20 countries, we had endorsed
the appeal to youth throughout the world titled "NO TO WAR"
initiated by the Revolutionary Youth International (IRJ).
In this month of January 2003, the threat of murderous war against Iraq
is closer than ever. Louder than ever, we say:
Young people as well as all the peoples across the globe do not want
war!
No! We say NO to the decision by Bush and the international institutions
(the IMF, the United Nations, the European Union) to slaughter an entire
people for the sole interest of the oil multinationals.
No! We do not accept that young people by the tens and the hundreds of
thousands should be sent to kill other young people!
Those American unionists who say that impending war is not just targeted
at Iraq and that it is also a "domestic" war are right.
True, the war against Iraq is pretext for another war -- a war
against youth and working people.
In Spain, after universities have been privatised, after the entire
public education system has been reduced to poverty, the Aznar
government condemns young people to casual labour.
After accusing the Ukraine of selling weapons to Iraq, the U.S.
government has decided to put the country into isolation: no visas are
to be granted to Ukrainian students and workers.
In France, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Minister of the Interior, has just
placed before the parliament a bill that threatens any young person
"guilty of loitering in a staircase" of his tenement building
with a two-month term in jail. Right at the same time, two universities
have announced that they would close down for three weeks to save money
on heating and electricity.
NO! We say NO to war! We demand the right to have a future! We must
prevent this war!
Because in every country, we are the targets of that war, we have to
stand up against it in every country! To all the youth across the globe,
to all young people's organisations, we propose to set up together the
INTERNATIONAL LIAISON COMMITTEE OF YOUTH AGAINST WAR
And we propose to work jointly on an international bulletin to be
published regularly; it should give information and reports on the
various initiatives against war taken by youth throughout the world.
Here are the first items of information we wish everyone to have:
* The Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) was convened on January 17th in San
Francisco and Washington DC to coordinate the actions against war taken
on campuses. A second national meeting of the anti-war student
coalitions is to be held on February 22-23rd in Chicago.
* In Spain, the Convention of the Socialist Youth took a stand
against war:
* In the Ukraine, the Borotba Union of Young people organised picket
lines to circulate brochures against the war in universities and in
neighbourhoods.
E mail : USA : ricoblanc@hotmail.com
- Spain : jmacaubrey@yahoo.es
- France: irj@wanadoo.fr
- Ukraine : borotba@mail.ru
E mail : USA : ricoblanc@hotmail.com
- Spain : jmacaubrey@yahoo.es
- France: irj@wanadoo.fr
- Ukraine : borotba@mail.ru
Paris, February 5th, 2003
From: Daniel Gluckstein
Coordinator of the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples
To: All organisations, workers and activists who took
part in the International Emergency Conference Against War
To all organisations, tendencies and individuals who supported it
Dear friends, dear comrades,
Today, February 5th, the UN Security Council is meeting to hear the so
called "proofs" presented by the Bush administration to
justify the launching of a murderous war against the Iraqi people, and
beyond them against the workers and peoples the world over, with
consequences which cannot be foreseen.
On January 26th, Andrew Cord, a top-ranking official in the White House,
went so far as to state that, "Washington does not exclude the use
of nuclear weapons."
All over the world, powerful mass demonstrations will take place on
February 15 and 16 in response to the call by the antiwar movement in
the USA. More demonstrators are expected than in any of the previous
coordinated days of action. In the United States, the newly formed US
Labor Committee Against War (USLAW) has just announced that it now
regroups trade unions representing over 4.5 million trade unionists.
On January 24th, we set up the Committee "International Labour
Movement Against war." We pledged to fight relentlessly against the
wave of military violence announced by Bush's administration. We are
fighting against it now, and we will continue steadfastly with this
effort.
But if the Bush administration -- with or without the support of the UN
-- were to decide to launch the war, should not all those mobilising
against this war, especially the labour organisations, put the Bush
administration on notice, declaring: "Mr. Bush, please be informed
that on the very day you launch an attack against Iraq, we will
demonstrate the world over in massive numbers in front of the U.S.
embassies and Consulates to demand: "STOP THE INTERVENTION,
WITHDRAW YOUR ARMY, STOP THE WAR !" ?
Dear friends, is it possible to discuss this proposal widely now,
without delay, as we anticipate the possible course of the unfolding
events? Can we not take this proposal to our organisations, and even
more broadly to all labour and democratic organisations participating in
the fight against war?
Dear friends and comrades,
Fraternal greetings to all of you.
For the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples
Daniel Gluckstein
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