Home > CFT Against War > 12/06 USLAW meeting report

WHAT'S NEW at CFT

• 2007 CFT Convention, March 16-18 in L.A.
• Community college ballot initiative signatures filed
• 2007 CFT Women's Rights Conference, March 31 in Sacramento
• New ACLU curriculum, "Tracked in America"
• 2006-07 Raoul Teilhet Scholarship info and applications
• Fixing the health care crisis: new tools
• Preschool for All
• What to do about the state budget's structural crisis
• Pension "reform" a bad idea
• Coalition defends against outsourcing
• CFT opposes war in Iraq

Dear CFT Members, 
On Dec. 1-3, I attended the U.S. Labor Against the War Conference in Cleveland, Ohio as the California Federation of Teachers delegate.  USLAW was founded in January 2003 in response to an outcry within organized labor against the coming war. More than 140 labor organizations are now affiliated with USLAW, which is trying to bring the majority of organized labor into the antiwar struggle, to mobilize U.S. workers to force Congress and the administration to end the occupation of Iraq and return the troops immediately. So far, it has played a significant role in moving national unions such as AFT, AFSCME, APWU, CWA, GCIU, ILWU, NEA, SEIU, UE, UFM, and USWA to adopt resolutions calling for the troops to be brought home. 

It was an honor for me to represent CFT and CCFT at the conference and it was exciting to be with about 200 other delegates from around the country who want to end the U.S. occupation in Iraq right now. While there, I met four parents whose sons died in Iraq, all of them adamant about immediate withdrawal of the troops. I listened to Samir Adil, President of Iraq Freedom Congress (committed to establishing a free, democratic, secular, non-religious, and non-ethnic government in Iraq), who traveled to Ohio just to attend this convention. He believes, as does USLAW, that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is now the single greatest obstacle to both peace and democratic self-governance for the Iraqi people and to security for the people of Iraq, the U.S., and the world.  At the conference, I heard many numbers: 2/3 of the U.S. public and 80% of Iraqis polled say that they want the occupation to end. 72% of U.S. troops in Iraq said they want to come home before the end of the year; 29% said “immediately.” The occupation has cost the lives of more than 2900 U.S. troops and over 650,000 Iraqi civilians; over 46,800 US Troops have been wounded. For every additional second we stay in Iraq, taxpayers will end up paying an additional $6,300; eventually the cost of this occupation could be over $2 TRILLION. 

Of course, I heard floor debate on many resolutions relating to the Iraq occupation (you can read them on uslaboragainstwar.org). These were all labor unions that were represented and all working class people who spoke. There were some very impassioned and even raised voices . . .but they were not impassioned about their personal wages or their working conditions. They were fervent when speaking about the costs of this occupation to soldiers, and to American and Iraqi families, and to our society, and to our childrens’ futures. Listening to them made me angry and made me weep. I vowed to do more to help meet the USLAW 2007 objective #1: Compel Congress to defund the war and bring all U.S. troops home now, with continued funding only for the safe evacuation of the troops, full funding for their care when they return, and funding to fully finance reparations and reconstruction of Iraq under control of Iraqis, and to redirect national spending to serve human needs and promote peace and justice at home and around the world. 

I also heard Cindy Sheehan and Dennis Kucinich speak. Here is part of the blog Cindy Sheehan wrote after speaking at USLAW: 

"Little did I know, as Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Oh) and I were driving through the streets of Cleveland, Ohio . . .that he would be presenting me with a clear, reasonable, and obvious plan for bringing American troops out of what is rapidly becoming total anarchy in Iraq. . . .  The previous evening, Dennis and I both spoke at the US Labor Against the War conference in Cleveland. During his impassioned speech . . . Dennis hinted at what would be just the thing to give our troops a one way ticket home from the quicksands of Iraq. . .  Many groups and individuals in the Peace Movement have been endorsing and recommending Rep. Jim McGovern’s (D-Ma) bill, HR4232, which stops funding for the war. It’s a good bill and we agree that stopping funding is the quickest way to end the war. HR4232 would stop funding that already exists and provide only for a swift and safe withdrawal from Iraq and to train Iraqi forces. Congressman Kucinich is a co-sponsor of that bill, but he has little confidence in this bill getting on to the House floor for a vote.  Dennis’ proposal is so thrilling, though, because of the fact that it involves no special bills---no committee hearings---no behind the scenes politicking, it will be driven and accomplished by the grass roots peace movement which will give the idea special credibility and deal a further blow to an already crippled Bush administration: in the spring, Congress will be voting on a new appropriation’s bill, for the war, which will be approximately 130 billion more dollars! We must act now to organize to pressure Congress to not give the seemingly out of control BushCo any more money to fund what is only bedlam. If Congress votes no on the next appropriations bill, the funding will end by June 2007 (which is also when al-Malicki says the Iraqis will be ready to take over security of their country).. . .  … Stop the funding; replace US troops with UN peacekeepers (it’s what the Iraqi people want, too); take private contractors out of the country,  give the Iraqi people back their jobs and give them reparations for the obliteration of their country; and make our government conform to our own law and international law regarding pre-emptive war." 

[The day Cindy Sheehan wrote this, 11 US Troops and perhaps 100 Iraqis were killed. For the full text, go to www.democracyinaction.org] 

We are all busy—but not too busy to do some things. You can quickly join USLAW (uslaboragainstwar.org; or see me). You can easily go to mandateforpeace.org and sign on in just a minute. It’s a breeze to go to pdamerica.org and sign the online petition to stop funding the war. Join me on a CCFT subcommitttee and we can figure out some other things to do that might help end this shameful, unconscionable horror our government is perpetrating in our name. As of today (12/12), 2937 U.S. troops have died in Iraq; 47 have died so far in December. 

In Peace and Solidarity, 
Hedy Carra, CCFT Secretary