UE Convention Resolutions
Bring the Troops Home –
End the Occupation Now
In 2002 delegates to the UE convention in Raleigh, North Carolina passed a resolution opposing the impending invasion of Iraq. We said then the war was based on fabrications, and the U.S. corporate greed to grab Middle East oil. Like our union’s opposition to the war in Vietnam we were one the first national unions in the U.S. to oppose the invasion. In 2003 and 2005 UE delegates overwhelmingly passed resolutions opposing the occupation and to bring our troops home – now.
Since the invasion it has been proven that the Bush administration lied to the American people about the causes for invading Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq posed no imminent threat to the U.S. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
But Iraq does have control of the world’s second largest oil reserves. It is this strategic importance that has driven this war from the beginning and is the basis for the occupation. According to the "Downing Street Memo," a secret British government document made public, the Bush administration regarded war "inevitable" almost a year before the invasion in 2003. As the White House insisted that war would be a "last resort" the administration was manipulating the intelligence around weapons of mass destruction to justify invasion. A war based on a mixture of lies, half-truths, and misrepresentation does not protect our democracy, but defiles and diminishes it.
There are now over 200,000 private contractors in Iraq – supported and paid for by the U.S. government, our tax dollars. Outnumbering U.S. military forces in Iraq, they perform support and combat roles that previously had been done by U.S. forces but are now performed for a profit by corporations, everything from Sodexho, to Haliburton and Bechtel, and high-priced mercenaries that work for outfits such as Blackwater Security. In a recent LA Times article William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert said, "We don’t have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That’s dangerous for our country." The Pentagon "is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that’s obscene."
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health completed a survey of Iraqi households in July 2006 and concluded that over 654,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion in March 2003. According to the researchers, the overall rate of mortality in Iraq since March 2003 is 13.3 deaths per 1,000 persons per year compared to 5.5 deaths per 1,000 persons per year prior to March 2003. This amounts to about 2.5 percent of Iraq’s population having died as a consequence of the war. To put the 654,000 deaths in context with other conflicts, the authors note that during the Vietnam War an estimated 3 million civilians died overall; the Congo conflict was responsible for 3.8 million deaths; and recent estimates are that 200,000 have died in Darfur over the past 31 months. Far more Iraqis have lost their lives since the U.S. invasion and occupation than even under the Saddam Hussein regime.
The U.S. invasion has destabilized the Middle East and increased tensions between those countries and our own. Terrorist attacks and the potential for terrorism on U.S. soil have increased. George Bush has turned Iraq into a cauldron of religious conflict and fundamentalism. Prior to 2002, Iraq was regarded as one of the most secular nations in the Middle East.
So far, over 3,600 Americans have lost their lives and over 27,000 Americans have been wounded due to the war on Iraq. Falsehoods and miscalculation have led to repeated and unexpected tours of duty for our troops, who continue to be sent into combat without proper protection. Many of our troops are union members or from families of union members; most are from working-class families. They have faced extraordinary danger with courage. We recognize their valor, determination and sacrifices, and honor those who have given their lives.
Iraq has now become the staging ground for terrorists it was supposed to have been prior to the invasion; that supposed justification for war has become true as a result of a disastrously misconceived Presidential directive. The U.S.-supervised transition to civilian rule in Iraq is failing to achieve a peaceful democratic society, and is instead disintegrating into a bloody civil war.
On a recent tour of the U.S. sponsored by U.S. Labor Against The War (USLAW) the General Secretary of the Federation of Oil Unions, Faleh Abood Umara, said "We consider that the occupation is vile to us. The main problem of Iraq is the occupation. I don’t think there would be extraordinary troubles when or if the occupation forces leave. And even assuming such an occurrence, we can eventually solve our problems ourselves. Our main problem is the occupation."
It is outrageous that despite the talk of establishing democracy in Iraq, a decree issued by Saddam in 1987 that abolished union rights for workers in the extensive Iraqi public sector is still on the books and is being used as we meet in this convention to repress the independent secular Iraq Federation of Oil Workers.
Bringing our troops home now is the best means of protecting them and honoring them. They and their families should not suffer because our politicians lied and others stood idly by. Continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq simply means more U.S. soldiers and innocent Iraqi’s will die for U.S. corporate interests. For the sake of Americans and Iraqis, for the sake of democracy and peace, bring our troops home and end the occupation now!
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 70th UE CONVENTION:
- Calls on Congress and the Bush administration to immediately cease military operations in Iraq and to bring home U.S. military personnel, and to turn over the task of rebuilding Iraq to a genuine, multinational effort led by the United Nations, with the U.S. making good on its obligation to finance rebuilding;
- Call on UE at all levels to be vigilant, alert, and proactive to protect our returning veteran members from any discrimination by employers;
- Calls on Congress and the Bush administration to expand and fully fund benefits for veterans, including a G.I. Bill for returning Iraq veterans and a Veterans Administration housing program and to remove any and all restrictions, including time limits, means testing and salary caps, that would interfere with veterans receiving all medical care;
- Backs the call of Iraqi workers for free and independent labor unions based on internationally recognized International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions guaranteeing the right to organize free of all government interference and including full equality for women workers. Calls for the direct participation of labor and workers’ representatives in drafting the new labor code, in determining government policies affecting unions and workers’ interests, and in drafting the new constitution;
- Condemns the privatization of Iraq’s oil production and reserves;
- Condemns the continued enforcement of Saddam’s decree number 150 issued in 1987 that abolished union rights for workers in the Iraqi public sector, and calls for its immediate repeal;
- Supports Congressional action to stop funding the occupation, and to use U.S. funds only to bring our troops home immediately, and to use monies earmarked for the occupation instead for the reconstruction of Iraq’s infrastructure and civil institutions destroyed by war;
- Calls for Congressional investigation of war profiteering and closed-bid reconstruction contracts in Iraq;
- Condemns the terrorism in Iraq directed against civilians and deplores the assassination of Iraqi union leaders and activists;
- Renews UE’s support for activities against the occupation and participation in the U.S. Labor Against the War coalition (including the regional demonstrations planned for October 2007);
- Supports the call for a moratorium on the third Friday of every month, and encourages UE locals and members to participate in these activities in any way they feel is significant and appropriate;
- Urges UE at all levels to continue education and discussion on the Iraq war and occupation and the implications of U.S. foreign policy for working people here and abroad;
- Urges UE at all levels to work with USLAW and their efforts to educate workers and union members on U.S. corporate and government involvement in the Middle East, the nature of the conflicts there, and avenues for resolving them through the use of diplomatic negotiation, communication between peoples and non-governmental organizations such as unions, and other non-violent alternatives to war and armed conflict.