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Canadian labor voices will join the activities scheduled in Halifax, Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and many other communities on Saturday, January 18th, the Cross-Canada Day of Action Against the War on Iraq. In preparation for that day, Marie Clarke Walker, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labor Congress released the following statement:

Working People Want Peace

On August 20, 2002, the President of the Canadian Labor Congress, Ken Georgetti, stated in a news release that “Canadian workers are watching with growing disbelief the U.S. government’s preparations for a full-scale attack against Iraq and they want nothing to do with it.”

Five months later it is with dismay and disapproval that we receive the words of the Canadian Minister of Defence, John McCallum, who, at a meeting with his American counterpart, half-promises that Canada might participate in their war with or without the endorsement or involvement of the United Nations.

On behalf of the 2.5 million members of the Canadian Labor Congress and on behalf of the large majority of Canadians, the labour movement says a clear: No to the war against Iraq. Working families do NOT want to go to war in Iraq just to give George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and their corporate friends even more control of the world’s oil supply! Working people everywhere have no illusions about the nature of the dictatorship imposed by Saddam Hussein on the Iraqi people for the past three decades. We know that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has tried in the past to manufacture or to use weapons of mass destruction. We are also aware that a large UN team of professional inspectors is scouring the countryside of Iraq looking for evidence of the presence of such weapons. Thus far, they have not found any, and they need to be given more time to do their job. It is not apparent either that Iraq constitutes a terrorist threat. Even the CIA has admitted that Iraq is not harboring terrorist organizations nor being used to launch them. In fact, as a secular Arab state, Iraq has been one of the targets of criticism of Osama bin Laden and his terrorist allies.

A war against Iraq at this time is clearly not part of a “war against terrorism”. On the contrary, attacking Iraq would only exacerbate feelings in the Arab and Muslim world that the United States and its allies are simply racist and involved in a modern day “holy crusade.” U.S. President George W. Bush said that he will resolve the problem of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea through diplomatic means. He can do the same with Iraq. In so doing he would spare the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, as well as the lives of American and other soldiers which would be lost in a war.

In November 2002 we endorsed and participated in an International Day of Action Against War on Iraq and on January 18, 2003 together with thousands of Canadians we are renewing the call. Today the Canadian Labor Congress yet again urges Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to advocate the lifting of sanctions against Iraq which have only hurt the innocent civilian population and to instruct his ministers to act as truly independent and outspoken agents for peace.

The members of the Canadian Labour Congress want world peace, not a world at war.

—CNW, Jan. 16

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The Canadian Labor Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 2.5 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together the majority of Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 137 district labor councils.

Web site: www.clc-ctc.ca