Socialist Viewpoint

Dear Brother Ryder:

It was with alarm and disappointment that I received your latest bulletin calling for the international community “to redouble its efforts to ensure complete and unfettered access for UN arms inspectors in Iraq.” While care is taken to mention that this should all occur within the mandate of the United Nations, I think it is more than a little overblown to say that “people the world over have tremendous expectations … for member states to act in cohesion in response to the threat posed by Iraq.”

I don’t believe that people “the world over” feel that way at all. I certainly don’t and neither do the delegates representing over 65,000 trade unionists affiliated to our Labor Council. If that feeling exists at all, it probably exists mostly in the United States and largely in response to an endless barrage of propaganda on the issue designed to ”manufacture consent” for an invasion of Iraq.

A lot of the rest of us “people the world over” think that the United States is playing a dangerous political game over Iraq in pursuit of a narrow national interest centered around their need to control the supply of oil in the Middle East.

The ICFTU position goes entirely in the wrong direction. It does little more than serve as soft propaganda for the U.S. pro-war position.

Most of the world community outside of the ICFTU does not agree with the U.S. position on Iraq. Surely in this period of imminent war with Iraq, a much more progressive position for an international trade union organization would be to emphasize the dangers of war for working people, the suffering of the people of Iraq, the volatility of the Middle East and the aggressive self-serving nature of the U.S. position on Iraq.

If the ICFTU is to have any real hope of playing a leading role in the world trade union movement, you will have to do much better than this half-baked position.

Fraternally,

William Saunders, President Vancouver & District Labor Council Vancouver, Canada

—Canada-Asia Pacific Research Network, Dec. 2002