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By Bob Mattingly
On February 26, delegates to the San Francisco Labor Council sent a resolution condemning the February 17 bombing of the headquarters of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) by Israeli jets and helicopters to their Executive Board. The resolution notes that not only the union headquarters, but also other civilian targets were hit, and that the “use of US military supplied equipment on civilian targets is illegal under the US Arms Export Control Act.” The union delegates said in part:
“Therefore be it resolved that this Council/local [union] condemns the bombing of the Palestinian trade union offices in Nablus, Palestine and we call on the US government and Congress to take action to prevent the use of US supplied military weapons on civilians…”
The San Francisco resolution is just one of the early actions by unions around the world to condemn the Israeli air force’s attack. The Congress of South African Trade Unions expressed its outrage and stated “there can be no justification for such an attack on an organization which is committed to bringing peace to Palestine and working for unity with Israeli trade unions.”
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions said that such attacks do not “reduce tensions in the occupied territories nor lead to any improvement in Israel’s internal security.” General Secretary Guy Ryder said, “I received the news of this devastating attack with utter disbelief. The PGFTU is committed to finding peace. The ability of the trade unions to undertake their legitimate work freely is a crucial component of peace building. Sunday’s attacks can only set back the process.”
The Global Union Federation which includes the 20-million-strong Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions protested the attack noting that the headquarters was originally “built with the financial support of unions from around the globe.”
The General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted that “military assaults on legitimate civil institutions like trade unions have nothing to do with the fight against terrorism. Such attacks risk instead damaging the functioning of legitimate, democratic civil institutions and movements, movements that will be essential on both sides in any future lasting peace for the region.”
In another development, the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council located in San Jose, Calif. adopted a resolution stating their solidarity with Colombian trade unionists. The resolution was submitted by Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 which also called upon the AFL-CIO to “join us in these demands upon Congress and the President as energetically as possible” and work to “generate a groundswell of action that will inform officials from Washington, DC to Bogotá, Colombia that American workers stand in absolute solidarity with our brothers in Colombia…” The Labor Council resolution states, in part:
WHEREAS, the terror used against workers in Colombia coincides with a government/corporate union busting campaign to break organized labor’s unanimous resistance to IMF demands for structural adjustment, amounting to privatization of public services and industries, cutting the 8 hour day and overtime pay, undercutting the minimum wage, the system of benefits for low income workers and protections against unjust firings and wholesale reductions in public employment and benefits; and
WHEREAS, the lethal violence against unionists and the impunity of the paramilitary perpetrators denies Colombian workers the right to freely associate, organize and function in unions in violation of internationally recognized standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO);
“THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that this body calls upon Congress to deny new funds to the Bush administration for the Colombian military and calls upon Congress and President Bush to stop present funding until the military ceases all ties to the AUC [Colombian United Self-defense, a rightwing paramilitary organization] in actual practice at every command level and until clear progress is made in bringing to justice the paramilitary perpetrators of the thousands of heinous crimes against the people and the trade union movement and until Colombians freely enjoy the internationally recognized workers rights spelled out by the ILO and their condition satisfies an ILO Commission of Inquiry.”
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