San Francisco Labor Council
Resolution in Support
of Bradley Manning

Whereas forty years after the release of the Pentagon Papers, the government is now trying to criminalize, intimidate and repress those who tell the truth about U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and

Whereas the White House and the Pentagon brass want to send a threatening message to all rank-and-file soldiers who are witnessing or learning of atrocities, and who want to expose both these crimes and the government’s lies about the war, and

Whereas Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old soldier who was stationed in Iraq, has been arrested and has been held incommunicado for months is charged with releasing a graphic video of an attack in April 2007 by a U.S. Apache helicopter that killed a group of journalists and civilians, and severely wounded two children, and

Whereas the video became a major scandal when it was released by WikiLeaks, and

Whereas the Pentagon had refused to release the video of the attack, which had been requested in a Freedom of Information Act request by Reuters news service, and

Whereas news reports suggest that Bradley Manning may be charged with the release of the 75,000 documents that WikiLeaks posted on its website recently. Those documents paint a grim picture of the repeated killing of Afghan civilians in a deteriorating military occupation by U.S. and other foreign forces, therefore be it

Resolved that the S.F. Labor Council oppose the prosecution of Bradley Manning, and further be it

Resolved that the S.F. Labor Council send a letter to President Obama and to our California Congressional representatives and Senators Feinstein and Boxer calling for the release and dropping of charges against Bradley Manning, and be it further

Resolved that the S.F. Labor Council call upon other union locals, labor councils and state and national federations to send letters to President Obama and Congressional representatives calling for the release of Bradley Manning.