WHY SHOULD organized labor oppose the war in Afghanistan?
WE’RE CONCERNED with how the war will affect people in Afghanistan civilians in particular who obviously had nothing to do with what happened to the World Trade Center. And we’re concerned with the impact of the war more broadly, both in terms of American foreign policy such as U.S. support for dictatorships abroad and in terms of generating further terrorism by attacking countries and civilians who have no responsibility for September 11. War endangers people in this country. And then there’s the domestic fallout attacks on civil liberties, racism, the backlash against immigrants. Politicians are using the war as a pretext to push through huge government handouts to multinationals and killing legislation that might do the opposite, such as protect Social Security or anything else that might benefit working people. It’s important for labor to speak out, but so far labor has been scared. There’s the sense that there’s no room to speak out, no room for debate or criticism of any sort exc
