Labor Anti-War Group Refocuses on Afghanistan

[Omaha Steve]

http://labornotes.org/node/2515

Jane Slaughter |October 29, 2009

U.S. Labor Against the War is preparing for its third national assembly in December as the original motivation for its founding—the Iraq war—is winding down to a more limited but permanent presence. No worries that the nearly seven-year-old USLAW coalition has outlived its usefulness, though: delegates to the Chicago meeting will debate the Afghanistan war.



Thus far few unions have taken positions on the increasingly unpopular U.S. presence there, even those that have historically been leaders within labor on questions of war and peace.

An example is SEIU1199, United Healthcare Workers East, which in 2003 sent 25 busloads of members to Washington to try to forestall the invasion of Iraq. Vice President Steve Kramer says war has not been on 1199’s front burner recently. “We’re not focused on world issues to the extent we’d like to be,” Kramer said, citing concessions demands, a slew of contract reopeners, and the health care reform fight.

Besides preoccupation with day-to-day survival, some union leaders may be hesitant to criticize the U.S. presence in Afghanistan for other reasons. Kathy Black of AFSCME District Council 47 in Philadelphia says, “Nobody knows squat about Afghanistan, which is why USLAW has slide shows and fact sheets.” Black, a USLAW co-convenor, sees a change in attitude since President Obama was elected.

“It’s been really simple as long as Bush was president to get a lot of these unions to oppose the obscene level of spending in Iraq,” Black said. “But anything that will smack of opposing Obama’s policies or saying he’s not withdrawing from Iraq fast enough—they have other fish to fry.”

FULL story at link.