------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 12, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SAN FRANCISCO: EMERGENCY PROTEST AGAINST WAR SEPT. 14 By Nancy Mitchell San Francisco Anti-war activists, community groups and the labor movement in the Bay Area are working to build an emergency march and rally on Sept. 14 under the slogan: "No new war against Iraq!" Since a call went out for national emergency actions to stop the war before it starts, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the International ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) has received many emails, phone calls and offers of support. Similar protests are planned in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle and other cities. The Bay Area labor movement has enthusiastically taken up Sept. 14. Longshore union ILWU Local 10 is an initiator of the protest. Several other unions and labor leaders have endorsed, and the San Francisco Labor Council endorsed the action and passed a resolution against a new war. The Labor Council resolution recalled Bay Area labor's role in stopping a new war against Iraq in 1998 and resolved to "reaffirm and join the growing movement in opposition to any U.S. war against Iraq." (For full text of the resolution, see the Sept. 5 Workers World or http://www.workers.org/ ww/ 2002/sfiraq0905.php.) The resolution linked the struggle against the war with the ILWU's battle against the employers and government. As the labor movement here gears up to help defend the ILWU in its intensifying struggle against the Pacific maritime bosses and the Bush administration's threats of military intervention in the ports, all are acutely aware of the negative effect that a new war would have, both on the workers abroad and the struggles here at home. Among the many other sponsors of the Sept. 14 San Francisco march and rally are American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; National Lawyers Guild-Bay Area Chapter; Rev. Dorsey Blake; California Prison Focus; Sacramento Valley Labor Committee for Peace & Justice; International Action Center; Global Exchange; Kriss Worthington, Berkeley City Council member; Committee for a New Colombia; Walter Johnson, secretary-treasurer, S.F. Labor Council; Howard Wallace, organizer, Health Care Workers, Local 250; Gloria La Riva, President, Typographical Sector, N. Calif. Mediaworkers, Local 39521; San Jose Peace Center; and many others. In addition to opposing a new war on Iraq, the Sept. 14 protest is demanding: government hands off our unions; defend civil rights and civil liberties; stop racist scapegoating; money for jobs, health care, housing and schools, not for war. The Sept. 14 march will gather at UN Plaza at 11 a.m., and march at 12 noon to Jefferson Square Park, Turk & Gough Sts. For more information, call 415-821-6545. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
