Labor Backs Fight Against Terrorism
We Need More Than Military Force

AP/Wide World Photos

People from Kabul, Afghanistan, can now enjoy music (above) and go to school. Music and education for girls were outlawed by the Taliban.

The U.S. labor movement backs President Bush’s decision to use military force to eliminate the threat that terrorists pose.

In a thoughtful and wide-ranging policy statement, the AFL-CIO Executive Board, including UAW President Stephen P. Yokich and UAW Vice President Elizabeth Bunn, called for a global effort to rebuild not just Afghanistan but the rest of the developing world.

The labor leaders decried the “barbaric attack on innocent people” in New York and Washington, D.C., noting that of the thousands who died, more than 600 were union members.

The AFL-CIO is “firmly committed to bringing the perpetrators of the heinous Sept. 11 attacks to justice,” they said as they declared: “The United States is justified in invoking its international right of self-defense to attack those who initiated this horror, then celebrated it and promised further attacks on the American people.”

Issued the week before the Taliban fled Kabul, the declaration asserted that the union movement is deeply moved by the plight of the Afghan people who have suffered through decades of conflict. And it sharply condemned the Taliban for its repressive regime.

Then the labor leaders declared: “We recognize we cannot defeat terrorism with military force alone.”
Instead it called for a global offensive for equitable, sustainable, democratic development.

“The industrial nations, in particular, must significantly increase our assistance for basic needs,” and the labor leaders pledged that the “AFL-CIO will redouble our efforts to ensure that this nation and nations across the world address a global justice agenda that for too long has been ignored.”

The statement continued: “As the richest nation on earth and the cradle for democracy, it is incumbent on the United States to take the lead in these efforts.”

In addition, the AFL-CIO board called for investing resources necessary to bolster our national defense--by providing greater security to power plants, dams, bridges, highways, train depots, airlines and airports, and other vulnerable targets.

“We also must make long overdue investments in our public health system,” the labor leaders said.

On the issue of civil liberties, the AFL-CIO urged Congress not to allow hysteria to replace judgment in granting new and secretive powers to the Justice Department and the intelligence agencies.

It expressed special concern about preserving the rights of people of Islamic faith, Arab Americans and of immigrants from all nations.

“The AFL-CIO will work to protect its Arab American members from hate crimes,” the leaders asserted.

Finally, the labor leaders called on President Bush and Congress to take bold initiatives to help the nation’s economy recover and to put America back to work.

The entire statement can be read at
www.aflcio.org/publ/estatements/nov2001/callfor
justice.htm