BUILD WORKERS OPPOSITION TO THE WAR!

March 2003

The war against Iraq is a horrific and barbaric attack that demeans humanity.  It has and will continue to cause widespread death and destruction to the Iraqi people.  It is a reflection of, and will expand enormously, militarism across the world.  The burden of this will fall on working class people, whether they be in America, Britain or in Ireland, through attacks on their living standards and their democratic rights.  It will be working class people who will be the victims and working class people who will be called upon to do the fighting and the dying.

The Irish Government’s support for this war, by providing overflight rights and facilities at Shannon airport, is appalling and shameful.  Against the clear wishes of the majority of the Irish people, the Irish State is now complicit in the war crimes that flow from the blitzkrieg.

As so often, it falls on working people and especially their representatives in the workers movement to express their views and take appropriate action.  The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has claimed to be in opposition to the war but it has not turned words into deeds.  It has led no campaign in the workplaces and made no call on trade union members to take action as trade unionists.
 

Appeal To Workers and Trade Unionists

We, the undersigned, resolve to take the following action to build a workers campaign against the war.  We do so in solidarity with workers across the world – in America, in Britain and many, many other countries that have demonstrated and taken action against the war.  We seek to build an Irish component of an international movement against this barbaric imperialist war.

· We demand the closure of Shannon airport and overfilghts of Irish airspace by the US military.  We support and will attempt to organise workers in Shannon and elsewhere to take direct action to stop this collaboration with the war.

· We demand that ICTU, its constituent unions and the whole trade union movement support and defend all workers who take action against this war.

· We demand real support and participation in the demonstrations and activities of the anti-war movement through the organisation of workplace committees against the war, through trade councils and through trade union branches.
 

· We call on ICTU to call a Special Delegate Conference to discuss, plan and implement real action, which can prevent Irish collaboration with the war.  We the undersigned resolve that if the leaders of the trade union movement refuse to call this conference or organise this action we will build a conference of workers that will organise to achieve the above objectives.  Such action will not only be in solidarity with the people of Iraq but with workers around the world taking their own mass action to stop this war.

Name     Address/email/Tel. No   Trade Union