IUF
Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide
IUF Support For International Union Action Against Iraq War
Posted to the IUF website 12-Mar-2003Share this article.
The IUF stands in solidarity with the trade unions around the world, including the national center AFL-CIO in the USA and the European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC), who have demonstrated their opposition to military action against Iraq at a time when UN weapons inspectors are pursuing multilateral efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime. Unions in Italy, Spain and the UK have organized demonstrations and work stoppages in opposition to their governments' participation in the war drive. The ETUC has called for European-wide work stoppages on March 14.
The inspection procedures, agreed upon within the framework of the United Nations, must be allowed to continue. As the AFL-CIO Executive Council stated in its resolution of February 27, President Bush "has not fulfilled his responsibility to make a compelling and coherent explanation to the American people and the world about the need for military action against Iraq at this time."
There can be no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein poses an acute threat. At present, however, the threat is primarily to the people of Iraq, who have long suffered under his murderous rule.
The road to peace, disarmament and democratic development in Iraq and in the region can only pass through the strengthening of multilateral initiatives and institutions based on respect for democracy and human rights, rather than the bullying and bribery currently undermining the United Nations.
Democracy will not come to Iraq through through military action. Building democracy in Iraq must be the task of the Iraqi people, who need the full support of international democratic civil society and in particular the international labour movement to vanquish dictatorship and build a democratic Iraq out of the wreckage of Saddam Hussein's tyranny.