Labor Leaders Gather In SF To Oppose Iraq War

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(10-20) 13:11 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Labor leaders from around the world gathered in San Francisco today to call on workers to stand up and take organized action against war in Iraq, saying that politicians can't be counted on to halt the bloodshed.

Several speakers cited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s as models to follow, saying that both achieved change that would not have occurred if matters had been left in the hands of those running the country.

"Until people get off their asses and do something, there won't be a change," Clarence Thomas, past secretary-treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and a third-generation ILWU member, told the audience at the local's hall near Fishermen's Wharf.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour Party member of Parliament in Britain, cited the staggering number of civilian deaths in the Iraq war and the thousands of returning soldiers who have needed psychiatric care to deal with what they faced during battles in that country.

Corbyn told the audience of about 150 labor officials that the war in Iraq is "a disaster of the grandest scale possible for the people of Iraq and the rest of us."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/20/MN0GSTIOK.DTL&tsp=1

I'm still cynical about the possibilities about ending imperialist plans of the U.S... but these voices must be supported and encouraged