Dear Boston Globe....I was very encouraged this morning to read about the
nation-wide student strike on Wednesday, March 5. This strike will awaken
our American students to the dangers and the immorality of Bush's war.

The student strike would be 10,000 time more effective if the Unions would
join them on the same day. I was living in France (still am) in 1968 when
this same combination of strikers succeeded in absolutely paralyzing France.
It lasted for almost 2 months, and the government was finally forced to
back down. This could very well happen in the United States if these two
groups could show their protest the same day....for a longer period than
just one day if possible.

Do you think this might be possible? I'd love to hear from you. Many
thanks,
Matilda Lipscomb
lipscomb@letstalksense.com
Montpellier,FRANCE

I'm forwarding the article about the student strike.

=====================================================
THIS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, AT YOUR SCHOOL & NATIONWIDE:

STRIKE because they're sending young people to die in
the desert while they sit in the comfort of their
offices & mansions

STRIKE because we refuse to go along with their
transfusion of blood for oil

STRIKE because they're about to launch 400 missiles a
day at a defenseless people ("There will not be a safe
place in Baghdad...rather like Hiroshima" - H. Ullman,
U.S. military planner)

STRIKE because what would you have done if you'd known
about Hiroshima before it happened?

STRIKE because the lives are worth it

STRIKE because the world community matters

STRIKE to strike the Empire back

STRIKE because intelligence says this war will only
make terror against us more likely

STRIKE in memory of the 3,000

STRIKE to say No More Ground Zeros

STRIKE because our democracy's been hijacked and
Bushwhacked

STRIKE for all that our country could be

STRIKE because they're lying to you

STRIKE because this is supposed to be 2003, not 1984

STRIKE because they're giving out your personal
information to recruiters

STRIKE because they're coming for your brothers

STRIKE for the mothers and fathers and parentless
children

STRIKE for the generations not yet born

STRIKE for our generation

STRIKE because our schools are crumbling and facing
billions more in budget cuts while military contractors
are getting $400 billion of our families' money this
year

STRIKE because they couldn't care less about you or
your future

STRIKE to take back your future

STRIKE to seize control of your life for a day

STRIKE to stop the war on all of us

STRIKE to show love

STRIKE to become more human

STRIKE because they're trying to squeeze the life out
of you STRIKE

No business as usual - WALK OUT, or don't go to school
at all. Instead:

CITYWIDE STUDENT CONVERGENCE & FESTIVAL OF RESISTANCE -
12 NOON @ UNION SQUARE PARK SOUTH

FOLLOWED BY A MOVING SUBWAY SPEAKOUT AND MARCH TO
HUNTER COLLEGE FOR A RALLY AT 2:30

Called by NY Youth Bloc & Not In Our Name Youth

See page A10 of today's New York Times for an article
on the National Student Strike.

Listen to WBAI 99.5 FM on the day of the strike for
special coverage.

***SPREAD THE WORD***

============================================================================
=

-----Original Message-----
From: portsideMod@netscape.net [mailto:portsideMod@netscape.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2003 12:25 AM
To: portside@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Unions Joining Peace Parade


Boston Globe
March 1, 2003

Unions are joining peace parade

By Steve Early

When Peace demonstrators staged mass rallies on both
coasts this month, there were new faces in the crowd
and on the speakers' platforms. For the first time
since the Bush administration launched its ''war on
terrorism,'' a significant number of protesters were
union members, reflecting growing labor concern about
the pending US invasion of Iraq.

In a little-noted development, local, state, and
national organizations representing 13 million workers
around the country have recently adopted resolutions
criticizing military intervention in the Middle East.
Among those challenging the White House are some of the
largest affiliates of AFL-CIO, including the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees,
the Service Employees International Union, and the
Communications Workers of America.

Locally, two AFL-CIO regional bodies composed of unions
in southeastern Massachusetts and north of Boston, have
joined the antiwar movement. After lively internal
debate, the Lynn-based North Shore Central Labor
Council declared that America's ''real aim in this war
is to control Iraq's oil, increasing corporate profits
at the expense of millions of working people.''

Delegates urged that the billions of dollars now being
devoted to ''armaments, domestic repression, and
bailouts'' be spent instead on ''retraining and jobs
for the 800,000 workers who lost their jobs after Sept.
11 and to plug the $50 billion deficit in state and
local budgets that has resulted in major cuts in
essential services.''

Such labor criticism of foreign policy and domestic
priorities was slow to develop in the wake of 9/11.
Like most Americans, trade unionists responded to
appeals for national unity after terrorists leveled the
World Trade Center towers 18 months ago. Members of
various New York City unions performed emergency work
during or after that disaster. Many died and were
hailed for their heroism. Back then, most of organized
labor had little to say about the resulting government
crackdown on immigrants and threats to civil liberties
posed by the USA Patriot Act.

Few questioned US military intervention in Afghanistan
to pursue Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and some union
leaders seemed ready to lead the charge. ''It's not
simply justice we seek,'' declared Tom Buffenbarger,
president of the International Association of
Machinists. ''It is vengeance, pure and simple.''

Union attitudes began to change when it became clear
that there was going to be a war on labor at home as
well as on enemies abroad. In the aftermath of 9/11,
for example, President Bush sought little or no aid for
displaced workers as part of his airline industry bail-
out package. Next, the White House won congressional
approval for ''fast track'' votes on future free trade
deals that threaten manufacturing jobs while putting
federal action on extended unemployment benefits on the
slow track.

The president then persuaded Congress to create a
Homeland Security Department staffed by 170,000 federal
employees who won't have normal union rights or civil
service protection. According to Bush, collective
bargaining - by workers like the Homeland Security
Department's newly hired airport screeners - would
interfere with the ''war on terrorism.''

Seeking additional ''flexibility,'' the president now
wants to privatize 700,000 other federal jobs. In
Washington, Bush has stacked the National Labor
Relations Board and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration with appointees hostile to workers'
rights.

Despite a $70 billion boost in military spending over
the past two years, he is offering little aid to state
and local governments facing massive cuts in their
health care programs and other social services. Even
workers in New York City, who were exposed to toxic
chemicals at Ground Zero, are having great difficulty
getting the follow-up screening and medical treatment
they were originally promised.

Labor's challenge to these distorted priorities emerged
from the grass roots, not the union hierarchy. Local ad
hoc committees around the country began membership
education and debate about the Bush military build-up
and its domestic consequences more than a year ago.

As administration saber-rattling escalated this winter,
labor-based peace campaigners met in Chicago to form US
Labor Against the War, or USLAW, which is promoting
union participation in the antiwar movement, here and
abroad. After much USLAW lobbying, the AFL-CIO
executive council declared on Thursday that the
president had failed to make the case ''for military
action at this time.''

Not all of American labor agrees with this position.
Some unions - like the Carpenters - have been heavily
wooed by the White House, and Teamsters Union president
Jimmy Hoffa is leading the pro-administration
''Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.'' If and when
the shooting starts, other trade unionists may be
reluctant to question government policy for fear of
endangering troops in the field.

But most labor dissenters are likely to stick to their
position that peace is patriotic, too. In the long run,
the domestic fallout of invading Iraq will only make
working-class life in the United States increasingly
difficult, forcing more unions to become foreign policy
critics sooner or later.
_________________________________________________________

Steve Early is a Boston-based International
Representative for the Communications Workers of
America.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

_____________________________________________