Labor delegates vote for withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan

At a national assembly of U.S. Labor Against the War held in Chicago Dec. 4-6, a resolution was passed unanimously that called for “an immediate end to the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and military attacks in Pakistan.” The resolution also declared that “USLAW calls for the immediate and complete withdrawal of all U.S. military forces and contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan and the closing of all U.S. military bases in both countries.”

Another resolution was passed that gave USLAW’s endorsement to the anti-war demonstrations planned for March 20, 2010, the seventh anniversary of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq. Donna Dewitt, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, and Alan Benjamin of the San Francisco Labor Council’s Executive Committee were among the USLAW members submitting the resolution to the national gathering.

The resolution noted a declaration by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO on the “need to stop the war in Afghanistan and focus the nation’s attention on the fight for jobs, education, health care and pensions.”

USLAW is urging unionists and labor contingents to march in the national anti-war demonstrations on March 20 in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco.