Why Do Our Labor Leaders Refuse to Talk
About  the  War in Iraq and  Afghanistan?

By Harry Kelber

Reading AFL-CIO’s publications and listening to statements by AFL-CIO’s leaders, you wouldn’t know there are wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. The AFL-CIO Executive Council doesn’t seem to feel that the two wars  are the concern of the labor movement or worthy of any comment. You’d never guess that  many thousands of working families, including union households, are worried about their loved ones  risking their lives to fight in a dangerous region that they know little about.

We are told the government hasn’t the money to create the millions of public works jobs that are needed for some 15 million unemployed Americans. Yet, we have been spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually for the last eight years on the two wars. (26.5 cents of every tax dollar in 2009 went for military-related spending; only 2 cents for education.) And so why do top labor leaders, who see the obvious connection,  so  unwilling to talk publicly about it?

You’d think that the AFL-CIO would show some public respect for the many union members who have died in the two wars. But honoring them is not on any union agenda.

Union leaders can get worked up to fight for a wage increase, yet remain strangely silent on a life and death issue? Shouldn’t we be asking why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what we hope to accomplish? We are in  those countries as occupiers, whose population has no love for us and want us to leave. So why didn’t we leave long ago?.

We are enmeshed in a war in countries where our troops do not know  the language, history and culture of the population. What are we doing there? And at what cost?

Must We Leave the Issue of Peace and War only to Politicians?

We gave former President George Bush a blank check to continue the war in Iraq, even after it was learned there were no weapons of mass destruction in that country. We let a group at the White House decide to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan without any comment, for or against, from the AFL-CIO.

Those who favor a ban on war talk within the labor movement say it is a divisive issue at a time when unity is the need of the hour. But what they are really advocating

Is keeping union members uninformed on what is happening in the real world on the issue of war and peace.  Labor should have a voice on any issue that affects our lives and the future of our country.

We know that working people don’t want war, but have been cleverly convinced to support a war by those who can profit from it. That is why it is so important to know the facts long before war breaks out.
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If there are any union members who can justify the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, let them speak up. We will gladly give them space on LaborTalk to make their case. We will then welcome an opposing view. A debate on the wars by union members is long overdue.

At the very least, we must let the politicians in Washington  know our views.                --Harry Kelber