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<TITLE>FW: Faces thought you would be interested in this [NYCLAW] DigestNumber 379</TITLE>
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<DIV> from New York trade union anti-war site<BR><BR></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=2>Message:
1 <BR> Date: Tue,
20 Jul 2004 13:36:41 -0000<BR> From: NYCLAW<BR>Subject: LABOR
STATEMENTS: Media Blackout on Antiwar Labor<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=">http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=</A><BR>235&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0<BR><BR>Media
Blackout: Media Blackout Story of U.S. Labor Opposition to
Iraq<BR>War<BR>Posted by : DavidSwanson on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 06:55
AM <BR> <BR>By David Swanson, <A
href="http://ILCAonline.org">http://ILCAonline.org</A><BR>Part of the Media
Blackout series on underreported labor stories<BR><BR>Recently the two biggest
stories in the U.S. news media have been the<BR>war in Iraq and the
presidential election campaign. Labor unions have<BR>been part of a number of
major stories on the presidential campaign,<BR>especially stories about
Senator Kerry's selection of John Edwards as<BR>a running mate.<BR><BR>But
labor has not been part of stories on the war. There was some<BR>reason for
that up until a few weeks ago. The AFL-CIO has not taken a<BR>position on the
war, and most of the international unions have<BR>followed suit. That changed
at the conventions last month in<BR>California of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) and the<BR>American Federation of State, County,
and Municipal Employees<BR>(AFSCME). Kerry spoke at both conventions, and his
speeches received<BR>significant media coverage.<BR><BR>What did not receive
coverage and should have was that both SEIU and<BR>AFSCME passed resolutions
at their conventions supporting the<BR>immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Iraq. These strongly worded<BR>resolutions passed by two of the largest,
most politically active<BR>labor unions in the country -- two unions that have
received<BR>substantial coverage from national political reporters on
other<BR>stories -- were quickly followed by passage on July 13 of a
similar<BR>resolution by the California Labor Federation, the largest
state<BR>federation within the AFL-CIO. Together, these three
organizations<BR>represent close to 5 million union members. Other union
conventions<BR>will be addressing the issue throughout the summer, a
remarkable<BR>development and a striking contrast to labor's behavior during
the<BR>Vietnam War.<BR><BR>It should be noted that other unions, both
internationals and locals,<BR>have led the way on this issue, including the
International Longshore<BR>and Warehouse Union (ILWU) which took a strong
stance against the war<BR>at its May 2003 International Convention, and later
backed that up<BR>with a resolution in support of Iraqi workers' right to
organize. The<BR>ILCA passed a resolution in support of Iraqi workers' right
to<BR>organize in November 2003.<BR><BR>Extensive Nexis searching on July 17
turned up virtually no coverage<BR>during the past 60 days of U.S. labor
opposition to the war. The few<BR>exceptions: a story in the Nation Magazine
by independent labor<BR>reporter/photographer David Bacon touched on the
topic. An Associated<BR>Press story from the AFSCME convention covered a
speech by a U.S.<BR>soldier formerly held prisoner in Iraq but made no mention
of AFSCME's<BR>resolution, and the soldier was not opposed to the war. Oh, and
Fox<BR>News (Special Report With Brit Hume) on July 3 mentioned
an<BR>organization that's rather hard to find in corporate media: U.S.
Labor<BR>Against the War (a large and active coalition of unions opposed to
the<BR>war) -- but the point of briefly mentioning USLAW was to accuse it
and<BR>other "Bush-hating" groups of planning to "sabotage the
Republican<BR>Convention."<BR><BR>It's not that media have entirely refused to
inform the public of this<BR>story, it's just that the outlets doing so are
neither well funded nor<BR>tracked by Nexis. Google searches turn up stories
on the<BR>ILCAonline.org website from the ILCA, from Press
Associates<BR>Incorporated (a wire service used by many labor papers), and
from<BR>AFSCME, as well as stories from FrontPageMag.com, Zmag.org,
People's<BR>Weekly World, Workday Minnesota, Socialist Worker, Workers'
World,<BR>Labor Educator, Under News, Anti-Imperialism, and many other labor
and<BR>alternative online publications, discussion lists, and
blogs.<BR><BR>The story of US labor opposition to the war appears to be a
prime<BR>example of the corporate media's blackout of labor's issues, and
yet<BR>another argument for devoting our energies to building stronger
labor<BR>media.<BR><BR>Details on Nexis searches performed:<BR>1. ("organized
labor" w/s Iraq) AND (Iraq w/3 war) = five articles,<BR>none relevant<BR>2.
("labor union" w/s Iraq) AND (Iraq w/3 war) = 15 articles,
none<BR>relevant<BR>3. "labor union" w/s Iraq = 45 articles, including the
Nation and AP<BR>stories mentioned above but nothing else related<BR>4. USLAW
= two articles, one unrelated and the other the same Nation<BR>article<BR>5.
"labor against" AND war = 31 articles, including the Nation article<BR>again
and the Fox News story mentioned above<BR>6. AFSCME AND Iraq = 24 articles,
none relevant<BR>7. SEIU AND Iraq = 22 articles, none relevant<BR>8.
"California Labor Federation" = 46 articles, none relevant<BR><BR>David
Swanson is Media Coordinator for the International Labor<BR>Communications
Association (ILCA) at <A
href="http://ILCAonline.org">http://ILCAonline.org</A><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>________________________________________________________________________<BR>________________________________________________________________________<BR><BR>Message:
2 <BR> Date: Tue,
20 Jul 2004 22:26:31 -0000<BR> From: NYCLAW<BR>Subject: Protest at
DNC--7.25 (ANSWER)<BR><BR>AN OPEN APPEAL TO THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT<BR><BR>BUSH
& KERRY MUST BE TOLD<BR>BRING THE TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ NOW!<BR><BR>RALLY
AND MARCH AT THE DNC<BR>Sunday JULY 25, Boston Commons, 12 noon<BR><BR>A
HISTORIC CHALLANGE FOR OUR MOVEMENT. Democratic Party<BR>Presidential
Candidate John Kerry has made it as clear as<BR>day that he supports the
continued occupation of Iraq by<BR>upwards of 140 thousand U.S. troops and a
smaller number<BR>of troops from other countries, indefinitely. Kerry
has<BR>said that he is prepared to send more U.S. troops to Iraq<BR><BR>and
Afganistan. He supports the criminal apartheid wall<BR>that is imprisoning the
Palestinian people. He supports<BR>Bush's kidnapping of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristede of<BR>Haiti, and the occupation of that country by U.S.
troops.<BR>He has vowed to continue Bush's war and do a better job<BR>off
pulling in "our allies".<BR><BR>Now is not the time to hesitate. Those of us
who have been<BR>marching against Bush's wars for almost 2 and one
half<BR>years must not allow misplaced concerns over not doing<BR>anything
that might hurt Kerry and help Bush keeps us<BR>from bringing a strong, and
defiant anti-war message to<BR>the streets of Boston during the DNC.<BR><BR>IF
we are not out in force at both the DNC AND the RNC we<BR>will send a
dangerous message that we will surely regret.<BR>The message? Kerry has tamed
and gagged the anti-war<BR>voices, just as he effectively stopped the
Kucinich<BR>forces from calling for the troops to be brought home
now.<BR><BR>We must converge on Boston at the major anti-war rally
on<BR>Sunday July 25 sponsered by International ANSWER and many<BR>others, to
scream at the top of our voices that niether of<BR>the pro-war candidates have
a pass from us to keep the<BR>troops in Iraq for 6 more years are 6 more
months.<BR><BR>Join us to say:<BR>Bring the troops home now!<BR><BR>The week
of protest will kick off with a permitted rally<BR>in Boston Common on Sunday,
July 25 at 12 noon, to be<BR>followed by a march on the Fleet Center, site of
the DNC.<BR><BR>for more information, call (617)
522-6626<BR>www.answerboston.org<BR>info@answerboston.org<BR> <BR><BR><BR>March
on the DNC!<BR>Sunday, July 25<BR>call the 617-522-66226<BR>www.iacboston for
more information<BR><BR><BR>Iraq War Crimes Tribunal<BR>Thursday, August
26<BR>call 212-633-6646 for more information<BR>www.PeopleJudgeBush.org for
more information<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.iacenter.org">http://www.iacenter.org</A><BR>iacenter@iacenter.org<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>________________________________________________________________________<BR>________________________________________________________________________<BR><BR><BR><BR>------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>Yahoo!
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