An Open Letter to All Students Organizing against Sweatshop Labor or for the Living Wage: No solidarity with Amerikan war-mongers, whether rulers, unions or "workers"! Student activists--the recent war in Afghanistan has done much to clarify the political scene. The Democratic Party has fully and openly supported the war and rumors have it that Bush may lean more on the liberals for support than conservatives who have their own issues that they are internally divided over. Liberals across the country have abandoned any scientific approach to global peace and harmony and polls show that the vast majority of the public wants the war even though it believes it will increase terrorism. Having trusted their rulers so long, of course the average apolitical members of the public can think of no other solution to the current situation than a solution that they admit will make things worse! In other words, this country has gone nuts, like in the early stages of Nazi Germany. Students, you need to take a look at what the AFL- CIO is saying. President Sweeney hailed by so many people really claiming to be on the side of the international working class said this: "I have called President Bush to express the AFL- CIO’s full support for him in this time of crisis and offer any and all assistance from the labor movement." Sweeney then said in reference to backing the president, "No sacrifice is too great." President Bush has since used similar language to prepare the public for deaths of troops. Already since September 12th, the AFL-CIO has led the way toward war. What they are saying in the language of old people is that they will see everyone dead if that's what it takes to preserve their stupid ways. The Machinists' leader President R. Thomas Buffenbarger put it this way: "Today, IAM members return to work. They will be prepping the planes that can just as easily carry troops to the farthest reaches of the earth. They will be building the F-15, F-16, F-18 and F-22’s that will impose a new reality on those who have dared attack us. For it is not simply justice we seek. It is vengeance, pure and complete." That vengeance is now plain to see--bombs dropping from the sky and killing Afghani wimmin and children. It's clear that these sorts of unions see their "workers" benefitting at the expense of other workers. They don't have a serious solution to "terrorism" any more than the imperialist Israeli rulers have the last 50 years--and no young persyn anywhere should put up with these failed solutions. It is your life they are ruining! This sort of union and the so-called workers who support them just want to build the bombers and make the money. They are bought off and have no feelings for the international proletariat, which is why they are so outside the mainstream of the international working class, which in country after country in the Third World (except India) shows that the workers oppose the war. MIM has said all this before in theory. Now students: it is up to you. The labor bureaucracy, the labor aristocracy and activists of the social- democratic, Trotskyist and other social-chauvinist ilk are going to say the workers just have false consciousness. If so, then these "workers" will come around under persuasion. Put it to the test: now. It's time for these activists to put up or shut up. Either unions come out to oppose the war, by removing their leaders if necessary and putting in new ones, or you students should withdraw your support from them--in solidarity with workers in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Muslim countries and the Third World generally. Some students are seeking to raise wages from $9 an hour to $10.25 in living wage campaigns. OK, but if the union that wants the living wage wants to stick it to Afghani workers, then stick it to that union, because at $9 an hour, those workers will survive much better than the Afghani worker, even without being bombed. If that Amerikan "worker" wants to bomb Afghanistan and then wonder why the Afghanis can never get their economy going well enough to pay higher wages, you need to talk to that "worker" about things other than $9 and $10.25 an hour. Students, you can organize independently from these unions. The best thing you can do for workers' conditions is to defeat the political repression aimed at labor organizers internationally and defeat the imperialist wars that destroy economies for Third World workers. That approach was always more effective than the AFL-CIO approach anyway. Now if you work with the AFL-CIO you are building the glory of insane war- mongers. Quit the AFL-CIO now and if the rank-and- file really wants you back, they can organize to put in new leaders to oppose the war and bring you back. Why do you want to work with the AFL-CIO to raise the average 50 cent an hour wage of the Third World worker just so Donald Rumsfeld can order them bombed to death after they get a pay raise? He has already promised to attack 60 countries and he has the support of the labor unions and their rank and file. That has to change. We call on you to boycott working with any union that refuses to oppose the war. Boycott any union that thinks that sanctions killing children in Iraq are the solution. Do not settle for less than overturning what these union leaders have said. If a union does not speak out, it is supporting its leaders, no matter what they say to your face! The AFL-CIO and other unions internationally will put pressure on you. They will withdraw their financial support, but they are obviously counting on the support of the imperialists to make more bombers for this war. Let them go to their masters. Don't give them your active support! The international proletariat has the combined strength to handle the U.$. war and come out with a better solution. Get your organization together to endorse this statement! Unions abroad who oppose this war: send your endorsements too! Encourage the students to do this urgent work. Send your endorsement to maoist3@yahoo.com so we can publicize it. --Maoist Internationalist Movement Notes: 1. The first poll showed only 43% thought military retaliation would increase terrorism. Later the public changed its mind to become a vast majority believing military action will increase terrorism. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/16/ter rorism-poll2.htm ; http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/23/pol l.htm ; 83% want retaliation even if it increases the threat of retaliation and war-- http://www.gallup.com/poll/Releases/Pr010927.asp ; 8 out of 10 self-identified liberals support military action-- http://www.gallup.com/poll/Releases/Pr010927.asp; http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,312316- 412,00.shtml ; The most recent poll on the subject that 51% of the public as of October 19th thought that military action might lead to more terrorism not less. www.zogby.com 2. For the text of all union quotes here, go to www.aflcio.org. http://www.aflcio.org/articles/studentactivism/index.htm is an example of how the AFL-CIO tends to its "future." MIM's own archive on the war is at: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/sept112001/index.html