Anti-War Resolution

By Administrative Staff, New England Health Care Employees Union, SEIU Local 1199. Posted December 16, 2002.

New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199

The New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, Service Employees International Union has over 22,000 members in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Our members spend their working lives giving care to the sick, the elderly and the disabled. We work in both the public and private sectors. We care about human life and we care about our country. We participate fully in our communities, in our state and local politics and government, in our religious institutions and in our union. As a union and as patriotic Americans, we are obligated to educate ourselves about current affairs that affect our members, our families and our patients. We are obliged to make our opinions known to our representatives. Through this resolution we are addressing an issue of overriding concern to us -- the possibility of a war on Iraq initiated by our government.

After discussion and debate in our Executive Board we adopt the following positions concerning a possible war with Iraq:

1. We oppose any unilateral, pre-emptive war against Iraq initiated by the United States or any other nation. We urge our government to bring its case against Iraq to the United Nations (U.N.) and to abide by the decision of the United Nations.

2. Pre-emptive war should need a higher standard of support from the international community than does defensive war. If the United States or its close allies were under attack from Iraq, the support of the United Nations would not be required. Fortunately, this is not the case.

3. We encourage the President to continue to raise the issue of compliance by Iraq with the terms of the 1991 peace agreement. We think the United Nations should enforce its resolutions concerning inspection and disarmament, and it is appropriate for the United States to use all diplomatic and economic pressure to achieve this end. It is not appropriate for the United States to bypass the U.N. absent an immediate threat by Iraq against us or our allies or Iraq's neighbors.

4. In our modern world we must strengthen multi-national institutions such as the U.N. or else we risk a breakdown of international law. The U.S. must not be the nation that sets the precedent for unilateral, pre-emptive war.

5. The timing of this rush to war by President Bush is very troubling and suspicious. Our economy is in deep trouble; our social safety net is being weakened; our seniors need coverage for prescription drugs; our health care system is in crisis and we have an election on the horizon. Suddenly President Bush has changed the discussions into a referendum on whether or not the American people will support our military in a war. And he has done this in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that Iraq is more of an immediate danger to any other nation than it was six months or a year ago or even two years ago when President Bush was inaugurated.

6. The American people have endorsed and supported the attack on Al-Qaeda as a response to the murderous assault on our country on September 11, 2001. This national unity must not be squandered or misused to justify attacking Iraq. There is no credible evidence that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks. We should not waste our worldwide support for the fight against terrorism by launching a pre-emptive attack against Iraq.

7. And, finally, we are mindful that wars kill people and destroy societies. The potential death toll in Iraq is staggering. Maybe it can be avoided but maybe it cannot. War will spend huge resources in people and money -- resources that could be used for health care and schools and social services. Because of this a war should be the last resort. We are not convinced that all other options have been exhausted. We are not convinced that Iraq poses an immediate threat to our country, our allies or its neighbors and we are extremely suspicious of the timing of this rush to war.

We are circulating this resolution to all of our senators and representatives from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. We are also sending it to the Service Employees International Union and we are requesting our International Union to circulate it to our local unions.

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