ICTU – ORGANISE STRIKE ACTION TO STOP THE WAR!

Tuesday March 25, 2003 11:28

by Pat C

Could you manage to get along to this or spread the word. There will be a lobby of The ICTU Special Delegate Conference on Pay on Wednesday 26th March starting at 10.00am outside Liberty Hall. All the officials from the national union head offices and Delegates from around the country will be present. Could you manage to get there to leaflet delegates from 10am on, the conference starts at 10.30am.

Pass the word around. Draft leaflet below.

ICTU – ORGANISE STRIKE ACTION TO STOP THE WAR!

No one who has been watching the television images of the bombing of Baghdad
will be under any illusion that what we are witnessing is not a horrific and
barbaric attack that demeans humanity. The decision of the Irish government to
support this war through provision of overflight rights and facilitates at
Shannon airport is appalling and shameful. Against the clear wishes of the
majority of the Irish people the Irish State is now complicit in the war crimes
that flow from the blitzkrieg.

This self serving decision has been presented as one of national self interest.
The Irish people have already rejected the claim that it is somehow in their
interests that a small and poor country should be subject to the devastating
power of the most destructive military machines that the world has ever seen.
The very opposite is the case. It is in the interests of the vast majority of
our country that this war be stopped. As so often, it falls on working people
and especially their representatives in the workers movement to express their
views and take the action that will realize their aspirations.

The gathering today of delegates from the majority of Ireland’s trade union
movement is an exceptional opportunity to fulfil this role. The Irish Congress
of Trade Unions has already signalled its opposition to this war. Now is the
occasion to turn words into deeds. No bureaucratic rule book should stand in
the way of democratic debate when innocent Iraqi people are being butchered as
we meet.

At the moment ICTU claims to be in the leadership of the ant-war movement yet it
has led no campaign in the workplaces and made no call on trade union members to
take action as trade unionists.

Delegates to this conference should demand an emergency discussion on the war
and put forward an emergency resolution demanding real preparations and
organisation for strike action to demand that the government close Shannon
airport to the United States military.

Delegates should support Saturday’s national demonstration; but demonstrations
are only one step to an effective campaign. We need a commitment to real strike
action through dedication to building an anti-war movement inside the trade
union movement. This means workplace and branch committees to build the support
that will make a strike call a reality. It means Trade Councils devoting real
resources to the educational and agitational campaign that can convince members
that it is in their interests to take action. If ICTU won’t take meaningful
action then delegates themselves, however many there may be, must organise it
themselves.

We must reject the claim that this action would be illegal. George Bush and
Tony Blair have torn up the international law books and Bertie Ahern is
supporting this illegal war. As the trade union movement meets to decide on a
continuing partnership with this government it cannot be seen to be partners of
the partners who are dragging our world into barbarism. We cannot and must not
stand shoulder to shoulder with those that would support this criminal
enterprise.

Silent vigils, poorly organised, is not the response that is required. Silence
is rarely heard above the noise of war. We need loud and clear voices demanding
an end to this war. ICTU can provide this voice. If it does not ordinary
workers must push it aside and speak out as the authentic voice of Ireland’s
workers.