Duluth Central Labor Body Resolution on the RNC 8

Resolution in Support of the RNC 8 and Stating that the Anti-Terrorism Act Should be Repealed


Whereas, a free society is one in which people can organize collectively to improve their lives without fear of persecution by their government; and

Whereas, the labor movement has historically suffered state intimidation and repression in our efforts to organize working people, including the unconstitutional arrest of labor organizers and publishers of union papers under “criminal syndicalism” laws of the first half of the 20th century; and

Whereas, changes to the Minnesota criminal code under the so-called Anti-Terrorism Act of 2002 threaten political speech by defining acts that “further terrorism” so broadly as to encompass civil disobedience designed to “disrupt or interfere with the lawful exercise, operation, or conduct of government, lawful commerce, or the right of lawful assembly,” including strikes, blockades and other union actions to defend workers’ rights; and

Whereas, the first criminal charges under this law were filed by Ramsey County prosecutors in September of 2008 against organizers of Republican National Convention protests in St Paul (known as the "RNC 8"), with no evidence that the defendants committed any act of violence;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body stands in solidarity with the RNC 8 and goes on record as opposing the politically-motivated terrorism charges filed against them; and

Be it further resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body goes on record as opposing 609.714 of the Minnesota criminal code (“CRIMES COMMITTED IN FURTHERANCE OF TERRORISM”) and calls on Minnesota state legislators to work for the repeal of this law;

Be it further resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body urges that labor unions across Minnesota consider the implications of the RNC 8 case and the Minnesota Anti-Terrorism Act on their own organizing and to support the cause of repeal.

Proposed and passed with unanimous support from the delegates of the Duluth Central Labor Body on March 12, 2009

PTSD Soldier

Report on the March 21 Protest in L.A.

[by Chloe Osmer]

On March 21st, thousands of people gathered in Los Angeles to protest the 6th anniversary of the Iraq war. The rally began at Hollywood Blvd. and Vine Street, with speakers addressing the crowd before the march began. Speakers included Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, Vietnam veteran and author of Born on the Fourth of July Ron Kovic, Academy award-winning director Paul Haggis, along with teachers, youth and many others.

The speakers called for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and end to the occupation in Palestine. They also urged that funds being spent on war and occupation be used instead to deal with the economic crisis and fund the education, housing and employement needs in the U.S. A speaker from the National Assembly called on those assembled for the demonstration to broaden the movement and continue the struggle after the march. The conference in Pittsburgh was announced and all were invited to attend on July 10-12 to help plan the next steps for the antiwar movement.

After the rally there was a march through Hollywood to the Kodak Theater, where they staged a "die in," laying down in the the busy intersection to highlight the deaths from the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Protestors at the head of the march held mock coffins covered in flags, which were presented to the Armed Forces Recruiting Center. The demonstration was sponsored by the National Assembly, A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition and Los Angeles Iraq Veterans against the war.

Report on the March 21 Protest in D.C.

[from the ANSWER Coalition]

A "throng of war protesters swelled Saturday as they marched across the Memorial Bridge." (AP) The protesters marched on the Pentagon and what followed was a dramatic direct action at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and KBR, corporations that demonstrators labeled "merchants of death." The predominantly young crowd continued to grow as the day proceeded. They marched through the Pentagon north Parking Lot and then into downtown Crystal City, where the leading war corporations' headquarters are located.

The march was led by a contingent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. There was a significant delegation from members of the Arab and Muslim communities and many students participated.

The Arlington County Police mobilized in full riot gear in an attempt to block the demonstrators from delivering symbolic coffins at the doorsteps of the war corporations. They brought tear gas, snarling dogs and pointed guns loaded with rubber bullets directly at demonstrators. The Arlington County Police also put out an absurdly low count of the demonstration, which was more than 10,000 people.

In Los Angeles, a simultaneous demonstration drew 4,000 people, which culminated with a dramatic die-in at the Kodak Theater. Another 4,000 demonstrated in San Francisco, where police carried out violent attacks on demonstrators and arrested numerous people.

"This is the launch of the anti-war movement in the post-Bush era. Bush is gone, but the occupation of Iraq continues, the war in Afghanistan is escalating, and the people of Palestine are living under a state of siege," stated Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition.

Report on the March 21 Protest in San Francisco

[by Jeff Mackler]

In the first Obama-era antiwar march and rally some 3,500 antiwar activists gathered in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza and proceeded up Market Street for a one-mile march to the Civic Center for a 1:00 pm mass rally.

The spirited and significantly youthful march and rally included modest but impressive contingents of Palestinian youth, a veterans contingent organized by Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War as well as a US Labor Against the War contingent of Bay Area trade unionists. The march was endorsed by the Alameda and San Francisco Central Labor Councils. Busses came from Sacramento, San Jose and surrounding areas.

The event was formally sponsored by the ad hoc March 21 Coalition, which included some 30-35 area antiwar, social justice, labor and socialist organizations. Leading the march, and by prior agreement, were two side-by-side contingents, one led by the ANSWER Coalition, the other by the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations. Both carried large banners raised high above the crowd.

The most prominent and numerous of the march placards were produced by the National Assembly and featured the NA's main demands:

Bring the Troops Home Now!
Stop U.S. Wars: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Palestine!
Occupation is a Crime: Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine!, and,
Funds Jobs and Human Needs Not Wars, Banks and Billionaires!

The rally was co-chaired by Jeff Mackler representing the National Assembly, Natali Hrizi of the ANSWER Coalition and a representative of the Free Palestine Alliance. It was broadcast live by Pacifica Radio Station's KPFA.

Featured speakers included Eric Mar, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Tim Paulson, Executive Director, SF Labor Council, Clarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10, Mike Eisenscher, US Labor Against the War, Malik Rahim, founder, Common Ground Relief, New Orleans, Arturo Garcia, National Coordinator, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, Dr. Hatem Bazian, Muslim community leader and Dr. Jess Ghannam, National Council of Arab Americans.

A number of groups affiliated with the National Assembly were also represented on the speakers podium. Paul George, Director of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, spoke as the National Assembly representative. Other speakers associated with the National Assembly were Marsha Feinland of the Peace and Freedom Party, Carol Seligman representing Bay Area United Against the War, Millie Philips, Socialist Organizer; Jeremy Tully, ISO and Mark Ostapiak, Socialist Action.

An ugly incident involving a police provocation marred the rally, fortunately for a relatively brief period of time. It began when the police arrested a 12-year old Palestinian youth who they claimed held a bag of stones. This unwarranted arrest justifiably angered a number of Palestinians and several others, who were all essentially serving in a long line of official monitors. The arrested youth's mother vehemently protested the taking of her son and demanded his release.

The San Francisco Police Department used this incident as an excuse to rapidly deploy several dozen additional police, who were not at all appreciated by the monitors and other rally participants. The monitors had been deployed to defend the rally since the it began. They were assembled along the street at the rear of the rally where a group of taunting Zionists carrying Israeli flags had gathered on the other side of the wide street, replete with racist signs and bullhorns.

The police made it a point to line up in force just a few feet in front of these rally monitors, a major provocation to say the least. The police proceeded to break into the line of monitors to eventually arrest some five protestors further angering those in the immediate area. In a few minutes a cordon of club-wielding police who has entered the rally 's grass lawn terrain found themselves surrounded by hundreds of protestors. All of these police provocations were out of sight of the vast number of rally participants – who were assembled on the other side of the large stage – listening to the speakers.

The rally co-chairs and organizers, seeing the growing encroachments of the police on the periphery of the rally site led several chants demanding that the police leave the rally premises. It was made absolutely clear that the police were interfering with a legal, permitted rally, were violating our right to assembly and were acting to provoke and disrupt our assembly. The entire audience joined in the
chants demanding that the police leave. "SF PD Out Now" the participants chanted. In short order the police did leave, taking with them some five arrested rally participants. The rally then resumed without interruption although later, at a local BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station five additional Palestinians were arrested. All have been falsely charged with serious felony offenses with bail set at $53,000 each. At least one was seriously injured and required hospitalization. National Lawyers Guild representatives are presently involved in the defense effort.

At every moment rally organizers and participants acted with restraint and calm in the face of a police intervention designed to provoke a major confrontation.

The rally was modest in size but enthusiastic in spirit, dedication and unity of purpose. It was an essential political response to a vicious and murderous wars conducted with impunity by the U.S. government.

The day's event saw the main organizers, including ANSWER, who played a critical part in many organizational aspects of the day, and the National Assembly, closely and effectively collaborating. All pre-march agreements were adhered to and solid and respectful working relations prevailed from the beginning to the end of the process of building and carrying out the protest.

Virtually everyone present understood that we were in the first stages of a long struggle against U.S. wars of intervention and occupation, that there is a dire need to integrate the fight against U.S. war with the inseparable fight against the broad attacks on working people on every front, and that we needed to reach out to the broad forces necessary to build a movement that can force the U.S. to withdraw.

However modest, March 21, marking the six years of the U.S. slaughter in Iraq, was a day that was absolutely necessary to establish the foundations for the new movement that will undoubtedly arrive in the period ahead.

Report on the March 21 Protest in Minneapolis

[by Mary Jane Smetanka, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

Marking the sixth anniversary of the start of the U.S. war with Iraq, about 350 sign-waving protesters marched 2 miles through St. Paul to the State Capitol on Saturday to demand that American troops withdraw immediately.

It was a smaller group than in past years. Kristin Dooley of Minneapolis, a member of the Iraq Peace Action Coalition, said the passing of the Bush administration and the election of a Democratic president have lulled Americans into thinking things have changed.

"It's not in the news anymore, and people are giving Obama a pass," she said. "Obama is still for war. ... There have been too many deaths in Iraq and too many deaths of American soldiers. I'm for getting the troops out now, right now. Put them on a plane and get them home."

Under President Obama's policy, U.S. combat troops are supposed to leave Iraq by September 2010, and all American troops are supposed to be out of the country by the end of 2011. Saturday's rally in St. Paul coincided with protests in Washington, Los Angeles and other cities.

Three members of Women Against Military Madness who have protested since the war's start sat on the sunny Capitol steps as they waited for other protesters to arrive. The three had skipped the march, driving from the event's start at a St. Paul community center to the Capitol. Marilyn Schmit of Minnetonka joked that she wasn't as young as she'd been when the war started.

Her friends Kathy Rolf of Hopkins and Lucia Wilkes Smith of Minneapolis agreed that a new administration had "changed the energy" around the war issue and they said that they support the new president. But Smith said she can't understand why more people don't vocally oppose the war when some of the primary reasons for starting it -- including the Bush argument that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction -- have fallen away.

"I don't know why the American people don't feel swindled and angry," Smith said. "I still believe my role is to challenge and actively confront the powers that be."
The protest concluded with people lining up at a microphone to read the names of the dozens of soldiers with strong Minnesota ties who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Minnesota National Guard member Raymond Camper, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, passed out slips of paper bearing the names of the dead. Camper, who lives in Mahtomedi, said he served in Iraq for about 18 months in 2006 and 2007. He objects to the war for religious and moral reasons.

"I started speaking out against the war as soon as I got back," Camper said. "I have to do what I can to stop it."

Camper said he campaigned for Obama but disagrees with the president's position that phased withdrawal of troops is necessary to prevent chaos in Iraq.

"I believe destabilization will happen regardless of when we leave," he said.
Another protest veteran, Gary North of Minneapolis, said that people are mistaken if they assume the new administration will "do the right thing."
"I think we will be here next year," he said.

Report on the March 21 Protest in Duluth

[by Adam Ritscher]

On Saturday, March 21, the Northland Anti-War Coalition in Duluth, MN held a march and rally to mark the sixth anniversary of the unjust U.S. invasion of Iraq. The protest also drew attention to the need to oppose the occupation of Afghanistan and Palestine, and called for an end to the JROTC programs in the Duluth Public Schools.

All told, just under 100 people participated in the event. The protest began at noon at the MN Power Plaza. From there the protesters marched up to the Duluth Public School District offices where Joel Kilgour gave a speech about the need to oppose JROTC [Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps] programs and military recruiters in the schools. Recently, as a result of the budget crisis, the Duluth Schools had voted to cut the JROTC program, but has since voted to reverse itself and keep it. NAWC is opposed to any presence by the military in our schools.

After Kilgour's speech, and some chanting in front of the School offices, the march proceeded to the steps of City Hall, where the main rally was held. Bob Kosuth of NAWC was the rally MC. Speaking was Deb Taylor of the MN Peacemakers, Brandon Clokey of the Duluth Fathering Project, Carl Sack of Socialist Action & Northwoods for Mumia, Steve Wick of Students for Peace at the Univ. of MN-Duluth, Josie from the Amnesty International chapter at the College of St. Scholastica and Paige Moroney of the Indigenous Student Alliance. During the rally the Veterans for Peace float was parked at the rally site as a dramatic back drop to the whole affair.

After the speakers, a skit was performed called "Uncle Sam Goes to Baghdad" which highlighted the injustices of the U.S. invasion, and our need to keep up the fight against the war.

Overall, while the turnout of the protest was modest, it was a very spirited and high energy affair. The crowd was a diverse one, representing a variety of groups and demographics from across the region. The protest received a broad range of endorsements, including Veterans for Peace Chapter 80, UMD Students for Peace, CSS Amnesty International, Grandmothers for Peace, Women in Black, Socialist Action, Lake Superior Greens, Community of the Third Way, Peace North, Duluth Fathering Project, North Star Replublic, Duluth Unitarian Peace & Justice Committee, Every Church a Church of Peace and the Duluth Free Speech corner. We also received a fair amount of press coverage, both before and after the rally. Leading up the protest the rally was plugged in TWO issues of Labor World newspaper, the Zenith, the Transistor and the Hillsider. At the protest itself reporters from the Duluth News Tribune, the Reader Weekly, the Hillsider, and TV Channels 3 & 6.

Speech by Chris Gauvreau at March 21st antiwar rally in DC

Speech by Chris Gauvreau of Connecticut United for Peace (CTUP), March 21, 2009, Washington, DC

It has been difficult to build this demonstration, because each day the corporate media runs a story about how the war in Iraq is winding down. But this morning when I woke up I read the moving appeal from the Iraq Veterans and the Military Families. They said that we must keep marching until every last troop and mercenary is brought home from Iraq and the Iraqi people have true self-determination. And I read the appeal from Iraqi trade unionists meeting in February to steel themselves to step up the fight against the theft of Iraqi oil by U.S. corporations with the blessing of the U.S. backed occupation regime. They plead for our solidarity against the criminal plans that Exxon and Washington have cooked up for their country. In Pakistan, thousands are demonstrating against the regime that is allowing the U.S. military to use drones to bomb and assassinate and stoke civil war. In Afghanistan, the women that the U.S. government claims to be saving with bombs and drones are nailing the U.S. backed regime in Kabul for failing to prosecute so called honor killings of young females.

And Gaza: My friend Saeed who just returned from Gaza says that those resilient and tireless people refuse to be driven from their land and STILL stand defiantly in the veritable rubble of their homes, offering tea to the strangers on solidarity visits from Europe and the U.S.

Those most deeply affected by this war know that it is most definitely NOT over. Further, the economic crisis that drove the U.S. government to undertake this vast military intervention into the Middle East and South Asia, that drove the U.S. elites to undertake this campaign to gain some competitive advantage by means of the energy resources of the region, may just be beginning. Without a militant and independent movement in the streets, exposing each and every escalation of this war, we can expect only more and more desperate military acts in the service of corporate America.

That is why this demonstration, though smaller than some held in the past, is a victory. This demonstration today is a victory whose magnitude you might not yet fully appreciate. It is a victory over the most sophisticated dream machine the U.S. elite has had at its disposal for some time. A dream machine that has weekly fed stories to the media assuring us that the war is over and mobilization unnecessary.

We are the first to mobilize in significant numbers against a government incapable of meeting the needs of those of us who work for a living. We are the first to show the Iraqis, Afghanis, Palestinians that we are still fighting for their right to self-determination. We have proven to those forces in Washington who thought that sweet talk and promises would kill our movement that they are dead wrong and put fear of the antiwar movement's power back in their hearts.

When I look out over this crowd, I see the people who have the confidence and skills and passion to bring the truth about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine to the increasingly desperate working people of this country. I see the leaders in training who will rebuild an antiwar movement that links arms with the immigrant workers meeting now from one end of the country to another, and calling for an end to the militarization of the border and the paramilitary ICE raids that are conducted under the umbrella of the so-called war on terror. I see the activists who will plan the next mass mobilization, a mobilization that has the potential to bring in the thousands of new fighters who have recently earned their spurs in the occupation of Republic Windows or the sit downs at the Colibri factory in Rhode Island or in the fight to keep social services flowing. I see the leaders who will make the demand for immediate withdrawal of all the troops, mercenaries, bases, and military aid the natural cry of every family fighting the cruelties being imposed in the name of economic recovery.

Mass united front type actions, independent of the war party, will allow us to grow this movement to encompass the increasing number of veterans, soldiers, unionists, and community activists that are looking for a way to fight back. From every community, people will be looking for a way to articulate their opposition to the priorities of Washington. I urge you all to join me and hundreds of others in an open antiwar conference in July to discuss just how we might grow such mobilizations in today's political situation. Collective discussions like this are essential if we are to engage those just now coming to understand the roots and impact of the war.

Money for Jobs and Education, not War and Occupation! Out Now!