[The following is a model motion for trade unionists on action against a war on Iraq. It is being circulated by members of the Socialist Alliance. If your union or workplace adopts it, please inform the Socialist Alliance at <ne@socialist-alliance.org>.]
This meeting of [details of union body]:
1. Believes that there is no justification for the war on Iraq that is about to be unleashed by the US government. This war will be an unjust war — not a war against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction but a war for oil and for control of the Middle East. Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, but it up to the Iraqi people, not Washington, to get rid of him. We condemn the Howard government for its support for Bush’s drive to war.
2. Notes that trade unions have played a crucial historical role in building opposition to unjust and illegal wars, for example in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. We congratulate the train drivers in Scotland who refused to transport war materials for the British army in Iraq and the growing number of US labour councils and unions that have come out against the war.
3. Therefore calls on our union to:
* oppose military preparations for war and demand the immediate withdrawal of all Australian armed forces from the Gulf;
* actively participate in the anti-war demonstrations, including emergency actions called to respond to the beginning of war on Iraq;
* place industrial bans on any work associated with the war effort against Iraq;
* hold meetings with other unions, relevant trades and labour councils and the ACTU to develop an ongoing campaign of industrial action against the war;
* urge the Labor Party to unequivocally oppose the war;
* and, actively build the anti-war movement by holding delegate and workplace meetings and by endorsing, publicising and providing financial support to the [name of relevant anti-war organisation].
From Green Left Weekly, February 12, 2003.
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