Trade union officials indict U.S. drive toward war
1985Carl Finamore 1985-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
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Union activists and anti-intervention organizers should be very interested in the second report on Central America just released by the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador. The committee organized a leadership tradeunion delegation for a fact-finding visit to El Salvador and Nicaragua in February 1985.
Members of the AFL-CIO union delegation included Ken Blaylock, president, American Federation of Government Employees; Keith Johnson, president, International Woodworkers of America; Victor Gotbaum, international vice-president, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Jack Sheinkman, secretarytreasurer, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU); and David Dyson, director, Union Label Department (ACTWU).
Opposing the official AFL-CIO posi, tion on Central America, the report contains a devastating indictment against the Reagan administration's claim that the human rights situation in El Salvador has improved.
The delegation concluded that "the human rights situation in El Salvador has not improved," "trade union and political rights in El Salvador are still being violated, and the "crimes of the past have gone unpunished and the repressive structures of Salvadoran society remain intact."
While the authors criticize the Sandinista government for imposing "restrictions on the democratic process"' they further note that there is "political opposition, free speech, thought and assembly existing in Nicaragua today."
Most important, however, the labor committee recommends that the U.S. government "end all military support for the counterrevolutionary groups Honduras and Costra Rica."
It also states that "the United States tional credits."
Supporters of the revolutions in Central America will have legitimate disagreements with the report's underlying assumption that a "democratic" form of capitalism can meet the needs of the workers and peasants of Central Amerforce them screen job ment against U.S. policy can help the anti-intervention movement reach out to working people and strengthen its ties to the unions.
Single copies of the report can be obtained for $1 by writing the National Labor Committee at 15 Union Square, New York, N.Y. 10003. The office can be reached at (212) 242-0700. Orders of 11 or more can be purchased for 50 cents.
is under control.
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should cease efforts to damage the Nic- araguan economy by blocking interna-