'We will be going back into the streets next spring'

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The following are excerpts from the introductory and concluding remarks to the Nov. 2 conference by Al Lannon. Lannon president of Local 6 of the International Longshore and Warehouse union, was one of the four co-chairs of the Spring Mobilization. for Peace, Jobs and Justice that organized a march of 50,000 on April 20, 1985: April 20, 1985, rally of 50,000 in San Francisco SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1985 It has been shown on Mexican TV. And I hope that someday it can be shown on TV in this country as well.

Now we just came up the pike, some of us who are here, from Anaheim, where we had a small meeting down there with the AFL-CIO. There was an inevitable, historic clash between the pro-Reagan and the antiReagan forces in the U.S. labor movement.

We came up with a compromise reso -lution that did not please us, but that allows us to fight another day. Despite everything else it says, for the first time in history, it says that the AFL-CIO is against military solutions in the Nica -raguan region.

I don't know about everybody else's deductive reasoning, but I take that to mean no aid to the contras. Now what followed the resolution was perhaps even more important, and that was the debate, led by Ken Blaylock of the American Federation of Government Employees and Ed Asner of the Screen Actors Guild, among others. It was one of the first major debates on foreign policy in the last 40 years of AFL-CIO history! And I can guarantee you that from this point on it won't be the last.

Never again is the AFL-CIO going to be (continued on page 12, in “'Nicaragua has a right to self-determination'”)

From the introduction: We work together with respect for each other's different points of view, but united on four points: No U.S. intervention in Central America; End U.S. support for apartheid; Freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race; We want jobs and justice, not war. Those four demands brought 50,000 people into the streets of San Francisco last April.

We know that national policy can be influenced. and can be changed by mass demonstrations, by the democratic ex -pressions of legitimate protest. The issues are still with us and worse. And we will be in the streets again next April and again after that until we have peace, jobs, and justice..

From the conclusion: Edgardo Garcia [leader of the pro-Sandinista labor federation of Nicaragua] has sent a message that I want to share with you. He says that he supports the Mobilization's efforts to build unity and build the organization. He says he hopes that the Mobilization would promote a fact-finding mission to go to South Africa and Central America. He hopes that the level of commitment at this conference continues on an annual basis.

We appreciate that message. And, yes, we'll be going back into the streets next April.