LaborTalk (March 16, 2005)
LaborTalk (March 16, 2005)
Sweeney Is Member of War Hawks Group That Is Promoting Bush's Global Agenda
By Harry Kelber
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is a member of the Project for the New American Century, an organization loaded with prominent military and political figures, many in key positions in the Bush administration, whose prime activity is to promote the establishment of an American global empire through the use of military and economic power.
Among Sweeney's fellow PNAC members are: Vice President Dick Cheney, a founder; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, a prominent war hawk. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a major strategist of the war with Iraq, is the ideological father of the group.
PNAC's staff is studded with men who formerly served with groups like Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America, which supported America's bloody intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and with groups like The Committee for the Present Danger, which spent years advocating that a nuclear war with the Soviet Union was "winnable."
Sweeney owes union members an explanation as to why he joined an organization that advocates American domination of countries and peoples throughout the world. No Pax-America resolution was ever passed, or even introduced, at any AFL-CIO convention. Why is the head of the American labor movement consorting with this anti-worker crowd?
While Sweeney has not publicly expressed support for PNAC's doctrine of world domination,, he has helped President Bush the past two years by remaining completely silent about the war in Iraq, creating the public impression that the war, and the reasons for launching it, is of no concern to working families. Although a sizeable list of major international unions, state federations, central labor councils and local affiliates representing better than a third of the federation's 13 million members have passed resolutions calling for an end to the American-led occupation in Iraq and the return of our troops, AFL-CIO publications and policy statements of the Executive Council have not said a word about the anti-war movement or its labor advocates. Why the information blackout? And was it on Sweeney¹s orders?
The Project for a New American Century is a neo-conservative think tank, founded in 1997, whose principles are now the governing foreign and military policies of the Bush administration. In September 2000, the Project released a "grand plan" that called for sufficient combat forces to fight and win multiple major wars and be equipped for "constabulary duties" around the world, with American rather than U.N. leadership. The Project supports the doctrine of pre-emptive war and the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons.
After more than two years of silence on Bush's policies in Iraq and the scandals in the war on terrorism, it's time for Sweeney to explain his behavior to union members, who, at long last, are waiting to hear from him. It's especially important because Sweeney is listed on the PNAC's roster not as an individual, but as president of the AFL-CIO.
Finally, we deserve a frank answer from Sweeney: Does he intend to remain as a PNAC member or will he resign?
Our weekly "LaborTalk" and "World of Labor" columns, as well as our pamphlets and other labor materials, can be viewed at our Web site:. My e-mail address is: hkelber@igc.org>.
Sweeney Is Member of War Hawks Group That Is Promoting Bush's Global Agenda
By Harry Kelber
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is a member of the Project for the New American Century, an organization loaded with prominent military and political figures, many in key positions in the Bush administration, whose prime activity is to promote the establishment of an American global empire through the use of military and economic power.
Among Sweeney's fellow PNAC members are: Vice President Dick Cheney, a founder; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, a prominent war hawk. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a major strategist of the war with Iraq, is the ideological father of the group.
PNAC's staff is studded with men who formerly served with groups like Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America, which supported America's bloody intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and with groups like The Committee for the Present Danger, which spent years advocating that a nuclear war with the Soviet Union was "winnable."
Sweeney owes union members an explanation as to why he joined an organization that advocates American domination of countries and peoples throughout the world. No Pax-America resolution was ever passed, or even introduced, at any AFL-CIO convention. Why is the head of the American labor movement consorting with this anti-worker crowd?
While Sweeney has not publicly expressed support for PNAC's doctrine of world domination,, he has helped President Bush the past two years by remaining completely silent about the war in Iraq, creating the public impression that the war, and the reasons for launching it, is of no concern to working families. Although a sizeable list of major international unions, state federations, central labor councils and local affiliates representing better than a third of the federation's 13 million members have passed resolutions calling for an end to the American-led occupation in Iraq and the return of our troops, AFL-CIO publications and policy statements of the Executive Council have not said a word about the anti-war movement or its labor advocates. Why the information blackout? And was it on Sweeney¹s orders?
The Project for a New American Century is a neo-conservative think tank, founded in 1997, whose principles are now the governing foreign and military policies of the Bush administration. In September 2000, the Project released a "grand plan" that called for sufficient combat forces to fight and win multiple major wars and be equipped for "constabulary duties" around the world, with American rather than U.N. leadership. The Project supports the doctrine of pre-emptive war and the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons.
After more than two years of silence on Bush's policies in Iraq and the scandals in the war on terrorism, it's time for Sweeney to explain his behavior to union members, who, at long last, are waiting to hear from him. It's especially important because Sweeney is listed on the PNAC's roster not as an individual, but as president of the AFL-CIO.
Finally, we deserve a frank answer from Sweeney: Does he intend to remain as a PNAC member or will he resign?
Our weekly "LaborTalk" and "World of Labor" columns, as well as our pamphlets and other labor materials, can be viewed at our Web site:
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 8:04 AM
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