Canadian Workers Demand Immediate End to War in Afghanistan

[quandary121]

On 29 May 2008, the delegates at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing more than three million workers from every region of Canada and Quebec, voted overwhelmingly to demand that the Government of Canada immediately end its participation in the illegal war in Afghanistan.
This CLC demand represents a significant consolidation of labour power. Several national unions, notably the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had already adopted policies to oppose Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan. However, some powerful unions whose members work in the rapidly expanding Canadian military and development industries could profit from continuing the war. The women and men of these unions made the difficult decision to stand in solidarity with the working people of Afghanistan rather than act on self-interest.

 

[quandary121]

The ongoing war in Afghanistan continues to kill uncounted thousands of Afghan civilians and cause immeasurable suffering due to horrendous injuries, the displacement of people from their homes and livelihoods, home invasions, arbitrary arrests and torture, sexual abuse, and the general humiliation of Afghans. This is an illegal war that cannot be justified by a few extra jobs for Canadian workers

 

[Socrates the Greek]

War Sucks!!!!!!

 

[quandary121]

War Sucks!!!!!!

I agree wholeheartedly
time to bring all our boys and girls home

 

[Colpy]

On 29 May 2008, the delegates at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing more than three million workers from every region of Canada and Quebec, voted overwhelmingly to demand that the Government of Canada immediately end its participation in the illegal war in Afghanistan.
This CLC demand represents a significant consolidation of labour power. Several national unions, notably the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had already adopted policies to oppose Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan. However, some powerful unions whose members work in the rapidly expanding Canadian military and development industries could profit from continuing the war. The women and men of these unions made the difficult decision to stand in solidarity with the working people of Afghanistan rather than act on self-interest.

First of all, I'd like to say that I've been a union man most of my life...........Cereal and Brewery Workers, Longshoreman's Association, Teachers' Union, Teamsters. I consider unions to be no less than essential to the workers, and a necessity in the free market society.

BUT, unions do NOT speak politically for the membership.

Full Stop.

Every time some bunch like the CLC makes some political statement on behalf of "the workers of Canada", I shudder.

Most of my union brothers (outside of the teachers) have been either pretty damned right wing, if they are politically aware at all.

So spare me the voice of the workers of Canada. Union members pay attention to the wage, benefits, and working conditions their elected leaders can help them get, they don't give a rats' ass for their ho;ier than thou political declarations.......if they DID, the NDP would control every gov't in Canada......

 

[quandary121]

First of all, I'd like to say that I've been a union man most of my life...........Cereal and Brewery Workers, Longshoreman's Association, Teachers' Union, Teamsters. I consider unions to be no less than essential to the workers, and a necessity in the free market society.

BUT, unions do NOT speak politically for the membership.

Full Stop.

Every time some bunch like the CLC makes some political statement on behalf of "the workers of Canada", I shudder.

Most of my union brothers (outside of the teachers) have been either pretty damned right wing, if they are politically aware at all.

So spare me the voice of the workers of Canada. Union members pay attention to the wage, benefits, and working conditions their elected leaders can help them get, they don't give a rats' ass for their ho;ier than thou political declarations.......if they DID, the NDP would control every gov't in Canada......

Is it because i posted this thread that you want to disagree with it. or do you honesty expect me to believe that you support the illegal war in Afghanistan colpy .you cant realy expect us to believe that you do surly.:?:

 

[TenPenny]

I don't know what your problem is, but Colpy did not once even hint at what he thinks about the war in Afghanistan.

Learn to read before you post ****e. It's tiresome.

 

[quandary121]

I don't know what your problem is, but Colpy did not once even hint at what he thinks about the war in Afghanistan.

Learn to read before you post ****e. It's tiresome.

no he just goes around trying to denounce every thing i post with his **** ok and thats tiresome

 

[quandary121]

The Afghan War and the Canadian Military
The ongoing war in Afghanistan continues to kill uncounted thousands of Afghan civilians and cause immeasurable suffering due to horrendous injuries, the displacement of people from their homes and livelihoods, home invasions, arbitrary arrests and torture, sexual abuse, and the general humiliation of Afghans. This is an illegal war that cannot be justified by a few extra jobs for Canadian workers.
Since the war in Afghanistan began, Canada has become the sixth largest military exporter in the world, according to data collected by the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Canada is now behind only the USA, Russia, the UK, Germany, and China in export volume. The U.S. manufactures more than all other military manufacturers combined, so comparing Canada's military industrial complex to the American mega-industry is ridiculous. But, Canada trails China -- number five on the list -- by only a hundred million dollars worth of exports in an industry that brings billions of dollars into Canada. No one knows exactly how many billions of dollars military exports bring into Canada though. Why not? Because, for the past four years, the Canadian government, citing security concerns, has refused to release much of the data regarding the export of military products to the U.S. -- our biggest customer.
Canada's own military spending has risen considerably. Since the war began in 2001, Canada rose from the position of 16th to 13th biggest military spender in the world, and from 7th to 6th within NATO, according to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report. Canada's defence budget projects a 37 percent increase in spending from 2001 to 2010.
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) represents more than five hundred companies. In an interview with a CBC journalist, the CADSI president, Tim Page, claimed his industry represents about 70,000 jobs in over 177 federal ridings. This may not seem like a large number of workers, but it represents significant political power. Many of these high-tech jobs are among the best in the country.

 

[quandary121]

However, the workers who build the weapons and everything else needed for warfare, as well as the service workers who make the Canadian state function, recognise that it is the shareholders who profit most from the rising fortunes of the companies in Canada's military industrial complex. Corporations such as GM Canada, Bombardier, Bell Helicopter, SNC-Lavalin, CAE Electronics, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Canadian Marconi, and Colt Canada are only a few of the Canadian based military suppliers profiting from the war in Afghanistan.

 

[quandary121]

Canadian Development Aid in Afghanistan

The Canadian development industry also profits from the war and occupation. The one billion dollars Canada has "pledged" to spend on development in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2011, pales in comparison to the 7.2 billion dollars already spent on the military mission. Nonetheless, a billion dollars is a significant sum. However, most development spending returns to Canada as salaries and expenses. Manufacturers as well as service providers such as construction contractors and airlines profit significantly from the development industry -- while the little development spending that actually does reach Afghanistan benefits few Afghans.

 

[quandary121]

Now that the workers of Canada and Quebec have officially declared our solidarity with Afghan workers, it is time to begin building bridges to join our struggles against the new authoritarianism and theocracy in Afghanistan and Western and Canadian imperialism.

 

[quandary121]

The U.S. State Department reports: "The government requires all citizens to profess a religious affiliation and assumes all Afghans to be Muslim. According to Islamic law, conversion from Islam is punishable by death." The U.S. State Department also reports that socialism is illegal in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, because socialists are atheists.

 

[Colpy]

I don't know what your problem is, but Colpy did not once even hint at what he thinks about the war in Afghanistan.

Learn to read before you post ****e. It's tiresome.

Thanks Ten Penny..

But I'll tell'em what I think.

The idea that the UN supported, NATO executed war in Afghanistan is ILLEGAL is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

The USA was attacked.

The attack was executed on the orders of a man who was protected by the then gov't of Afghanistan. Not only that, this individual used Afghanistan as a training and staging area for attacks on the west, with the aid and co-operation of the Taliban.

The USA gave the Taliban every opportunity to hand him over, then they invaded......fully legitimate.

Canada had to help.......they are a signatory of both the NATO agreement, and a North American mutual defense pact, that says ANY attack on one is an attack on all. We have sat on our laurels since 1969, slowly debasing our miltary, and act only possible because we sat under the defensive umbrella of the USA. Time to pay the piper.

Our task in Afghanistan is, first and foremost, to prevent the Islamists from ever again using that nation as safe-haven, training area, meeting and staging area. If we do that we have suceeded.

As a VERY secondary task, we try to improve life in Afghanistan......but that is SECONDARY>........

We need to be there, we need to stay there, we need to fight there, if anything, our dedication and contribution to the cause needs to be increased.

That is what I think.

 

[quandary121]

The Bonn Agreement accomplished, among others, three objectives with profoundly adverse consequences for many Afghans. First, it rewarded the mujaheddin warlords for their decades of services to the USA. Second, it promised the mujaheddin impunity for the many horrendous war crimes they had committed since 1979, which continue to this day during the American-led occupation. Third, it re-instituted the theocratic state as a means of social control.

 

[TenPenny]

Corporations such as GM Canada, Bombardier, Bell Helicopter, SNC-Lavalin, CAE Electronics, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Canadian Marconi, and Colt Canada are only a few of the Canadian based military suppliers profiting from the war in Afghanistan.

It sure is a good thing that none of those workers are unionized, or shareholders in those corporations (for example, through their pension plans or RRSPs). If they were, they'd be in a sticky spot, ethically, wouldn't they?

 

[quandary121]

The destruction of the Taliban regime by American armed forces in 2001 effectively silenced opposition and effectively re-instituted a theocratic regime. A theocratic state was first imposed on Afghans in 1992 when the U.S. helped the mujaheddin gain power by financing their war with billions of dollars against the secular Soviet-backed government. American President Jimmy Carter initially began providing military and other support for the mujaheddin Islamic revolutionaries on 3 July 1979, which then drew the Soviet military into Afghanistan 25 December 1979. In coming to power, the mujaheddin declared Afghanistan an Islamic republic. The ouster of the mujaheddin by the Taliban in 1996 brought an even greater degree of social and political repression for Afghanis, and intensified the theocratic features of the Afghanistan state, often through brutal means.

 

[quandary121]

a research group toured five Afghan provinces in 2007, we were appalled by the miserable conditions most Afghans must live in. Even in the safest areas of the country, where there is no excuse for the occupying forces failure to reconstruct essential infrastructure, many Afghans do not have even the barest essentials of clean water and adequate sanitation. In Kabul, where the international forces have occupied the city since 2001, less than 29 percent of the people have access to clean drinking water, according to reports by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.

 

[quandary121]

Peter McKay, Canada's Minister of Defence, frequently claims that over six million Afghan children -- one third of them girls -- have been enrolled in school. However, his claim is not substantiated by Afghan researchers. Girls represent only 3 percent of students, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. The children of poor families cannot afford school; they must work to survive. The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit claims this fact especially inhibits girls from going to school.

 

[quandary121]

interviewed people in Afghanistan, their experiences of development sounded very much like what Michael Ignatieff had described in his book "Empire Lite" in 2003. Ignatieff stated:
The rhetoric about helping Afghanistan stand on its own two feet does not square with the hard interest that each Western government has in financing, not the Afghans, but its own national relief organisations. ...These fly a nation's flag over some road or school that a politician back home can take credit for. ... the international's first priority is building their own capacity -- increasing their budgets and giving themselves good jobs (Michael Ignatieff. Empire Lite. 2003).
Since becoming a politician, Ignatieff no longer talks about these issues, but Afghans see this reality every day.