Union Asked to Stop Funding of Anti-War Groups
A coalition of organizations and individuals recently sent a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney calling for it to sever both funding and affiliation with leftist organizations publicly opposing U.S. efforts to fight terrorism. The letter has thus far gone unanswered and unheeded. Union member dues, presumably, still are supporting these organizations.
In the letter, authored by National Center for Public Policy Research President Amy Ridenour and sent on October 5, it is noted that the left-wing Institute for Policy Studies, Interhemispheric Resource Center and Foreign Policy in Focus "are circulating among policymakers a petition opposing a major military response to the terrorist attacks. It also opposes needed immediate changes within our U.S. intelligence agencies pending time-consuming further studies and counsels that changing U.S. international policies to conform to the wishes of the terrorist groups is the key way to deter future terrorist attacks."
"These groups each advertise, to various extents, connections to and support from the AFL-CIO and AFSCME. An AFL-CIO representative is listed as a member of the board of directors of one and on the Advisory Council of another. Both the AFL-CIO and AFSCME are listed as donors."
Expressing condolences for the many union members who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks, and noting Sweeney's public statement that President George W. Bush had "any and all assistance from the labor movement," the coalition asks Sweeney "to repudiate these [anti-war] views and indicate publicly that the AFL-CIO does not support this petition. We further ask that the AFL-CIO and its member unions discontinue all support for and formal connection with the aforementioned groups as long as they and the AFL-CIO continue to disagree on this very critical U.S. national security issue."