Call to repeal the PATRIOT act.

[Matthew X]

http://workers.labor.net.au/151/c_historicalfeature_bush.html
Washington has become the first State Labor Council in the U.S. to call on 
the AFL-CIO to seek repeal of the USA Patriot Act and oppose the Bush 
Administration, reports Fred Hyde.
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The floor of the convention at the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) in 
Spokane, Washington was hushed when Gil Veyna took the mike to support "A 
Resolution Against the War, Attacks on Civil Liberties and Cuts in Public 
Services. "As a Chicano and a unionist," Veyna said resoundingly "I resent 
Bush's war on terrorism which is a war on working people and immigrants."
Veyna, a 22-year Veterans Administration hospital employee, was at the 
August 19-22, 2002 convention as a delegate for the American Federation of 
Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3197. His union is one of several which 
has raised objections to the governments plan to remove civil service 
protections and collective bargaining rights from the 170,000 federal 
workers in the newly formed Department of Homeland Security.
In his comments, Veyna criticized the national leadership of the AFL-CIO 
for its unstinting support of the military actions in Afghanistan. He noted 
that now the administration has turned its guns on dockworkers, referring 
to the threat to call out troops in the name of "national security" in the 
eventuality of a strike by the International Longshore Workers Union.
Veyna was no less critical of what he termed "federally sanctioned
racial profiling following 9/11" which put immigrants under the spotlight 
and led to many unfairly losing their jobs.
When Veyna sat down, not a single delegate of the 500 unionists 
representing locals throughout the state rose to speak against the 
resolution, and it passed overwhelmingly. Thus Washington became the first 
State Labor Council in the country to call on the AFL-CIO to seek repeal of 
the USA Patriot Act and oppose the U.S. government's war without end.
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