Canadian workers oppose planned U.S. attack on Iraq

In a statement issued on August 20, Ken Georgetti, president of the 2.5 million-member Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) said, ‘Canadian workers are watching with growing disbelief the U.S. government’s preparations for a full-scale attack against Iraq and they want nothing to do with it. What would be solved by such an attack? Georgetti asked, saying, ‘War would produce more instability in the whole region, create more hardship for innocent civilians, foster new anger and hatred and breed new conflicts. In a multicultural society like Canada, these conflicts are felt painfully in our workplaces and our communities.’

The union leader called upon Prime Minister Jean Chrétien ‘to use all his statesmanship and all the powers of influence that Canada possesses in world affairs, to intervene as a third party on the side of peace. Canada has influence in international affairs and now is the time to use and exercise that influence,’ Georgetti said. ‘As an active member of the G8, the Commonwealth, la Francophonie, NATO and the United Nations, Canada offers an ideal bridge for a diplomatic intervention to prevent this dangerous military assault.’

Georgetti said, ‘Canadian working people have no illusions about the nature of the current political regime in Iraq, but we need world peace not a world at war.’