Please give this your immediate attention for widest distribution possible.
I urge everyone to circulate as widely as possible this important statement from the Canadian Labour Congress.
Please post on bulletin boards, distribute at union meetings, to church groups and community organizations.
Please also note the link to the “letter” contained in the statement.
We have the right to expect that Barack Obama will raise his voice in a similar manner.
Here are some concrete suggestions on what you can do:
First and foremost educate people because they are being lied to all the time by big-business politicians and the mainstream corporate media.
Organize and attend house meetings, church events, school programs where you offer education programs with films and speakers.
Second, help get goods and money to reputable aid organizations that you know and trust helping the people in Gaza.
Third, call your nearest Palestinian organization and meet with them to give support and get their input on how to help.
Fourth, organize "letter to the editor" nights in your home, school, church or union hall; organize petition drives and protests in your local community with messages for local, state, federal governments.
Fifth, help raise and collect money for huge media campaigns in support of ending this Israeli carnage of the Palestinian people.
Distribute copies of this statement and letter from the Canadian Labour Congress... get your local union or other organizations to issue similar statements and similar letters.
Local education and organizing is critical to halting the killing of the Palestinian people entrapped in Gaza.
Do not be afraid to speak out.
Do not be afraid to organize right from your own home.
We must reach out to all people in our own neighborhoods and communities while forming a network of solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Go to the nearest office of your Congressperson and U.S. Senator... take along a few friends and make it clear that Israel using our tax dollars to carry out this kind of murderous rampage in Gaza violates every norm of human decency.
Call on President-elect Barack Obama to speak out vigorously in opposition to Israel's barbaric actions. Too many children will be dead between now and the day Obama is sworn into office for him to put off taking the initiative to force this lame-duck President who is a pathetic excuse for a human being to start with to back off from his support for Israel, which only goads Israel on. Israel must understand that the American people will not stand for such a slaughter of the Palestinian people.
We must not allow Barack Obama to escape his responsibilities of adding his important voice to ours under the flimsy pretexts that "we only have one president at a time" because Bush should have been impeached by the Democrats long ago... nor, should we tolerate Obama's silence on the pretext that his worldly outlook and his politics are embodied in the time-worn and despicable "politics of pragmatism" which has seen president after president of the United States feign concern for the plight of the well-being of American people while perpetuating death and destruction abroad.
The time has come for the American people to stand in opposition to the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who have spun a powerful web of state monopoly-capitalism to push the agenda of the military-financial-industrial complex which has but one aim no matter how many people will suffer: CORPORATE PROFITS.
You can contact Barack Obama through the link in the upper right-hand corner of my blog.
Please, as you gather around the dinner table this evening discuss what your family can do to stop the Israeli violence and killing spree in Gaza being financed with your tax dollars... the children of Gaza need your help and support.
Yours in the struggle for peace and social justice,
Alan L. Maki
-----Original Message-----
From: Lucien Royer [mailto:lroyer@clc-ctc.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:45 PM
To: Alan Maki; Hassan Yussuff
Subject: Re: violence in Gaza
Here is a copy of the CLC statement
http://canadianlabour.ca/en/canadian-labour-congress-calls-for-support-united-nations-peace-process-middle-east
Canadian Labour Congress Calls For Support of United Nations Peace Process in Middle East
2009-01-06 21:11
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to meet over the military assault by Israel in Gaza, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) calls on Prime Minister Harper to condemn the serious violations of humanitarian and international law and support a negotiated end to the violence in the Middle East.
"We support the United Nation's efforts to end hostilities by both sides", said CLC President Ken Georgetti in a letter addressed to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to help strengthen UN efforts to bring about an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Palestine and open the way for a peace process in the region.
The CLC condemns both the actions of Hamas in launching rockets into Israel, ending a fragile six-month cease-fire, and Israel's military offensive into Gaza in response. With the death and injury toll rising daily, Georgetti says the Canadian government can play a leadership role in urging Israel to reopen the border crossings so that essential aid can reach the 1.5 million people suffering under a yearlong blockade of Gaza. The conflict has left Gaza's economy in shambles with an unemployment rate approaching 80%.
The CLC has joined with trade unions in Jordan and Palestine to launch an international appeal for food and medical relief for people affected by the conflict. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has also written to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for the UN to bring about an immediate cease-fire.
The UN Security Council will be meeting tonight to consider a resolution which could support an end to Israel's military assault, stop Hamas' rocket attacks against Israel, open Gaza's border crossings and involve international monitors in some capacity.
Georgetti said the CLC wants the Canadian government to support these measures and to urge UN Security Council to adopt them.
Lucien Royer
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Director International Department
2841 Riverside Drivel, Ottawa
Canada KIV 8X7
lroyer@clc-ctc.ca
