John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO -- representing 13 million American working men and women -- and John Monks, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain -- representing 7 million British working men and women -- sent a joint letter to President Bush and Prime Minister Blair today asking them to “take every possible step to achieve the legitimate ends of disarming Iraq without recourse to war.”

“We urge you to continue to pressure all concerned to find a resolution to this situation that preserves peace and security for our countries and across the world,” says the letter that was sent today. “On behalf of our two labor movements, and on behalf of working people in both countries, we urge you to continue to lead the global fight against totalitarianism and terror through the United Nations to ensure that this fight is carried out by the broadest possible coalition, with the strongest international legitimacy.” They assert the need for “a firm and broad consensus,” particularly between the United States and the countries of the European Union.

The leaders underscore the urgent need to counter terrorism, noting that the threat of terrorism is even greater today than it was on September 11, 2001. Their letter points out that an attack on Iraq, taken without broad international support, will be used by “those who seek to destroy our way of life” to “rally opinion against us and win new recruits to their terror.”

Sweeney and Monks state that they share “the very strong concerns that Iraq has not fulfilled its responsibility to the world community to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction,” and that they “fully support putting maximum pressure on Iraq to do so.” They also say that “working through the UN Security Council to force a renewal of the inspection process and to demand that these inspections resolve this issue has been the right course.”

They also point out that working people and their families have always born the burden of war, and will continue to do so if war is waged on Iraq.

In October, Sweeney sent a letter to Congress urging an international coalition approach to the Iraq situation.  

Download the full text of the January 30 letter from John J. Sweeney and John Monks (pdf).

View October letter to Congress from John J. Sweeney.

Contact Lane Windham (202) 637-5018