Submitted by Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO
WHEREAS, the U.S. Revolutionary War was fought against the tyranny of taxation without representation; and
WHEREAS, American citizens who live in Washington, D.C., still live under the tyranny of being governed and taxed by people for whom they do not have the right to vote; and
WHEREAS, at a time when the U.S. government is proclaiming the virtues of democracy and touting free elections as the keystone of democracy for the rest of the world, the lack of democracy in our nation’s capital is especially egregious; and
WHEREAS, the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO, has long supported full voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia as a right fundamental to democracy. Maintaining two classes of citizens—those who have the right to vote for their U.S. representatives and those who do not— defies any just and reasonable definition of democracy; and
WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia have fought and died in every war from the Revolution to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet are denied the right to democracy in their own country;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO, calls on the national AFL-CIO: n To endorse and strongly support the No Taxation
without Representation Act and to call upon all its affiliated unions to do the same; n To join the national coalition effort headed by
DC Vote to achieve full voting representation in Congress for D.C. residents; n To undertake, as a high priority, a nationwide education and advocacy program that will result in equal representation in Congress for residents of the District of Columbia; n To work for passage of legislation supported by the organization called Our Nation’s Capital to deal with the structural imbalance in the finances of the District of Columbia that makes it impossible for the District to meet its expenses; and
n To urge state federations and central labor councils to include support of the No Taxation without Representation Act as one of their highest legislative priorities and to form and/or join coalitions in their states and localities supporting voting rights for D.C. residents.