Duluth Central Labor Body Resolution on the RNC 8

Resolution in Support of the RNC 8 and Stating that the Anti-Terrorism Act Should be Repealed


Whereas, a free society is one in which people can organize collectively to improve their lives without fear of persecution by their government; and

Whereas, the labor movement has historically suffered state intimidation and repression in our efforts to organize working people, including the unconstitutional arrest of labor organizers and publishers of union papers under “criminal syndicalism” laws of the first half of the 20th century; and

Whereas, changes to the Minnesota criminal code under the so-called Anti-Terrorism Act of 2002 threaten political speech by defining acts that “further terrorism” so broadly as to encompass civil disobedience designed to “disrupt or interfere with the lawful exercise, operation, or conduct of government, lawful commerce, or the right of lawful assembly,” including strikes, blockades and other union actions to defend workers’ rights; and

Whereas, the first criminal charges under this law were filed by Ramsey County prosecutors in September of 2008 against organizers of Republican National Convention protests in St Paul (known as the “RNC 8”), with no evidence that the defendants committed any act of violence;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body stands in solidarity with the RNC 8 and goes on record as opposing the politically-motivated terrorism charges filed against them; and

Be it further resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body goes on record as opposing 609.714 of the Minnesota criminal code (“CRIMES COMMITTED IN FURTHERANCE OF TERRORISM”) and calls on Minnesota state legislators to work for the repeal of this law;

Be it further resolved that the Duluth Central Labor Body urges that labor unions across Minnesota consider the implications of the RNC 8 case and the Minnesota Anti-Terrorism Act on their own organizing and to support the cause of repeal.

Proposed and passed with unanimous support from the delegates of the Duluth Central Labor Body on March 12, 2009

Related Articles

The International Food Crisis and Proposals To Overcome It

By ERIC TOUSSAINT and OMAR AZIKI
[Editor’s note: We reprint this article by the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM). In 1989, the Bastille Appeal was launched, inviting popular movements throughout the world to unite in demanding the immediate and unconditional cancellation of the debt of the so-called developing countries. This crushing debt, along with neo-liberal macro-economic reforms imposed on the global South, has led to an explosion of worldwide inequality, mass poverty, flagrant injustice and the destruction of the environment.

Summer Strike Wave Hits Britain

By ANN MONTAGUE
In Britain, the working class is experiencing a wave of strikes and “Industrial Action” from some of the largest established unions in the country, activity that disrupts the economy. These striking unions have made political demands in recent years to renationalize mail, rail and the electric grid.

Capitalism’s World Economic, Political and Social Crises and the Road to Fight Back

By JEFF MACKLER
Led by the dominant capitalist-imperialist nations, especially the U.S. and China, the system involves the capture and transfer of surplus value from workers in poorer countries to leading corporations in the advanced countries. Today, global value chain corporations that represent only 15 percent of all trading firms worldwide, capture some 80 percent of total trade.