Antiwar effort gains momentum -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 12/2/2002
Last Visited: 12/2/2002
A letter Sweeney sent to Congress in early October expressing deep reservations about the justifications for an invasion has begun to resonate among the rank and file, said Bob Muehlenkamp, a labor consultant and former organizing director for the Teamsters union.Several hundred thousand union members, he said, have signed up against the war, with more joining every week.He expects the numbers to balloon when leaders hold an organizational breakfast meeting for all unions in New York on Dec. 18."Union people are the most patriotic of Americans," Muehlenkamp said, "yet you can't find all-out aggressive support for a Bush war."Union members have the same concerns as others opposed to the proposed war, including a belief that the Bush administration has not weighed the economic consequences or made the case for an unprecedented attack, he said.But they have their own concerns as well."For unions," he said, "it's their kids that are going to be doing the fighting.It's our sons and daughters who could die."The National Council of Churches, which includes Lutherans, Episcopalians and President Bush's denomination, Methodists, is facilitating antiwar events for traditionally liberal institutions and conservative churches, said the Rev. Robert Edgar, its general secretary."Average, ordinary people," Edgar said, "who come from evangelical Christian conservative roots are organizing against the war."Edgar, who served in Congress as a Democrat from suburban Philadelphia from 1975 to 1987, recalled that he was a freshman Democrat during the last days of the Vietnam War.Even then, he said, he and other lawmakers had to fight to end U.S. involvement.He also remembered that it took the church-meaning most mainstream religious institutions - 12 years to start opposing that war.