RESOLUTION TO END RISING MILITARY TENSIONS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA
WHEREAS the U.S. Government has now sent Navy forces, including an aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine, to the Korean Peninsula, making bellicose threats and greatly increasing tensions in that region; and
WHEREAS both the U.S. and North Korean governments are openly speaking of using nuclear weapons if open hostilities commence; and
WHEREAS the use of nuclear weapons will immediately threaten the lives of tens of thousands living in the Korean Peninsula and Japan — the latter already the victim of nuclear horrors in 1945 – and the outbreak of open hostilities in the Korean Peninsula region will result in many fatalities and injuries of U.S. military personnel there; and
WHEREAS the first-use of nuclear weapons by any nation is the ultimate war crime and the United States should state clearly its commitment against first-use, and should fulfill its treaty obligation to pursue nuclear disarmament rather than investing another $1 trillion over the next ten years to “modernize” its nuclear arsenal and delivery systems; and
WHEREAS the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has been helping block the transport of geological survey equipment for installing the THAAD missile system in South Korea which could provoke a confrontation with China; and
WHEREAS the unstable political situation on the Korean Peninsula is a direct byproduct of the Korean War, which was never formally ended and instead only a cessation of hostilities, an armistice, was established; and
WHEREAS the motivation for seeking nuclear weapons stems from the continuing threat to the sovereignty and stability of the North Korean government which is developing nuclear weapons as a deterrence; and
WHEREAS a peace treaty that formally ends the Korean War would dramatically reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula, would set the stage for the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops now stationed in South Korea, and would establish the conditions for negotiating the denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Alameda Labor Council stands in solidarity with the working people of Japan and Korea (North and South) to oppose any steps by the U.S. government to threaten or plan the use of nuclear weapons against North Korea, or anywhere else; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alameda Labor Council calls upon our government to seek lasting peace, security and political stability on the Korean Peninsula by negotiating a peace treaty that formally ends the Korean War, guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and denuclearizes the entire Korean Peninsula; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Alameda Labor Council calls upon the U.S. government to declare that it will forsake the first use of nuclear arms and will fulfill its treaty obligations to eliminate all nuclear weapons rather than spending another trillion dollars to “modernize” our nuclear arsenal and delivery systems; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the U.S. State Department, the North and South Korean Missions to the United Nations, our Congressional delegation, and to the California AFL-CIO, with a request for concurrence and submission to the October AFL-CIO Convention in St. Louis.
Submitted by Michael Eisenscher, Delegate, Peralta Federation of Teacher, AFT Local 1603 for consideration by ALC delegates at it May 15 meeting. ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY-May 15, 2017