CFMEU & MUA Oppose War

Joint Statement

The Maritime Union of Australia and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union are calling on their members and their families to mobilise in support of the campaign to end Australia's involvement in the war on Iraq and to Bring the Troops Home.

The Australian service men and women whose lives the Howard Government is prepared to sacrifice at the behest of the Bush Administration, are the sons and daughters of Australian workers. Our argument is not with them. It is with the Howard Government.

As these service men and women are dragged deeper into the conflict our thoughts are with them and their families as they risk their lives in a conflict to which the Howard Government has recklessly committed them.

Our Unions have long supported a peaceful process to contain and disarm the Iraqi regime but we believe that this process must be carried out by the United Nations. This war does not have the support of the United

Nations and in committing Australia to it the Howard Government is in serious breach of Australia's international obligations. Of the 191 countries that comprise the United Nations, Australia is only one of three to go to war with Iraq. The overwhelming weight of Australian and international legal opinion is that without the authority of the UN Security Council, the war, and Australia's involvement in it, is illegal.

Prime Minister Howard claims that the war on Iraq is part of the war on terrorism. This is a deliberate lie. Despite the enormous intelligence resources at the disposal of the US, Britain and Australia, Howard, Bush and Blair have failed to prove any link between Iraq and al-Qaeda terrorists or between Iraq and September 11 or the Bali bombings.

Indeed, rather than lessen the threat of terrorism, this unilateral war on Iraq will increase the threat Australia faces from international terrorism. In his speech to Parliament on 18 March, Cabinet Minister Tony Abbott let the cat out of the bag and admitted this.

This war is not only morally wrong it is also not in Australia's national interest. Iraq poses no threat to Australia. Rather it is a valuable trading partner. Our economy will suffer not only because of a loss of exports to Iraq but also due to the escalating price of oil because of the war and the spin off effects from this.

In committing Australia to an illegal war on Iraq, the Howard Government has betrayed the trust of the Australian people. The Federal Government knows that the majority of the Australian people are opposed to military action without UN approval. In the biggest public demonstrations in the history of Australia, hundreds of thousands of people have voted with their feet against Australia's involvement in a war of aggression.

The people of Australia do not want the blood of innocent Iraqis as a stain on our country any more than we want the blood of Australian men and women shed in an unjustified and illegal war.

- MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin

- CFMEU President John Maitland (March 20)