From the Workers World Party website:
Over 120 labor activists met at the Convention Center in Columbus, Ga., before going to the rally at the gates of the School of the Americas on Nov. 20. They came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia, Michigan, Florida, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Alabama and New York, and represented a variety of service, construction, manufacturing, public sector and educational unions. Many students were also in the meeting.
The largest delegation was from the United Auto Workers. International President Bob King addressed the meeting and was the featured labor speaker at the afternoon rally. King announced that the UAW was now fully behind the Coca-Cola boycott and that all UAW halls and buildings would soon be Coke-free.
The UAW showed a video about its participation over the years in the protests outside the SOA. Videographer and retired UAW Local 909 President Frank Hammer stated that repression can also occur in the U.S. itself, as evidenced by the recent FBI attacks on progressive activists on Sept. 24. North Carolina activist Kosta Harlan spoke about his recent harassment by the FBI and pointed out that many of those targeted are labor activists.
The “progressive activists” noted above are anti-war activists who may have been involved in the material support of terrorism, according to an FBI spokesman.
[See the LUR post from September for background.]
