Green Mountain Central Labor Council of The Vermont AFL-CIO

RESOLUTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE IN ROJAVA - VERMONT AFL-CIO CLC

February 22, 2018

With the passage of this resolution, the Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO became the first major labor organization in the United States to officially back the YPG/YPJ and the struggle in Rojava.

Whereas:

Organized Labor must stand in solidarity with working people in all parts of the world when they rise up to defend their rights and when they struggle to build a better, more democratic and more socialist world;

The People of Rojava, northern Syria, have risen up in order to combat ISIS and the dictatorship;

The People of Rojava, through their armed forces known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) & the Woman’s Protection Units (YPJ) and allied militias, have liberated large sections of northern Syria from ISIS and the dictatorship;

The People of Rojava are presently defending themselves bravely against ISIS and Turkish aggression;

The People of Rojava seek to establish a libertarian-socialist, anti-fascist, secular, multi-ethnic society, with equal rights for men and woman;

The People of Rojava’s struggle for true freedom is a beacon of light in the Middle East and across the globe;

The People of Rojava are politically influenced by the libertarian and socialist writings of Vermonter Murray Bookchin and strive towards a political system similar to our own Town Meeting form of democracy;

Thousands of non-natives to Syria, including citizens of the United States of America, have seen the justice of the struggle in Rojava and, like with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, have taken it upon themselves to travel to Rojava in order to become international volunteers within the YPG/YPJ;

Therefore, let it be resolved that:

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO recognizes the struggle in Rojava to be THE liberation struggle of our day on par with Spain in 1936, and the Paris Commune of 1871;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with the people of Rojava, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and the Woman’s Protection Units (YPJ) in their historic struggle to establish a free society in what is presently northern Syria;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO encourages Vermont Union members to lend support to the people of Rojava, the YPG, and the YPJ;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO (upon request from a returning international volunteer as made to the President of this Central Labor Council) shall seek to provide three months of housing and sustenance and shall assist them in finding Union employment;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO calls on the Governor of Vermont and the Legislature to declare Vermont a sanctuary State for all returning international volunteers who have fought alongside the YPG/YPJ;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO calls on the Governor of Vermont and the Legislature to consider legislation which would make all state based benefits available to Vermont National Guard veterans also available to returning international volunteers who served in the YPG/YPJ, who choose to make Vermont their home;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO shall donate the sum of $500 to Hevya Sor (the Kurdish Red Crescent), an organization which provides direct support to the People of Rojava, including the donation of medicine and medical equipment;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO calls on the Government of the United States of America to provide increased direct military assistance to the YPG/YPJ, to condemn Turkish aggression, and to refrain from any actions which would seek to influence or moderate the political development and trajectory of Rojava;

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council shall provide this resolution to our Governor, Lt Governor, Congressional Delegation, elected members of the General Assembly, all fifty State Labor Councils of the AFL-CIO, and shall make it available to The People of Vermont.

In Solidarity,

The Green Mountain Central Labor Council AFL-CIO

*This resolution was passed by the Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO. President of the Green Mountain Central Labor Council: Traven Leyshon. The resolution was drafted by David Van Deusen.