Labor’s Tradition of Peace and the Work of Rebuilding Our Power
The labor movement has a long and proud history of standing against wars that exploit working-class people while enriching corporations and billionaires. From opposing wars for profit to demanding that public resources be used to meet human needs, labor has often understood that working people are the ones who pay the highest price for endless conflict.
Today, however, we must also recognize that our movement’s infrastructure is not as strong or as unified as it once was. Rebuilding the infrastructure of a fighting working-class movement is essential if we are to respond collectively to actions like the ones we are seeing in Venezuela. We need a movement that can educate our communities, mobilize solidarity, and use our shared power to challenge corporate greed. The greatest power working people have is our labor and our collective action, and reclaiming that power is necessary if we are to defend peace, dignity, and democracy for all.
ESSN Jobs with Justice Board Statement on the recent attack on Venezuela
ESSN Jobs with Justice condemns the recent U.S. military action against Venezuela and the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This action represents a dangerous escalation of U.S. intervention into another nation’s internal political and economic affairs—an intervention that working people in the United States have repeatedly said they do not want and should not be forced to pay for.
The justification offered for this attack relied heavily on long-standing allegations connecting President Maduro to drug trafficking. These claims have been weak, disputed, and largely unsupported by publicly verifiable evidence from the beginning. If this action were truly about drugs or public safety, it would not be accompanied by open discussion of taking control of Venezuela’s oil resources or bringing in U.S. companies to exploit them.
The contradiction is impossible to ignore: the so-called “war on drugs” is being used as political cover for a war over oil.
If President Maduro is a bad leader, that is for the Venezuelan people to decide—not the U.S. government. The United States is not the world’s police force, and it has neither the moral authority nor the democratic mandate to unilaterally reshape other nations’ governments, economies, or leadership, especially when those nations have not attacked us.
ESSN Jobs with Justice believes there are circumstances where international intervention may be justified: when nations commit war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity, and when action is taken multilaterally through the international community with clear accountability and humanitarian purpose.
None of those conditions apply here.
Unilateral military action against a country that has not attacked the United States and is not committing genocide or crimes against humanity is an overreach—and it makes the United States the aggressor.
Working-class people in this country, wherever we stand on the political spectrum, are sick of watching our tax dollars fund foreign wars that enrich corporations, billionaires, and corrupt political insiders while we struggle to pay rent, afford groceries, and access healthcare at home. We are told there is no money for housing, schools, or wages, yet there is always money for bombs, military contracts, and corporate access to foreign resources.
This is not about partisan labels. It is about whether our labor and our money are used to meet human needs or to expand corporate power.
Solidarity means standing with working people everywhere—not with oil companies, defense contractors, and political elites who profit from endless conflict. ESSN Jobs with Justice calls for an end to wars driven by corporate greed and for a foreign policy rooted in peace, accountability, and respect for the self-determination of all people.
ESSN Jobs with Justice
Board of Directors
ESSN Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, January 8th @ 4:30 pm
via Zoom.
LCCEA Info Picket
Wednesday, January 7th @ 4:30 pm
Lane Community College, Building 3, 4000 E. 30th Ave. Eugene
Strike Ready Committee Meeting
Saturday, January 10th @ 11:00 am
Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene
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