MOBILIZING THE AFT TO STAND AGAINST FASCIST, WHITE NATIONALIST, NEO-NAZI AND OTHER HATE GROUPS

WHEREAS, there has been a sharp increase in racist and anti-immigrant attacks across the country in recent days; and

WHEREAS, the Ku Klux Klan, NSM (National Socialist Movement), Traditionalist Worker Party, and their newly formed fascist alliance known as the “Aryan National Alliance” along with other hate groups have stated they will stage menacing provocations in many areas, including the Pacific Northwest; and

WHEREAS, the KKK, the Aryan National Alliance, and other racist organizations represent a deadly threat to people of color, refugee, immigrant, Muslim, LGBTQ+, indigenous, Jewish people, and women among many others, and represent a threat directly to both the members of this union and the working people in general; and

WHEREAS, the white supremacist forces are related to the origins of anti-labor “right-to-work” laws seeking to destroy unions, because they believed unions would lead to uniting and empowering the multinational, and multiracial, working class to resist these attacks; and

WHEREAS, if the U.S. labor movement is to rebuild its strength during this period of crisis of racist organizing and attacks, it must take up the struggle against white supremacy/national chauvinism, not as an abstract debate, but as part of its social, political and organizing agenda; and

WHEREAS, unions are considered a threat to the KKK, NSM, Traditionalist Worker Party, and other racist organizations, because the unions are working class defense organizations for all workers in the community; and

WHEREAS, the stated purpose of the above groups is to target and terrorize the most vulnerable members of the working class to disempower them and deprive them of a legitimate voice in society, thus disempowering the union movement and rendering us voiceless:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers stands ready to join with our communities in mobilizing against the clear and present danger that the provocations of the KKK, NSM, Traditionalist Worker Party, and other racist and fascist organizations pose to us all; and

RESOLVED, that we hereby commit ourselves and our resources to actively pushing back on the presence of fascist hate groups as they arise in our community, our campus, and our state to ensure that the most vulnerable members of said community are safe and empowered.