TAA Passes Resolution Demanding Cops out of AFL-CIO

General Membership Meeting on July 2, 2020

Whereas the US labor movement must reconcile its history of exclusion and hostility towards Black workers and other workers of color; and

Whereas US law enforcement functions to maintain oppressive systems of gendered racial capitalism, to protect and serve the interests of capitalists, and repress the working class; and

Whereas modern police share historic roots of oppression in slave patrols in the American South and strike breakers in Northern cities; and

Whereas the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony Robinson, and others are instances of anti-Black racist policing that have claimed an untold number of Black lives;

Whereas the stated goals of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) include “vanquish(ing) oppression, privation and cruelty in all their forms”; and

Whereas Article III, Section 7 of the AFL-CIO Constitution states that “No organization officered, controlled or dominated by persons whose policies and activities are consistently directed toward the achievement of the program or purposes of authoritarianism, ­totalitarianism, terrorism and other forces that suppress individual liberties and freedom of association shall be permitted as an affiliate of the Federation”; and

Whereas the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) is presently affiliated with the I AFL-CIO; and

Whereas the IUPA and other law enforcement unions function to shield their members from accountability for their acts of oppression, including assault, imprisonment, torture, and the murder of Black people.

Whereas the TAA is an antiracist union committed to economic and social justice for our members, students, and community; and

Whereas TAA’s executive board has committed to stand in solidarity with protesters everywhere demanding justice and an end to racist police brutality; and

Whereas TAA members have experienced interpersonal and structural violence at the hands of police, Imigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Customs and Border Patrol, and the US carceral system throughout their lives, or witnessed friends and loved ones be subject to said violence; and

Whereas TAA has previously called for reform to public services to abolish institutionalized oppressions, including systemic racism, anti-Blackness, sexism, transphobia, ageism, ableism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of colonialism; and

Whereas police locally in Madison have enacted violence against our communities and those with whom we stand in solidarity; therefore, be it

Resolved that we call on the AFL-CIO to expel the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) and all other unions who represent police, correctional officers, US Customs and Border Patrol and Imigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents; be it further

Resolved that we call on AFL-CIO affiliates with partial partial law enforcement membership to permanently terminate their relationships with police, correctional officers, and other law enforcement; be it further

Resolved that we call for the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and be it further

Resolved that we call on the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL), of which we are dues-paying affiliate, to terminate its relationship with unionized police, including AFSCME local 1323-C (Mayville Police Department); and, finally be it further

Resolved that we affirm our support for the movement for Black lives in Madison, across the U.S., and worldwide.