Resolution We Are All Wisconsin' or 'The World Is Watching' passed by acclamation

DA Switzerland voted in a  'We Are All Wisconsin'  or 'The World Is Watching' Resolution by acclamation at our Annual General Meeting on March 27, 2011.   

We have reached out to other DA Country Committees to co-sponsors this resolution. DA Germany has already signed on as a co-sponsor.  (Thanks, DAG!)   DA France is considering and voting at their ExCom this week. 

In conjunction with the Resolution, DA Switzerland is also organizing a We Are One event on April 4th in solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states.   (April 4th is the date on which Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while supporting the publicly employed sanitation workers' strike in Memphis Tennessee...)  

RESOLUTION 

The world is watching

The membership of Democrats Abroad, Switzerland, meeting at its Annual General Meeting on 27 March, 2011,

RECALLING that Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining are considered Fundamental Rights, as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work;

NOTING that collective bargaining by and with public sector unions has functioned effectively in Wisconsin (and many other states where it is under threat) since 1959 and has consistently served as an efficient tool for establishing and regulating terms and conditions of work,

RECOGNIZING the considerable efforts made by public sector unions in Wisconsin to use collective bargaining as a means of addressing the budgetary crisis facing the State,

RECOGNIZING FURTHER that the public sector unions in Wisconsin were willing to make sacrifices in order to help their State face up to the budgetary shortfalls which were not of their making,

DEPLORING the ideologically driven efforts of Governor Scott Walker, the Koch Brothers, and the Republican Party who together have conspired to create a budgetary crisis by slashing taxes on the rich while blaming the men and women who make Wisconsin work for the budgetary shortfalls, with the ultimate goal of withdrawing a fundamental right,

THEREFORE, the General Meeting

APPLAUDS the commitment and resolve of trade unionists, students and concerned citizens who have been peacefully protesting,

EXPRESSES ITS SOLIDARITY with the public sector workers in Wisconsin, and anywhere else where workers' rights are under threat,

SUPPORTS the 14 Democratic Legislators who took direct action to remain true to their principles;

ALSO SUPPORTS efforts underway to recall 8 Wisconsin Republican Legislators, who have failed to see their error in associating themselves with a politically motivated effort to violate fundamental human rights, and the trust placed in them by the Wisconsin voters,

CALLS on Democrats Abroad Switzerland, the Democratic Party Committee Abroad, the Democratic National Committee and the International Trade Union Movement to spare no effort to mobilize support for Wisconsin's public sector workers, to expose the right-wing supporters of this law, and to persuade Governor Walker to reverse this piece of ill-conceived and dangerous legislation passed by the Wisconsin State Assembly.

CALLS on Democrats Abroad to show solidarity with the nationwide actions in support of collective bargaining rights on April 4th, the date on which Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while supporting publicly employed sanitation workers strike in Memphis Tennessee.