Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 17. maj 2006 / Time Line May 17, 2006
Version 3.005/17/2006
Working families want withdrawal from Afghanistan
OTTAWA – The Canadian Labour Congress calls for the withdrawal of Canada’s
troops in Afghanistan and an increase of our commitment to the reconstruction
and development of that country.
At its regular spring meeting earlier this week, the Executive Council of the
Canadian Labour Congress commended the courage and bravery of all the men
and women serving in Afghanistan. The Executive Council, which brings together
the senior leaders of the country’s largest unions along with the presidents of the
provincial and territorial federations of labour, adopted a statement that also
denounces the fact that our federal government “has moved beyond the NATO
mission of humanitarian relief and peacekeeping to an active combat role in
support of the US military mission in Afghanistan. In so doing, our government
has put Canadian troops in harm’s way in an unprecedented manner.”
The Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress does not “accept the
argument that Canadian presence is intended to bring democracy to the people of
Afghanistan. Nor do we accept the premise that our presence is intended to put
Afghanistan on the road to sustainable development or improve women’s equality
in that country.”
That is why the Canadian Labour Congress urges the government to:
• take the necessary measures to ensure the safe and immediate withdrawal of
Canadian troops from Afghanistan;
• increase significantly our resource and financial commitments to UN-led
multilateral peacekeeping and humanitarian initiatives such as is needed in
Darfur;
• strengthen developmental aid to Afghanistan so that reconstruction efforts
are achieved and engage civil society in developmental programs fostering
good governance, and respecting human rights, gender equality and
internationally-recognized core labour standards;
• ensure any future deployment of Canadian troops is debated and voted on
by the representatives of the citizens of Canada in the House of Commons.
The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement,
represents 3 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national
and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of
labour and 135 district labour councils.
Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
05/17/2006
House Makes Deeper Budget Cuts in Administration's Risky Nuclear Reprocessing Plan
$30 Million Wisely Sent to Support Renewable Energy Instead
By: Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON, May 17—Today the House Appropriations Committee slashed another $30 million from the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), an ill-conceived plan to build a nationwide complex of facilities to reprocess the spent fuel from nuclear power reactors to extract plutonium for use as fuel. The plan is dangerous because plutonium can also be used to build nuclear weapons and, by extracting it from spent fuel, reprocessing gives terrorists easier access to this material.
"Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is dirty, dangerous, and expensive," said Stephen Young, senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "GNEP would only succeed in making it easier for terrorists to obtain the material needed to make a nuclear weapon. The administration's reprocessing plan got the rebuke it deserves."
The $30 million taken from reprocessing was given to other energy-related programs, including renewable energy and weatherization programs.
Last week an appropriations subcommittee cut $100 million from the administration's $250 million request, and today's action leaves the initiative with $120 million—less than half of the requested amount. The House subcommittee also denied all funding for the proposed engineering scale demonstration reprocessing plant and required a peer review by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering before work on any demonstration plants proceeds.
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