Oppose Arizona’s Apartheid-like Laws and Support the National Boycott of Arizona

Whereas, the state of Arizona recently enacted laws legalizing racial profiling by law enforcement [SB 1070], making failure to carry immigration documents a crime, and banning the teaching of ethnic studies [HB 2281] – measures reminiscent of South Africa under apartheid; and

Whereas, by allowing police broad powers to racially profile, harass, prosecute and deport people arrested on mere suspicion of being "illegal" immigrants, Arizona is following in the tradition of police states like Nazi Germany that have publicly branded and stigmatized minorities; and

Whereas, these attacks on the civil and human rights of migrant workers and their families – in practice compromising the rights of all people of color in Arizona – have drawn strong opposition from national leadership of the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, and United Food and Commercial Workers; Phoenix Suns basketball team and Major League Baseball Players Association; mayors of San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles; May Day marches of over half a million people in many cities on May 1, 2010; and a long list of religious and community organizations – including various calls for a boycott of Arizona by the Spanish-language daily La Opinion, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, and the city councils of Oakland, St. Paul, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco Board of Supervisors; and

Whereas, AFL-CIO President Trumka and Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, urged Homeland Security to immediately stop cooperating with local law enforcement officials in Arizona under Section 287(g) agreements, which allow state and local police in Arizona to enforce immigration laws. In a letter to President Obama, Trumka and Henderson said: "…More than words are required from the federal government at this time. Unless DHS terminates all 287(g) program agreements in Arizona, the federal government will be complicit in the racial profiling that lies at the heart of the Arizona law. Such a result would place the DHS at odds with this Administration’s stated views on SB 1070, and at odds with basic American values of tolerance and non-discrimination"; and

Whereas, a national boycott of Arizona during the 1980s over that state’s refusal to honor the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday resulted in a loss of $350 million in convention business in Arizona, with the National Football League pulling the superbowl from Arizona – a boycott that was ultimately successful when Arizona approved the King holiday in 1992; and

Whereas, racist laws like the ones recently passed in Arizona are being considered in at least 10 other states, and it is important for labor and community to act decisively now to force Arizona to abandon SB 1070, due to take effect July 28th, before its contagion spreads to other states; and

Whereas, caravans of protesters are converging on Phoenix on May 29, for a national march against these apartheid laws, together with a demonstration on the same day at ATT Park in San Francisco where the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team [owned by a key supporter of similar right-wing initiatives] will be playing the Giants.

Therefore be it Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council join the nationwide movement to denounce SB 1070 and other racist laws recently enacted by Arizona; that we support the nationwide boycott of Arizona; and that we support the May 29th national march in Phoenix as well as the demonstration at the Arizona Diamondbacks game in San Francisco on the same day. – Resolution adopted at the regular delegates meeting of the Labor Council held in San Francisco, May 24, 2010.