US support for CEARTA
ROCKLAND COUNTY, part of the New York state legislature
passed a resolution in its last session of 1997
supporting `CEARTA- Charter for change', thus becoming
the first US government body to throw its weight behind
the newly formed organisation. In a similar move the
Uniformed Firefighters Association in New York City has
become the first US union to adopt a resolution
supporting the Cearta.
The democratic principles in the Cearta Charter covers
six basic areas and call for an end to emergency
legislation; an end to discrimination; and for equality
for Irish language and culture. Cearta also calls for
the release of political prisoners and insists that an
internal settlement to the conflict in the North is not
acceptable.
New York City Council announced on the last day of 1997
that on its first day of business in 1998, Wednesday 7
January it would pass a motion to support Cearta. City
Council Speaker Peter Vallone is then due in Belfast on
Sunday to present the ``strongly worded'' declaration to
public officials and peace and justice campaigners and
to meet with Cearta representatives.
Further US support for the Charter comes from the
Irish-American Labour Coalition. Executive member
Edward J Cleary, who chairs the Northeast council of
the powerful AFL-CIO union which represents all
organised labour in the highly unionised Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic states, has indicated that the union
leaders who threw their weight behind the successful
ten year battle to have MacBride Principles
incorporated into state legislature could soon vote on
a resolution to support the Charter. Cleary has
indicated that resolutions supporting the Charters'
principles could come from labour and community leaders
in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St Louis and San
Francisco.
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