Delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO state convention this week approved a resolution strongly condemning the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations. The union members also took action on several other issues, including wine sales in grocery stores, international trade and Social Security.

“The Minnesota AFL-CIO opposes the hate, bigotry and violence that the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Movement (successor to the American Nazi Party) represent,” the AFL-CIO said in its resolution, which came just days before the KKK is scheduled to hold a rally at the state Capitol in St. Paul. The resolution encourages union members to participate in demonstations against the Klan this Friday and Saturday.

“These hate groups have terrorized people of color, those of different religious faiths and people of a different sexual orientation,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron said in a written statement. “Their principles are in direct opposition to what the AFL-CIO and its affiliates stand for.”

In other resolutions, the unions extolled the contributions of immigrants, one of the targets of the Klan. Delegates to the annual convention voted to support reform of the nation's immigration laws and to back the new Centro de Derechos Laborales, a Twin Cities program that educates non-English-speaking workers about their rights and provides other assistance.

In other action, AFL-CIO delegates: