Trade Union Solidarity With Palestine
by Allan Armstrong
Buoyed by the 10,000 strong Scotland-wide demonstration held in Edinburgh on January 10th, in support of the Palestinians of Gaza, over 60 trade union delegates and members met in Edinburgh’s St. Augustine Church on January 17th. There were trade unionist present from the EIS, UCATT, ULU, UNISON and UNITE and from Edinburgh, Dundee, Kirkcaldy and Midlothian Trades Councils.
The first session was chaired by Sophia Macleod of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC). Participants were addressed by Jamal Juma, the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, whilst Manawel Abdel Al of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions was able to answer questions and comment on contributions from the floor by audio link.
During the lunch break, with food provided free by the local mosque, George Galloway made a brief contribution. He outlined the steps being taken by fire fighters’ union branches in Tayside and Glasgow to send an aid convoy via Spain and North Africa to Gaza. It is hoped that other trade unions will contribute, and that a build-up of international support would breach the notorious Rafah Gate held firmly closed by Egyptian state forces.
Salim Vally, a founder member of the independent trade union federation, COSATU, under the South African apartheid regime, then addressed the session chaired by Liz Elkund of the STUC. Salim pointed to the many parallels between apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel. However, the Israeli state, which had been an ally of South Africa, and many other repressive regimes from Central America to Turkey, was imposing even harsher conditions upon Palestinians than the South African regime had imposed on the non-White population there. The murderous attacks on Lebanon last year, and now the barbarous assaults on Gaza, revealed the true nature of the Israeli regime.
However, this state terror would be impossible without the backing of states like the USA and the UK. Salim told delegates to expect little change from the new President Barak Obama. The Democrats are even more tied to the pro-Israeli lobby than the Republicans. Speaking to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, Obama said, “We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs”. He has appointed several pro-Israeli officials to his new administration.
What is needed is a massive international campaign to isolate Israel, just as the Anti-Apartheid Movement succeeded in doing with the old South African regime. The immediate aim is BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, to counter the Israeli BUM strategy of Bulldozing, Uprooting and Massacre. Such a campaign could create the political conditions for even more effective workers’ actions. South African workers still remember the hope generated when they heard that workers at Dunnes Store in Dublin had refused to handle South African goods. Last week the Norwegian transport union had arranged stoppages which had brought 20 cities and towns to a standstill, in protest at the war crimes in Gaza.
The last platform speaker of the day was Katherine Nastovski, the Chair of the International Solidarity Committee of Ontario CUPE, Canada’s equivalent of UNISON. Annie McCrae from Edinburgh Executive of the EIS chaired this session. CUPE not only backed the BDS campaign, but was actively campaigning amongst the union membership to make sure it is implemented. They have come up against a hostile press, Israeli state officials’ interference in the union and phone threats. The Israeli state and business union, Histradut, has been used to try to prevent any effective support for Palestinian workers. Whilst these attacks have been successful in intimidating some union officials, they have only made grassroots activists even more determined.
In the following discussion, delegates explained the various attempts being made to support to offer effective support to Palestine. The biggest publicity had arisen from the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions, now backed by the university lecturers’ union, ULU. Hypocritical calls for ‘free speech’ had been raised by people who had remained absolutely silent over Israel’s physical and other attacks on Palestinian educational facilities and lecturers, or over the sustained lobbying by pro-Israel academics, particularly in the USA, to silence critical Jewish academics there.
As at previous events organised by the SPSC, the quality of the invited speakers was exceptionally high. There was also plenty of time for real discussion. As Salim pointed out, the first small success of the South African Anti-Apartheid Campaign only occurred in 1961, and the regime wasn’t finally ended until 1991. It is only the third year of the Anti-Apartheid Israel BDS campaign. However, Palestinians will also eventually win justice and equality. The Israeli state may have the backing of racist Zionists, the US and UK states and their poodles, as well as the pampered leaders of various Arab feudal or police states. The majority of the world’s exploited and oppressed population, however, see the struggle of the Palestinians for freedom as part of their own struggle for emancipation and liberation.