By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 12 November 2023, www.thecommunists.net
In a recently published article, we reported about a number of trade union actions in solidarity with Gaza. These activities are part of a growing global movement in defence of the Palestinian people. [1] The largest trade unions in India have now joined this movement in an impressive act of solidarity.
The racist Apartheid state Israel has recently expelled about 150,000 Palestinian workers from West Bank and Gaza. The Netanyahu government is therefore now looking for workers from other countries who could replace the Palestinians as cheap labour force. Already before this expulsion, Tel Aviv signed an agreement with India’s right-wing and Islamophobic Modi government to bring around 42,000 Indian workers to Israel. Now, Israeli capitalists ask for another to 100,000 migrant workers from India. [2]
In response, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), and several other Indian unions, have released a joint statement on 9 November expressing their solidarity with Palestinian workers by refusing to replace them. [3]
The declaration states: “Nothing could be more immoral and disastrous for India than the said “export” of workers to Israel. That India is even considering “exporting” works shows the manner in which it has dehumanized and commodified Indian workers. Such step will amount to complicity on India’s part with Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians and will naturally have adverse implications for Indian workers in the entire region. India’s trade union movement must rise in solidarity with Palestinian workers and reject this disastrous idea. Let’s resolve that we will not work to replace Palestinian workers in Israel! (…) We demand that the agreement with Israel to export Indian workers be scrapped immediately.”
Furthermore, the Indian trade unions denounce the “settler-colonial occupation of Palestine” and demand “an immediate halt to Israeli aggression against Palestine; end its occupation; we demand that the Palestinian right to a sovereign homeland be upheld – this is the only possible route to peace.”
Finally, the statement calls to join the global boycott movement against Israel. “India and Indian workers should boycott Israelian products! Indian workers, as their counterparts in some western countries, should refuse to handle the Israelian cargo!”
Blow against Modi’s policy of Islamophobia
The joint statement of the Indian trade unions is highly welcome and remarkable development. First, this is important simply because India is the most populous country in the world which gains increasing importance in the capitalist world economy. Second, the Modi government is an ally of the Israeli settler state whose support is only sometimes restrained by New Delhi’s equally close relations with Russia (a major rival of U.S. imperialism – the most important backer of the Zionist state).
Third, the Modi government has pursued a racist policy of Hindutva chauvinism against the Muslim minority since many years. [4] In fact, its policy of Islamophobia is a major tool to mobilise its fanatical supporters, to terrorise the minority population of more than 200 million Muslims and to deflect attention from the accelerating social and political contradictions in the country. In such an environment, it is encouraging to see such a strong trade union response against Modi’s support for Israel.
It is particularly remarkable that this joint statement has also been signed by Hind Mazdoor Sabha which is the trade union affiliated to Modi’s own party – the Bharatiya Janata Party! This shows that under specific circumstances, even politically backward workers can be won for progressive actions in the interest of the international proletariat.
Intensify the global boycott movement against the colonial settler state Israel!
The RCIT – including our comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine – has always stood in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. In the current Gaza War – like in the past ones – we advocate the military victory of the resistance led by Hamas without lending political support to the program or all tactics of its leadership. [5]
We reiterate that workers and popular mass organisation all over the world must intensify their solidarity activities with the Palestinian brothers and sisters. They need to implement a comprehensive boycott of the Israeli Apartheid state. Sabotage all forms of military support for Israel. For strikes, protests and consumer boycott against Israeli goods, pro-Israeli political and cultural events!
In Western countries, socialists and all supporters of the Palestinian cause must wage a relentless struggle against the bureaucratic leaderships of trade unions which shamefully support the pro-Israeli policy of their imperialist masters. They should also demand that the official workers movement stands up in defence of the Muslim migrant brothers and sisters facing Islamophobic attacks.
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!
[1] Michael Pröbsting: Practical Examples of International Workers Solidarity with Gaza. Trade unions in North America and Europe target the Israeli war machinery as part of a global wave of mass mobilisations, 10 November 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/practical-examples-of-international-workers-solidarity-with-gaza/
[2] Aina J Khan: Israel-Palestine war: Indian unions call for end to labour deal with Israel, 10 November 2023 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-india-trade-unions-call-government-cancel-labourer-deal
[3] The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Federations/Associations oppose any move to EXPORT INDIAN WORKERS TO ISRAEL TO REPLACE PALESTINIAN WORKERS, Press Release issued on 9th November 2023, https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/the-joint-platform-of-central-trade-unions-and-independent-federationsassociations-oppose-any-move-to-export-indian-workers-to-israel-to-replace-palestinian-workers/
[4] See on this e.g. Michael Pröbsting: India: A Prison House of Nations and Lower Castes. Essay on the social and national contradictions of Indian capitalism and the rise of Hindutva chauvinism, 16 August 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/india-is-a-a-prison-house-of-nations-and-lower-castes/
[5] We refer readers to a special page on our website where more a number of RCIT documents on the 2023 Gaza War are compiled, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/.