Trade unions in North America and Europe target the Israeli war machinery as part of a global wave of mass mobilisations
By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 10 November 2023, www.thecommunists.net
We are currently experiencing a phenomenal movement of international solidarity with the Palestinian people. Workers and oppressed, young and old, demonstrate on the streets to show their protest against the genocide which Israel, supported by Western powers, is committing against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
These mobilisations constitute the largest global movement since the protests against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to ACLED – an academic organization specialized in collecting data of global protests – there has been a massive upswing of mass mobilisations. “During the first three weeks of the current round of hostilities, ACLED records approximately 4,200 demonstration events related to the conflict in almost 100 countries and territories, accounting for 38% of all demonstration events reported globally.” (1)
As part of such massive pro-Palestine solidarity movement, calls are spreading for the boycott of Israeli goods as well as of corporations of Western supporting the genocide. From Türkiye to Malaysia and from Egypt to Indonesia, millions of people refuse to consume Coca Cola or visit a McDonalds or Starbucks store.
A particularly important form of boycott is the refusal to transport military weapons – or components relevant for such – to Israel. Shortly after the Zionist state launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, Palestinian trade unions published an important appeal in which they called trade unions and popular organisations around the world to take action against Isarel’s war machinery. (2)
Since then, a number of trade unions in North America and Western Europe – which are the most important arms suppliers of the Zionist state – have picked this call. In the U.S., hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters organised blockades at two ports – first in Oakland, California, and then in Tacoma, Washington state. Carrying signs reading “No Aid For Israel” and “Free All Palestinian Prisoners”, they tried to stop the loading and unloading of a military supply ship, the Cape Orlando, with weapons bound for Israel. (3)
Trade unions in other countries have also followed the call of their Palestinian class brothers and sisters. In Spain, several smaller alternative unions – the Sindicato de comisiones de base, Solidaridad Obrera, CGT, ASC, Plataforma Sindical EMT and SAT – have published an appeal calling for the boycott of Israel. (4)
The OEPB – the only union representing the 1,200 dockers at Barcelona’s port – has published a declaration stating its refusal to load and unload any military material headed to Israel amid the war in Gaza. (5)
Similar solidarity activities of trade unions are taking place in other countries. Last week, several Belgian transport unions – ACV Puls, BTB/UBT, BBTK, and ACV-Transcom – refused to handle weapons headed to Israel. In a joint statement, the unions denounced the “genocide in Palestine” and demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Likewise did SI Cobas – a well-known militant union in Italy – state its aim to obstruct the delivery of weapons to Israel.
Expand the boycott!
All these are encouraging activities demonstrating that the Palestinian people are not alone. But more has to be done because the Western imperialist powers in North America and Western Europe are currently strong and united in supporting Israel, which is about to commit another Nakba in Gaza, expelling more than two million people from their homes.
Shamefully, the bureaucratic leadership of the large trade unions fully support the pro-Israeli policy of their imperialist masters. The same is the case with most social democratic parties in Europe which support Israel’s so-called “right of self-defence” – what a bizarre slogan for a colonial settler state! – or are even part of the pro-Zionist governments.
The working class must pressurise the trade union to break with such outrageous support for Israel’s genocide. Likewise, the official workers movement must stand up in defence of the Muslim migrant brothers and sisters facing Islamophobic attacks. It must also protect the elementary democratic rights which are currently under severe attack by the pro-Zionist ruling class which tries to suppress pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Socialist perspective
The RCIT reiterates its unconditionally support for the Palestinian liberation struggle. We advocate the military victory of the resistance led by Hamas without lending political support to the program or all tactics of its leadership.
We combine such a position with the perspective of smashing the Zionist Apartheid state and the creation of a single Palestinian state from the River to the Sea. Such a state would have a Palestinians majority as it would allow the right of return of all refugees. At the same time, it would guarantee full cultural and religious rights for the Jewish minority. Such a state would have a secular and democratic character and should be a workers and poor peasant republic as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East (“for a free and red Palestine, from the River to the Sea”).
We call for the creation of a strong international solidarity movement for the 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! (6)
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!
1) Timothy Lay; Ciro Murillo: Infographic: Global Demonstrations in Response to the Israel-Palestine Conflict, 7 November 2023, https://acleddata.com/2023/11/07/infographic-global-demonstrations-in-response-to-the-israel-palestine-conflict/
2) An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel, 16.10.2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/#anker_1
3) Pro-Palestine protesters block road at Tacoma port where US weapons ship bound for Israel is docked, 06 November, 2023, https://www.newarab.com/news/pro-palestine-protesters-block-road-tacoma-port
4) LIT-CI: Estado Español: El sindicalismo alternativo muestra su apoyo a Palestina, 08.11.2023, https://litci.org/es/estado-espanol-el-sindicalismo-alternativo-muestra-su-apoyo-a-palestina/
5) Barcelona port workers refuse to handle military shipments to Israel amid brutal Gaza war, 08 November 2023, https://www.newarab.com/news/barcelona-dockers-refuse-handle-weapons-israel
6) 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/.