2023-11-08 14:46:25
Let’s support Palestinian workers!
The genocidal attacks on Gaza since October 8 continue: the Israeli government tells Palestinians in northern Gaza to go south and then bombs civilians traveling south while bombing the south and hitting schools, hospitals and mosques.
Meanwhile, colonial settlers (who recently received more weapons) and the Israeli army isolate West Bank towns and cities, kill more than 100 Palestinians, and continue the destruction of Palestinian villages and the dismemberment of the West Bank.
Thus, in all the remains of Palestine, the second Nakba is occurring.
British Prime Minister Richie Sunak says what Israel is doing is self-defence, Sunak is trying to cover up Israeli genocide, while Conservative government authorized £472m worth of arms export to Israel in the last eight years, including support your fight. planes now attacking Gaza in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. ( www.declassifieduk.org ).
It is a continuation of its past history. In Palestine, the period of British rule from 1917 to 1948, before the State of Israel was declared (and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes), was brutal.
The UK has sold weapons to Israel despite its illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967. Four major military attacks on Gaza in 2008-09, 2012, 2014 and 2021 have killed almost 4,000 Palestinians . .
The massive demonstrations to oppose the massacre in London and other cities feature large numbers of young people, Palestinians and many immigrants. On October 28 in London, large numbers of protesters occupied the busy Waterloo station demanding “a ceasefire now.” The blocs of workers and unions at the marches in London and other cities have also been growing.
The parliamentary staff section of the Unite union called on all parliamentarians to ensure that they are not complicit in Israel’s serious breach of international humanitarian law and called on them to demand an immediate ceasefire.
The government is undoubtedly alarmed and Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has told Parliament that he has begun the process of deporting foreign nationals and revoking visas for anyone whose behavior is considered to incite anti-Semitism (i.e. opposing attacks by Israel), even if it falls “below the criminal standard.” ( guardian, October 25, 2023) This subversion of the legal system must be opposed and stopped.
Labor refuses to call for ceasefire and ignores unions
A Labor Party conference meeting in September was originally titled “Justice for Palestine: Ending Apartheid,” but “End Apartheid” was removed from its list. Meanwhile, the Histadrut (Israeli unions controlled by Zionist parties) were fully welcomed at their conference.
The unions already broke away from the Labor Party in the September 2023 TUC congress resolution to support the Palestinian struggle and BDS and are declaring their support and speaking out about the protests. But unions need to mobilize many more of their members.
More than 250 Muslim Labor councilors from across the UK also signed a letter to Starmer calling for a ceasefire, but Starmer refuses.
After October 7, at first he said that Israel had the right to self-defense, that is, to bomb Gaza, and then he added according to international law! Starmer has issued edicts to try to ban Labor MPs and councilors from joining the protests.
Labor councilors in areas with large Muslim communities have resigned over leaders’ “unwillingness to show the humanity value of Palestinian lives”, Keir Starmer wrote to Labor councilors in an attempt to clarify comments made in an interview. with LBC in which he said that Israel had “the “right” to deny water and energy to the Palestinians. ( guardian , October 16, 2023.)
The Labor conference included events sponsored by a weapons company, Babcock, which signed a major deal with Israel last year to develop a “next generation” deep-search radar search and destroy system. Babcock has held 12 UK military export licenses for Israel since 2010, with categories ML4 (Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories), ML11a (Electronic equipment for military use), ML14 (Specialized equipment for military training or for simulation of military scenarios), ML22a (other technology) .[1]
The Merseyside Pension Fund (a local government pension scheme, the main target of the Conservative idea of an anti-BDS bill) has £6,918,800 invested in Babcock. Merseyside councils are controlled by the Labor Party.
The only thing any serious member of the Labor Party can do is leave the Labor Party and help build a new independent, internationalist class party of workers and the oppressed, while building the struggle in support of Palestine and the unions maintaining support .
Stopping weapons for repression: a working tradition
New actions are being taken in response to the call by 30 Palestinian unions “Stop Arming Israel” launched on October 16. In France, the Emancipation trend teachers union and others are making calls. Let us spread this call and our response to action to stop the manufacture and transportation of weapons to Israel.
“Many of the bombs dropped on Gaza are done so from drones made by unionized workers in Britain. The missile strikes will also be guided by drones, also made by unionized workers in Britain. Key components of the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which have been vital to many of the attacks on Gaza, were manufactured by British union workers, either at Elbit or British Aerospace…” newsocialist.org.uk
More than 150 unionists created a blockade at the entrances to a factory in Kent at the site of an Israeli arms manufacturer, on October 26 and proclaimed: “Workers for a free Palestine.” The demonstration targeted Instro Precision Ltd in Sandwich, a subsidiary of weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, which is one of Israel’s largest weapons producers responsible for making drones and artillery for the army.
Activist members came from the unions Unite, UNISON, NEU, UCU, BMA, BFAWU, RMT and IWGB (public and industrial unions) and demanded that the UK stop arming Israel in response to the Israeli massacre of Palestinians.
There are many ways to build worker actions in support of Palestine. PalestineAction takes direct action, such as in Oldham, near Manchester. They staged 18 months of protests, occupations and blockades, then Elbit Systems closed its weapons factory in early October 2022. It had manufactured high-end military technologies and weapons components, including imaging and surveillance systems for Israel’s Hermes drones . The action was supported weekly by protests from hundreds of local community groups, some of whom came from the Kashmiri people living in Bolton.
This action continues in different areas of the United Kingdom.
Unions should surround any union action to stop the manufacture or transport of weapons to Israel with solidarity. Factories that make weapons need cleaning; They have security and catering personnel; Someone does payroll, someone delivers the mail. Producing and moving weapons to Israel involves all kinds of workers and all kinds of processes, both inside and outside the factory. Let’s organize joint meetings of all those workers to discuss what measures can be taken.
in Italy Dock workers refused to load a shipment of weapons and explosives bound for Israel in 2021. In 2003, Scottish ASLEF train drivers refused to move a freight train carrying ammunition destined for British forces deployed in the Gulf . In 1973, British dockers went on strike rather than loading British-made weapons onto ships bound for Chile after the assassination of Salvador Allende.
In 1920, dockers at London’s East India docks refused to transfer weapons to the Jolly George, a ship chartered to carry weapons to anti-Bolshevik forces after the Russian Revolution. The engineering and other factory unions threatened a general strike if the government attempted to send the Jolly George to support military action against the Soviet Union. The government backed down and never sent a ship again after that.
There is a European and world tradition of refusing to send weapons to oppressors, let’s take advantage of it.
– The unions refuse to manufacture weapons for Israel.
– The unions refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
– Stop all sales, investments and military connections by companies based in the United Kingdom or the British government with Israel.
ISL, United Kingdom
#Stop #genocide #Stop #arming #Israel