Monthly Archives: December 2002

LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION (PGFTU Tour)

Al-Awda, Jews Against the Occupation, Palestine Activist Forum-New York, New York Solidarity Movement for a Free Palestine, The Global Sweatshop Coalition, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Taxi Worker’s Alliance and Direct Action Palestine present…

LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION

with speakers, video and more…

For the first time in the US, representatives from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).  The PGFTU is a democratic, popular and independent organization, which struggles for the protection of workers
rights in Palestine, and has a membership of 470,000, representing 75% of the workforce.  Don’t miss this historic event!

Featuring:

**Hekmat Al-Sarraj, from the Women’s Affairs Department of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza.  Ms. Sarraj works to protect the rights of women workers in the Occupied Gaza Strip.

**Mohammed Saleh, From the Executive Board of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions in Ramallah.

**First-Hand reports from International  activists and organizers just returned from the OLIVE HARVEST in Palestine.

**NEW PALESTINE VIDEO by artist Jackie Salloum

Saturday, December 14, 2002 at 7pm
Pratt Institute
Brooklyn Campus
Engineering Building, Room 371
Dekalb Ave. (Hall Street/Classon Ave.), Brooklyn
(C/G to Clinton/Washington; for further directions, see www.pratt.edu.)

Palestinian Trade Unionist Tour (NYCLAW)

 

View in PDF format: FLYERP-1

New York City Labor Against the War Presents:  An Evening with Palestinian Trade Unionists

The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, PGFTU, was founded in 1965 and is the federation of nearly all trade unions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PGFTU is a democratic, popular and independent organization, which struggles for the protection of workers rights in Palestine. The PGFTU concentrates on providing legal services and advice to workers who work both in Israel and Palestine, providing workers vocational education, affordable health insurance and protection of women’s rights. The PGFTU has a membership of 470,000, representing 75% of the workforce.

Hekmat Kamel Rateb Elsarraj is a member of the PGFTU Women’s Affairs Department of the PGFTU in the Occupied Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Mahmoud Ahmed Saleh is a member of the PGFTU executive committee and the National Secretary to the Legal Affairs Department.

Abdel Raheem Saleh Abdel Latif Khateeb has worked for eighteen years as the official representative for the Hotel and Service workers in Jerusalem. (Mr. Khateeb is invited, but his visa has not yet been approved.)

WHEN? Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 at 7pm

WHERE? DC 1707 AFSCME
75 Varick Street, 14th floor
1/2/A/C/E to Canal Street

CONTACT?
Siobhán: siobhannigrath@yahoo.com or (212) 781-6072

Co-sponsored by:
199ers for Peace and Justice, The Global Sweatshop Coalition, Taxi Workers Alliance, and Jews Against the Occupation

Suggested Donation $5-$10; no one turned away.

Labor donated

Report on the New York Visit by Representatives from the PGFTU

Report on the New York Visit by Representatives from the PGFTU

Report on the New York Visit by Representatives from the PGFTU

Last Friday and Saturday, New York City hosted an historic visit from two Palestinian activists: Mohammed Saleh Aruri from the Executive Council of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Ramallah, and Hekmat Al-Serraj, a grassroots activist from Gaza City. Ms. Al-Serraj has worked with the Women’s Affairs department of the PGFTU, as well as other organizations.

New York was one of the last stops in an extremely busy nationwide tour that included visits to Seattle, Olympia, Portland, San Francisco and the Bay Area, Texas, New Orleans, North and South Carolina, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Albany, Amherst, and Washington, DC.

The New York visit was coordinated by members of many groups, with vital organizing done by – among others – New York City Labor Against the War, Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, Jews Against the Occupation, and Direct Action for Justice in Palestine.

In their two days in NYC, the PGFTU delegates had meetings with representatives of the Jewish Labor Committee, from Al-Awda, and from Colombian trade unions. They spoke at the Interchurch Center in Morningside Heights, at the uptown anti-war march, at a union-sponsored event at AFSCME DC1707 (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 1707) and at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. They raised almost $2,000 for projects in the West Bank and Gaza, including democratization, rebuilding, and women’s rights projects.

During their visit they were interviewed by press from WBAI (Building Bridges and Wake Up Call), City Limits, and Labor Notes.

Labor activists and Palestine solidarity activists heard first-hand reports about the current situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and about worker’s rights, women’s issues and work with children. New relationships were built and ideas for future activities were planned. In addition, audiences saw videos by filmmaking collective Big Noise Tactical and by Jackie Salloum, and heard activist Emily Winkelstein’s eyewitness report from October’s Olive Harvest.

Friday night’s Event was hosted Michael Letwin of New York City Labor Against the War, and Saturday night’s event was hosted by Reem from Al-Awda.

Thank you all for working on this. *Please* pass on thanks to all those others who helped.

Solidarity,

Siobhan and Jordan

Resolution in Support of Academic Freedom for Graduate Student Instructors (AGSE/UAW L.2865)