Labor for Palestine is participating in facilitating and leading two workshops at the US Social Forum, to take place in Detroit, MI on June 22-26, 2010. These workshops are part of the Palestine Program at USSF; the USSF is expected to draw 25000 attendees to Detroit, bringing together participants in indigenous, labor, racial, social and gender justice struggles, housing campaigns, international solidarity movements and many others to build a vision of “another world” and strategize about how to make it possible – and real.
LFP workshops include the following. We hope to see you there:
Labor for Palestine: Organizing Labor in Support of BDS
The BDS campaign was initiated by Palestinian civil society, including its entire labor movement. It calls for an end to Israeli military occupation and colonization of historic Palestine, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the land from which they have been ethnically cleansed since the Nakba of 1947-1948, and equal rights for all throughout historic Palestine. This campaign has been endorsed by numerous labor bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya (Spain). This workshop will bring together labor organizers in solidarity with Palestine to discuss the role of labor organizing as part of the broader movement in support of BDS. Specifically, it will discuss three demands for labor organizing in the United States: 1) divestment of labor from State of Israel bonds; 2) boycott Israeli goods, and support workers’ refusal to handle Israeli cargo; and 3) breaking of ties with the Histadrut (Israeli Federation of Labor, a founding party of the State of Israel and part of the current Israeli government).
Sponsoring Organizations:
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – Labor
- Labor for Palestine
- New York Labor Against the War
- US Palestinian Community Network
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm WSU Old Main: 1107
LINK: http://organize.ussf2010.org/ws/labor-palestine-organizing-labor-support-bds
Palestine: Evolution of the movement for Liberation
There is a rising sense among activists, Palestinian and Western, that justice cannot be achieved within the context of a Zionist state based on de jure and de facto Jewish supremacy over non-Jews in Palestine. Support for the so-called “Two-State Solution,” which since the Oslo Accords of 1993 had been cynically presented as the only “realistic” goal for Palestinians, is crumbling. This evolution is the most exciting development in the Palestinian movement for justice since the Second Intifada. This series of workshops is designed to promote discussion of the inherent inequality of the Zionist system and strategies for encouraging the transformation of Palestine solidarity work from a limited “Anti-Occupation” movement into a broader struggle for a single state based on principles of full equality and justice for all inhabitants throughout (historic Palestine) (the 1948 and 1967 territories).
Sponsoring Organizations:
- Al-Awda NY
- Labor for Palestine
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
- NYC Labor Against the War
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 3:30pm – 5:30pm – WSU Student Center 786
LINK: http://organize.ussf2010.org/ws/palestine-evolution-movement-liberation
