For Global Action! Stop The Israeli Massacre In Gaza!
Statement Of Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
As the Zionist genocidal war against the Palestinian people continues unabated, workers around the world are stunned by the death and destruction rained down in Gaza. Transport workers, because of our key position in the global economy, have the power to stop the wheels of the Israeli war machine, the power to stop it dead in its tracks.
In 2009, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa refused to unload the Israeli ship Johanna Russ to protest what they called “apartheid Israel’s massacres in Gaza”. The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union then called on other unions to follow their exemplary solidarity action with the oppressed Palestinian people.
Then, dockworkers in Oakland, California of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) honored a mass picket line of 1,200 port demonstrators against a Zim Lines ship protesting the Israeli army’s killing of humanitarian aid workers on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. In 1984, ILWU had boycotted a South African apartheid ship.
Saturday August 16 is the date set for the next protest against an Israeli Zim Lines ship in the port of Oakland. This date commemorates the Tripartite South African government killing of 34 striking miners. Known as the Marikana Massacre, it has become a seminal event in the history of South African working class struggles.
The Palestinian General Confederation of Trade Unions has appealed to workers the world over to refuse to handle Israeli goods. The TWSC calls for action on August 16 in solidarity with Palestinians and striking South African workers. Picket Israeli ships, planes and Zim Lines offices. If we can stop the Israeli capitalists’ profits, even for a day, we send a powerful message to the racist Zionist regime that we will not oil their bloody war machine. An injury to one is an injury to all!
Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
www.transportworkers.org
organizing@transportworkers.org
August 5, 2014
