SWANA Radio Intifada (MP3 download)
9/14/2015 SWANA REGION RADIO 3:30-4:00pm: US Labor and the Boycott of Israel
Voices from Kolkota to Casablanca
Voices of struggle, Voices for change
Monday, September 14, 3:30-4:00PM
KPFK/Pacifica Radio 90.7 fm, Los Angeles
Streaming at kpfk.org or http://kpfk.org/ and available on audio
archive for 90 days at http://archive.kpfk.org/index.php?shokey=rintifada
US Labor and the Boycott of Israel
At its its national convention in Baltimore this August, UE, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers endorsed the worldwide BDS movement – Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – to pressure Israel to end its apartheid over the Palestinians just as similar tactics helped to end South African apartheid in the 1980s. UE represents more than 30,000 workers across the country in a range of private and public sector occupations.and is now the first U.S. national union to endorse BDS. Today we talk to Michael Letwin, co-founder of Labor for Palestine, about this remarkable victory for the BDS movement. We also discuss the progress being made on the cultural boycott and the current campaign to persuade Kanye West to respect the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel by canceling his planned September 30 concert in Israel.
Guest: Michael Letwin is a public defender in Brooklyn, New York; and a veteran Vietnam antiwar, South Africa anti-apartheid, and racial justice activist since the 1960s. He is former president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325(1990-2002); and a co-founder of New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)(2001), Labor for Palestine(2004) and Jews for Palestinian Right of Return(2013). He is affiliated with Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and MENA Solidarity Network US; and a member of the Organizing Collective of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Letwin was a member of an attorney/activist delegation to the West Bank and 1948 Palestine (2007),and a featured speaker at a Palestine solidarity conference of the Irish Confederation of Trade Unions (2010).
He helped launch the successful campaign for Stevie Wonder to withdraw from a Los Angeles fundraiser for the Israeli military (2012), and was active in both UAW 2865’s adoption of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)and Block the Boat’s campaign to prevent Israeli Zim Line ships from docking at U.S. ports(2014). His writing on Palestine includes “Labor Zionism and the Histadrut” (2010) and “The Jewish Labor Committee and Apartheid Israel” (2010).
Click on the link below to view peition from Jews for Palestinian Right of Return:
https://www.change.org/p/mediarelations-unitedtalent-com-tell-kanye-west-don-t-be-heartless-don-t-play-apartheid-israel
Hosted by David Lloyd
of
SWANA (South and West Asia and North Africa) Collective, KPFK.
