The role of Zionism, the Histadrut, the AFL-CIO and Solidarity Center are critical issues for trade unionists and the labor movement. The Labor Education Project On AFL-CIO International Operations held a panel on May 4, 2024 and what was left out of the 2024 Labor Notes conference in Chicago. Speakers included: David Hemson, South African Labor Researcher and Organizer in Durban South Africa Frank Hammer, UAW 909 President retired Ernest Rojas, Director of the Committee for Human and Union Rights CODESH Chile Carol Lang, CUNY AFT PSC lecturer Lisa Milos, UCSF UPTE Member and interpreter Additional Media: Zionism, The Histadrut, The AFL-CIO & South Africa https://youtu.be/_VioS5r1SAw Links Between Zionism, Histadrut, South Africa, CIA & The AFL-CIO At BA Labor For Palestine Conf https://youtu.be/4oKlvqu6GAs The Isreali Histadrut, The AFL-CIO, Zionism & Labor Imperialism With Carol Lang https://youtu.be/aH2JslHpeZk AFL-CIO Leadership Tries To Block Affiliates Vote On Endorsing BDS:AFL-CIO Leadership Cited A Procedural Rule To Tell The San Francisco Council It Couldn’t Even Debate A Resolution On BDS. https://theintercept.com/2021/10/21/p… The Israeli Histadrut, Zionism, The AFL-CIO & Imperialism With Carol Lang https://youtu.be/HLtLDS0FbSE The Histadrut: Israeli’s Racist Trade Union https://electronicintifada.net/conten… 2015 resolution by the CT Machinists http://www.thestruggle.org/bds%20reso… Organized labor was among the earliest investors in Israel bonds. https://www.israelbonds.com/News-Even… AFL-CIO, Imperialism, Zionism and The Palestinians https://youtu.be/o_Eo_ZTuJzM U.S. Unions Are Voicing Unprecedented Support for Palestine https://inthesetimes.com/article/pale… Palestinian Workers, Human Rights, US Labor, Zionists And How The Zionists Helped The Nazis https://youtu.be/MTu5D39yIK0 The ITUC and Global Union Federations condemn the designation by Israel of six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organisations. Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights groups as terrorists is outrageous https://www.ituc-csi.org/Israel-Pales… Organized labor was among the earliest investors in Israel bonds. https://www.israelbonds.com/News-Even… For more info: https://aflcio-int.education Production Of Labor Video Project www.labormedia.net
Transcript
0:00[Music]
0:07hello I want to welcome each of you to the Lao webinar on the AFL cio’s foreign
0:13policy Lao is a labor education project on AFL CIO International operations my
0:21name is Kim cypes and I’m uh a member of uh the national writers Union I’m also
0:27the WR the author of the leading book on the AFL C’s foreign policy in the world
0:33a book called AFL cio’s secret war against developing country workers
0:39solidarity or sabotage uh I’m speaking to you right now over uh by tape because I’ve got a
0:46commitment that I cannot get out of or otherwise I would be there with you uh
0:52with you I will join future webinars of course um I’ve been asked to say a few
0:57words to introduce Leo and the and the webinar uh since a a p
1:04uh proceeding commitment keeps me from from uh joining you Leo is a collection
1:11of labor union members and their and our allies from across the United States and
1:17Canada we’re in a number of of different unions um and we’ve all come together
1:24with the idea that the the AFL CIO should not be a working against workers
1:31anywhere in the world a lot of people don’t know this but the aflci has had
1:36its own foreign policy for over a hundred years and in general they’ve
1:42been working to intervene against workers they’ve helped overthrow democratically elected governments such
1:49as in Guatemala in 1954 Brazil in 1964 Chile in 73 and they were
1:57supporting the effort to remove the Democratic Le elected government in Venezuela in 2002 now this is not
2:04speculation we know this we also know that they’ve helped support dictators in
2:10countries such as Indonesia the Philippines South Korea uh Taiwan and
2:15the KGO now this is stuff we’re not speculating we know about uh some of us
2:21have been doing research on this subject for over 40 years so what we’re trying
2:26to do with Leo is to reach out to include uh Trade union members across
2:33the country to join us to help build a mass movement to get the AFL CIO to quit
2:40working against workers across the world we think this is an Abomination and we want it to stop so some of you are new
2:48to this subject others are more experienced um I want you to not just
2:53believe what is said I want you to think critically about what people are saying today you’re going to get exposed to
3:00uh trade unions from Chile and South Africa from the United States uh and
3:06some other places so it’s a chance for you to listen and hear what people are
3:12saying uh if this makes sense to you great if it doesn’t get your hand up ask
3:18questions try to understand what what we’re arguing about because eventually
3:23we would like you to join us now we would you know you’re welcome to join us
3:29um in our generally bi-weekly meetings or more importantly perhaps is to set up
3:35uh educational conferences in your union whether in the workplace or your local
3:41or your community we’re here to help get the word out we’d like you to join us
3:46and we and I hope that you all have a very productive and useful seminar today
3:52thank you again for join us and again I look forward to talking to you all more
3:58in person down the road thank thank you very much U loc at
4:04GM and have been um uh you know a 5060 year activist on
4:11on International front and building solidarity uh and have uh both uh my
4:18political understanding uh drives me there but also I have some personal uh connections to this topic but I’ll stop
4:25there thank you well I’m Carol Lang I I work for
4:31CUNY the City University of New York I’m in the professional staff Congress which is um uh local in the AFT and um I’m
4:42particularly you know drawn to the topic partly because um my a my the leader of
4:49my union the of the AFT Randy wearden is has wholeheartedly thrown her support
4:57around um Israel and the essentially bringing lots and lots
5:02of money to arm the Israelis against the Palestinians and so you
5:10know it’s a she’s difficult person to challenge but we’re we’re attempting to
5:16do that now because people just don’t see that it’s the aflcio that’s really
5:21behind you know supporting American foreign policy yeah hi um I’m a South
5:27African living in Island and uh my history is of the Durban docks
5:34organizing doc workers in the 1970s and I’m still working with unions
5:40there to organize and to achieve what we yet to achieve which is to stop
5:46privatization and to bring in permanent work there uh you know I’m I’m a labor historian and uh you know I’m keenly
5:54involved in the current labor international issues hi I’m sori
5:59Muhammad I am a nurse from Minnesota I’m part of a Minnesota Nurses Association
6:05recently was elected as the first vice president um I’m just so blown away with
6:10all this history I’m learning the things that I don’t learn from a union and um
6:16so I’m glad to be here I’m I’m really eager to
6:21learn Robin hey also I’m Robin Easton Davis I
6:29usually her pronouns I am from Portland Oregon and I am with
6:37asme um and I’m a government worker I’m a bureaucrat I work for um the county
6:45mult county um I’ve been with the union for seven years I’ve been also an
6:50organizer with a pan-african socialist organizer I organization and international of course
6:58organiz organiz so we have um since our
7:04Inception been fighting imperialism and anti
7:10Zionism and um Liberation for All Peoples but centering on African
7:16Liberation so um that and and so um I’m
7:21very interested in in learning more about this and building with yall okay
7:27Adrien
7:35I’m sorry are you calling on participants yeah um no just just people are quickly introducing themselves
7:41gotcha yeah um so I am actually sorry I’m walking downtown so it might be a little loud um I’m in askme local 1215
7:48at Chicago Public Library and um yeah I just I am sort of aware of this history
7:55uh but would love to know more details on how we can organize um to fight uh
8:00the current you know everything they’re doing in the moment right now so um I am
8:07on my way to an action actually at the Art Institute uh so I might drop out at
8:12some point thank you okay thanks
8:18Norm um I don’t know if I can turn my video on I’m I’m in the car on my phone
8:23that’s okay no problem yeah so um Norm ker uh I am at Philadelphia High school
8:30teacher and a member of the American Federation of the genocide of teachers
8:37and students in Palestine hundreds of our colleagues have been murdered uh thousands of
8:43students have been murdered and injured in Palestine and yet uh our and and many
8:50of our colleagues are right now fighting obviously uh you know in the uh against
8:56this genocide here and are uh are esteemed uh president of the Union Randy
9:03we Gartner just smeared us all calling us all anti-semites
9:09um and uh yeah it’s just completely outrageous what we’re living through um
9:17and I you know I’ll just stop there I’ll just keep going thank you okay
9:23galin hi there uh similar to Adrian I am out and about so not really able to come
9:29off uh video or come on uh unfortunately but yes uh I am
9:36gwendelyn or Gwen I use they them pronouns and uh I am an organizer with
9:43uh ABS me International Union so good to see uh fellow abme folks here and yeah
9:49similar to Adrien um I’m somewhat aware of the history but uh definitely wanting
9:56to learn a lot more and to figure out how it can fit into uh some of the work
10:01that we’re doing uh with for example uh green forestine which is a part of the
10:08uh National Labor for Palestine Network so anyway I’ll uh stop there uh really
10:13happy to be here with everybody great okay
10:20Sarah hi everybody um this is Sarah I am a member of seciu 10:1 as a cqa uh
10:29construction site inspector um I’m also a member of seu
10:34101 members for Palestine and really lucky to call a lot of comrades living
10:40in Exile from different countries in Asia my comrades too and so just really
10:45curious about what yall are going to discuss today in terms of international solidarity I’m in
10:52Oakland okay and purr hi and and no one would know it’s
10:59pair like a pair of shoes okay and I’m I actually just heard about this from my
11:04buddy Norm who’s also on the uh on the call um I I’ll just say I just sort of
11:11come in um as a person very interested in Liberation
11:17theology um becoming informed by wsws and just kind of wondering how we
11:25can accomplish radical change so I’m here thank you p uh Elizabeth we’re just
11:32having introductions
11:39okay Elizabeth yeah you want to introduce yourself Hi how are you hold
11:46on one second I was disconnecting sorry for being
11:53late hello how are you good introduction in terms of Union I
12:01just got on I’m sorry could you give me who you are yeah just a brief introduction of who you are and okay I’m
12:06Elizabeth Milos I’m a member of uh UPI University of professional and Technical employees um CWA
12:139119 um also a member of upd members for Palestine and
12:22um uh we’re basically organized to support the um the resolution that are
12:29Union passed in 2021 but which included breaking ties with hute
12:36um and in solidarity with the people of Palestine and which our Union has since
12:43um buried basically and has and so we’re we’re organized to recommit to that um
12:51and support Palestine and and Jad inside okay thank you all so uh thanks
12:58for joining us I think which and what will be a very worthwhile discussion and
13:04presentation so uh one of the uh first experiences that I had was in the
13:09struggle against aarthi and defending Moses myako and others and learning that
13:16in fact the aflcio was supporting the aparti regime which uh we are going to
13:22discover about and that in fact the the AFL C was not only doing it by itself but was doing it with the histadrut in
13:29Israel which is pretty much unknown in the United States so our first speaker is going to be uh uh David hemon who uh
13:37is a longtime Union organizer activist in South Africa and has been fighting
13:43privatization and also studying the uh relationship of the labor movement in
13:49South Africa to Israel the history dout and to the aflco so welcome David thanks
13:54St um comrades um I’ve called it the
13:59Trilogy um I’m looking at the links and
14:05the UN unlinks the different types of ways in which the AFL C the British Tu
14:12the Trade union Congress and the hist have taken action in response initially
14:20to the working classes rise in 1973 after a period of severe repression
14:28during the 60s in which most of the political leadership and the trade Junior
14:33leadership either ended in prison or in Exile and then carried
14:39through um the history of the interventions which were taking place an
14:46apparent solidarity but as Kim mentioned it’s either solidarity or sabotage and we
14:53look at the forms of sabotage that were engaged in which in a way in the
14:59particularly in the 19 late 1980s was quite devastating so I’ve termed it late
15:05solidarity because when The Liberation movements in South Africa
15:12were oppressed in 1960 and throughout the 1960s and then when the working class
15:19announced itself the black working class announced itself in the 1973 um there was no solidarity out
15:28there from the AFL coo or the TU or the
15:33hyut instead we saw a response which was a kind of defensive response and
15:40thinking about how they could position themselves to other channel the militant
15:48uh workingclass struggle in South Africa onto the railroad of
15:53capitalism uh or in some way or other to sabotage that that movement and I’ll
15:59deal with these things now part of our challenge is that you know particularly
16:05as a South African or maybe from Chile or any national perspective in the uh so-called developing uh Nations we see
16:13that our perspectives are shaped by national orientations in other words I look at it from the point of view of the
16:21South African workers but of course those unions at the center and
16:28particularly C has a particularly close link with the US government and of
16:33course with the CIA uh it it has a a view of the whole
16:39world uh from Washington the TU has a world view of the world from London and
16:45hist uh from from Israel and so you know there many parts which are hard to
16:51connect and only now I learned of many of those connections so at times these
16:59various centers are in competition with each other because capitalists don’t necessarily get on very well with each other but mostly they are dedicated to
17:07the idea and to the strategy of sabotaging the Trade union movements
17:13which which have Arisen uh but to use the language of solidarity to mumble the
17:19words of solidarity but as I found in my case when I was uh banned in South
17:26Africa and ended up in Exile in London the first they asked me what in Earth were you doing they could not believe
17:33that I was organizing workers in the docks and elsewhere uh to have Trade
17:39union rights as elsewhere in the in the in the world they thought I must have been um organizing a gorilla movement or
17:46or or or something which uh with with an AK47 in my hand uh you know in other
17:52words is there’s deep misunderstanding and deep distrust of the movements uh in
17:58the former Colonial your world and of course they look at the emergence of the
18:03working class around the world and as we’ll be learning at many PLS it’s not
18:09just that they are trade unions they also are defending their state um as we
18:15found in South Africa in relation to the British T they defend their own
18:21corporations rather than give us uh solidarity and of course their national
18:26interests as broadly defined all layers of of control and Direction uh which
18:31sabotage their very notion of international trade unions as I mentioned sometimes they work well
18:37together other times they destabilize uh and and even have conflicts among themselves at the AFL C
18:45is a rather peculiar animal and at times it works with the European unions
18:50obviously there’s a special relationship with the British Tu but quite often they end up uh not supporting each other’s
18:58actions and maybe even going you know against them but but on the o uh we see
19:03the coordination I’m not going to stress that now in Africa in the n in late uh
19:121969 there was a Kissinger memorandum and that kinger memorandum spelled out
19:18the goal of foreign policy in America and Africa was to get a quote unquote uh
19:27peace peaceful nationalist leader and of course by that
19:32they meant someone who would support the United States policy imperialist policy
19:38throughout Africa that was called the kinger memorandum and it in a way it followed on in the idea that was put
19:47forward in in The Condor plan in Latin America uh it was a Central Intelligence
19:53in this way of being able to identify what is happening in each of the African countries and to identify individuals
20:01that they would support uh and would support against the
20:06working class and against The Liberation movements as as they were then defined
20:13as I mentioned in South Africa we had a momentous uh development out of the blue
20:20uh in a way you know although I was already in the Trade union movement in the
20:251972 and organizing dark workers when the movement started in 1973 it was
20:32unbelievable every single uh newspaper every edition of the
20:38newspaper announced another strike and another strike uh one after the other
20:43starting in Duran which is the main Port of South Africa going north into these
20:50uh aluminium smelters uh and stopping production there stopping production on the sugar
20:57plantations and even right down to uh small factories in and around Duran it
21:04was a it was an enormous development and UN unpredictably in a in a way uh there
21:12was such a a movement from below that the the police although they were armed
21:19and had every um available apparatus you know to hand
21:26but and and did act against the workers in in some particular cases but in general they had to stand back the
21:32workers marched down the streets uh calling on other workers to come out it was amazing I had a big smile on my face
21:39because uh we we’d never thought that the ideas of trade unionism and of Liberation would combin in in in this
21:46way uh the whole of Durban was paralyzed they had to get white collor workers
21:52white white color workers uh to carry out the the dirt and and uh the garbage
21:59uh it was uh it was unbelievable uh at the height of apartate this is at a time
22:04when apartate was still being finalized but out of this did not develop
22:09solidarity from the international labor movement instead I’ll go over some of
22:15the developments we should know that there is no area in the world where
22:20there is not some policy from particularly from the AFL uh c um in
22:26response to whatever happened in in in those labor movements in South Africa uh
22:33the AFL coo although it was relatively quite it supported the uh a a trade
22:40Union Center called tuxa it was Trade union Conference of South Africa and it
22:47had just in the 1970s stopped um taken policy that it
22:53would not organize it would not support the organization of black workers
22:59uh and and yet the AFL supported that and the TU the British Tu also supported
23:05that as well as a hist now in when the mass strikes took place the AFL C was completely silent
23:14instead of coming out and saying this is the way forward which had later muttered to itself uh it it it’s had nothing to
23:22say instead in the division of labor on on uh between America and Britain they
23:28Tu the British trade Union Congress visited South Africa and they only visited the black unions because
23:36comrades around me and other members of uh the trade unions went to their hotels
23:43and demanded that they come out come out of their their their dinners uh with the
23:49British uh companies and meet with the with the unions which eventually they did very in in in in a very uh I
23:59wouldn’t say angry but in a in a very reluctant mood they all wanted to uh
24:05finish uh had finished uh the evenings with drinks and uh you know go back to
24:11their luxury hotels so we we didn’t have that support uh from the British Tu and
24:18well of course we didn’t anticipate any from hrut but in 1976 when I went into
24:25Exile and uh discussed with International unions that was International Confederation of free
24:31trade unions which was little at least then at least openly U advocating and
24:39supporting black trade unions although in from its own perspective it saw that
24:44it could develop trade unions which would follow uh the European lines and
24:50uh have class collaboration in the end but at least they did give some support
24:55and in a meeting that I had with with with to try and understand what they they were doing and to explain the
25:02struggle in South Africa I was given a document um which I was told not to show
25:08anyone else but it was a memo uh to the icftu from the AFL C and it said um
25:18whatever you decide in the Europe uh we in the aflco are considering giving a
25:26million doll support to Chief balesi who we regard as the
25:32most effective nationalist leader in South Africa now this was it was so
25:39unbelievable I had to just laugh because balesi uh was well known to the Trade
25:45union and to The Liberation movement at least inside the country as a
25:50collaborator with the regime uh he was heading the bstan ab bstan was the
25:56excuse of a Nation given to the different tribal groups in South Africa
26:01to try and divide the black majority and the idea that a leader of a separate uh
26:08grouping uh which who didn’t support a national Outlook not even that quite
26:13apart from a class Outlook I seemed utterly fantastic and I didn’t take it too seriously I should have taken it
26:20much more seriously uh in the end 1976 we saw the soeta uprising most
26:26astonishing development which built on the 73 movement and uh
26:32ended up with with youth fighting barehanded against machine guns uh in
26:37Soto a time of of of deep uh crisis for the regime uh and and something that has
26:44burnt into our memory in in South Africa but the I Fu for its um for whatever
26:52policy it did have it did actually call for international action in June 197
26:5877 uh the AFL CAO did not support them so all along the line has been forced
27:05divisions and uh not acting in solidarity even with the more reformist
27:10well there were frankly reformist International groups now where does the history come in well if we had a more
27:20more time i’ explain it but history do really operated as a kind of a a child
27:27in relation to the AFL CIO parent um it
27:32operated remember it it it was a kind of a trade Union but but not really it was
27:39both a an employe it is a big at that time in the 1970s and up to quite recently his is the most uh the biggest
27:47employer in Israel it is also involved in arms manufacturing uh in key Industries and
27:56it was involved in secret L with South Africa all this is only beginning to
28:01come out now in supporting uh remember that astonishingly at that time and
28:08astonishing when we look at the situation today uh Israel was regarded as a par State as South Africa and the
28:16two Paras got together anded uh you know on a mutual exchange with uh ex with
28:24rockets and uh solar energy even then they they had ideas but all to be able
28:31to secure themselves against sanctions against action which would be taken uh by International uh action against them
28:39for the oppression of the uh majority that you know in in each in each country
28:45so in the 1980s the htot was involved in these changes and on when I was in D
28:52Salon in Tanzania teaching there at the University in 1979 uh there was
28:58a report that South Africa had exploded a nuclear bomb uh it was denied and no
29:05one was quite sure now it is quite clear that Israel and the hyut was involved in
29:11this had actually helped South Africa get to that uh to get that status and of
29:16course the idea was that no one would be able to attack South Africa apartate South Africa if it had a nuclear bomb in
29:24its its hand so it was we can see that the his was fully involved in all these
29:31decisions uh it acted against the black majority and in particular in the
29:381982 uh Beyond it it was involved in trying to develop a layer of
29:44collaborator uh trade unionists uh and uh bring them to Israel uh teach them
29:50cooperatives and everything which was a kind of a SE seen as a kind of Reform uh
29:57from from their from their side uh all of course with joint arrangements with
30:02the aflco but in 1982 right out of the blue it was like a a thunderbolt because no
30:09one could believe it h remember what I said that there was this document in 1976 which I’d seen in 1982 suddenly
30:18that document was carried into action um the uh mean a award uh for Freedom was
30:27uh given to Chief balesi uh in early in
30:321982 and they covered their tracks by also giving the award prous to one of
30:38the trade units who been beaten to death in and tort after torture in in South
30:44Africa they then made a visit to South Africa and uh it was but the AFL C is
30:53very far from being a diplomatic success and it many of the Union just refused to
31:00meet with them because of the of the character so in other words they tried everything they put down a lot of money
31:06to be able to build trade unions in their image uh and it it it hadn’t worked but now if the idea of false
31:14solidarity uh hadn’t worked it then moved on to a different plane uh by supporting balesi who was a part of the
31:23chief collaborator at that time with Pate although he made many other
31:28statements at times to cover his tracks in 1985 there was a celebrated strike at
31:35British Tha and rubber a place close to where I I lived uh where the workers
31:41came out and strike demanding recognition of the metal Union when
31:46that strike took place and developed uh with absolute uh loyalty
31:52from the local communities from throughout the uh labor movement in Sou
31:58Africa and throughout the region the uh inata that was to say
32:05chapi ordered uh the action by his supporters uh to crush that strike um
32:14and many workers were were killed um houses were burnt and uh they tried to
32:21destroy their Union to destroy the strike but they never succeeded but to
32:26be able to put it on a on a more firm footing a union well it’s a Proto Union
32:32was actually more of a killing organization called USA UW USA was launched in May
32:391986 to crush the trade unions in quas to that is around Durban to defeat the
32:46workers in the in the area and to defeat the S Strunk now where did these people
32:53come from we’re only now beginning to learn and it’s still so many years later later you know the information as Kim I
33:00think would would explain at times it’s only more recently coming uh to our
33:06knowledge we found that from the 1988 into the 1990s these uh de squads were being
33:12trained professionally by the history uh which had an experience in this field
33:18and by is the Israel uh in the area of Namibia called The caprivi Strip which
33:25was the center of the Sou African military uh in taking invasive action
33:31into Angola and trying to suppress the internal resistance in uh in
33:37Namibia um as part of its struggle against the development of of genuine
33:44Liberation movements in in southern Africa now comrades that is one side of
33:49the situation the way in which these bureaucracies have worked together
33:55sometimes quite you know from their part in in a Cooperative manner sometimes and
34:00somewhat you know competitively but they never defeated uh they never succeeded
34:05in the aim but there were costs every life that we lost in South Africa helped
34:12those who were calling for um a settlement at any price uh preparing uh
34:19to be able to take on Pro capitalist policies and and the like uh and you
34:25know strengthen you know that side not not only in uh generally in in in
34:30various political parties but also within some of parts of the Liberation movement where deep wounds uh suffered
34:38throughout the N particularly the 1980s uh from this particularly from the
34:43way in which the AFL C gave everything to the counter Revolution and can I say
34:51well I was l in South Africa um and speaking to people the
34:56grievance of those workers at BTR that was s col same the same company they
35:03felt that they were completely let down and even now they still feel that they you know that the issue has not been
35:09been settled on their side so we see now we look towards the genuine solidarity
35:16internationally South African workers are struggling in in quite terrible
35:22situation right now with something like 37% unemployment and among the youth
35:27somewhere about 70% uh unemployed uh and even graduates are
35:33unemployed uh and and an economy which is just moving uh very slowly and and
35:40and uh in very contradictory ways from from year year to year we’re desperately
35:46looking for support and building genuine trade unions and to be able to build a
35:52Workers Party to be effectively representing ordinary working people to
35:59secure their lives to have decent houses and to have a future for their children
36:05thank you com thank you um David so our our next
36:13speaker is uh Frank hammer and Frank is uh was past president of UAW 909 and um
36:20has been involved in a long struggle of decades and Decades of solidarity with workers of of Latin America workers
36:27around the world welcome Frank I was seconding the motion Li Lisa’s motion to
36:33hear more about his his to doe as we all need to be much more
36:39informed but anyway yes um so uh I think what I what I what I
36:47wanted to talk about um and I made some notes Here uh
36:52was really uh coming off of the labor notes uh conference that some of us attended
36:58uh in Chicago uh a week a week or two ago um and the notes that I have go like
37:05this um that uh what we saw at the labor no conference was a profound
37:12stirrings stirrings of the of um a growing um uh activism uh within
37:20the labor movement in the US and that regardless of the labor not
37:26politics and its Economist approach to the class struggle it was uh a very very
37:32important and worthwhile event with over you know I think around 4,500 uh active uh trade unionists uh
37:42including leadership including staff but especially including many rank andile uh
37:49organizers um and brought together um uh quite a significant
37:56diversity and also International representation and the mix and and the
38:02workshops and the like and conversations and so on was uh high energy and very
38:09intense uh and we should advocate for more and we should begin to advocate for
38:15a politics that takes up what was left out and that’s that was the leaflet that
38:20we um distributed at the at the conference namely that even though there
38:27were like 300 workshops at the labor notes event not one focused on the role
38:34of the AFL CIO loc nationally internationally not
38:41one focused specifically on the solidarity Center the main arm of the
38:48AFL C internationally in 60 countries funded to the National Endowment for
38:55democracy there was not one of the 300 workshops about the solidarity Center
39:01and of course it’s not not too hard to imagine why there were solidarity Center
39:07participants at the labor notes conference and un undoubtedly received
39:12funding from the solidarity Center to put on the conference and lastly the
39:17other thing that we pointed out in the flyer was that there was not one Workshop about
39:23Mayday at a National Labor conference and uh what even makes that a little bit
39:30more significant is that my union the UAW uh under the leadership of the
39:36reform slate now with Sean Fain has specifically identified
39:42Mayday uh as not only important but it is a Target in unfortunately in
39:482028 for uh his advocacy for contracts uh in the US Labor movement to end uh on
39:55the same date on April 30th so that uh there could be the prospects
40:01of building a general strike with workers uh walking off the job all
40:06across the country so that with this uh being projected and incidentally with Shan Fain present at the laor nor
40:14conference also uh uh unprecedented that somebody from the UAW would play that
40:20role at the conference that uh why the labor nor conference wouldn’t wouldn’t
40:25uh take this uh opening and build for a national uh
40:33celebration a trade Union celebration of Mayday as it is after all a us uh uh an
40:41event of us Origins uh beyond that what was missing
40:46was the debate about the Biden Trump election in the fall of great significance to the labor movements here
40:54and abroad uh what was missing was uh discussion about increasing increased
41:00Wars and war war preparations especially considering
41:05the saber battling directory against China and even the possibility of
41:11nuclear war these were not uh subjects of discussion and of course not uh not
41:19discussed either is the intensifying degradation of the planet and the rising
41:25environmental catastrophe and just want to point out I was mentioning earlier
41:30that I learned in this in Southeast Asia uh temperatures reached 118 degrees and
41:37if that isn’t the product of uh our economic system and imperialism I don’t
41:42know what is so um in a word the labor notes conference left out talk about the
41:49US Empire and I think that uh and I I would prefer to uh uh going forward as
41:57uh as Leo that we are we are focused we’re targeting the US Empire and the AFL C’s
42:05role within it it is being directed by the Empire and we need to uh approach uh
42:14working class in the US with a political Consciousness that our problems will not be solved without a dissolution of the
42:22US Empire and any other would be Empires so how how do we build that kind of
42:29movement that is explicitly against the empire and for bringing down the US Empire and all other wouldbe Empires our
42:36role is to build a labor movement that challenges the Empire and doesn’t merely accommodate and nurture
42:42it um so as part of that um the idea that we
42:50should be uh promoting and advocating for Mayday I think should be a very explicit uh that not only are we out to
42:58expose the machinations of the FFL CIO but we should also be directing that
43:05what we want is a workingclass international solidarity and you know and
43:12um you know expressed in all the MayDay celebrations around the world um and uh
43:20you know holy uh absent in the US however in the flyer that we issued at Labor notes we advocated for
43:28reporting from the various cities around the country where in spite of the F CIO
43:34labor and working class and activism is coming out in with Mayday accelerations
43:40but they’re being of course censored and here in Detroit we as well had a labor
43:45had a made a uh celebration uh in Southwest Detroit um mostly left uh
43:52working class but uh inspiring and very important for uh going forward now the
43:59other the other thing uh that I I want to speak of is that the we have to you
44:06know the the role of the F CIO historically and in the last uh you know
44:1150 60 years is to defeat the left is to crush the left I mean that’s that was
44:19that’s been their role and I speak to that from uh regard to my own uh brother
44:24and I would like to talk a little bit about my brother that my brother was employed by the precursor to the
44:31solidarity Center by the ffci namely the American Institute for free labor development which played its
44:40pro-imperialist pro-empire anti-left anti-progressive movements in all of Latin America and my
44:47brother was involved in the great land reform
44:52uh hosted by a field funded by the US government funded by the CIA with the
44:59intention of uh U uh marginalizing and
45:04and uh crushing uh Progressive uh land land uh activism and uh agrarian
45:11agrarian uh Progressive movements in favor of one dominated by the US and um
45:19and in that regard um this is very evident in a couple of
45:25ways that so that you can get real Clarity in in terms of the picture that
45:30my brother in his reports where he’s advancing land reform in in El Salvador uh which was
45:38fairly contro you know very controversial um he was making reports
45:46about on the one hand the success of the Land Reform but on the other hand totally ignoring that at the very same
45:52breath uh that there were 40,000 cinos that were being methodically killed by
45:59death squads and this was part of model on what was going on in Vietnam with uh
46:06The Phoenix Program which was on the one hand to put out the carrot with land reform and on the other hand
46:13militarily uh with the with the stick and you know and with uh um you know
46:19killing the Revolutionary movements in in in in in in the rural Countryside in
46:26in South Vietnam and also uh at the same time uh in El
46:31salador um and the other thing is that my brother was uh trained uh by
46:36hute my brother’s uh movements in uh Land Reform were modeled on hist dude
46:43and uh he traveled to Israel to be trained there um so you can see the
46:50connections and why history D plays a very very important role in the Empire
46:56so that’s that’s kind of what I wanted to advance uh as part of this
47:02conversation uh I’ll leave it there um but uh I think that uh to those
47:09of you who are uh guests uh to this event we do look forward to uh
47:15increasing our ranks and you know seeing ourselves as uh maybe preparing for the
47:21labor notes conference that’s next in 2026 and advancing in a very organized
47:28way that we need to be labor activists talking about uh the pro Empire role of
47:37the U of the of of the FFL CIO and how we need to be supportive of progressive
47:43re revolutionary movements around the world in the honor of Mayday thank
47:50you thank you Frank and one of the things that Leo uh is uh tasks are and a
47:58part of our agenda is to to build direct links with workers around other countries that have been affected by uh
48:05the AFL intervention the solidarity Center and the CIA and the country that
48:11people are most aware of is in Chile Where in 1973 there was a coup uh that
48:17led to the death of thousands 20,000 trade units and Military dictatorship and is still having effects in Chile and
48:26one of the things that we did was to have uh on the anniversary of the coup
48:31in 1973 we had an a conference and uh press conference at the
48:36aflci and linked up directly with uh trade unions in Chile this is our responsibility because uh these workers
48:44are still suffering and there has to be accountability uh of what the aflc has done in Chile and joining us is Ernesto
48:51roas uh he is uh a unionist and has been an activist in a long time uh fighter in
48:57Chile uh to to hold the aflcio accountable and was part of our uh
49:03International effort on the anniversary of the coup welcome Ernesto okay thank you Sten Thank you
49:09Lisa as you mentioned this um blood K in Chile which was
49:171973 it count also with the presence of the
49:23AO since 64 when the Christian Democrat government came into
49:29power and CIA mad and all those were quite clear that they had to stop alend
49:36uh Victory which was very near the the the the the election in
49:441958 and we know all about Kissinger and and Nixon how they tried also to
49:50stop the election even in Chile and uh I remember the the the the strike that we
49:57did the 8th of July of uh 1970 in order to demand that
50:03we had to have elections I mean well
50:09Chile all all our Latin American countries have been suffering American integration always but in Chile also was
50:17very strong because of this possibility of have socialism with democracy and
50:22with a working class leading the way we have have a very strong trade unions uh
50:28since uh 1953 before the public workers in
50:351943 also founded by the same movement clario BL and all these
50:41people well um and the SC is that the presence of
50:48the as I mentioned since 1964 with the Christian Democrat uh um de development
50:57also in the Trade union movement they they came with by the hand
51:03of the oflc and of course uh the Easter rout
51:09uh uh intervention in Chile was a little bit less not like in Argentina that was very
51:17strong Peron was a very good friend of this um type of uh tragan organization
51:25which uh he had has contact directly with u leaders of um e Ru in Argentina
51:34and that’s why the Argentinian J movement for example have all this uh uh
51:40Business Development with housings Etc very much the model that you had in
51:48Israel but in Chile it’s different because we have a large community of Palestinians too that um like now they
51:56are very present in this um campaign against the genocides in
52:03Palestine and that’s why they have been press the our president to to criticize
52:11uh the this this genocide in in in in in palestinia but uh coming back to to the
52:19the main issue of and also Easter that is it’s been very present as I already
52:27mentioned in Argentina also in Colombia they had the dictatorship right with
52:32dictatorship and Narco dictatorship uh up until
52:38very almost now except Pedro is the president that has been changing this
52:44the the situation with this big social movement that came from the such abhal
52:52that was the same dat that in Chile in um 19 19
52:5920199 also in the same NS in October but he managed to organ organize this this
53:07this this groups and with with Jer with ecologist with the color people Etc and
53:14they are in power and of course they are in the aim of mosad permanently also
53:22Pedro is accusing and taking to court the
53:27um the participation of mosad not only in training army forces in Colombia but
53:35also selling guns weapons and all these things that’s why they hate so much P
53:40too but uh that’s is more or less how is it is going
53:48um and of course we in Chile the Trade union is not in a very good situation we
53:54are spit because the Chile to you see that
54:00came into develop when when this this
54:06very controlled democracy in Chile was taking place uh they didn’t change and
54:13they didn’t criticize the model that pette left behind on the contrary uh they maintain the same
54:20economic wages policies that they have before up until now up until now
54:26even the 40 hours just win winning lately is going to be installing five
54:32years more and this first year is going to be only one hour less than the the the 45
54:40that we were working ETA it’s a chain Chile well that’s why the they they as
54:46much show so profoundly the the working class in Chile that uh also have this
54:53incredible M of industrial world um workers Council during
54:59alende that stopped the BL Market they stopped the the discussion of Industry
55:05that the right wind with the CIA mosad and all those were trying to to to to to
55:10to make during all that process nevertheless
55:16um there is some hope because we have other tr organizations that are
55:23separated from the CH and TC although I I I have to recognize that
55:30the last speech of the new president of du of Chile is recognizing the demand of
55:36the worker for the first time in terms of salary pensions ETA they never did
55:42before but that is what our uh sector of
55:47other tr unit that’s clista and some others that um
55:57in working participation are bigger than the the the official TC that uh was
56:03working permanently for the model and the governments that we had well
56:09um and uh the mosad and and all and and
56:15all the it’s been pring very much lately in in in in in government of President P
56:25he has this min of interior inspector training by mosad training by the Army
56:31in in Israel with pictures that we had in our paper that we took and well you
56:38can imagine how this paper almost disappeared with all the broad cut and the constant attack of
56:45uh this um um sanist groups in
56:52Chile that have a lot of economic power too of course but um um I don’t know
57:01uh I don’t want to repeat the same Mor that they been said before but if there
57:08there are some questions uh lately I will gladly to to clarify or ask thank you one of
57:16the tasks of Lao is to actually build relationships direct relationships and
57:22links with workers around the world in their struggle and and accountability in history because most workers in the
57:28United States and around the world are unaware of the the influence and the effect of the aflci international
57:34operations as well as the history gr and our next speaker is uh Carol Lang she’s a professor at at cuni and has been
57:42involved in studying and and Reporting the role of the history Gro and uh within uh the aflcio welcome Carol
57:57let me see here Carol am I unmuted yeah you’re unmuted
58:06okay well thanks everybody for helping me with my my talk since you could see
58:12how how far reaching the history dude is that the IDF this is not the history dud
58:18trains the New York City Police Department so Israel is like you know on
58:23the top of the list of you know really shitty countri countries right um so I
58:3010 minutes is really not a long time to explain you know the the evolving of the
58:35history in its relationship to the um the Israeli State uh if you’re
58:42interested I wrote an article in Cate Action magazine that sort of lays out a
58:47lot of the things that people are saying now about the the policies that the the history Jude has had in Visa V you know
58:55imperialism in you know countries like Africa and Asia and you know Asia and
59:01all over the place but you know for me what what’s important is to
59:07understand the development of the hisr Jud because the hisr without the
59:12hisr um there would have been no Israeli State they unlike the AFL CIO which is
59:20clearly you know uh and as Kim said in the beginning an organization that
59:25essentially has helped American imperialism and has supported American imperialism for its entire
59:32existence the the hist not only supports imperialism but without the hist there
59:39wouldn’t have been an Israeli State and the the fact is it’s not a Trade union
59:45and as much as um you know Schuler who is our president and the aflcio would
59:52like to argue that this is a trade Union that that um which that represents
59:58Israeli workers it’s it’s was a an organization that helped build the
1:00:04Israeli State and as a matter of fact it owned its own industry and it owned
1:00:10strike Breakers also so when workers would go out on strike in Israel you
1:00:15know both either Israeli or Israeli and Arab the history D would break those
1:00:21those strikes so there this is a capitalist organization it’s not even
1:00:27duplicitous in the sense that it’s dual like the aflcio is you know while it prevents
1:00:35workers from you know organizing essentially it also helps to negotiate
1:00:41contracts that’s not the case the htud is not any way shape or form a labor a
1:00:48labor um organization that supports it certainly doesn’t support the Arab
1:00:54workers the Arab workers are um are discriminated against they pay dues to
1:01:00and they have to be in the HR and they pay dues to the hisr but they are not
1:01:05represented in any way shape or form by the hisr so this is an organiz
1:01:14organization that um let me just step back Theodore Herzel who was the the
1:01:21theorist of um Zionism um basically are argued that um
1:01:28he that the the British Empire was going and the West in general was going to
1:01:34have to help Israel develop itself as a state within the Middle East because of
1:01:41the fact that right from the very beginning Herzel promised to do the bidding of the
1:01:48West and so won Winston Churchill said a Jewish State under the protection of the
1:01:55British Crown would from every point of view be beneficial and would be especially in harmony with the truest
1:02:03interests of the British Empire so this is the final Colonial settler state it
1:02:10is decided it is stated everybody understands that there’s nothing
1:02:16supportable about the hrit and yet people like L Schuler and and the head
1:02:23of the aft I’m blocking her name wi Garden who’s my
1:02:28president um essentially has everybody has agreed that in the necessity of
1:02:36keeping the hist and keeping the Israeli State because the Israeli state had
1:02:42historically done the bidding of the West and you know the United States uses Israel in order to invade other
1:02:49countries it it you know besides the fact that um you know it supplies arm
1:02:55arms and weapons to to uh Israel it also
1:03:01uh essentially uses Israel as a base so when it wanted to attack Iraq it used Israel in order to be able to do
1:03:09that um so Herzel says he’s the the
1:03:14founding father of of Zionism said we should therefore a portion of a rampart
1:03:21of Europe against Asia this is another indication of a colonial settler state
1:03:27so it’s not like we want to be with those people we are bringing in the west
1:03:33and the West is going to have to defend us because we’re defending the interests of the West um as an outpost of
1:03:41civilization as opposed to barbarism just clear out unadulterated racism we
1:03:48should as a nation Natural State um remain in contact with all EUR Europe
1:03:55which would have to guarantee our existence this is so this is a clear statement that hand and glove Israel has
1:04:04determined or that what became the Israeli state has become um an outpost
1:04:10essentially of imperialism um the history is an arm of
1:04:16the ruling class it has no Independence whatsoever it helped build the Israeli
1:04:22State without the Israel without the hisr it’s unlikely according to the
1:04:29founders of benorian and people like that that it was it would be unlikely
1:04:35that the Israeli state would um be able to get off the ground so Tony Greenstein
1:04:41is and I I I have to say that I mean he has helped enormously in terms of
1:04:48unearthing the kinds of things that the history has done and the claims that you
1:04:54know they have made over the you know from their Inception I I would suggest people you know if he I think he has a
1:05:01book coming out it’s worth actually taking a look at um he says about Golden
1:05:07myair um in 1928 I was she says I was put on the
1:05:12hist Jud executive committee at a time when this big labor union wasn’t just a
1:05:18trade Union organization it was a great colonizing agency Israel’s first Prime
1:05:24Minister David borian contended that without the hrit I doubt whether we
1:05:30would have had a state therefore not only should the AFL break with the
1:05:36hrut um but you know
1:05:43um but because here is an organization that continues to condone the the
1:05:49genocide the hist is not a a labor union as much as it pretends to be
1:05:56and it was it was an arm of the Israeli state
1:06:01it has its own businesses it’s not a typical Trade union it’s almost like
1:06:07musolini and and fascist unions they they under musolini and under under
1:06:14Hitler they had their labor leader who would represent them in the state but
1:06:19the but you know essentially um all kinds of strikes were essentially out
1:06:25Lord under fascism and um if anybody knows anything about the history of the
1:06:31zionists they looked to musolini especially musolini because they argued that musolini wasn’t a racist unlike the
1:06:40the um the Nazis who were racist and ha the Jews but they saw them as a strong
1:06:45armed military force um and that they admired them and and did not oppose
1:06:53fascism they they saw thems as organizing essentially a fascist state
1:06:59within the Middle East modeled on the type that musolini had organized in um
1:07:05in Italy um so as I said the history helped
1:07:12organize strike Breakers so whenever even Israeli workers would go out on
1:07:18strike or when Israeli and and Arab workers initially would go out on strike
1:07:23together the hist would break those strikes um okay is the hist was the
1:07:33owner of 25% of the capitalist Industries which off which as I said
1:07:38often employed strike Breakers so that there was impossible to have any sort of
1:07:44independent activity and especially since the hisr Dru who you know modeled
1:07:51itself as being some Trade union leadership Essen
1:07:56you know called all the shots when it came to workers either Arab or Arab and
1:08:02Jew going out on strike so in 1958 um and I mean there’s in more
1:08:10incidences as David and and Frank had mentioned and and Ernesto had mentioned
1:08:17that the hist dude had played nefarious roles in all kinds of countries helping
1:08:23American imperialism put down struggles in 1958 The International Institute for
1:08:30development coordination and labor studies was established as a means of furthering Western interests in the
1:08:37third world half of its graduates came from the Asian Institute for labor
1:08:42studies and cooperation funded by the CIA through the AFL CIO the AFL CIO
1:08:50obviously has you know its own nefarious history all along but the AFL CIO and
1:08:57the history Jud has worked hand and glove together in supporting all of these CIA ventures in especially in the
1:09:05third world it operated on behalf of the US in African countries such as Zer and
1:09:13Kenya um and thus the the AFL the is
1:09:18Israel had essentially carried out American foreign policy and helping to
1:09:24shape America American foreign policy because in the beginning Herzel Theodore
1:09:30Herzel who was the founding father of Zionism said that the West will have to
1:09:37comply and will have to protect Israel because they know that Israel is going
1:09:42to protect the interests of the West and so right from the jump there was this
1:09:48symbiotic relationship between the state of Israel the hisr which was you know
1:09:55essentially had um been an arm and a state builder of the Israeli economy and
1:10:03American imperialism
1:10:08um Greenstein says that um iscore which
1:10:13was a steel company was owned 51% by uh
1:10:18the hisr and 49% by South Africa so that the the hist
1:10:25help build the Machinery of the South African government in order to to
1:10:32maintain and pop up and and remember this is the same period the H the Israel
1:10:37becomes a state in 1948 and the um the apti state becomes established in in
1:10:44South Africa in 1948 as well um so so
1:10:4949% was owned by the South African Corporation um and South
1:10:56Africa was their armed forces were managed to to get the steel from both
1:11:03not only from their own country from South Africa but also from from uh from
1:11:09Israel which helped to put down any Insurgent movements in in South
1:11:17Africa um Greenstein also says other histri companies such as tadiran and
1:11:24suam were equally complicit in supplying South Africa with Weaponry also helping
1:11:30to build the electronic wall between South Africa namia and neighbor neighboring African
1:11:37States I mean it’s just phenomenal that this is it was the
1:11:45hist that you know the aflcio claims as being a sister Union in support of
1:11:53workers is has m militarized all of these countries South Africa Asia well
1:11:59the countries in Asia to help put down and and you could just if you read my
1:12:05article you just you know put in hist in Google you’ll find all of the the
1:12:12different um revolutions that the history J has helped to essentially
1:12:20undermine so as much as a number of the Jews who went to Israel because partly
1:12:28because they couldn’t get into the United States and that was partly because of the zionists in the United
1:12:34States encouraged their going to to what became Israel and the you know the
1:12:42borders were closed to the the refugees who came from Germany and that was
1:12:48Roosevelt but Roosevelt had zionists in his cabinet the Zionist in the cabinet
1:12:54encouraged Roosevelt to close the borders so when you know I hear people
1:12:59say well where were the Jews going to go well the zionists are responsible right
1:13:06from the very beginning of the Jews ending up going to Palestine because
1:13:11they were neither allowed into Cuba or in the United States and what’s
1:13:16interesting is that there’s um a Jewish Museum in Manhattan and I went there and
1:13:22it was just so infuriating because they showed the boats of the people who came
1:13:28from Germany who needed to get into the United States and the only country that
1:13:35the Jewish Museum said prevented the Jews from coming in was Cuba and they
1:13:41completely ignored and and deliberately so the United States which was a major
1:13:47culprit in forcing the the Jews to end up ultimately going to um to what became
1:13:54isra so the attitude of benorian tell me if
1:13:59I’m going on too long Steve okay um the attitude of benorian was that the working class as much as people believe
1:14:07that that the hisr and these socialists who believed in socialism who ended up
1:14:14believing that they were building socialism in in what was to become in
1:14:19Israel um the attitude of benorian was that socialism was never an aim in
1:14:25itself but a tool for the advancement of the national objectives it was benorian
1:14:31who coined the slogan from class to Nation both perspectives saw the role of
1:14:37Labor as a nationalist role there’s nothing clearer than this about how
1:14:46essentially this mindset was wine of a fascist mindset so that when you have
1:14:52the annihilation of 30 40,000 or more um Palestinians it came
1:15:00directly from the origins of the Israeli State they saw that this was going to
1:15:05become a state that the the idea was not to have workers control in any way but
1:15:11it was to build a state that was going to be capitalist as a matter of fact the
1:15:16Jews who made deals with the Nazis who and and there’s something called the
1:15:22havara agreement of 1933 that the zionists dropped the boycott
1:15:28that was the whole entire world had on the Nazis they dropped the boott so that
1:15:34there could be some Jews who would leave and go to Israel and they would a lot of
1:15:40them were Rich Jews who were able to bring their money out of the capital out of of Germany and into Israel and so
1:15:49these people had the same sort of fascist mentality as the molinis
1:15:56and the htud founded the hag and the the Zionist terrorist group never I mean
1:16:04it’s just it it’s history is abominable just abominable there is nothing
1:16:10supportable about the hrd um and in 1920s it supported the maai which was an
1:16:18organization essentially the labor party in Waiting the labor party um which was
1:16:24made made up of European um Jews um were right from the
1:16:32very beginning were oppressive against the the the um the Jews that came from
1:16:39the Middle East and essentially the the pecking order was that the Europeans
1:16:44were on top and the the um spartic the Jews and the the the you know Iraqi Jews
1:16:53Oriental Jews were at the bottom um okay so I’m I’m not sure how long I
1:17:01have the AFL um as once again is
1:17:07wholeheartedly and you could see pictures of Schuler and the head of the
1:17:12the um the labor party they’re smiling they’re together they’re supportive the
1:17:19Randy Wine Garden and I’m not even sure this is worth investigating how much the
1:17:25afci has given to um Israel but Randy wearden my union president and Norms
1:17:33Union president has given over 200,000 and probably more than that in and
1:17:39bought Israeli buns they said nothing about when sharim
1:17:46Abdul akla was murdered she’s an American Palestinian she was murdered by
1:17:52the Israelis and there has not been a peep about investigating her death
1:17:59because that would expose the Israeli government um
1:18:11okay so just a little bit on on Randy Marden
1:18:16[Music] um the the she writes she and and people um you
1:18:25know who support her her policies and politics writes in a manual um
1:18:33expression oh wait that’s sorry that’s um somebody else let’s see what she
1:18:39wrote she writes since the
1:18:461950s um the 19 since 1950s the US Labor movement has continued to invest in
1:18:52Israeli bonds using their pension BS the American labor unions collectively hold
1:18:58millions in Israeli bonds the AFT alone reported to the do Department of Labor
1:19:05that the union has invested 200,000 in state bonds Richard trumka the former
1:19:10head of the aflci absolutely opposed support for BDS and she she basically says we have
1:19:19to keep this under wraps because there are people who are exposing the AFT for
1:19:26the amount of money that it’s sending to Israel and it would be very bad if
1:19:32people thought that the AFL or the AFT in particular was giving money to you
1:19:38know the to the hisr and to genocide she says please do not discuss
1:19:45with union members representatives of the press or others guesstimates of the
1:19:51value of the state of Israel bonds held by unions so we’re completely in the dark nobody
1:19:57knows anything there’s no absolutely no Union democracy in any of the unions in
1:20:04the AFL um devest she says devest from Israel activists have used such
1:20:10information in their arguments and have quoted figures found in Jewish newspapers Andor provided by Jewish
1:20:17communal representatives and she so this organization that she belongs to is
1:20:23basically saying you know just keep everything under wraps don’t let people know that the AFL CIO as a matter of
1:20:30fact I used to be an asme and this you know I I’ll stop in a minute I used to be in asme and I brought in a resolution
1:20:39when I was in asme to that the that the asme should disclose how much money it’s
1:20:48giving to Israel and in buying Israeli bonds and people like were astounded
1:20:53they were silent they were like I was speaking Chinese and I was called a racist because I you know I wanted to
1:21:01know what the investment was um and you know essentially I was told the next
1:21:07month I was a delegate of the Union that that the that ask me will not ever
1:21:12entertain any sort of racist um you know language in as me and this is because I
1:21:20was asking it was once again it’s like this you know this conglomeration of is
1:21:29Israel and Zionism and Judaism and so if you’re anti- anti-israel you’re
1:21:35anti-semitic so that was essentially what people were saying to me that I was being anti-semitic because I wanted ask
1:21:42me to identify the money that it was spending and and the money that it was
1:21:48spending I actually happened to look it up and I found it on Google I think that
1:21:53they were sending money to schools in Israel that were these private religious
1:22:01schools that were preaching hate against the Palestinians and so I just to
1:22:08conclude that you know the Israel and the history D is just one they’re not
1:22:14separate the AFL at least in some way is a separate in organization it’s not part
1:22:20of the American government as much as you know everybody has said historic ly it it does the you know the the bidding
1:22:27of the American government it it follows it supports the the policies of the
1:22:32United States imperialism but that wasn’t even the case Israel the htra the
1:22:38Israeli state are absolutely fundamentally connected with each other
1:22:43and you know a as as borian said that they would not have been an Israeli
1:22:50state had there not been a hisr so my my final thing is to say that we have to
1:22:58demand that as as bad as the aflci is that it has to break from its
1:23:04relationship with the hisr because the hisr is one that is part and parcel of
1:23:11the Israeli State and supports ultimately this genocide that’s
1:23:17continuing and will never break because it can’t because it never was
1:23:22independent organization it was part of building the state and it has its own
1:23:28capitalist Industries it is not in any way shape or form uh an institution
1:23:35that’s independent that supports or protects the workers in Israel that’s it
1:23:41okay thank thank you Carol and by the way this coming July is an aft convention in Houston
1:23:48Texas and there will be an Nea convention and it would be important if a resolution was introduced and if it
1:23:55was passed at the AFT convention uh their teachers all over the country who are organizing in solidarity with
1:24:01Palestine and that’s an issue that that should be raised so our our last speaker is Elizabeth Milos uh she is a member of
1:24:09upy CWA in San Francisco UCSF UCSF and she was a delegate of the labor Council
1:24:16in San Francisco and was uh successful in getting a resolution passed as she
1:24:22mentioned in 2021 around the issue of uh Palestine and the relationship of the
1:24:27aflci to the history D so welcome Elizabeth hi yes um when I first came on
1:24:33I was uh sort of start I I was um I hadn’t really given myself a complete um
1:24:38introduction uh but I’m a member of up the University of professional and Technical employees um C CWA 9119 I was
1:24:46a member of the labor Council we were not successful in passing resolution at the level of the labor Council but we
1:24:52had passed one at our Union um upd in u under the previous leadership um in 2021
1:24:59in June 2nd 2021 um I want to start by saying that um I’m
1:25:07also Chilean uh Chilean American um and um was uh very much involved also with
1:25:15Leo in um presenting to the at the CWA
1:25:222023 uh and iversary um I’m sorry CWA 2023 convention we brought forth a
1:25:31Chilean journalist uh who had been a young journalist who had been um
1:25:36attacked by police and had lost an eye um to the CWA convention and had her
1:25:42speak at the TNG the newspaper Guild um in reality she just gave an introduction
1:25:48and we were able to at least announce an event that was that Leo organized um at
1:25:54the uh for the com for that period of time in in St Louis Missouri so um it
1:26:00was we were able to get out a lot of information about the role of the aflcio in Chile uh in the overthrow of the aend
1:26:09the government in Chile through the a American Institute for free labor development at that uh CWA
1:26:15convention I was a delegate to the labor Council I was also a delegate to the CWA convention because UPI is the largest
1:26:22health and education sector Union of communication workers of America and I was a delegate for two previous
1:26:29conventions that one in 2021 was the last one and that’s where um I’m going
1:26:35to take a step back and start from the from the beginning um if I if I may um
1:26:41our union represents 177,000 workers in in the state of
1:26:47California in University of California system and three community colleges now
1:26:52many people don’t realize the level of involvement that the UC system has with
1:26:58the uh is with Israel um in in fact UCSF
1:27:04uh Helen Diller Foundation has ties um to Israel um and the um the the way that UC
1:27:15has supported or has sent out notific notices to people trying to dissuade uh
1:27:22students and workers from expressing support for Palestine by um making
1:27:27illusions of anti-Semitism and and directly attacking um
1:27:33um faculty members or trying to tell people not to wear their buttons and things like that has been pretty
1:27:40indicative of their level of support for Israel they have not stated one at any moment have they opposed the bombing of
1:27:48the hospitals um at all and um in uh
1:27:542021 during the U attacks uh against the shikar neighborhood in Jerusalem and the
1:28:01continued demolition of H of of homes and and attack uh and pgms by settlers
1:28:07against um against Palestinians in the West Bank and the continued Siege on
1:28:14Gaza in 2021 the members of the peace and
1:28:20Justice Committee of my union passed a resolution in 2021 in support of
1:28:26Palestine which included breaking ties with hute now um I want to call attention to
1:28:33the latest call by the Palestinian Federation of General Federation of Palestinian trade unions and which has
1:28:40been a repeated call throughout these all these years is for American unions to break ties with htud um occupation
1:28:48related trade unions and um this has not been met with any kind of solidarity on
1:28:53behalf of many unions our our Union presented this resolution and we uh it
1:28:59passed however in when I attempted to bring it to the San Francisco labor council with uh other delegates who were
1:29:05in support of um that resolution the other delegates felt that if we included
1:29:10that it would have a very low chance passing so we drafted a whole new resolution which did not include hist
1:29:17dute at the time uh we wanted uh BDS to be part of it and we wanted U us um a to
1:29:24Israel which was included that and end to USA to Israel which was included in
1:29:30that res in the resolution that we presented at s San Francisco labor Council but the moment we presented it
1:29:36um on June 14th 2021 it got sent to committee and the um
1:29:43the representative on the executive Council uh committee Susan Solomon who
1:29:48uh was at the time uh an outgoing uh leader of the uh she had not been been
1:29:54reelected uh of the United educators of San Francisco um was part of that
1:30:02committee previous to that the United on May 19th the United educators of San
1:30:07Francisco had already passed a resolution the delegates assembly had already passed a resolution in support
1:30:13of Palestine which had been met with a big backlash um and Susan Solomon was not a
1:30:20supporter of Palestine she was sent she was a me of the executive committee and
1:30:26according to the rules of the the they were going to allow her to continue in
1:30:31her role as member of the executive committee until the end of the um the um
1:30:38tenure of of the end of the of her period um the new members of the you United
1:30:45educators of San Francisco the the new ex members of the executive committee who which in July were recently elected
1:30:55were go I’m sorry they’ve been elected in June or July I don’t remember very clearly but they we were hoping that
1:31:01they would come back be sworn in in July so they could join the ranks and be able
1:31:07to get that resolution out of committee um APAC supporter I mean very outright
1:31:14APAC supporter Mir Olga Miranda who’s vice president um at she was in the
1:31:19labor Council as well she is in the labor Council right now s CIU Local 8 seven of the janitors Union
1:31:26she um also helped to send it to committee and to wash it um Rudy
1:31:33Gonzalez from the building and trades also helped to send it to committee and he was part of the committee to quash it
1:31:40as well um during this process uh there was media while we’re supposed supposed
1:31:46to be negotiating um you know how to draft one that supposedly everybody
1:31:52could sign or sign on to um articles came out by you know where Rudy was
1:31:59shown saying well BDS is off the table and he was already speaking against it
1:32:04and we already realized that it was going to be very hard to get it out of committee so we were hoping that the um
1:32:13organizers of the uesf who were now who had many of whom were supporters of
1:32:20Palestine um were going to join us and even though some of them had been many
1:32:27of them had already been invited several times to meetings in the drafting of the resolution that we were presenting at
1:32:33the labor Council they did not join us uh during the previous meetings neither did they join us at the uh labor Council
1:32:43um and you know it’s very difficult to to say to
1:32:48talk about these things because it makes it seem as if one is trying to be divisive
1:32:54um but unless these things get put on the table and uh people are held accountable to um their uh their lack of
1:33:04unity and lack of support uh lack of unity in in in among labor that supports
1:33:10Palestine we won’t be able to get anywhere there obviously there’s
1:33:16political reasons there’s differences in political perspectives between the left and the United States but all that has
1:33:23to um be set aside so that we can fully support Palestine um and um and
1:33:31and what happened later then was because basically the AFL CIO is very is is very
1:33:38powerful so we don’t stand a chance if we don’t stand together um after um they
1:33:46finally joined us in August by September we got a letter from the the San Francisco labor Council got a letter
1:33:52from the um aflcio prohibiting us from even discussing it at the labor Council which
1:33:58went contrary to the um the history of the labor council’s for example position
1:34:05in the San Francisco labor council’s position regards to the uh Vietnam War was different than the national one but
1:34:12the national uh basically imposed itself on the San Francisco labor Council and
1:34:17supporting the leaders who obviously did not want this to pass in October by this
1:34:22time by the way that the block the boat had been going on in May then there had been a CWA organizing group created
1:34:31which met and which I was meeting in as well but all of a sudden it just dropped
1:34:37you know um sometime in June it it was dropped there was no explanation um I
1:34:43think the the and and in fact uh part of the resolution that we had passed it UPI
1:34:49included education so we presented two two different films in the last one was in August for our members gods of fights
1:34:56for Freedom was one of them we invited member of Jewish voice for peace um as well and
1:35:03um and so we were trying to do more education regarding history dude as well
1:35:09and by um in October the CWA 2021 had
1:35:16its convention and I was a delegate to that convention and we had agreed at the peace and social justice committee that
1:35:21we were going to be presenting our resolution um to the CWA convention we decided that since other
1:35:29CWA locals the one in Wyoming and Colorado had also passed a resolution um
1:35:34the chapter Wyoming Colorado chapter had also passed a resolution we would draft
1:35:39one and um time was going by and nobody was drafting one so the chair sent me a
1:35:47text and she said are you drafting one I said okay I’ll do it and she goes okay and then I did I sent it out and
1:35:54no response no objections um it was a long one because I knew that there was
1:36:02going to be very little chance of passing it to begin with considering the history of the
1:36:08CWA but I knew that it was going to be a very important opportunity for Education
1:36:14which many of these resolutions often play that role a role of educating the members so that members can see what
1:36:21we’re talking about um the the the the Wyoming in Colorado they
1:36:28supported the resolution um I had was in contact with some other CWA locals but
1:36:33it was the convention was held in Zoom because of the um the the covid so it
1:36:41was very difficult to reach people um and I found myself getting a call
1:36:49there were several things part there were several areas of participation at that at that convention that I was
1:36:55involved in in particular there was like a resolution uh in support of Biden’s um
1:37:01protect act the act of you know getting more money for unions and things so everybody wanted all of us to vote you
1:37:07know eyes closed for that resolution and I noticed that there was no um nothing
1:37:14mentioned about funding for increasing the number of O OSHA inspector’s office of safety and health in the middle of a
1:37:21of a pandemic so I introduced a friendly Amendment regarding that they did not
1:37:26like that at all but it passed um there was another part of it where solidarity
1:37:32Center resolution for workers to give money to the to the solidarity Center and naming
1:37:40basically the objective of which was to support workers in oppressive or
1:37:45authoritarian regimes um they mentioned Colombia Philippines
1:37:51and Cuba so I I felt a need to um do a
1:37:57motion to strike and took the opportunity for a five minute speech to talk about the role of the aflcio in
1:38:04Chile uh the aif L in Chile as well within that um that aspect with within
1:38:10that speech um something they did not like at all um
1:38:17the the this this happened U after um I
1:38:22got a call from my union president the new the newly elected president who sort of was asking me to step back to take a
1:38:30step back and I he was he was making a referral to my motion to strike uh
1:38:38before I made the speech and also to the resolution on Palestine which we had
1:38:43presented to the resolutions committee and by that time we spoke like an hour at the resolutions committee and um by
1:38:51that time we knew that it had not been approved approved to be um recommended to the convention but I insisted we were
1:38:58going to bring it to the glore anyways and the me the chair of the um of the
1:39:05peace and Justice committee and social justice committee refused to Second my motion to present to the floor uh you
1:39:11know I texted her asking her you know can you please second it and she she said no and there’s no point and there’s
1:39:18no teeth and I sort of like wonder what what are you talking about um and
1:39:24and it was very dis disconcerting because I think that the president of my
1:39:32union um sort of uh so basically influenced them delegates to not not
1:39:40support there was a few delegates that did support it but the majority did not even you know present any support for
1:39:47this the resolution the resolution didn’t even make it to the floor it was immediately the head of the resolutions committee immediately objected to it and
1:39:53it got taken out so it didn’t even make it to the floor um after that the peace and social committee never met again at
1:40:01my union and then after that while I was still a member of the labor Council I
1:40:06had been presenting resolutions for example uh with the with the other unions that were supportive of Palestine
1:40:13regarding Professor rabab alabi from San Francisco State University um who had
1:40:19been uh attacked by Zionist there as well and by the SF state that resolution
1:40:26passed and then there was another one that passed regarding the um human rights organizations that have been lab
1:40:32labeled terrorist organizations um but during that all that period of time there was also
1:40:38issues with the um that the labor Council was uh in support of you know
1:40:44Don Fischer’s uh big business Stadium where they BL attempt to land grab the
1:40:49Waterfront against the ILWU and um there was a lot of different things
1:40:56going on and and and um finally in
1:41:01um my the president of my local got calls from Mike Casey and Kim tagon Mike
1:41:08Casey’s local to and he was he’s a member of local Tu he’s the president of the lab San Francisco labor Council and
1:41:15also Kim tagi is the executive director and she was trying to I mean more than
1:41:21two calls telling asking them to replace me basically basic saying well maybe you
1:41:26can add more people or things like that and um they at that point did not succumb but in February in in in in
1:41:37February um 20123 um there was this we had this
1:41:43things came to a head basically at the labor Council where um the labor council
1:41:49did not support a resolution on Mia and um um basically there was a big
1:41:55argument ued and I was blamed for the fact that the the
1:42:02meetings were not being held because there was no Quorum because the building and trades would not arrive every time a
1:42:07resolution was being presented they would not come to the meetings so I was the one to blame for presenting
1:42:14resolutions um and there was
1:42:20um after February 2023 um there’s been several other developments related to
1:42:26Palestine and the labor movement since then and I’m not sure if you want me to go on regarding this but um there when
1:42:34we met with the CWA there was a CWA group um
1:42:39that re REM REM met again and they were mostly members of the um newspaper Guild
1:42:46and the whole idea of this these meetings was to um the whole idea of
1:42:52these meetings was to supposedly try to influence the
1:42:58leadership of the newspaper Guild to voice their positions regarding the um death of journalist which they had
1:43:05previously in 2021 uh W with the bombing of one of the
1:43:10um buildings where the many journalists were housed in 2021 um but they this time the
1:43:18leadership was refusing to call out um genocide and they were refusing to to no matter
1:43:26you know what kind of meetings they had so this CWA group there was members in
1:43:32it that apparently did not want to confront the uh labor bureaucracy of the
1:43:38CWA and when the Bay Area labor for Palestine started organizing they had uh
1:43:45for example on 1216 there was going to be a big demonstration and there was but
1:43:50before then I was insisting that this group the CWA group um uh endorsed the
1:43:56Bay Area labor for Palestine uh demonstration helped to organize it and
1:44:03there was um opposition to that by uh by a few members and there were they were
1:44:09saying you know the excuse was that well we’re not really a fully con constituted group and we don’t represent
1:44:17um we don’t really represent all the members of CWA and or even the members
1:44:23there’s 70 people in the signal chat and we’re only 12 of us here and then I then
1:44:28I propose well why don’t we do a poll and um after they were pissed because at one
1:44:35point the one the one person said he agreed to it the moderator and then
1:44:40finally he didn’t do it and then he basically started saying that I had sort
1:44:47of implying that I had sort of tried to coer a vote into that um that was for
1:44:53the 1216 and then for the um for the organizing meeting that that the barri of labor for Palestine had organized in
1:45:01um in February at the school we also attempted I also attempted to get it
1:45:07recog to get it um endorsed by the CWA group and it they finally did say okay
1:45:14yeah we we’ll you we can do a vote a poll but you’re going to have to do it and so I said okay I’ll organize it and
1:45:20there had been about 12 people who had been at the meeting and the the result was 18 people who responded nobody else
1:45:27responded but 18 people responded it was unanimous yes let’s endorse uh so it was technically
1:45:33endorsed but the next following week I was removed from the chat group I was
1:45:40removed from the group in CWA but then in Bay Area labor for
1:45:46Palestine um I during those meetings you know I had been bringing up luckily at
1:45:52the at the organ oring meeting in February Bay labor for Palestine had a in included um had allowed the inclusion
1:45:59of a workshop on History dute um which many people attended um but
1:46:07the afterwards during this Mayday organizing there was no messaging
1:46:12regarding hute at all when it had been mentioned many times that we needed to
1:46:17include that because that was part of the call of the general Federation of Palestinian trade unions to break ties
1:46:23with history dude and finally at the one the last meeting that I went to you know I said well you’re saying that you
1:46:30support that call but you’re not including breaking ties with history dude well that’s for a later
1:46:36conversation we can’t include that uh you know we don’t and and and I had been
1:46:42invited to join part of the uh Coalition of immigrant rights groups because I
1:46:48know many of them uh but I had uh sort
1:46:53of because there was already a representative of Bay Area lior of Palestine going there I I felt it would
1:46:59be um almost you know I I I sort of seated the the ground to the Bay Area
1:47:04labor for Palestine group to to representative to go instead of me and
1:47:10uh what ended up happening was that the um basically the ones chosen to
1:47:16speak um not all of them of course but some of the people that had been chosen to speak had been um you know had not
1:47:23mentioned and had been uh there was no mention of History D there was no
1:47:31um there was um there there was no mention of hist D there was no mention of
1:47:36theci um blocking the resolutions for Palestine there was no criticism
1:47:42whatsoever of the Union bureaucracy at all um
1:47:48and thankfully there was another demonstration that was organized by um
1:47:56by the united front for committee for a labor party at the um at the Harry
1:48:01Bridges plaza where the ILWU members spoke there was no ILWU members speaking
1:48:06at the two at the at the major demonstration that was held in San Francisco for example um and neither
1:48:12were there in Oakland as as far as I know um so I um I I think I’ll wrap it up
1:48:23there there’s a lot more that could be said but um those are the different things that have been going on so far
1:48:29thank you and I do have some good news and that is the uh ilw on May 1 at its
1:48:35meeting voted to uh a resolution to their invention in caucus in uh June to
1:48:43shut off all trade with Israel for the alw to to withhold all trade with Israel
1:48:49which is I think a a good development um and that the LW can take and the issue
1:48:55of workers solidarity is critical so maybe we can open it up for discussion or comments uh of uh of our of our
1:49:04meeting people if they could raise their hand or they have questions or would like to make
1:49:19comments okay well uh if if there no uh one of the things I wanted to say though is that um one of the problems of
1:49:28fighting around Palestine in the unions uh as has been shown by uh the statement
1:49:35of uh Carol and and Elizabeth is that there’s an organized effort not just by
1:49:41the Union uh bureaucracy uh to prevent this from coming up on the table but many groups which say they support
1:49:49Palestine are not fighting for it in the labor movement and I think that’s one of the lessons that we have if if
1:49:56organizations uh that say they support Palestine and are in the unions are unwilling to fight for it in the Unions
1:50:02that’s that’s a major political problem and I think that that U that is one of
1:50:07the things we have to address in our in our effort to build uh uh first educate
1:50:13workers about uh U The htad Dru and the role of the AFL solidarity Center and also uh to to to get action like
1:50:20resolutions to conventions and uh I was at the CWA convention with uh Elizabeth
1:50:26and you know basically that’s the only resolution that I know that’s come up at a National Convention of a union around
1:50:34the issue of histadrut and uh they didn’t want to have a debate because how these conventions are organized is
1:50:40before a resolution can go before the convention at least printed and and uh
1:50:45it has to be approved by the resolutions committee which is again undemocratic so people don’t even know
1:50:51what resolutions are introduced by locals by Affiliates so which is again the structure corporate structure of
1:50:58these conventions is to prevent uh resolutions uh that May challenge the
1:51:03position of the Union leadership the union bureaucracy from even coming up at the convention so people don’t even know
1:51:09about it and that’s why we had a meeting a separate meeting to talk about the resolutions and the actions uh Norm get
1:51:16your hand up let me um let’s see
1:51:24let me
1:51:31Norm Norm you want to you got your hand
1:51:37up that um that around the uh
1:51:43teach High School teachers and also obviously University professors have
1:51:49been you know losing their job get suspended being fired um there were um three uh High
1:51:58School teachers in Maryland who were suspended for their advocacy for
1:52:04Palestine one suspended if I recall for mely posting on her personal or his
1:52:11personal U Facebook page some some
1:52:20some we just we just l lost it looks like we just lost
1:52:26Norm okay Frank yeah I just um uh so um
1:52:31the UAW International executive board had its meeting this past week there was a
1:52:37divestment uh uh proposal uh put forward to the uh ieb to
1:52:45the board of the 14 members of the board three voted in favor
1:52:55well that’s a sign of work that has to be done oh yeah i’ I’d like to put in a
1:53:01plug okay Rob Robin had a question Robin is raising your hand Norm’s
1:53:07back okay I don’t really have a question I just wanted to acknowledge and
1:53:12appreciate I appreciate everyone all of the speakers today um in this you know
1:53:18this providing a historical and and and anti-er IST perspective and and and one
1:53:25of the things that you know in and in connecting right
1:53:31um this imperialist struggle in Africa and understanding what is happening the
1:53:36genocide in Palestine connecting it to what is happening in Congo what is happening in South Africa what is
1:53:44happening in um South America and and in Venezuela and everywhere and and
1:53:49recognizing that you know in in is Israel is a CL cross-class you know
1:53:55imperialist you know project right like imperialism and and here it is a cross
1:54:02class collaboration and how we can organize to break that and and um and
1:54:09really make workers understand that um it is in in their
1:54:14best interest right to to organize and and um and unite and and and to defeat
1:54:23it you know um imperialism and and I just kind of lost my train of thought but I I just appreciate being a part of
1:54:30this and and and I’m struggling because I tried to when I was at Labor notes get
1:54:37folks to come and and engage in in um
1:54:42the pro Palestinian conversations to um I missed unfortunately wasn’t able to to
1:54:49join the Cuban solidarity um presentation which I was really sad
1:54:55about but I couldn’t make all of my colleagues go and understand why it was important they couldn’t even step
1:55:01outside they were sitting in the lobby and they wouldn’t even step outside to join the protest right and so
1:55:09um and and and and so how we can connect and make folks understand um that it is
1:55:17in their interest to engage in these conversations to do this political education to do do these actions and um
1:55:25and so I’m struggling I’m glad I’m here and and I’m hoping that I can can you
1:55:31know push beyond the um liberalism and the economy The Economist models in our
1:55:38in our Union right and so thank you all it’s it makes me feel because I I was
1:55:43actually I’ve been considering for a couple years dropping out of my union just not paying my dues well I think
1:55:50that they would be happy for people to drop out I mean that’s that’s what they know they most members and we’ve been
1:55:56talking about things most members of the unions are completely unaware of most members are not even educated on their
1:56:03own Union much less what their National Union is doing and what their the international operations the aflci and
1:56:09that’s part of the problem of the US Labor movement it’s a corporatized Trade union movement that don’t want uh
1:56:17workers to be educated about how our work how our unions are organized and even resolutions that we were able to
1:56:24introduce like at the CWA most members don’t even know that they were introduced because they’re not distributed in the members and that’s
1:56:31conscious on the part of the Union bureaucracy they want to control the agenda and they want to control the amount of information out um like at the
1:56:38AF convention this coming July uh if there was a resolution there could be
1:56:43you could fight for it among all the AF members and the the issue of uh getting to these conventions and getting in our
1:56:49unions is a critical and we can’t go around it I believe we have to organize in our unions to educate the members and
1:56:56at least get the information out Norm did you want to finish up what you were saying you got I think bad connection
1:57:03yeah so my I’m running out of gas and uh my battery’s low but uh I
1:57:09just wanted to mention that you know we got to back these teachers uh the unions are not backing obviously the AFT isn’t
1:57:16back in uh the high school teachers and I think the AFT now has taken over from
1:57:23one of the University Professor unions um I think it was a
1:57:28merger and you know we’ve seen uh University Professor is a guy out in ut
1:57:35uh in Texas uh he was just suspended for you know not you know and I
1:57:40doubt I don’t know if his Union supporting him and uh you know and I think we got to force the is we got to
1:57:46force them to you know you know expose themselves you know we we we got to make
1:57:52that demand and we got to get behind the students if any of The Graduate teacher teachers are being represented by UAW on
1:57:59Camp and these campus occupations uh you know what has feain done about about you know these
1:58:07graduate teachers getting you know repressed and attacked and you know brutalized and uh you know we’ve seen a
1:58:13uh they attacked a teacher a professor at University of Washington broke his arm and like you know just horrific
1:58:20stuff and so we got to press it on upon them to show their face show
1:58:25their hand you know they claim to represent us but then you have of course as carollyn we all know you know we have
1:58:33Miss wein Gartner you know basically you know representing you know uh working
1:58:38against us not defending us from being attacked um uh for things like just one
1:58:44last thing a teacher here in Philadelphia High School teacher at the famous Northeast High School this is
1:58:49where Tony Tony Danza did his um his reality TV show it’s uh there’s the one
1:58:54of the earliest School documentaries was on this High School famous High School uh she had a pro she had two students
1:59:02they they decided to do a podcast comparing uh the uh comparing Palestinian uh murals to the quilt
1:59:10making of African-Americans during the um during the uh period of slavery and
1:59:15it was a great expression like the students created it it was really what we’re supposed to be doing and teachers
1:59:23you know making these con you know giving you know students the ability to make connections with their world uh Etc
1:59:31and the school district of Philadelphia repressed it and it just you know and
1:59:37then of course uh the teacher who was supervising that she got reported to be
1:59:42anti-semitic by a colleague it went up to the Pennsylvania uh she was investigated by the Pennsylvania Human
1:59:48Rights Commission and and absolved of that of course but you know I I you know I don’t think I’m not there at that
1:59:55school but I doubt the AFT you know she hasn’t mentioned I I haven’t gotten
2:00:00contact with her you know I doubt the AFT you know defended her in this
2:00:06process uh you know you know smear process it’s just really it’s really
2:00:11it’s just abysmal you know I’m I’m just saying okay so we gota we got to you know back
2:00:18our right now the point of the struggle is on those campuses there are a lot of University Union people you know like I
2:00:25said The Graduate teachers union and also you know the the uh you know the
2:00:30the teachers themselves uh who are involved and we gota we got to push their unions to support them thank you
2:00:37okay thank you uh Elizabeth and then Carol yeah I wanted to also mention the
2:00:44fact that um we also need to pay more attention to Independent Media we try to
2:00:49present a resolution in what’s called prog iive kpfa the uh local station board um uh
2:00:56both Steve and I are members of the K kpfa local station board and
2:01:03um these are people that uh claim to be progressives uh or even left um on the
2:01:10kpfa local station board but unfortunately they are part of a um
2:01:16action a majority faction unfortunately within Pacifica that’s trying to tear down the PA Network which is five
2:01:24stations in five different cities of the US and it’s really important for activists to uh run for local station
2:01:32board to uh organize uh for Independent Media this resolution that is here in
2:01:38the chat that we presented at the kpfa lb was voted down um and uh the kpfa had
2:01:47an anniversary uh recently where they had an Amy Goodman show they had also
2:01:52scheduled a an event with Mecca Middle East Children’s Alliance but that apparently was cancelled due to lack of
2:01:59tickets sales which is very strange um so despite the fact that Amy Goodman’s
2:02:06uh presentation was basically centered on Palestine there was no Palestinian speaker uh no mention of his trute uh at
2:02:13all of course um and yeah you know there’s um this this faction within kpfa
2:02:21and and also what’s also called they’re called the protectors but then there’s a new day faction which they’re allied
2:02:27Allied allied with with and the Pacifica safety net
2:02:32um they have been attacking WBAI they closed it down in 2000 they tried to
2:02:38close down in 2019 um and in fact the latest one was where they presented a petition to deny
2:02:45to the Federal Communications Commission to try to get the license provoked
2:02:50apparently they said that was was not their intention that that’s not the remedy they were seeking there was there’s been since then a an agreement
2:02:59uh you know so that’s not but instead of giving them a an eight-year renewal
2:03:05they’ve given them a two-year renewal as a result um pending some actions by
2:03:12WBAI and um the elections themselves have not been Democratic there’s been a lot of Hanky Panky going on but you know
2:03:21we we we really need people to join and to try to run for these local station
2:03:28boards um Pacifica has a station at wpfw in Washington DC a station and large
2:03:36large signal area so technically people that might not be living within the exact City if signal area reaches them
2:03:43they just they’re still entitled to run um they have one in Houston kpft in
2:03:50Houston and Los Angeles kpfk uh kpfa in Berkeley and uh wbi in
2:03:57New York City um so we’re H it’s really important we get you know do the work of
2:04:04of what you know Steve has been doing for so long in labor video project and
2:04:09um and and other in radio and things like that so it’s it really really important that that’s a major source of
2:04:16of Education of me members and students and um things like that because we’re not getting that information in the in
2:04:23the mainstream media okay uh thanks Carol um I’m not sure if people are
2:04:30aware um and um that there have been encampments around the country of people
2:04:38who um you know supporting um the Palestinians and one of the encampments
2:04:43was at city college in New York and um people were peacefully there you know
2:04:51talking about history and all kinds of they were completely peaceful but there was a coordinated effort on the part of
2:04:5813 different mayors to attack all the encampments pretty much around the same
2:05:04time so that City College I mean the the New York City Police Department is
2:05:11trained by the IDF so their tactics are
2:05:16let’s Crush people’s heads and that’s essentially what they did that night I was there uh um stepping on people I
2:05:23mean it was just fantastic um and you
2:05:28know they broke my rib people had their arms broken it was really pretty pretty
2:05:34incredible and pretty frightening but you know the the Israeli State and the
2:05:40American state and are all profoundly connected and unless we
2:05:46have um you know a general strike across the country against you know American
2:05:55tactics American support for Israel shutting down the War Industry one of
2:06:01our comrades who was in another group said who works for UPS he said UPS is
2:06:07shipping arms to Israel there is no there’s no peaceful way to end this
2:06:12there’s no I you know this group should do it or that group should do it we have
2:06:17to call on the working class as much as the students were really Dynamic and really like serious
2:06:25and and all you know all of that it’s got to be the workers that are going to
2:06:31shut down this war and the only way to shut the war down is to by organizing a
2:06:37general strike and we have to do that this is we have to patiently explain to workers
2:06:44that they need to withhold their labor that this is not just an attack actually
2:06:50on Palestinians although primarily it is but it’s an attack on the entire working
2:06:56class anybody who steps out of line um will be crushed and that was something
2:07:02that I saw actually upfront you know on last Tuesday um there are resolutions on
2:07:09the part of the students to defend and this is are there are resolutions to
2:07:14defend the students and anybody who’s been involved in the encampments not to be you know uh attack that we have to
2:07:22get our jobs back a number of people have lost their jobs because they’re speaking out in defense of of the
2:07:29Palestinians um but the union my union put out a statement saying yes we think
2:07:37it would be bad to attack you know students that students should have the
2:07:42right to free speech that we all have the right to free speech there was absolutely no resolution no
2:07:49backbone nothing that they were going to be rais and to anybody except they made this
2:07:55this statement that people have the right to free speech and so the unions
2:08:00are absolutely involved in this genocide because not only do they Supply money to
2:08:08Israel um but they prevent real discussion from happening and it’s
2:08:15really going to take a mass movement um on the part of workingclass people which
2:08:20is why we have to educate people to end this war to end genocide and to end capitalism because capitalism is the
2:08:27root of all of this so in you know so ultimately we have to get rid of the
2:08:32Trade union bureaucracy because they absolutely refuse to make any statements
2:08:39that or any resolutions that will defend either their own members or the
2:08:44Palestinians and you know everything is sort of amorphous on their part they say good things but they have no
2:08:52they mean that they’re not doing anything and unfortunately what I’ve seen from the left they’re not willing
2:08:58to criticize the the union leadership either for the most part and so you know
2:09:04we’re going to have to like really create a movement that’s going to get rid of these people who are defending
2:09:10you know American imperialism well one of the issues of of
2:09:16Zionism and I think we’re seeing it now immediately at UCLA is that the Zion
2:09:21work with fascist proud boys to attack the encampment this is a very serious
2:09:28development uh and the politicians allowed it Gavin Nome the administration
2:09:33allowed this attack violent attack with bare spray and and sticks and they beat
2:09:39people they broke bones uh by these zionists and then after this attack was done then the police come in and and
2:09:46raid the the camp so and this was organized nationally and today at Stanford the zionists are rallying to
2:09:53attack the encampment at at Stanford so I think when we talk about Zionism and
2:10:00the the method of the Zionist we have to uh relay that to what’s going on right now uh you know Netanyahu actually told
2:10:07Biden he should be shutting down the demonstrations in this country I mean here’s the Israeli racist reactionary
2:10:14prime minister telling the Biden Administration close down the demonstrations uh that’s what we need to
2:10:20do and Biden is actually saying that they’re anti-semitic and there’s been no
2:10:25evidence whatsoever uh at these encampments of anti-Semitism I mean this is fabricated in a propaganda Blitz uh
2:10:33to tell people that PE they’re anti-semitic they’re large numbers of Jews in these demonstrations Jewish
2:10:39voice for peace many other organizations so there’s a political propaganda Blitz
2:10:45uh against uh uh the Palestinians and against people who are standing up for the Palestinians so I think that
2:10:51us Lao we have to talk about Zionism and the role of the Zionist because as has been brought up earlier the Zionist
2:10:58actually work with the Nazis uh in in uh in in the fascist in Italy they were
2:11:04given medals uh because they have a racist ideology um they don’t want uh uh
2:11:10Unity on class it’s a nationalist ideology which says that the Jews uh
2:11:15should are entitled to the land in in pal in Palestine uh this is a racist reactionary IDE and this is something
2:11:22the trading bureaucracy is supporting I mean imagine these trading officials who say they’re representing the American
2:11:28working class are for a a Jewish state are they for a Muslim state are for they
2:11:33a Christian State I mean you know is why is there an exception to a Jewish state
2:11:39so these are issues I I think that we have to challenge on a fundamental issue what kind of Union bureaucracy uh would
2:11:45support a a religious State a state of of of Muslims or and yet they’re saying
2:11:50that they’re for equality here you can’t have it both ways you can’t say you’re for equality of the American working
2:11:56class here and then you’re for a Zionist state that discriminates against non-jews this is what we have here so
2:12:03these fundamental issues I think we have to bring up in the labor movement uh in the working class and say this is
2:12:09hypocrisy is duplicity and that’s why they don’t want to talk about the H and Zionism they don’t talk they don’t want
2:12:15to talk about the history of the AFL CIO and collaborating with the htud this is
2:12:20very important for us to to make those lessons those links so people can see the connections that’s really what’s
2:12:26what’s going on and uh David you had your hand up uh yeah Steve um you might believe it
2:12:35but um in the 1960s and even in’ 70s until quite recently we kept the police
2:12:42out of old universities it was policy that they should not you didn’t South Africa
2:12:49didn’t have even under a it didn’t have police on campus um it was
2:12:55just you know it was an autonomous body you know and uh I remember when the
2:13:01police uh wanted to come on um you know we fought against that so we we we have
2:13:07to I know that academic freedom and that autonomy is is kind of history now but
2:13:14it is astonishing where you see the brutality with which um the police are
2:13:19being brought on and the way in which you know the liberal
2:13:25authorities have have not had any compunction about uh taking action at at
2:13:31the scale even though they say many of the people that I see on on TV were
2:13:38young women and and this but that’s not not see doesn’t seem to bother them so
2:13:43look um yeah we but look I think under those stresses we’ve got to think of um
2:13:49ways in which we work I think we should invite student groups to meet with Union Local
2:13:55unions and uh in and different ways put forward consolidate uh you know
2:14:01positions and try and get that all the blockages that I’ve been hearing about
2:14:07uh shifted by getting the voice of young people uh together in joint meetings
2:14:12joint assemblies and and things of that kind we should really be having teachings like we had in the 1960s
2:14:19and70s where people actually learned for the first time all the things that we talking about now what is Israeli State
2:14:26what is the hrut uh all the questions now about you know the rise of the
2:14:33Israeli State just remember uh I mentioned it in passing in my in my talk that at one time Israel
2:14:42was regarded as a parah state that was in the 1960s and70s that’s why they had
2:14:47to turn to South Africa to get uh you know to to build up it was a kind of North South Africa was the North Korea
2:14:54and uh you know Israel was you know something similar but of course that you know our our whole um understanding has
2:15:02changed now uh so much but actually the basics are exactly the same as Carol has
2:15:08pointed out we do need teachings we need to bring staff um academic staff
2:15:15administrative staff all of those people together with the students and discuss all these all these issues and come up
2:15:22with with resolutions which go feedback into the unions feedback into the
2:15:28organizations at one time there used to be a national student union of um
2:15:33students in America now I know it was a it was taken over by the CIA actually
2:15:40but it it it did actually uh coordinate action around the country at the moment
2:15:46there’re spontaneous coordination um but you know we do need to the students should be
2:15:53unionized and they should build a union which fights against all these incredible stories about some give some
2:16:00Grant some don’t and and all the rest of it it’s it’s unbelievable really it’s it’s a it’s a situation which is which
2:16:08which really is is in nobody’s interest and and the unions uh should uh should
2:16:14be open to hearing what the youth have to say I think we should open up pass a
2:16:19resolution which which just says let’s hear the let’s hear the youth let’s hear what they have to say and uh let’s take
2:16:26it forward in that way well I I think defending the encampments the encampments are an opportunity for
2:16:31education at San Francisco State at other campuses they’re having regular educationals on the campuses and that’s
2:16:38what they want to shut down I mean they’re they’re fearful of these educationals of more students becoming
2:16:44educated about what’s going on uh with these uh with these struggles so I think it’s very important that we go to the
2:16:51encampments maybe we could have a Leo statement uh on the issue of of of uh
2:16:56HRW Zionism and and the role of Zionism which is now becoming much more clear to
2:17:02uh students with this attack at UCLA I mean you can’t and today at Stanford the Zionist with the proud boys with
2:17:09fascists are mobilizing to shut down the encampments in an organized way this is what’s going on with the Zionist in the
2:17:15United States and we’ve got to call it out we’ve got to say this is not new this is not something that’s different
2:17:22it it has a history and I think we have to draw the links which are becoming clear and clear uh
2:17:34Elizabeth Elizabeth yes okay I’m sorry um the issue of the pensions is also
2:17:42something that um they there’s there’s a a lack of
2:17:49understanding uh within this the students about the differences between the divestment issue you know the the the students have an effect on
2:17:57the divestment in the the endowment funds but the pensions are not within
2:18:02the students realm it’s within the workers realm and that’s where there’s a lot of um of of of leeway that the uh
2:18:11designers get because Israel Israeli bonds get supported there’s um the ruling class has a lot of ways where
2:18:18they’re using workers money um and this they do this in the energy
2:18:24industry and they do do this throughout but Pension funds for example um these major companies and
2:18:33ruling class um Financial Capital um entities uh get our money from from our
2:18:40pensions you know monthly regularly from every paycheck and they use that money
2:18:46against us and against working people by funding for example
2:18:51uh local measures against rent control um and and and of course funding um the
2:18:59weapons Industries and funding Israel and and and all that so um I think a
2:19:06they try to present the whole issue of Pension funds as oh but if you have your privatized pension you could choose what
2:19:13you’re going to be investing in so we have to be very watchful of that kind of
2:19:18uh move towards uh or that kind of narrative where privatized pensions may
2:19:24be seen as something Progressive in terms of giving people so quote unquote
2:19:29individual Choice um in what we’re going to be investing in uh rather than uh
2:19:36demanding a collective action uh by workers to um to divest uh our Pension
2:19:43funds collectively uh from Israel and from uh these kind of uh apartheid and
2:19:49and and fascist States um and actions of our government so um I think we also
2:19:56need to educate people on that as well the whole issue of the Pension funds as
2:20:01well okay I mean one point I think also that has been very clear in the struggle
2:20:06to defend the students is the role of the democratic party and the relationship of the unions to the
2:20:12Democratic party Union bureaucracy because the the Democratic party is the
2:20:17party of the zionists like the Republican Party and they are organizing
2:20:23to attack these encampments very clear the Democratic party is is working with uh the
2:20:31government agencies uh police the FBI to Target them and I think that that’s uh
2:20:37something we have to bring up in the labor movement it’s the union support for the Democratic party at this point
2:20:42um is support for a party that stands for Zionism uh they they are a Zionist
2:20:49party the Democratic party like the Republican party and I think again this fight against Zionism raised the
2:20:55question of why are our unions uh supporting a political party that that
2:21:00supports zionists openly they don’t hide it they say that they’re Zionist and I
2:21:06think again this raised a question in the unions about the need for political Independence a a labor party a Workers
2:21:12Party which is critical but I mean I think uh what we see now is that this
2:21:17upsurge and one other important point I think about the upsurge that’s taking place now in the students in in the 60s
2:21:24there was a a mass upsurge and this is going to grow uh they’re not going to be able to crush it uh with these police
2:21:30attacks with the fascists and the Zionist in the 60s there wasn’t a similar upsurge in the working class as
2:21:36there is today in the United States there’s a union organizing Drive of of thousands and thousands of workers of
2:21:43South uh there workers all over the country who are joining Union young workers and this movement of of the
2:21:49students bined with the workers movement is very powerful we haven’t seen it in our lifetime so there’s a lot of
2:21:56opportunity to make these connections and that’s why uh having this education at these encampments and going into the
2:22:03unions connecting the union struggle the defense the union should be mobilizing and there there’s going to be an effort
2:22:08in Los Angeles to go to the LA fed and the unions to get the UNS to defend these encampments now some unions have
2:22:14said we support the encampments but that they should be bringing out Union con contingent in the encampments uh to
2:22:20support them the union should be mobilizing and organizing politically uh their membership uh to support the
2:22:28encampments and and learn from the students Le be be part of uh uh education and they are connected because
2:22:34the attack on public education particularly uh is is part of what’s going on privatization the attack on
2:22:40public education these are all connected and I think that this is a historic opportunity to link up the struggle of
2:22:46workers who are organizing who are against privatization with the struggle of the students uh who are defending
2:22:53Palestinians who are defending the the the right of the Palestinians to land to to work uh and and that’s very important
2:23:00it’s it’s a new development which uh offers a great opportunity we have a lot of work to do but at least we connected
2:23:07some dots today and got the history out and we urge you to join Leo we have uh
2:23:12meetings bi-weekly meetings and we urge you to to participate do the best you
2:23:18can or whatever you can uh because there has to be an organized movement uh
2:23:23around the issue of the histed drout around the issue of the aflci international operations it’s not by
2:23:28itself and as we’ve discussed there’s a lot of uh effort to uh and obstacles to
2:23:34prevent even a discussion of hist D in the labor movement so I would urge everyone to join Leo and participate you
2:23:40can contact us and we’ll let you know when our next meeting is so you can participate
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