The struggle within labor for Palestine is international in character and workers around the world have taken direct labor action to stop military arms and equipment to Israel. This panel looked at struggles taking place both in the United States and internationally to stop the genocide in Gaza and the support for this by the United States and the AFL-CIO which continues to support the Zionist state and also it’s ties with the Israeli apartheid federation Histadrut. This forum was sponsored by the United Front Committee For A Labor Party UFCLP and took place during LaborFest which commemorates the San Francisco general strike in 1934. Speakers included: Clarence Thomas – ILWU 10 Retired Secretary Treasurer Peter Racioppo – UCLA UAW 4811 Gullermo Kane, Workers Party Argentina, Elected Deputy of Buenos Aries Parliament & University of Buenos Aires Professor Lisa Milos – UPTE UCSF Member and Interpreter Joe Wagner – Member of Los Angeles ATU 1277, supporter of International Group Richard Stone, APWU San Francisco, Delegate To APWU Convention & San Francisco Labor Council Delegate
Transcript
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[Music]
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I want to welcome all of you here my name is Steve zelzer I’m with the United friend committee for labor party and as
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part of Labor Fest we felt it was important to have a uh an event around the issue of Labor and Palestine as we
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all know there’s a genocide going on in Gaza there are prrams going on in the West Bank and that the workingclass
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unions in uh Gaza and palestin have called for international labor boycott
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of Israel and that struggle uh for labor action in the United States and
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internationally is critical uh that’s something us workers can do to support the Palestinian workers and then this
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criminal genocide supported by the United States uh and our our tax dollars
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so we have a number of speakers here uh who are going to talk about the struggle in labor for Palestine there was a
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recent Convention of the LW and there’s a struggle in the UAW uh 20 4811 around the issue of the
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repression and also the attack by fascists and zionists against an encampment in UCLA which is a dangerous
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development of fascists and zionists coming together so the united front committee for labor party supports the
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idea of a mass Democratic labor party in the United States as an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans we believe
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that the working class in this period needs a workingclass alternative against the Democrats Republicans and
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furthermore the rise of fascism uh is a danger to people in this country and
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internationally there’s a growth of fascism internationally and the I don’t know if people have seen this program uh
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2025 but in our view uh it would uh basically change the United States the
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structure of the United States to a fascist regime and they want to fire thousands of of government servants uh
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civil servants and then put in fascist in government positions something we haven’t seen In Our Lifetime uh in the
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United States and it’s something we believe that there needs to be united front against fascism uh in the labor
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movement and the latest development of course and we’ll talk about it is the attack by Trump against Shan feain who
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said that he should be fired and you he attacked him and basically there’s a
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great danger that if Trump is elected he will probably put the UAW in trustee ship um they’re already under a monitor
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and file criminal charges against sha feain so I think this is what we’re facing here in the unions uh an attack
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on labor and I think again this is a a very dangerous situation so without
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further Ado I’m going to introduce our first Speaker Clarence Thomas who is the
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former secretary treasurer of the ilw and since I’ve known Clarence he’s been an internationalist he fights for
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workers around the world and has organized uh defense of Cubans the
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organized for the defense of Iraqi against the invasion of Iraq by the United States he went there at danger to
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himself and he has actually uh taken up a fight for Palestinians and the fight
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for the IW to take action so without further Ado welcome Clarence Thomas solidarity greetings sisters and
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brothers comrades and friends I want to first of all say how uh pleased and
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uh privileged I feel that I’m here tonight to speak about a very important
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issue that affects all of us Way Beyond this room it’s the moral crisis of our
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time I’ve known Steve for a long time and that
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relationship has been built upon work he en car me with the labor video
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project laborfest he has covered extensively the struggles of the working
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class in particular those struggles that emanate from ilw
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10 we need more of what Steve and cosmi
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do which is one of the reasons why we don’t have a labor party we don’t even have a labor
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Channel where working people can identify and learn have
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discussion which is in direct contradiction to what we hear on MSNBC
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CNN Fox News and all the rest Steve mentioned I am an internationalist
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was born and raised here in Oakland California attended Oakland Public Schools City College of San Francisco
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San Francisco State College which was where I got my revolutionary
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training Steve was also there as well yesterday I attended the memorial
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for the father of black studies Man by the name of Nathan hair Professor Nathan
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hair that struggle was not only about establishing a black stud’s Department
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the school of ethnic studies it was also an internationalist struggle because we were able to develop
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relationships with such groups as the third world Liberation Front made up of Asian Filipino Mexican-American students
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who all came together for a very important 4 and 1/2 month strike which
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resulted in the establishment of the first black studies Department in school of ethnic studies why am I mentioning this it is
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because we draw upon lessons of the past to give us direction to give us
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perspective so that we can learn how to deal with the present and the
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future let me first of all say why should the Trade union movement
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be concerned about what’s going on in the Middle East specifically with regard
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to designist attacks and genocide against the Palestinian
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people it is a working class issue right
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fundamentally for those of you who witness that nonsense and insult that
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took place with Netanyahu just a few days ago
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you would have thought you were in South Africa the way people were getting up
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and app plotting the slaughter the denial of human of Human
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Rights right before our very eyes and let me tell you what signal
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that sends to the working class that it’s okay to go into black
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people’s home and shoot them it’s all right to shoot unarmed
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black folks and people of color mass incarceration is
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okay gentrification is okay like we like we witness with regards to the situation
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with John fiser right-wing billionaire who was attempting to privatized public land
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more importantly a place for over 120 2
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years Maritime industrial activity has taken place there and where the third
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busiest port on the west coast the Port of Oakland resides the
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displacement of Palestinians the displacement of black
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folks Steve made reference to the billions of dollars that should be going
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for Health Care Free education affordable housing is going to
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Ukraine it’s going to Israel our tax dollars so you see when you stand up
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against the Tyranny and the genocide that’s taking place with respect to Gaz
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and the West Bank and Palestinian territory it’s directly related to
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us how many in the room know about Urban Shield raise your hands
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the collaboration of the Israeli military oh yeah oh yeah it is yeah I figured you
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would catch on to that there’s so much BS going on terrible things happening we
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sometimes forget yeah they coming over here to teach the police departments about crowd
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control this is what works on the Palestinians it’ll work here in Oakland
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San Francisco rich California La Chicago yeah so you
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see it’s it’s a Ted green
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light for what’s happening in God that to take place here it’s
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okay let us not forget that Israel is a settler Nation
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just like the United States of America is we and I forget
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this so it is absolutely critical for us to
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be defending the Palestinians and let me dare say this I don’t want to spend a lot of time
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discussing the dirty laundry of ILWU first of all I think there’s others
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who will do that but I want to get one thing straight right
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now yes we had a convention just a few weeks
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ago the 39th ilw convention that took place in toron in uh Vancouver
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Canada it was very disappointing but it is an eyeopener for
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what us for what is not only happening in the ilw but what is what happening in
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the Trade union movement throughout the United States of America a very Progressive
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what some would call hard-hitting resolution was introduced from local T
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it called for long show workers to not handle military cargo going to
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Israel it was voted down resoundingly but let me just share this with you you
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see we had some when I say we I’m part of the ilw
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Pacific Coast pensioners Association I’m on the executive board I’m very active in the ilw as a
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pensioner there were wonderful speeches given by people like Chris cotton from
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ITF International transport worker Federation
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leader Patty Kremlin Maritime Union of
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Australia and a most dynamic speech by Australian trade unionist by the name of
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Chris Kain from the construction Federation construction
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forestry environmental well it’s a long title suffice it to say he’s a trade
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Trade union leader of a group that has quite an
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expansive membership when Chris spoke I don’t know
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if he coined this term or not but I it immediately caught my attention and all of those who were in the convention and
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that is this quote peace is Union
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business I repeat peace is Union
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business and that struck aord with me as a person who’s been a member of the ILWU
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for more than 30 years I know that the founders of the
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lwu believe that peace is Union business
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and the reason why I know that is because if you look at our history we have opposed the Korean War the Vietnam
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war Desert [Music] Storm we stood up against tyranny
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whether or not it was a question of fascist moving into
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Ethiopia in 1935 and US refusing to handle cargo going to
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Ethiopia that going to uh Italy that was destined
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for their work whether or not it was in 1939 when
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the ILWU refused to send scrap iron to
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Japan because it was the wisdom and Foreside of people like Harry Bridges and others who
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realized that those material could be used against American GIS which in fact
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did happen starting with the attack on Pearl
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Harbor the ilw has always not only have they stated things in opposition but
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they’ve done things you see it’s one thing to
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call for the bid administ ation not to send
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military cargo I don’t want to make it seem as if
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it’s not a significant thing it is but make no mistake about it when you
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disrupt Maritime cargo specifically that which will facilitate and benefit Israel
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that’s a whole another subject yes it is I don’t care what they voted on that the
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convention you don’t mean a damn thing the reality is I W Local 10 has
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been in the Vanguard of the entire Trade union movement throughout the world there is no one no one that has done
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more to support the the uh the Palestinian sisters and brothers than
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local 10 I dare anybody in the room to get up and challenge me on that you don’t have to applaud sister
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it’s the truth the truth why am I saying that because
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there’s a difference between words there’s a difference between
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rallies the ruling class the Neo fascist see rallies as
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spectacle that’s what they think it is it’s spectacle yes it is
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important but it doesn’t stop I have warn the left in particular
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here in the Bay Area about what could happen to ILWU Local
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10 yes many of you have been invigorated and have have been motivated to take
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specific kinds of revolutionary actions where you’ve come to the Port of Oakland
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and you’ve demonstrated an ILWU Local 10 because of
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its 10 guiding principles who that believe that we should treat
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all picket lines as if they were our own because we’ve been able to wrestle
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certain kinds of concessions from our employer on the basis of health and
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safety that put us in the position where we can support the Palestinians brothers
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and sisters and the and the and the Palestinian General Federation trade
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unions we put our jobs on on the line did you hear what I said we put our
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jobs on the line how many of you in this room belong to a union and have done
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what local ten has done put your jobs on the line for a day for an
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hour so let’s be very clear about what is going on here you see we would be
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much further ahead if the Ila would have taken positions
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like the ilw did they got some 85,000 members they’re on the East Coast the
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southeast the Gulf States the Great Lakes 85,000 of
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them the biggest local on the west coast has 9,000 members that’s the port of BL or should
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I say that’s Local 13 we’re going to have to face some very
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very blatant realities here for those in in the room and those that are watching
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this on this particular uh video that will be provided by Steve
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zelton people are
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scared they’re very very scared and they have every right to
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be but you know who really isn’t scared like they should
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be the ruling class the political class because we’re like
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this and not like this why is it that the right can
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unite but the left is divided we have to take
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ownership but what ain’t happening with the class so I hope what comes out of this
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is something very tangible let me also make a comment
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about what we’re now seeing amongst the amongst the working class in the United
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States of America because we don’t have class consciousness
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because we’re separated by race gender
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religion sexual [Music] orientation some people think that they
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middle class when they actually are workers but they perceive of them themselves as being that because of the
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work that they do I don’t care if you’re working with on a computer or a crane or digging ditches you’re a
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worker because we are divided they are not afraid of
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us I read a very interesting article in these times maybe many of you
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might be familiar with the magazine but they were talking about the issue that is concerns many of our young
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people and that is the issue of
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debt debt we sent our children to college and
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universities and they’re saddled with tremendous debt and when they come out there aren’t jobs and they have to work
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two and three jobs in the gig economy in order to make it the point I wanted to make is
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this to quote a member of the ruling class J
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Paul Getty when you owe the bank $100 the
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bank owns you but when you
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when the bank has lend you $150 million or $150 billion you own the
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bank so now debtors are thinking about forming a debtor’s
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union make sense to you makes sense to me remember I talked about being like
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this as opposed to being like this we have to begin to understand that
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we need to act now more than ever I’m going to conclude by saying
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this I am in a tradition of a number of
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people that many of you don’t know in this room whose names I can mention and
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I’m going to mention them because they should be mentioned people like Leo
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Robinson Ned Ingram AJ Mitchell Dave
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Stewart Bill Pro Howard
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Kaylor and many many others who are what I consider militant radical trade
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unionists some have been members of the Communist Party Marxist list some of
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whom were pan-africanists some of whom were black nationalist but they all had one thing in common they were Radical
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trade unionist they were all involved in the southern
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Africa Liberation struggles that took place in Angola
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mosan Beek South Africa they provided material support to
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Freedom Fighters those men that I mentioned were Freedom Fighters
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themselves these were not officers of local 10 these were Rank and
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filers and what we need now is more radicalism from the rank and file not
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from the leadership the bureaucracy is connected to the Democratic party that’s
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right that’s what we saw play out with the ILWU it’s not
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alone the Spectre of Neo fascism the white working class identifies more with
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race than they do with their own issues that affect them all whether or not it’s
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debt whether or not it’s lack of affordable housing whether or not it’s lack of a living living
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wage we should be having free education Medicare for all and so much
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more and we can get it and we can
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start with the mobilization and support for the Palestinian
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struggle thank you very much for your attention I appreciate it you’re going to hear
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from other speakers tonight thank you Steve for the opportunity free free
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Palestine free free Palestine an injury to one is an injury to all tear down
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that AAR tied wall right thank
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you thank you Clarance and also Clarence has some books mobilizing our own name
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which uh is a very important accounting of united front in Washington
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DC uh and to organize a workingclass movement in this country and he uh ilw
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LED that call and brought in unions from around the country uh to go to Washington when the politicians and the
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union leadership said don’t go to Washington DC it’s an election year and we should not be mobilizing to go to
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Washington DC that is what they did so one of the issues
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uh that has taken place in the struggle for Palestine is the struggle of the
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encampments around the country of students of workers uh organizing
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encampments to educate students and the faculty and the universities about the nature of Zionism and the fact that
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their own officials and administration are zionists as are the Democratic party now
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these demonstrations or these encampments rather have been important nationally an
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expression uh of young people against this genocide and the reason that the
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administration and the government don’t want that like occupies they don’t want people to be educated about the nature
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of this uh genocide that’s going on what’s behind it and who’s behind it so
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one of the uh important encampments that took place with an UCLA and will have the the role of
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Zionism and fascist at UCLA coming together and the role of the democratic
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party and crushing that encampment is very important for us to learn about
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because the coming period there going to be more of those uh I don’t know if people are aware but during the witch
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hunts in the 1950s the house on American Activities Committee which was targeting
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Communists and socialists and militants and the unions their biggest one of their biggest allies with was the Ben
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Bri the Zionist who actually were giv advice on who to Target Communists and
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leftists in the labor movement they were organizing with the state to attack the working class to
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attack militant workers in this country and that is coming again there’s already
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a republican Congressional committee which has subpoenaed Union locals including the local in uh New York that
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took a stand for Palestinians in order to terrorize them to harass them and to
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get them to change their position so joining us is Peter r r rosopo who is
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with UAW 4811 welcome Peter describe the the strike that we
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just had and the encampments um but I want to begin by describing a little bit
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of what 4811 is so it’s uh a local within the UAW of student and academic
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workers it was organized in the 80s and ’90s uh series of strikes uh culminating
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in its uh winning Union recognition around 2000 and it affiliated with the
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UAW which was uh you know Auto was declining and it was looking for uh
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other uh streams of uh union dues so you know it it started uh unionizing
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academic workers and uh so that was a victory the the union W recognition but
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um the militant student workers that had formed the union were increasingly sidelined uh by the UAW bureaucracy and
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staff that came in uh there was however a brief period of left-wing leadership about 10 years ago and in 2014 there was
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a referendum in the local uh to endorse the boycott divest sanctions movement um
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which uh was you know unprecedented for a union local to um take that up but
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that was uh actually an olded by the uh the Executive Board of the
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UAW um and then shortly after that uh the the leadership uh the leftwing
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leadership in 4811 was basically thrown out uh bureaucracy stepped in and there were elections that swept them out um
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and since then we’ve had a a conservative uh click that has dominated
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the the politics of the local and that’s been aligned with the national leadership um and they um politically
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they’re basically they subscribe to what you could call the right rightwing of DSA sort of politics um they’ve focused
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on increasing the size of the membership at least on paper uh but they make little effort to involve members in
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running the union and decisions are centralized among a handful of people uh and uh staff plays an outsized
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role uh as they have the time and uh to meet and talk to workers and file Grievances and so on uh but the union
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has grown to 48,000 members Statewide and uh
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so yeah it you know you might think academic workers wouldn’t be very militant uh because uh in some ways it’s
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a very privileged section of the working class uh some of them are training to be high- paid professionals there’s a wide
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range of people in the union though some of them have workingclass backgrounds um and some are not going to uh graduate
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into well-paid jobs some will be high school teachers and uh any number of things that are uh you know workingclass
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jobs and uh real wages have been declining steadily for more than a
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decade while rent and the cost of living have been exploding and so all of that
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led to a strike in 2022 uh which was the largest in locals history and um and this really
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politicized workers and brought them into the Union um and also brought them face to face with the fact that it’s not
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very Democratic so uh concessions were made at the bargaining table unilaterally against widespread descent
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uh input from Members was ignored meetings were shut down um and so this
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really uh an open bargaining you know there was there was a petition for open bargaining that pulled I think 600 uh
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signatures and that was basically just ignored so all of this really brought members face Toof face with with this
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and disillusioned them with with the the leadership of the union and brought together uh a people into into sort of
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an oppositional caucus um and so that that was a couple of years ago and that caucus is really what
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uh over the course of the last year has been leading the uh organizing around um
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Palestine uh in in the local and so as early as October uh the caucus warned
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that it was likely the the military assault on Gaza would likely lead to tens of thousands of deaths and that we
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needed to uh endorse BDS uh the local issued a mey mouth ceasefire statement
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of a couple lines that hardly any members saw and we said we need to go further than that uh so in a November
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membership meeting uh the leadership brought its own wishy-washy ceasefire
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resolution we brought a BDS resolution and they uh they argued against our
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resolution but we managed to pass it over their opposition and um I believe
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that was the first uh uh such resolution in the UAW uh since October um after
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that it it uh spread to uh other campuses and we were able to basically force a referendum for a
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ceasefire um and uh there was also in in 2325 local in New York of attorneys um
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they uh attempted to have their own resolution but some Zionist members of that local uh tried to prevent them from
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having a discussion and voting on it uh in court so they had to fight that in court before they could uh pass that
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resolution um and as Steve said uh they’ve been subpoenaed and attacked by a house committee um and they continue
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to uh Target uh uh you know the house uh
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t uh you know talks about uh anti-Semitism in the trade unions and so
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on and particularly has called out 2325 um so and at the same time um the
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caucus in 4811 was was working closely with the student Coalition that was leading the protests uh against the
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genocide and participated in organizing them um and the students the the
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protesters were demanding that the universities divest from their investments in war manufacturers uh the
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University of California is a large institution in the state it is ties to the Democratic party uh it’s tied to uh
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you know gets funding from uh DOD and uh it’s tied to you know gets funding for
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military uh contractors in in the LA area the big Tech up here um so this is
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a major institution it has $1 billion do in assets and of that 100 billion it
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invests billions in military contractors uh it’s uh it also invests I believe
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it’s 4 billion and Blackstone which is uh basically the biggest slum Lord in the in the world um so these were
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serious demands that the students had uh and uh and so when the encampments were
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spreading there was an encampment set up uh at quite a few uh University of
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California campuses um and the one at Los Angeles was attacked uh violently
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pretty much from the very beginning uh you had sound blasts that were being uh
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blasted at the camp at all all hours uh you had you know lots of harassment um
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as time went on it just escalated you had uh fascistic sort of characters proud boys that would prowl around at
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all out at the night brandish knives so it became very clear that uh that this
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was dangerously escalating um and in fact uh there was a a
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counter-protest that was violent uh only a few days in and but anyway it culminated um on the um the night of
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April 30th so a group of about 200 uh
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fascists uh showed up uh and tried to storm into the encampment and fired
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fireworks in um and uh you know we’re
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we’re really trying to physically break up the encampment or else terrorize the
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people so much that they would willingly leave um and got very violent you know they were beating people with metal
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poles uh pepper spraying people uh they used tear gas they were actually a couple of instances of people throwing
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acid and people got uh burns on their arms and legs so this was a serious attack um and the police uh
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stood stood by stood down for 4 hours and the students uh most of them you
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know undergraduate students 18 19 20 years old uh were you know holding up
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these wooden pallet barricades trying to prevent them from coming in so that was the scene for 4 hours uh and actually we
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learned later the chancellor was on a balcony watching watching this unfold um
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so very suspicious because we’ve seen how fast the police can respond when they want to when it’s to break up uh
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student protests but in this case apparently LAPD was just not able to act
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for 4 hours um so that’s that’s unprecedented in this country that a fascist mob would be bold enough to come
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onto a major University campus and attack students um in front of the whole world um and uh that’s this is what
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finally persuaded Union leadership to call a strike because there were union members that were there including some
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of the people that organized it um but even people from Union leadership were there and and witnessed this with their
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own eyes and then finally they said okay you know we have to call a strike so the next day the university announced it
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would break up the encampment it would bring in the police um and there was a tremendous uh response from the Campus
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Community you had I would say close to 2,000 students and professors and community members came and basically
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surrounded the entrances to the encampment so that it would be impossible for the police to come in and remove them and they stayed there for
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hours I mean they were there until midnight and and later um and when the LAPD did uh enter the students were so
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overwhelmingly outnumbered them that they were forced to retreat back back out of the encampment
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so so yeah that was really remarkable to see I mean the um the the termination of
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of the students uh and so they had to bring in cops from from all over La
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basically and uh and spent you know 3 or four hours uh before they were finally
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able to uh remove them um and uh so and
37:15
all told about 500 arrests were made across uh the University of California uh during the course of the protest so
37:21
the protest made possible uh a political strike and uh the members should
37:27
approved proved it uh we had a vote close to 20,000 members voted and about 80% voted yes uh it was however a
37:34
minority strike we had a lot of trouble mobilizing our members uh I’d say less
37:39
less than a quarter participated and so once the strike started it was it was much like our
37:46
experience in 2022 the leadership set up an ineffectual picket and a plaza that
37:52
just kind of circled around and did nothing and uh was discouraging and demobilizing for members
37:57
um and so our members were you know the caucus the left the opposition caucus
38:04
tried to pull members into uh through uh
38:09
you know Democratic assemblies that would involve people in making decisions for themselves and militant actions like
38:15
uh delivery pickets to block uh delivery trucks from entering the campus uh which
38:20
we later found out cost the university tens of millions of dollars uh so the
38:27
University city was uh went to pulled out every stop to try to prevent this
38:32
from happening so they filed two injunctions and they also sent uh a
38:37
letter to all of the members before the vote uh uh results had even been announced that said this is illegal and
38:44
you know trying to intimidate members and saying we’re going to fire you and we’re going to bring you up on disciplinary charges uh and they they brought in uh
38:51
hundreds of private security guards and police and they would uh you know patrol around the campus and Ras people there
38:58
was racial profiling and um you know a dangerous uh environment where you have
39:03
all of these police going around you know questioning people are you a student you know um and uh and when we
39:10
had these these pickets to to block delivery trucks they sent the security guards at us and the cops and the cops
39:16
would come in and say we’re going to arrest you if you don’t leave in you know 2 minutes and so we would go to the
39:22
next location and uh and block that one and then come back um so it’s a kind of
39:27
Cat and Mouse game and uh so uh you know very militant um but a minority strike
39:34
and it was uh that was a problem that we faced throughout is is how do we keep up um the energy and the
39:41
participation uh and ultimately the way it ended was uh uh they the university
39:46
wasn’t able to get uh perb the uh public uh employment Relations Board to to
39:52
accept their injunctions so they went to a District Court Orange County and got a
39:58
conservative judge to issue a temporary restraining order that went through basically the entire duration of of the
40:03
strike so uh and Leadership kind of just rolled over at that point and
40:09
effectively that was the end of the strike uh the caucus wasn’t able to um mobilize enough members to really uh
40:15
prevent the strike from being shut down at that point um so uh that’s an attack
40:21
on labor law um and uh an attack on the union and we’ve seen that that the
40:27
perspective of our leadership was uh an extreme concern for legality you know
40:32
don’t um don’t do anything that they can use against us in court because we’re going to be fighting this legal case
40:38
over years and you know it’s going to go to the higher court and then maybe the state supreme court and we want to make
40:43
sure that the right legal precedent is set and so they’re willing to um sacrifice taking militant actions in
40:50
order to set this precedent for labor law over the course of many years even though what we’re seeing Nationwide is
40:56
an attack on labor law um which is happening right now um and uh okay um
41:04
otherwise you know we’ve seen a lot of uh organizing in the UAW we have uh UAW
41:10
labor for Palestine uh activists and uwd um has has worked on this has a
41:16
committee on uh Palestine organizing um and
41:23
uh uh and the the UAW issued is ceasefire statement I think largely
41:28
because of the action of the ranking file and the locals uh taking these sorts of actions um we found out
41:36
recently that um so the federal monitor who was installed in the UAW because of
41:41
the corruption Scandal and to oversee um uh direct elections in the UAW um he uh has been going after sha
41:50
Fain the president uh and asking for uh something like 120,000 documents from
41:57
the the UAW huge number of documents um and the Detroit Daily News reported a
42:02
few weeks ago that this came immediately after uh the monitor called Shan feain
42:10
off the Record and uh expressed his uh uh his disapproval of the uaw’s taking
42:18
position on Palestine so this seems to be a politically motivated attack and um
42:24
it’s uh as Steve said you know this provides a pre text for the federal government to get more involved and uh
42:32
you know we heard a couple of weeks ago Trump at the Republican National Convention call out the UAW by Dame he
42:37
said the UAW ought to be ashamed for uh auto manufacturing being moved out of
42:42
the country it’s the uaw’s fault and the president of the uww should be fired so
42:48
you know Fain is a political enemy of trump um he’s he’s come out and called him a scab openly and so Trump is you
42:56
know wants to make an example of them and uh uh yeah so that’s that’s a that’s a
43:02
threat to the UAW and and so I think we need to be uh organizing against the repression that we’ve seen and that we
43:08
can expect uh under a trump Administration and that will require uh
43:14
an education campaign in the UAW about the threat of fascism um and um I guess I’ll leave it
43:24
there thank you Peter and that struggle is is ongoing uh in the UAW uh and 4811
43:31
particularly to against the to completely drop the charges against the students and and the members of the UAW
43:38
who have been arrested and I I think they’re going to there’s going to be more of that I know that the California
43:44
aflcio did pass a resolution at the recent convention defending the uh the
43:49
strike and the workers but there’s been no political education campaign in the labor movement this is not just about
43:57
UAW 4811 this is about the danger of an attack on all workers who take action
44:03
and one of the things that we have to do is begin to educate working workingclass people at large about these political
44:09
attacks and the trading bureaucracy does not want to do that one of the reasons is they’re tied to the Democratic party
44:16
because who was it who brought the police on it was Gavin Nome who brought the highway patrol in it was Karen bass
44:22
who brought the Los Angeles police into that so there’s a direct connection and
44:28
uh only one person has been arrested as I understand it for that fascist Zionist attack one and they have pinches of many
44:34
others so in my view I mean that’s a statement in itself that these zionists and fascists are not going to be held
44:41
accountable for what they did and I think there has to be a campaign and labor that they have to be held accountable so this meeting tonight is
44:47
about the international struggle and Labor uh on Palestine and as we’ve said
44:53
before Labor has the power to shut down military aid and Equipment uh going to
45:00
Israel and there have been actions around the world uh by unions in Italy
45:05
and other places to demand the shutdown of all military uh equipment cargo going to Israel we support that and we want to
45:13
build on that internationally that’s our responsibility as well as in this country so our next speaker is gu Mo
45:20
Kain he is a member of the workers party in Argentina he’s a deputy in the venes Irish Parliament he also uh is a
45:28
professor at University of Buenos Iris and he was part of a an International
45:33
Conference at his organization hosted in Buenos irus to build an international movement and as part of which would be
45:40
to fight to defend the Palestinian working class and for a labor boycott so welcome G main good evening comrades um
45:49
thank you very much to to to Steve to Ricardo to kashmi to all the organizers
45:54
of of laborfest in my I’m I’m in the Bay Area as a guest of
46:00
them through through their invitation and it’s been 8 days of of intense uh
46:05
meetings and public activities to to get to know workers and organizations in the area so I I’m very happy to to have uh
46:13
been part or or or being part of of all this experience and to get to know up
46:20
close many of these organizations that we have read about that we have been interested in in their struggles and in
46:26
particular ILWU uh local 10 uh it is pro
46:31
proletarian internationalism I think is a very beautiful thing because one can be in the other side of the world and
46:37
feel right at home because uh Clarence Tom comrade Clarence Thomas was
46:42
describing uh an experience and uh a history a line of thought and action in
46:49
the workingclass movement and that sort of action has a name in Argentina we call
46:56
it classism class struggle class struggle
47:01
unionism and uh from from as far as we can tell I don’t I’m not saying it’s the only example but I local 10 in its
47:09
history seems to be the closest thing to what we call syndicato clista a class
47:15
struggle Union in Argentina and this for us is a long tradition it comes from the 60s and 70s from the cavaso where
47:23
workers and students took to the streets against the dictatorship and popular Uprising where they took back the unions
47:30
from the Trade union bureaucracy severing all uh ties with uh Bourgeois
47:36
political parties taking back the unions through assemblies through direct
47:42
election And discussing among workers what we are going to fight for what ideas we’re going to stand for and using
47:49
methods of direct action not the methods of the bourjois of
47:55
lobbying the state of of first meeting with the state and the bosses and then
48:00
seeing what to do but going to the assembly to the workers and going to strike and with severe methods of direct
48:07
action to get our workingclass needs so this and of course this is linked to the
48:14
internationalist Revolutionary workers organizations and their ideas and was this way in Argentina has been this way
48:21
with Argentina and the classist clista movement in the unions
48:27
and uh I am as Steve said apart from a parliamentary of a workingclass
48:32
revolutionary organization I am a professor in the University of Buenos Iris and I’m proud to say that my union
48:38
is also a clista class struggle Union the a uba the U Union Association of
48:47
teachers of the University of Buenos aides and has of course put out a resolution for uh immediate end to the
48:56
genocide in Palestine and participates in all demonstrations and activities in the city of Bueno Iris on the streets
49:02
and also with many teachers being part of the movement together with students to to get a mass movement going for the
49:10
immediate end to the genocide in Palestine and for the victory of the Palestinian resistance
49:18
[Applause] movement
49:24
um this has taken on many many forms uh
49:30
that we have tried to put the struggle out on the streets in Argentina though the the same six months have been very
49:36
difficult on a not unrelated topic we’ve had the rise to power of an ultra right
49:43
uh president Javier M who is an outspoken fan and supporter of Benjamin
49:51
Netanyahu of V Vladimir selinski and of Donald Trump uh so this is the the
49:58
constellation he is proposing and these are not um completely symbolic points of
50:04
support it is not I think Clarence was going to this point of of of Palestine
50:10
as a training ground as an example for the kinds of offensives against the
50:15
working class and oppressed people of the world over and we have this uh president who ended his uh campaign his
50:22
last AC of campaign was waving a huge Israeli flag while the bombing was in the first month
50:29
of bombing in Gaza and uh this is the sto this is the an example of the
50:37
extreme reaction of the reaction to the furthest extent and these are the plans
50:43
against the working class of the capitalist governments in general and this Ultra right current in particular
50:49
though we have to say supposed progressives are funding and
50:55
guaranteeing imp imperialist war in Eastern Europe are funding and guaranteeing genocide in Palestine so it
51:04
is both or or all capitalist blocks which are are promoting this
51:11
um in Argentina uh we have for example we we
51:16
don’t have weapons going to Israel in general we have a few weapons coming from Israel uh in agreement with mle so
51:24
this is not how uh it functions but we’ve had a strong denouncement of Zionism and certain economic enclaves
51:31
for example under the parist government the meod company was tried to bring in
51:37
uh to Argentina which is a company which controls water and uh mot is used in
51:44
Palestine to cut off the water supply to the population and to the Agriculture
51:50
and the local governments are bringing in this uh company to to to to manage water supply in several Argent inan
51:56
provinces and we have been outspoken in the rejection of the uh presence of this
52:03
company in Argentina and we think that the sort of plans of uh destroying
52:09
agriculture destroying Lo local populations and re-rooting natural resources is what’s behind uh their
52:15
presence in Argentina as well uh we have been outspoken since this is the first day in defense of the Palestinian
52:22
Uprising which is the reason why our congresswoman vanina Basi who uh swore
52:31
her oath into Congress among other things uh for the uh victory of the
52:37
Palestinian resistance movement who uh went into a heated debate with Zionist
52:42
journalist the day the 8th of October the day after
52:48
um the the uprising by uh the coordinated forces of Palestinian
52:53
resistance in a very heated moment it was the day of the presidential debate in Argentina and she went with a t-shirt
53:00
with a symbol of Palestine and the journalists didn’t like this and this is the reason uh they have tried to frame
53:07
her as a supposed anti-semite and and someone who does religious discrimination and and the Zionist
53:13
centers are financing the lawyers uh of trying to make this trumped up case
53:18
socialists are not anti-semites being against Zionism in Israel is not
53:25
being anti- Jewish many of us are Jewish I Jewish we have organized a a group in Argentina similar to the ones that exist
53:32
here in Argent in in the United States called Jews for Palestine and who who
53:38
are in the front lines of the demonstrations uh for Palestine uh it is the reactionary
53:46
character of Israel is so clear that it is the neonazis the world over who are
53:51
hosting this ridiculous anti-Semitism uh
53:56
uh marches against anti-Semitism and it’s the Recycled neo-nazis that are there and saying the
54:02
marxists are anti-semites that’s right and absolutely and this is the
54:07
case in the persecution against vanina vasi as well and this is why we urge you in this case if you can to give your Aid
54:15
your solidarity your signature in in this case which is going to the Argentinian courts as I said with a very
54:21
well financed uh Team of um by by Zionism
54:26
uh I I don’t want to make it long and I think the key is what Steve said and and
54:32
what Clarence Thomas what comr Thomas said as well the working class has to has to not just talk about solidarity we
54:40
we have to use our strategic place in production to affect the War
54:46
Machine and the good news is that in recent months we have seen multiple
54:54
actions in many countries particularly in Europe particularly in Europe of
55:00
blocking Armament factories of blocking the the ports the harbors where the uh
55:07
the the the arms are being shipped we’ve seen this in England we’ve seen this in Italy we’ve seen this in Greece and in
55:14
many other cases so I think this this germ of class
55:19
consciousness of internationalism of standing up against the wars and genocide in our workplace
55:26
places uh is not an isolated thing but we need to organize
55:33
it the statement Steve refers to is signed by 12 organizations from
55:39
different countries and uh in a moment where the left is very fragmented we have uh been
55:45
able to come together to do some common uh days of mobilization for example each
55:52
in our own country taking to the streets and we have to say this probably of
55:58
those who have signed the document the most advanced are the comrades of cobas in Italy because their Union has done
56:05
National strikes against Palestine and they have blocked for example the port of Geneva and they have marched to the
56:12
NATO [Applause] bases the comrades in Greece have also
56:19
marched to the NATO based and have also participated in blocks in their ports so
56:25
I urge you to read the political statement we have been able to put together I am sure some
56:32
will have differences on some points some on others but we have tried to go to uh what we see as the main points of
56:40
the moment on imperialist war and genocide in Palestine on a workingclass basis and we need to uh open up a debate
56:49
with class struggle revolutionary workingclass militants the world over
56:54
because we need International Unity of action against imperialist War and the
57:00
genocide in Palestine so this is the the main force of the document and the plan
57:07
of action that together with the comrades here from the united front for a labor party uh from the US and with
57:15
forces from Latin America from the Middle East and from Europe we have started to put together we have many
57:21
different ideas we for example are trotskyists and we’re proud of this Legacy and we think uh the criticism of
57:29
stalinism uh the bureaucratization is the only way to defend the Revolutionary
57:34
Heritage we are very convinced of this but some of the comrades have other political positions all our Marxist all
57:40
re consider themselves revolutionaries or part of the working class we do not put these uh programmatic differences
57:47
before the possibility of common action against imperialist War we think united
57:53
front is the method to advance in the dire moments we are living we are
57:59
closer imperialism capitalist Powers have us closer to a World War and to a nuclear
58:07
war than we have been for decades the reason for this is the
58:12
capitalist crisis capitalism offers no solution the
58:17
reformist organizations that have frustrated the thousands who
58:23
subjectively want socialism who see that cap capitalism is sick but they are
58:28
following political Alternatives that are inside the system that demobilize
58:33
that do not organize in the workplace that do not stand up for workingclass rights because without workingclass
58:40
Independence we are tied to the state to the Bourgeois parties we are tied to the
58:45
union bureaucracy and Corbin and Bernie Sanders and DSA and all of these movements they’ve
58:53
frustrated thousands who are participated in struggles and who have tried to look for a political
58:59
alternative to try to change their reality so we need
59:05
urgently to come together those who understand these premises and Who start doing the Practical work that can put
59:13
us through a common experience in the possibility of a new revolutionary
59:19
International to bring together the thousands and thousands who are rising
59:24
up against capitalism war and genocide the world over thank you very much
59:31
K laborfest is going to be having a uh a boat ride tomorrow night labor Maritime
59:37
boat ride uh we at 5:30 we Charter a boat and uh we have Labor historians uh
59:44
Union activists musicians and we talk about Labor history workingclass history
59:50
because it’s very rich uh working people are not told about the history in this country but there’s tremendous
59:56
workingclass history in the Bay Area and all over the country uh one of the things that we covered was the commune
1:00:01
the St Louis commune in 1877 where workers took over the St
1:00:06
Louis uh it shows the power of the working class which is unknown even in St Louis so that history is important to
1:00:15
really understand the power of the working class and the potential of the working class for power and certainly
1:00:22
against imperialism so our next speaker is Joe Wagner Joe is a a longtime
1:00:28
Transit worker with the ATU in Los Angeles uh who’s been fighting uh for
1:00:33
Palestine and attended the ilw convention he also apparently has been
1:00:38
banned by his uh local from even raising a resolution for Palestine uh so this is
1:00:45
not unique because in San Francisco uh Li Schuler the president of the aflci
1:00:51
sent a letter to the San Francisco labor Council saying it was banned from even discussing pal
1:00:57
because they already had a position so they want to shut down debate and discussion and we really need a united
1:01:02
front I I don’t know if there any teachers here from the oea but at the OA convention there was a very important
1:01:08
development uh in which hundreds of teachers had a March 300 teachers uh in
1:01:13
Philadelphia at the NA convention um and the uh the then um the workers went on
1:01:20
strike they they postponed the vote on the uh resolution there was a resolution they had for Palestine uh to from Friday
1:01:28
to uh Sunday the uh Union the staff Union went on strike and the union
1:01:33
bureaucrats tried to bust the union they took away their hotel rooms uh they took away their flights and it led to an
1:01:41
explosion of anger by these teachers that this Trade union bureaucracy is not only opposing Palestine but is engaged
1:01:47
in union busting in their own Union so this is the kind of character of the Trade union bureaucracy that many young
1:01:54
people Union actors are beginning to see that the struggle for Union democracy for workers rights is not just in
1:02:00
Palestine it’s right here in the United States we have to make that connection so welcome Joe
1:02:05
Wagner thank you so much thank you Steve and thanks Peter for uh inviting me to
1:02:11
participate at the at the 4811 encampment and to be a workingclass defender of the encampment it was an
1:02:17
honor to be there with you um so I’m a Transit worker mechanic in Los Angeles
1:02:22
uh proud member of um algam Transit Workers Union 1277 um I’m going to try to make four
1:02:30
clear points tonight um some of the points I make are going to be points
1:02:35
that we probably all agree on are very simple and others may not be something that we agree on but that’s okay so the
1:02:42
first point I’d like to make is this is obviously a joint us Israel Israel
1:02:50
genocidal war on the on Gaza which even the United Nations calls
1:02:56
the biggest open air prison in the world this is not just Israel doing it
1:03:02
the United States is completely complicit they’re in it together right up till
1:03:08
today here’s a fact every single one of the 2,000lb bombs that they’ve been
1:03:14
dropping on Gaza were made in the United States it’s also true of the 500 and 250
1:03:21
lb Bombs all from the USA the warhe heads are made in Scranton
1:03:29
Pennsylvania a HomeTown of genocide Joe Biden another fact these
1:03:36
bombs the mk84 or the Blu 117 bunker Busters don’t even touch the
1:03:44
Hamas tunnels which are way too deep they’re only good for one thing and that
1:03:51
is to do what they’ve been doing leveling apartment build bus and killing
1:03:56
everybody inside why are so many children and
1:04:01
women among the victims because they’re killed at
1:04:10
home every one of these planes those bombs are dropped from are
1:04:16
also made in the United States f-15s f-16s f-35s they’re all made right
1:04:23
here in other words this is a genocide made in the
1:04:30
USA without the US bombs and war planes the Zionist military wouldn’t be able to
1:04:35
carry it out they could and would murder a lot of Palestinians like they have in the past
1:04:42
but to actually carry out a war of extermination which is what is happening they need us
1:04:48
weaponry and by the way Biden’s claim that the US stopped delivering these genocidal bombs to Israel is a sh
1:04:56
they paused one shipment and then they kept sending more at least
1:05:03
14,000 of these 2,000 PB bombs so far plus another 13,000 smaller bombs and
1:05:10
missiles Reuters reported it I’m sure you’ve seen it the war material is sent
1:05:16
with full knowledge of what there to be used for to bomb the most de densely
1:05:22
populated area on the planet to smithin and murder tens of thousands of
1:05:28
Palestinians while a million or more are starving to death Rosa Luxenberg said it a long time
1:05:37
ago we Face either Socialism or barbarism this is the ugly face of the
1:05:44
US Israeli barbarism what’s happening in
1:05:50
Gaza my second point is the Palestinian General Federation of trade unions and G
1:05:56
the pgf has been calling since October for labor in Europe and the
1:06:03
United States to refuse to make or transfer military goods to
1:06:09
Israel a number of unions passed resolutions usually calling for a
1:06:15
ceasefire there were some protests at at Israeli companies like elet which does
1:06:21
surveillance technology Barcelona Dockers and Belgian transport unions said they wouldn’t move
1:06:29
War cargo but we haven’t seen actual action only in Italy where
1:06:38
militant Rank and file unions shut down some ports and had
1:06:51
[Applause]
1:06:56
directed to us unions in particular asking that we actually carry
1:07:03
out action to stop War cargo I put forward a motion to that
1:07:08
effect in my union local 1277 of 8U in Los Angeles but the bureaucrats shot it
1:07:14
down they even passed a motion saying that we can’t bring up Gaza for a
1:07:21
year it was a gag order in the Pacific Northwest
1:07:26
uh four unions pass motions introduced by supporters of class struggle workers
1:07:31
Portland calling to stop military cargo to Israel that was the
1:07:37
iuat painters uh the iron workers the ibw
1:07:43
Electrical Workers and uh aft education workers and now even the Carpenters have
1:07:49
passed that motion the biggest and most consequential you Union that stepped up
1:07:56
to the plate is obviously local 10 of the international Longshore and
1:08:02
Warehouse Union here in the Bay Area which sent a motion to the il’s recent convention for the Union as a whole to
1:08:09
refuse to handle military cargo to Israel uh so those in local 10 who
1:08:16
spearheaded this motion did not do this in isolation but together with numsa South
1:08:23
AF in South Africa um and this really points The Way
1:08:29
Forward International labor action so as uh brother Thomas spoke at the
1:08:36
convention in Vancouver British Columbia the ilw bureaucracy moved behind the scenes to vote it down to a by a 2:1 uh
1:08:45
you know 2:1 uh ratio I and um other West Coast Union supporters of the
1:08:51
internationalist group went to Vancouver so that if that motion were to to be passed we could help spread that news
1:08:58
internationally and could have triggered um similar action elsewhere but obviously it was buried and it remains
1:09:05
in the hands of local 10 to do this alone um but Leon trosky wrote in a 1940
1:09:13
essay on trade unions in the Epic of imperialist Decay about the integration
1:09:18
of the trade unions into the state and there it was before our eyes
1:09:25
the former president of ilw Local 52 Max
1:09:31
veic now head of the federal Maritime commission addressing the
1:09:38
convention um but let’s not let’s not forget that the ilw local 10 resolution also said
1:09:46
that the union would respect Pro Palestinian protest at the ports many of
1:09:51
y’all have been at those actions they’ve done it before let’s do
1:09:57
it again and combine it with shutting down the whole port in solidarity with Gaza I would send a powerful
1:10:06
message um my third point is that quite a few unions have passed resolutions
1:10:11
calling for a ceasefire in Gaza well why do they do that well they want to want
1:10:17
the support of people like Democratic party politicians who don’t oppose the war as such but after seeing all the
1:10:25
Carn AG they want it to stop because it’s a bloody stain you see like the
1:10:30
United Auto Workers that passed the ceasefire resolution and then turned around and endorsed Biden for president
1:10:37
even as the B Biden Harris Administration vetoed one ceasefire
1:10:43
resolution after another at the UN Security Council what kind of double talking farce is that a ceasefire would
1:10:51
leave the Israeli Army in place occupying Gaza which is totally unacceptable Drive the Zionist butchers
1:10:58
out the point is not to pressure Biden and Harris Administration which has been
1:11:04
playing the ceasefire game since back in January while pledging while pledging
1:11:09
unwavering support to the Israeli blood soaked butchers camela
1:11:15
Harris did it again on Thursday when she met with the Israeli mass murderer Chief
1:11:21
Netanyahu the point is that instead of begging for a ceasefire labor should act
1:11:28
to stop our military cargo to Israel and right now in the middle of this genocidal War it should shut down all
1:11:35
Commerce with Israel no planes no ships nothing cut it off
1:11:44
yeah workers should demand that Israel get the hell out of Gaza and all the
1:11:49
occupied territories including the Syrian Golan Heights and the Border area it SE from Lebanon and
1:11:57
not just the mil military the fascistic settlers as well they can go back to
1:12:09
Brooklyn so by the way comrades uh we need to look uh into oil and fuel
1:12:16
shipments those Israeli marava tanks are real fuel guzzlers I here less than a
1:12:23
mile per gallon of diesel so cutting off Israel’s Israel’s oil supplies is
1:12:29
another pressure point for labor to take action so point four uh
1:12:37
is is the political point above all it’s necessary to break with the Democrats
1:12:43
and Republicans and the bipartisan imperialist support for this murderous Zionist
1:12:48
State the same Democrats who were war monging from the Middle East to Ukraine to Gaza po as the friends of Labor even
1:12:57
as they Ram through a strikebreaking law against the rail workers in
1:13:02
2022 the same Democratic party that claims to Champion the rights of women did nothing to stop the elimination of
1:13:09
constitutional rights to abortion and the Democrats and Republicans vote in Congress to fund the
1:13:16
slaughter in Gaza they are ramping up to a third world war against Russia and
1:13:22
China both parties of us imperialism are preparing for war to carry out
1:13:28
counterrevolution to overthrow the Chinese bureaucratically deformed worker state which with its planned economy
1:13:35
protected its population holding deaths from covid to a little over 500 for the
1:13:41
for three years while Millions died all over the capitalist
1:13:46
world so point four is we need to fight for a workers movement to break with all
1:13:53
the capitalist parties to build a class Workers Party not some kind of reformist labor
1:13:59
party like they have in Britain where they just took over from the
1:14:04
conservatives and they still back Israel to the hill we need a party that acts as a
1:14:10
champion of all the oppressed on the road to a workers’s government at the height of the two 2016
1:14:18
election campaign militants and class struggle workers Portland got Painters Local 10 to pass a resolution calling to
1:14:24
break with the Democrats and all parties of capital and to build a class struggle Workers Party a few months later after
1:14:30
Trump won the election and racist attack started escalating the same local passed
1:14:36
a resolution calling to bring out Labor’s power to stop the KKK and all
1:14:41
racist and fascist forces then in June 2017 they actually did it building on
1:14:49
those resolutions the class struggle workers Portland mobilized 300 unionists and supporters in Portland labor against
1:14:56
the fascists and a couple months later members of Lo of painters local 10 in Portland join with IW local 10 here in
1:15:03
the Bay Area to stop a bunch of patriot prayer fascists from staging a
1:15:09
provocation in San Francisco that’s what a real Workers Party would do not just
1:15:14
talk but action we internationalists call for a
1:15:20
bational Arab Hebrew Palestinian worker state in a socialist Federation of the
1:15:26
of the Middle East we need to smash the Zionist Citadel from within and overthrow capitalism all throughout the
1:15:33
region and and defeat us imperialism’s minations and ultimately we need to
1:15:38
bring it home and smash capitalism here in the belly of the Beast yeah that only can be done through
1:15:45
a revolutionary struggle throughout the region by class conscious workers from Cairo to Tel Aviv to Istanbul to tan and
1:15:55
especially right here in the imperialist heart heart land now I know this is a
1:16:00
tall order but it’s the only Road and the road we’re going down is World War
1:16:08
II so that what I’m calling for is and what the internationalists call for is a
1:16:13
road of proletarian revolutionary internationalism defend the Palestinians thank you comrad thank you
1:16:21
one of the important developments in the unions as a result of struggle of activists of
1:16:27
militants is that some unions a number of unions have called for a military
1:16:32
halt of equipment to Israel and this has never happened in the United States because the the unions in the United
1:16:39
States most of them our Zionist have Zionist leadership they support Zionism and we have Richard Stone here tonight
1:16:46
who is a delegate uh from American Postal Workers Union in San Francisco he’s also a delegate to the San
1:16:52
Francisco labor Council who is fighting get an resolution passed by the labor Council which was being stalled for
1:16:58
months while people were being slaughtered and he recently was attended the convention of the American postal
1:17:04
workers unit where they did pass a resolution calling for a blockade of military cargo to Israel so welcome
1:17:10
Richard Stone good evening uh yes uh actually just uh yeah just uh you you
1:17:18
got back from uh our you know biannual B anual uh
1:17:24
you know conven was Detroit it have to be in Detroit which uh where one of the keynote
1:17:30
speakers uh there was a was Rashida TB you you know consider that her district
1:17:36
and uh and you know she started it off by you know you basically you know saying about other things that you know
1:17:42
you know Detroit you know is you know you know the birthplace of Labor so I’m just going to just going to give you
1:17:48
know a really brief uh you know you report on you know you know summarizing
1:17:53
you you the resolution s that I worked on including the one that I unfortunately failed
1:18:00
so failing in passing but uh but uh
1:18:05
anyway so as I said you know as I as you know
1:18:12
I’m I’m with the American Postal Workers Union San Francisco local 2 which
1:18:18
actually has a pretty rich history you know social justice history being one of the first of you know uh uh unions in
1:18:26
1967 I I I believe little before my time in and actually condemning the you the
1:18:33
Vietnam wars being illegal and uh and U extra haded bonus of that yeah actually
1:18:39
the postmaster of all people the San Francisco District postmaster actually uh you know uh you know you in in
1:18:48
solidarity actually u u you know also also condemned so it was one of those rare you know Labor Management uh uh you
1:18:57
know you moments where where you had like a I guess you can say a nonbing memor of understanding where there was
1:19:04
actually uh you know an alliance on you know on you you back then you know the
1:19:09
the most binding you know you social justice issue at the time which was you know you know you know calling for the
1:19:15
end of the Vietnam War so basically my national you know you know president you know you know Mike
1:19:21
dimondstein uh uh you know he he uh was the one that eventually did get uh you
1:19:28
know the AFL CIO to uh you to uh you pass but uh but the thing is but he had
1:19:34
to fight other members of the board including Randy we Garten who I guess she she’s a she’s uh you know the she
1:19:42
was you know the previous president of the Nea so uh so so the thing is it it
1:19:47
did take a you a couple months and uh and uh I did uh you know uh you pass the
1:19:54
resolution in in uh November and uh you know just and you
1:20:02
know you just bear in mind you the language I’ll just be re you know reading the resolve that the sfw call
1:20:09
for an immediate ceasefire of all parties both Israeli and Palestinian in order to allow the necessary
1:20:14
humanitarian Aid via the borders release all the hostages held by Hamas and Israel now other problematic di
1:20:22
diplomatic negotiations to occur preserve all human life and preserve the permanent displacement of the
1:20:27
Palestinian people from their Homeland so you that was successfully you you
1:20:34
know passed in November but when I submitted to the San Francisco labor Council uh it took U you you you quite a
1:20:43
you know quite a long time uh you for it uh for it to pass and uh and uh you know
1:20:52
at the time uh you know the the the labor Council meetings were conducted you know you the IBEW you Local 6 and uh
1:21:01
they were uh and they were met by the the Palestinian
1:21:08
Labor uh uh you know the Palestinian you you you labor front they were out there
1:21:15
uh uh you know protesting you know in in in Earnest uh
1:21:21
and uh and even though I did eventually you you you pass an extremely water down
1:21:28
resolution you know the the it was basically the the one that I just read
1:21:34
you saw I won’t repeat it but uh it it did include uh the the language of you
1:21:40
know the the support of the student encampments because uh that uh that that was something that
1:21:47
that had just uh you you just occurred so they allowed me to oh boy you know if you put in a friendly Amendment for that
1:21:53
so uh you know was and you know you know as little of
1:22:01
you know accomplish was it you know I I felt I guess I felt good enough that uh
1:22:06
that we at least able to get that far but uh still you know it was just a you
1:22:12
know you know a short-lived uh you know U thing you know satis I mean you
1:22:17
feeling of satisfaction so and uh you know as a result uh due to
1:22:24
the noise complaints uh I mean that this is just it it was just so bizarre the
1:22:30
the IBEW uh and uh I guess members from the ibw I’m not really sure but also
1:22:36
neighbors were actually you you know complaining to the ibw so so the labor
1:22:41
Council didn’t even H San Francisco labor Council didn’t even conduct a meeting in in June which which I just
1:22:47
find you know completely amazing and appalling at the same time and now they’re conducting them you know at
1:22:53
least on a temporary B is you at seciu you you 10 to1 so you know you you you under the
1:23:01
you convention uh you know as uh because there were so
1:23:06
many uh resolutions submitted for some reason mine you know our locals didn’t
1:23:12
get uh uh you know you know didn’t get submitted but it turns out that uh I
1:23:18
mean I mean I mean the I mean the resolution Committee just didn’t uh didn’t just you put it forward so uh but
1:23:26
but the but the thing is uh there was you know a couple of resolutions that
1:23:33
you that that that were passed there what and uh and one of them actually
1:23:39
called for an immediate ceasefire and uh and and and and the other one called for
1:23:47
permanent ceasefire now at first I was confused but then I looked at it that
1:23:54
the the reason being that that the that there were two different resolutions because the the the national executive
1:24:01
you know board uh the only way you could actually pass for them to you know to uh you to
1:24:08
to prove it uh was uh was uh was you was uh they had to
1:24:16
strike out the L they struck out the language of a permanent ceasefire but but in said called for immediate
1:24:21
ceasefire and um you know and they’ll just quickly read the resolve it says the body of the American Postal Workers
1:24:27
Union endorses the principle of American APW national executive or called for
1:24:32
executive ceasefire the release of hostages urgently needed to Aid the people you of Gaza but
1:24:42
uh I should actually go back for a minute U you we were like one of the very first national unions to actually
1:24:49
uh you know you know post uh you know a statement on our national website and it was in in you know November 8th and
1:24:56
uh and uh it was pretty much in line with the you what I you what I wrote
1:25:03
because because I because I know that at the time that you know considering that
1:25:10
you mark dienste you know you know uh which was actually quoted in the New
1:25:15
York Times as being an anti-zionist Jew who believes in a one-state solution so
1:25:22
I I was really you know you’re really proud that that that not only did he say that but to actually see it you know you
1:25:28
know published amongst others you know you know in the in the New York Times but but but the thing is the the the
1:25:34
strong resolution that uh you know was uh was actually uh you know put forth by
1:25:41
the the Puerto Rico area local and the Alban New York local and it basically says that resolv that the 27th biannual
1:25:50
you know American Postal Workers Union calls on the United States government to Halt all military aid to the Israeli
1:25:56
government and to stop using our tax dollars for one more year and be it further resolved the United States
1:26:03
government advocate for the for and promote an immediate permanent ceasefire provide urgent humanitarian Aid to the
1:26:10
people of Gaza I tried to uh you know insert a friendly amendment that uh that
1:26:16
uh that because in the whereas where it uh you know there was a where where it
1:26:22
says whereas unions representing the majority of organized workers including the the AFL CIO have
1:26:30
joined and and out no excuse me that’s the wrong word is that the American Postal Workers Union stand for equality
1:26:36
justice social justice human and labor rights and international solidarity with all Justice and peace so I tried to
1:26:44
insert language to uh you know because neither of these resolutions actually
1:26:49
said anything about uh you the student encampments and uh and and and
1:26:54
unfortunately got struck down but at least I I I tried to you know you know
1:27:00
you know get that in but it you know unfortunately it failed but uh so that’s that’s
1:27:08
uh and uh but but I must say though that uh that Rashida Talib gave a really
1:27:15
stirring you know you know 15 you you 15minute uh uh you know speech and then
1:27:22
you know this was just like 2 days prior when when she was like sitting when uh you boo boo nutty fruit cake you know
1:27:28
you was giving his uh you know his I don’t even know I I don’t even
1:27:34
know what to call it I just found it really shameful that even though she was I was really proud of the fact that she
1:27:40
was holding up the you know your war criminal side that uh that I just found
1:27:46
it really daunting that none of the other you you members of Congress you know you you know came to Aid not that
1:27:51
any of us should be surprised but still you know you know you know considering
1:27:57
you know you you know the implications of him being there and and I mean the
1:28:02
the new prime minister of uh England recently stated that if that Yahoo ever
1:28:08
sets foot you know on on um you know on on Great Britain soil that he will be
1:28:14
arrested so so I was kind of surprised because yeah you know the labor party
1:28:20
has uh you know you you know unfortunately has taken a little bit of turn to the right since the days of Jeremy Corbin but uh but but at least uh
1:28:28
you know the new iteration you know of uh you know you of the you of the of the labor party was uh you know you know
1:28:36
actually you know there is relatively a lot more conservative and uh and then
1:28:43
uh there there there’s I think it’s called the workers party that was started by George Galloway and uh you
1:28:50
know he he actually was you know elected to the you know the par over there but
1:28:55
uh because it was a special election before a general election he only you know uh he only was in office for uh you
1:29:02
know for 58 days so anyway uh you know in the midst of
1:29:08
all this you know I’m also you know you know a sometimes published writer so I
1:29:14
uh you you wrote a poem about the conflict that uh that that was it was a
1:29:19
really short one and that that was inspired or you or
1:29:24
where I was horrified where they where I saw on this image you know of of in the
1:29:31
foreground you see you you you you see you you see bombs you know you know blowing you know blowing abilities in
1:29:37
Northern Gaza and in the background you see the you you see the airlift drops so
1:29:42
so the thing is it was a picture where you could actually simultaneously see uh you know you know receiving you your Aid
1:29:50
and getting getting bombed at the same time so I uh wrote this short poem and
1:29:56
I’d like to close it with this it’s called feast in destruction and this is poem this is a poem for all the people
1:30:01
in Gaza skinny shaky fingers pointing towards a smoke-filled sky dropping
1:30:07
simultaneous offerings of feast and destruction us-made Bobs dropped by The Chosen Fu ruling over the very pointy
1:30:15
hexagon that is railing down genocidal tracks and us freedom pallets
1:30:21
parachuting crumbs of gas lits sustenance for those who resist death hunger and settler or Colonial
1:30:28
occupation in an open air prison where over 2 million bodies are on lockdown
1:30:33
while their minds remain defiant and embraced in the court of worldwide public opinion railing against a Zionist
1:30:40
regime propped up by the two-party death machine in light of the 2024 Death Match
1:30:46
coming soon to coming to you soon plotting down a bloody campaign Trail highlighting at the at the gates of APAC
1:30:53
and other conventions to despair WWF Death Match 2024 white Waring in
1:31:00
the wory and red Corner Agent Orange Julius Caesar and in the we’re feeling
1:31:05
blue Corner dinosaur Jo Apocalypse Now for you got to get your Zion if you want
1:31:10
to play all the way to election day in spite of the greener pastures of Jill Stein and Cornell West breathing the
1:31:17
fire of Life affirming electoral polity to activists worldwide clanging bells of
1:31:22
justice for the baguer pal inan community and a massive joining of ARS whether in Dearborn or Gaza San
1:31:28
Francisco or Tel Aviv Washington DC or the knesset let the voice of reason
1:31:33
bring forth the ceasefire and cage the rabid dogs of WS spay a neuter the
1:31:38
military-industrial complexity of the Mindless blathering drones flying over the embattled land of Palestinian
1:31:45
self-determination and the right of return to sanity to a land where the olive branches once again will bear the
1:31:52
fruits of su stainability and justice for all thank
1:31:58
you you Richard so our last speaker is Lisa Milos Lisa is a uh member of upti
1:32:06
uh in UCSF and has been a long time Fighter for Palestinians uh she’s a
1:32:12
Chilean American and has been fighting also to expose the role of the
1:32:18
aflci which has a thing called the solidarity Center funded by National Endowment for democ $75 million operates
1:32:26
in 62 countries and actually is supporting us imperialist interests so welcome
1:32:32
[Applause] Lisa hello yes
1:32:40
um as a Chilean person we in Chile have been um when when the papers became
1:32:49
Declassified papers a lot of a lot of stuff came out um a lot of people didn’t know for example the role of the aflci
1:32:57
and the American uh Institute for free labor development and how they trained 6,000 people to work with the CIA to try
1:33:05
to destabilize the aenda government and I began learning more about Palestine over the years I mean I
1:33:12
remember back in 1983 and there was a it was after the chatila um massacres um that there was a
1:33:21
meeting at the women’s building and where all of a lot of the left was
1:33:27
was there and the conversation was going on where
1:33:33
there was people there within the left that were saying how can we attack Israel how can we do
1:33:39
that and people were crying about it and I was wondering are you crying for
1:33:46
Israel really I mean by that time people already had found out the role that
1:33:52
Israel had played in selling arms to the P regime in the 80s though Israel was
1:33:57
also selling arms to the rosmont government so we’ve been dealing with
1:34:04
labor imperialism for a long time for quite quite a long time and the and
1:34:10
things I learned even more recently during these past few years was that the American Federation of Labor actually
1:34:17
helped create the state of Palestine
1:34:23
they funded the hrut which was the Jewish supremacist Union in the 1920s in
1:34:30
Israel which would boycott businesses that didn’t that hired non-jews because
1:34:36
they wanted to place the Jewish workers above everybody else that was the 1920s before the state
1:34:43
of Israel was formed and since then obviously the
1:34:48
American Federation of Labor then became a AFL CIO continued it its it’s it’s its
1:34:56
trajectory of being the right arm of the imperialist government of the US in a
1:35:03
lot of Latin America not only Chile um but a lot of
1:35:08
places I uh was also a member of the labor Council during the same period of
1:35:13
dur with Richard Stone um and we presented my my union in June my union
1:35:19
is the University of professional and Technical employees CWA 91 19 I’m a
1:35:24
medical interpreter at UCSF and I’ve been there since 2007 I helped bring in
1:35:30
the uh the you the interpreters into the Union the union represents about 18,000
1:35:37
uh healthc care professional and Technical employees of the University of California as well as three uh adjunct
1:35:43
faculty at the at three community colleges in California we’re part of the communications workers of
1:35:51
America and just to bring a little bit of History here one of the presidents of
1:35:57
the communication workers of America was instrumental in the creation of the American Institute of Free Labor
1:36:04
development so in 2021 our Union our executive committee actually passed a
1:36:09
resolution because it was presented by the systemwide peace and social justice committee a pass we passed a resolution
1:36:16
in support of Palestine uh during the attacks on Gaza the attacks on um the
1:36:23
East jurus Palestinians in the East jerus Jerusalem um shik jarat areas and
1:36:31
um displacement and it included breaking ties with
1:36:41
hute so I tried to bring that resolution to the Labor uh to the labor delegates that
1:36:48
with which we were allies in at the labor Council but there was a discussion that ensued that said we were going to
1:36:54
get less support if we included that so we decided that we would draft a whole new resolution uh which included very
1:37:03
the most important part which was BDS uh boycott divestment and sanctions and
1:37:08
stopping USA to Israel as soon as we did that when we presented it in June uh 14th of 2021 we
1:37:17
had the members of the labor Council who were APAC supporters like Olga Miranda
1:37:22
from local 80s 7 SEIU Local 87 who herself had been at an APAC conference
1:37:29
in 2016 and had said I am APAC okay so there was no doubt that she was an APAC
1:37:36
supporter and she helped to uh send this to committee she helped send the the
1:37:42
resolution to committee and we uh tried to get it out of committee in July and
1:37:49
wasn’t possible either in August either and then by the time uh then September
1:37:54
came along and the labor Council got a letter from the S FR from the um AFL C
1:38:02
saying that we were prohibited from addressing this or presenting this to
1:38:08
the San Francisco labor Council because it was an it was an issue of international concern of which they had
1:38:13
already taken a position now that goes against the history of the actual San Francisco
1:38:19
labor Council which back in during the Vietnam war they had adopted a position that was different than the than the uh
1:38:25
National aflcio nonetheless I took our our
1:38:32
resolution and and I uh basically the idea was to write up a
1:38:38
resolution to bring to the CWA convention which was in October of 20 uh
1:38:44
uh 2021 and uh we brought it to the resolutions committee we we did um
1:38:51
presentation but it was not it was not recommended but I was still insisted I was going to take bring it to the floor
1:38:58
and um during this period of time the new leadership of my union was less than
1:39:04
supportive of this and he basically strong armed a lot of the delegates to not support it and not second it for my
1:39:11
own Union and so I I was able to rely on the seconding and the support of uh
1:39:18
other CWA locals such as one in Wyoming uh Colorado local that passed the
1:39:23
resolution on Palestine and I tried to get it onto the floor but it was it was uh voted it was
1:39:32
it was considered out of order by the chair that was in October of
1:39:38
2021 since then at the labor Council uh we did get a resolution passed in
1:39:45
support of Dr um rabab Abdul Habi who is
1:39:51
the founder of and a scholar and a professor at San Francisco State University and founder of the Arab
1:39:57
Middle Eastern diaspora studies and she had been and continues to be attacked by
1:40:03
uh the Israeli supporters uh and at that time she was facing an attack directly
1:40:08
by the San Francisco State University president uh and by the the company Zoom
1:40:14
because she was having her um classes held via Zoom remember that this was
1:40:20
also during the uh covid so she was having those those classes via zoom and zoom just canceled it canceled her
1:40:27
classes and San Francisco State University was uh you know trying to get
1:40:32
her uh removed so luckily uh the the California
1:40:38
Federation of teachers uh supported her they brought a a resolution we brought a resolution to the San Francisco labor
1:40:45
Council and they did support that resolution they did support that and they were not able to do that to Dr RAB
1:40:52
alabi um so this the struggle within these
1:40:57
different unions um I must say that there’s been since then and now uh during this period of time there’s been
1:41:04
some amazing things that have come out but also a lot of worrisome issues that have come out that we need to probably
1:41:11
discuss and and bring forward bring to the
1:41:16
Forefront um during this period of time for example as a CWA member I joined you
1:41:23
know CWA signal chats you know the the organizing within CWA na Nationwide this
1:41:30
is something that also happened during 2021 when we organized um Nationwide as
1:41:36
well but which stopped all of a sudden stopped in 2021 after you know after the zoom uh uh
1:41:46
the the the zoom demonstrations and the victories from there uh all of a sudden
1:41:52
it just stopped so this time uh I was hoping that that
1:41:59
experience of stopping would motivate people to say hey this time we can’t stop we have to continue and
1:42:05
unfortunately were the members on on the CWA signal Group which were members of
1:42:11
the news Guild primarily um from around the country
1:42:16
were involved in more of an internal talk they were keeping things internally trying to reach their their Union bu
1:42:24
bureaucracy their their leaders to try to get them to pass a resolution for a ceasefire and they met with them and
1:42:31
they talked with them and they tried and they tried and they tried and they didn’t get it at that time they didn’t
1:42:37
get a resolution for the for a ceasefire from the news Guild during a time when
1:42:43
journalists are being
1:42:49
massacred and there were several things happening at the same time the the there was an organization of the Bay Area
1:42:56
labor for Palestine organizing with all the different unions um as well and
1:43:01
there was a demonstration going to be happening in December December 16th and during that time I was you know
1:43:08
asking let’s endorse this no but we’re really not a group we’re you know we
1:43:14
really don’t represent all CWA well you know there was a whole bunch of excuses given and
1:43:21
unfortunately they even when I was asking for okay then let’s vote on it no cuz we’re not
1:43:29
there’s only 70 of us on this chat list and there are 70 activists Rank and file
1:43:36
activists but somehow this mentality that you have to be an officer of a union or you have to belong to the top
1:43:43
in order to be able to make any decision seems to have you know taken
1:43:48
over people’s psyche in some way you know as if your voice is not enough
1:43:54
so I was insisting and I was also insisting on the issue of bringing forth
1:43:59
um get organizing in order so that we could go to the CWA convention and present it present our uh a resolution
1:44:07
at the CWA convention I’ve got a okay I’ll try to wrap it up as best as I can okay
1:44:15
um so the the problem was at the time was that um then well no endorsement
1:44:20
happened from that particular CWA group for the Bay Area labor for Palestine and
1:44:27
then uh we had a a teaching at um the Bayer labor for Palestine had organized
1:44:33
a teaching at one of the Oakland High Schools or elementary schools which by
1:44:38
the way got closed down so we ended up having to do it on the lawn and luckily in uh we were able with within Bay areel
1:44:45
for Palestine we had brought up the issue of hisr several times and they they felt that maybe we the messaging
1:44:53
could be put forward later regarding hist dute but they were uh willing to
1:44:58
have a teach in on hist which we were able to hold at that at that teaching it
1:45:04
was very good there was about 25 people that came to that workshop and a lot of a lot of very important information was
1:45:11
brought forth by uh long-term historical activists who um uh were there like
1:45:17
Jeffrey um Jeffrey blenford his last name yeah I forget people’s last name sometimes so
1:45:23
so it was a an amazing it was a really good teaching then there was the May 1st
1:45:29
demonstrations there was two demonstrations if people remember this past May 1st the one uh May 1st one in
1:45:35
San Francisco had uh jobs with Justice and even though um there’s no
1:45:41
disparagement meant but there is a strong level of Democratic party control
1:45:46
over the labor movement in this in San Francisco okay let’s not you know let’s
1:45:52
not there’s a strong level of Democratic party control and there’s another event at
1:45:58
Oakland another major demonstration in Oakland well the B the the local
1:46:04
community uh immigrant Community was the one that traditionally had organized the May first demonstrations and so uh we
1:46:11
had a representative that going to those meetings and even though I had been invited to attend because I am also part
1:46:18
of that Community my mother was an immigrant and and an activist for immig rights and I have been to in my you know
1:46:25
during my life um I I I felt that because it was the Bay Area labor for
1:46:31
Palestine was going to be present I said it’s it’s it’s okay better that somebody
1:46:36
a representative from Bay Area labor for Palestine go there at the same time we were organizing in UPI as UPI members
1:46:44
for Palestine because we had not been able to make any Headway within our own Union regarding that okay um
1:46:54
and again at this time again there was people that we were presenting we need
1:46:59
to we need to bring forth a messaging in our messaging regarding history dude we need to bring that forward that needs to
1:47:05
come to the Forefront because that’s what the general Union of uh General
1:47:11
Federation of Palestinian trade unions are Del are asking for that’s an Ask
1:47:17
break time ties with the occupation trade unions it’s there
1:47:23
and again there was side you know no maybe next time no no we we you know no
1:47:29
people are not going to understand no this and this and that and and then when I asked okay who’s going to speak on
1:47:35
behalf of Bay Area labor for Palestine again I was not given any responses and
1:47:40
and as a and then I finally found out that there was not going to be a speaker from Bayer labor for Palestine at this
1:47:48
uh at this May 1st uh event um that’s what I was told and I said how can that
1:47:54
be I said this is May 1st you know we’re part of the Coalition no it’s because they’re not organizing it
1:48:01
again um so as a result of
1:48:07
that I was kicked out of that one too that signal group too okay I was kicked
1:48:13
out of the CWA one I was kicked out of the other one too now I want to make something perfectly clear it’s not about
1:48:19
me okay it’s about the issues that we were presenting okay and when you’re
1:48:27
presenting issues and when you’re dealing with a union bureaucracy like the one I deal with I was also by the
1:48:32
way kicked out of the labor Council
1:48:37
okay you remember that right okay okay
1:48:43
because why because I was presenting at the labor Council the issues having to do with Palestine the issues having to
1:48:49
do with fighting the uh the the with um supporting the ILWU right
1:48:58
supporting the ILWU against uh don Fisher when uh when I was confronted by
1:49:04
the uh executive director and the president saying labor supports the a
1:49:11
stadium I said what the LW isn’t labor and I’m going to tell you very
1:49:17
honestly I’m I’m uh putting it out there I I in the ILWU was the only Union that
1:49:22
stood out up for chile during the Pino regime when they refused to to haul you
1:49:28
know military equipment you know during that time just like it’s been practically the only one that has
1:49:34
stopped that has been able to stop the Zim ships and and literally the only one
1:49:40
okay so for me it was it was an issue not only of the issue itself but it was
1:49:45
an issue of of really being it was an issue of
1:49:50
integrity and so those different issues that came up at the San Francisco labor
1:49:55
Council unfortunately um continue to persist as
1:50:01
Richard has has has demonstrated has has spoken about and that just means one
1:50:07
thing that we all need to stand up as even if you’re Rank and file we all need
1:50:13
to stand up and be willing to confront the bureaucracy of our unions we cannot allow them to speak for us any longer
1:50:21
and going to that I’m going to finish with one thing um at the same time I
1:50:26
think media is a really important issue here because one of the reasons why people uh are not as informed about
1:50:33
what’s been going on is because of the media and luckily now people have social media young people especially have had
1:50:40
the ability to be able to communicate via podcast via Tik Tok I mean the the level of of of communication that the
1:50:47
Gaza journalists have been able to put out none of that would have come out if if if if there was no you know a media
1:50:54
social media to be able to come bring it out because if we had depended on the mainstream news it wouldn’t none of that
1:51:00
would have come out none of this and I belong to the kpfa local station board and I belong to a slate a
1:51:07
smaller State slate a minority slate which is called rescue Pacifica and we have one candidate here from the local
1:51:14
station board who’s running his name is Felipe mesina is right there we also have a Palestinian we also
1:51:22
have a Palestinian uh woman Dr rabab albadi which is who is going to be who’s
1:51:27
joining us on the Slate as well um and as a member of the kpfa local
1:51:34
station board we brought a resolution in March to a local station Board of people
1:51:40
that call themselves progressives but voted down a resolution on
1:51:46
Palestine an emergency resolution on Palestine they voted it down we have the video
1:51:54
of the excuses they gave but none of it was valid and on top of that during the 75th
1:52:02
Anniversary there were two anniversary events scheduled one was Amy Goodman in
1:52:07
democracy now right at the church um that that she did the event uh that was
1:52:12
organized by kpfa and another was going to be uh an organized uh organized for
1:52:18
the Middle East Children’s Alliance with kpfa well well when I was going to buy
1:52:23
the tickets for both events to support both events I found that the Middle East Children’s Alliance was was cancelled
1:52:29
because for apparently the excuse was for lack of tickets okay um I found it to be I went
1:52:38
to the Democracy Now event and they spoke the entire time about Palestine but had no Palestinian speakers
1:52:46
none none and I found the need and I and I found it very very disturbing that
1:52:52
they could fill a room for Amy Goodman but not for the Middle East Children’s
1:52:57
Alliance I found it incredibly disturbing so I spoke up after the event I didn’t interrupt any event I went I
1:53:04
spoke up afterwards many not many people know what’s happening in Pacifica Network the
1:53:11
Pacifica network has five stations including kpfa but there’s been members of the democratic party the Paul
1:53:17
wellstone Democratic party to name them specifically okay including people that
1:53:22
are within the progressives considered progressives within this community which are Carol wolfley Sharon Adams Christina
1:53:31
Huggins who happens to be a CW who happen to have been a CWA uh union rep
1:53:37
okay as well we I can name also Sher gendelman
1:53:42
I’m naming a few Pacifica network has double also WB in New York which
1:53:48
actually uh H broadcast the the electronic IND
1:53:53
the only program that can be reliably pro pro Palestinian on kpfa is flas
1:53:59
points I mean reliably there there there I think the Arab and the Middle East is
1:54:06
is supporting also but there’s there’s a lot of right-wing kind of there’s
1:54:12
warmongering going on on kpfa from Tom Hartman and Ian Masters where they’re literally telling that they should the
1:54:19
ceasefire would help Hamas they said okay and we have Philip moldar saying
1:54:25
that we need to send more arms I mean I I think he said that right uh I I remember he said something to that
1:54:30
effect but I’m not sure I don’t want to um but I know that he’s been putting
1:54:35
forth some very very Troublesome kind of statements lately and it’s very very very disturbing so what’s going on at
1:54:42
Pacifica and why am I mentioning rescue Pacifica we need your help anyone who is
1:54:49
subscriber subscribes to kpfa or should talk to people who are subscribed to
1:54:55
kpfa to vote the rescue Pacifica slate why because Pacifica network has
1:55:03
been dogged by the protectors by the new day whatever you want to call them
1:55:08
Pacifica safety net they’ve been sent to court one after another after another
1:55:14
they’ve been trying to change the bylaws to make it into self- designating corporate board environment they’ve been
1:55:20
basically trying to take over Pacific Network for a long time in fact the court cases were trying to put Pacifica
1:55:27
into receivership the FCC complaint by Sher gendelman against WBAI ended up
1:55:33
biting everybody in the butt because now we have the FCC on Pacific as on all of the stations what will happen with the
1:55:40
Trump presidency you think all they’re going to do is just use that as an excuse and get rid of Pacifica they
1:55:46
already named Pacifica in the project 2025 so we need to force we need to make
1:55:54
sure we have the people who believe in real democracy media democracy the
1:56:01
people who believe in Anti-Imperialist programming the people who believe in anti- capitalist programming the people
1:56:08
who believe in anti-war programming because this is the last remaining Network independent terrestrial Network
1:56:16
left in the country the last one so I’m asking everybody here to
1:56:24
contact people who are subscri everybody that you know five people that you know who might be subscribed to kpfa and ask
1:56:31
them to vote for the rescue Pacifica slate and we also need Pro labor
1:56:36
programming Rank and file labor programming Steve zelzer uh uh program which was just one half hour a week was
1:56:44
taken out Frank Sterling’s program first voice apprenticeship program which was
1:56:50
actually teaching young people about social justice issues and training them in radio was taken out as
1:56:56
well so we really need to try to stay keep a hold of Pacifica because that’s
1:57:03
the last one we have and there’s five stations and 200 Affiliates thank
1:57:11
you thank you brothers and sisters and there’s going to be a a rally press conference on the
1:57:16
31st at 12:00 noon in front of kpfa so if people want to be there if they can
1:57:21
be there at k P FAA on the 31st at 12:00 noon we’re going to have speakers about this issue of Zionism about the issue of
1:57:28
fascism the danger of the shutdown of Pacifica it’s a real threat these people
1:57:33
are not playing games and we have to confront this reality and defend our
1:57:38
Democratic rights uh and defend the voices that are on kpfa because there are voices for Palestine and kpfa and
1:57:45
I’m sure the Zionist and the capitalist don’t want them on the air at all so we have to defend uh those voices is
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