May Day 2025: Workers Everywhere Reaffirm Their Commitment to Palestine!
“True labor solidarity is demonstrated through actions, not just words, and we count on your awareness and determination to take concrete steps to end this tragedy.
It is our collective responsibility—as trade unions and labor movements worldwide—to stand against injustice and use our collective power to generate change. Together, we can break the chains of occupation, end oppression, and build a world that is more just and humane.”
— Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions – Gaza (PGFTU – Gaza), April 4, 2025.
Throughout the ceasefire, Israel violated the terms around the agreement and on March 18 around 2:30 a.m. local time, the Zionists escalated their violence and hundreds of Palestinians were martyred or injured. On May 1, 2025, International Workers’ Day, students, unions, and working people everywhere must reaffirm their commitment to Palestinian liberation. As the US, Israel, and other Western states deepen their imperial collaborations and commitments to genocide, we must remain steadfast in our struggle against Zionism and imperialism.
The Palestinian struggle ignited the international struggle for liberation from capitalism and the rule of the billionaire class. The same forces set on destroying Palestine and Palestinian people are those that gain their riches and power from worker exploitation across the world. The weapons, energy, research and knowledge used for the destruction and carceral management of Palestine are produced and transported by our labor, and later return back to repress, dominate and police us.
Understanding and acting in accordance with this differentiated but undeniably interconnected struggle is our only path to liberation. The fate of workers all over the world depends on defeating the economic system of endless accumulation, land theft, mass incarceration, and war. Capitalism and imperialism are two sides of the same coin; we insist that while workers face worsening conditions and structural violence, only owners and imperialist states get richer and stronger. International unity of workers is the only path to end this capitalist-imperialist system.
It is our task to continue growing our international movement and uphold our core principles of Palestinian liberation and anti-imperialism so that we can create a labor movement that is not limited to narrow and local economic aims.
This struggle is just and necessary, but it will not be easy. May we one day look back at the unprecedented waves of repression as the desperate cries of a dying beast. To hasten the coming of that day, we call on all labor forces across the world; especially labor unions, workers’ parties, university workers, supply chain workers, transportation and energy workers, and any other type of workers’ organizations to:
- Divest All Funds and Cut Ties to Israeli Institutions: cut off all military aid to Israel and refuse to handle any military cargo destined for Israel, especially cargo carried by Maersk and ZIM. Unions and universities have a duty to divest from genocide and cut any ties to Israeli universities and institutions.
- Join and Expand Current Boycott Campaigns: adopt resolutions supporting the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and respect the boycott against the Histadrut.
Workers must make it known that their labor keeps the world running, and that it is their labor that can bring the gears of Empire to a halt. We do not consent to our labor being used to fuel genocide. By engaging in labor action now, we build power in building towards mass coordinated strike action.
Students, faculty, workers, and unions must make their commitment to Palestinian liberation known and felt on May Day by organizing actions that advance the People’s Arms Embargo and BDS resolutions toward the goal of ending the Occupation. As part of their appeal on September 11, 2024, the PGFTU expressed, “We, with our souls and bodies, continue to resist the death that is imposed upon us, and we trust that you will continue to raise the banner of solidarity and struggle to stop the aggression and to live a dignified life for a freedom that is not negotiable and for a justice that does not bow to anyone.”
We must not relent—our cause is just and we will win. We owe it to the people of Gaza to continue building a world where Palestine is free.
Sign on to this statement here.
Read the toolkit here.
Find social media assets for reposting here.
Initiating Signatories:
Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG)
Labor for Palestine National Network (L4PNN)
SUNY BDS
Filistin İçin 1000 Genç
Student Coalition Berlin
Scottish Socialist Party
Signatories:
SSP Students Glasgow (UofG)
No Tech for Apartheid
Black Cap Workers United
Stony Brook Socialists
Stony Brook Graduate Students for Palestine
Stony Brook Students for Justice in Palestine
Direct Action United
Buffalo SUNY BDS
Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance Concordia
Binghamton Solidarity for Palestine
Binghamton Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine
Kaldıraç Movement
NYC City Workers for Palestine
CUNY for Palestine
Students for Palestine Salzburg
Freies Palästina Kollektiv Uni Wien
Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card
Students for People’s Democracy Bangalore
SUNY BDS Alumni
Medical Students for Justice in Palestine
Students for Palestine Freiburg
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