Breaking Ties With the Israeli Histadrut — Part 1 (May 18, 2025)(Labor for Palestine National Network)

May 27, 2025Breaking Ties With the Israeli Histadrut — Part 1 (May 18, 2025) Break ties with the genocidal Israeli Histadrut! As the latest round of Israel’s genocide against the people of Palestine violently continues, many workers around the world are beginning to hear calls for unions to break ties with the Histadrut, Israel’s racist “labor federation.” But what exactly is the Histadrut, and what is its role in Israel’s brutal ethnic cleansing project? Join Labor for Palestine National Network members from across the U.S. and Europe to learn more about this racist formation that finances the IDF, its connection to international labor Zionism and imperialism, and why a global movement of workers is organizing to break ties with the Histadrut. #Labor4Palestine#BreakHistadrut laborforpalestine.net Speakers Sherena Razek (moderator) is a Diasporic Palestinian feminist scholar, activist and labor organizer, former president of the Graduate Labor Organization at Brown University and a co-founder of that union’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus. She has been organizing closely with the Labor for Palestine National Network along with the other panelists here today for the past 589 days of ongoing American funded Israeli genocide in Gaza. Monadel Herzallah is founder and President of the Arab American Union Members Council, a co-founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), a plaintiff in the Taxpayers Against Genocide complaint recently filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to challenge Israeli genocide in Gaza in which he has lost 43 family members, and a co-convener of the Labor for Palestine National Network. He will provide the historical background on the Histadrut and its foundational role in the establishment of Israel over the ruins of historic Palestine. Claudio Feliziani is a filmmaker and researcher formed in the 1980’s Italian autonomous workers left, a Migrant worker, and active in the Stop Arming Israel Campaign in Germany. He will set the stage for the international stakes of this call and our shared demand to break ties with Histadrut, and why it’s especially critical in Germany. Lizbeth McManus is an actor/performer, and rank-and-file member of SAG-AFTRA and organizer with Entertainment Labor for Palestine. She will share with us the US context of organizing against Histadrut and in solidarity with Palestine. Michael Letwin is a social justice activist since the 1960s, is a former president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW 2235, and a co-founder of Labor for Palestine. He will talk about why this Palestine solidarity work is a matter of not crossing picket lines. Background Materials •Labor Zionism and the Histadrut https://tinyurl.com/2mp37frs •The Jewish Labor Committee and Apartheid Israel https://tinyurl.com/ykdv6mhr •The Histadrut: Its History and Role in Occupation, Colonisation and Apartheid (Trade Union Friends of Palestine) https://tinyurl.com/yef7jxem •Labor for Palestine: Challenging US Labor Zionism https://tinyurl.com/2kkz6aef •Labor Video Project    / @laborvideo   •No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine https://tinyurl.com/y7hwt6u3 ==== Während die aktuelle Phase des israelischen Völkermords an den Palästinenser*innen grausam andauert, beginnen viele Arbeiter*innen auf der ganzen Welt ihre Gewerkschaften aufzufordern, alle Verbindungen zur Histadrut, dem rassistischen israelischen “Gewerkschaftsverbund”, zu kappen. Aber was genau ist die Histadrut und welche Rolle spielt sie in Israels brutalem Projekt der ethnischen Säuberung? Lern zusammen mit Labor for Palestine Mitgliedern aus den USA und Europa mehr über diese rassistische Organisation, die die israelische Armee (IDF) finanziert, ihre Verbindung zum sog. Labor Zionism (“Arbeitszionismus”) und Imperialismus und warum sich eine weltweite Arbeiter*innenbewegung organisiert, um alle Bande zur Histadrut zu zerschlagen. Die Veranstaltung findet auf Englisch mit deutschen Untertiteln statt.

Transcript:

Chapter 1: Introduction and context

0:01

1 secondHi everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Um I think we’re going to get started now. Um so I just wanted to

0:09

9 secondssay hello, good morning, good afternoon for those of us joining us or maybe even good evening for those joining us from

0:16

16 secondsacross the US and Germany and from other places and time zones. Welcome to the first iteration of our Labor for

0:23

23 secondsPalestine National Network teaching series. This session is titled an injury to Palestine is an injury to all breaking ties with the Israeli histadr.

0:33

33 secondsMy name is Sharina Razi. I am a diasporic Palestinian feminist scholar, activist and labor organizer, the former

0:40

40 secondspresident of the graduate labor organization at Brown University uh and a co-founder of our union’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus there. and I’ve been

0:49

49 secondsorganizing closely with the Labor for Palestine National Network along with the other panelists here today and some of our participants too, I’m sure uh for

0:58

58 secondsthe past 589 days of ongoing American funded Israeli genocide in Gaza. As

1:06

1 minute, 6 secondsmembers of this labor collective, we understand that we have the right to refuse the colonial conditions of our

1:12

1 minute, 12 secondslabor and to oppose the use of our labor to colonize and exterminate another people. We understand it is our

1:20

1 minute, 20 secondsobligation as labor internationalists to dismantle the racial capitalist and imperial systems of domination at play

1:28

1 minute, 28 secondswherever they are because our dignity and rights as workers and as human beings are deeply interconnected.

1:35

1 minute, 35 secondsThe old labor adage, an injury to one is an injury to all must extend to all workers of the world if it is have any meaning beyond its status as a slogan.

1:46

1 minute, 46 secondsAnd that means unequivocally that this statement extends to every child left limb

1:53

1 minute, 53 secondslimbless from American manufactured bombs. Every mother forced to give birth with no medication or hospitals to care

2:02

2 minutes, 2 secondsfor her and her new child. Every father forced to face his children with no food to put on the table as aid trucks sit

2:09

2 minutes, 9 secondsblockaded at the colonial borders Israel enforces around Gaza. Every teacher and student with no schools or universities

2:17

2 minutes, 17 secondsleft to gather at and study in. Every journalist whose press fest has been turned into target practice by the

2:25

2 minutes, 25 secondsIsraeli occupation forces. Every prisoner languishing in Zionist torture dun dungeons. every health care worker

2:32

2 minutes, 32 secondsrisking their life to save lives. The list unbearably goes on. We have the right and the duty to

2:40

2 minutes, 40 secondsorganize to end this brutality. Funded by our tax dollars, enabled by our complicit employers, ordained by

2:47

2 minutes, 47 secondsgovernments against the interests and calls of their constituents. Don’t ever forget we’re part of the global majority that stands with Palestine.

2:56

2 minutes, 56 secondsuh or enabled unfortunately by cowardly union leadership who have failed to meet the urgency of this moment beyond hollow

3:03

3 minutes, 3 secondsstatements for over 19 months of unabated genocidal assault. It is absolutely our obligation as rank and

3:11

3 minutes, 11 secondsfile labor internationalists to respond to calls coming from Palestinian workers represented by the Palestinian General

3:18

3 minutes, 18 secondsFederation of Trade Unions who have in very clear terms asked of us and directly of American trade unionists to

3:26

3 minutes, 26 secondsintervene in the flows of racial, social, and political capital enabling the Israeli war machine to rage over our people in Palestine.

3:36

3 minutes, 36 secondsAmongst these demands has been a long existent call to break ties with the Israeli histadrut which will be the focus of today’s conversation. Our

3:45

3 minutes, 45 secondsintention today is to develop an understand and understanding of what the histadrut is. Expose the ties established labor formations in the US

3:54

3 minutes, 54 secondsand Europe and Germany specifically have long maintained with this racist organization. and most importantly to

4:01

4 minutes, 1 secondthink together uh about how and why workers across the world are calling for unions to break ties with the Histads

4:08

4 minutes, 8 secondsand to build solidarity with the people of Palestine. During this political education event, we want participants to come away with foreign four main

4:16

4 minutes, 16 secondslessons. The first one being a basic understanding of what the histadrut is, its origins, its racist, genocidal and

4:23

4 minutes, 23 secondsapartide politics and its role in the ethnic cleansing and formation of Israel and really its place at the heart of the

4:30

4 minutes, 30 secondsZionist project. Secondly, we want you to get an understanding of the links between the histadder and labor Zionism in the US and Europe and particularly in Germany.

4:41

4 minutes, 41 secondsThird, we want you to have an ability to identify and challenge the haz or propaganda about the histadro so you can oppose these lies as they confront you.

4:51

4 minutes, 51 secondsUm, such as this farce that we as labor unionists should be acting in solidarity with a so-called socialist labor

4:59

4 minutes, 59 secondsfederation. Rather, we want to make clear the similarities between the Histadrut and its closest relatives, South African apartheid and racially

5:08

5 minutes, 8 secondssegregated unions that have no place in our movements towards justice and liberation. And finally, and very importantly, we want to highlight the

5:16

5 minutes, 16 secondssolidarity work of global movement of a global movement of workers organizing to break ties with the Zionist formation and share some tools that you can take back to your workplace and communities.

5:27

5 minutes, 27 secondsUh, including a recording of this panel so you’re empowered to challenge these ties at the at the union, local, your

5:35

5 minutes, 35 secondscaucus, state, national, and international levels.

Chapter 2: History of the Histadrut

5:39

5 minutes, 39 secondsSo, we’re going to begin a panel discussion on the histadder where I will have the great privilege of introducing our speakers and at the end we will open

5:47

5 minutes, 47 secondsit up for Q&A uh and close with some materials for you to take back to your unions. I’d like to invite our

5:54

5 minutes, 54 secondsparticipants to share questions through the Q&A function should be at the bottom of your screen. Um you can share them now and throughout the panel as they

6:02

6 minutes, 2 secondsarise. And I also want to note that we have some highlevel German translations that were done by Elizabeth Hawk and

6:10

6 minutes, 10 secondsClauddio Felitzani and we’ll be sharing those in the chat for our German speaking participants at the start of each panelist’s discussion. So without

6:19

6 minutes, 19 secondsfurther ado, I would like to introduce our first speaker, Manad Hzalah, uh who’s the founder and president of the

6:26

6 minutes, 26 secondsAmerican or the ArabAmerican Union Members Council, a co-founder of the US Palestinian Community Network, a plaintiff in the taxpayers against

6:35

6 minutes, 35 secondsgenocide complaint recently filed with the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights to challenge Israel Israeli

6:42

6 minutes, 42 secondsgenocide in Gaza in which he has lost 43 family members and a co- convenor of the Labor for Palestine National Network. He

6:51

6 minutes, 51 secondswill provide the historical background on the Histadrut and its foundational role in the establishment of Israel over the ruins of historic Palestine. Monado, thank you so much for being with us.

7:01

7 minutes, 1 secondI’ll pass it over to you. Thanks to you.

7:04

7 minutes, 4 secondsThank you so much for having me as part of this program. Such an ambitious program. I don’t know we could do it in

7:10

7 minutes, 10 secondssuch a short period of time but I really appreciate you inviting me and being part of this. Uh I am going to be

7:20

7 minutes, 20 secondspresenting a slides that is uh basically summarizing a comprehensive presentation out of like 52 uh slides but I have

7:29

7 minutes, 29 secondssummarized it into 10 slides only. Uh the I’m going to start by sharing the

7:36

7 minutes, 36 secondsfirst screen first slide. Uh I believe I could do that. Got it. Okay. So uh the

7:45

7 minutes, 45 secondsthe the objective for this is really uh understanding the conquest of how uh

7:51

7 minutes, 51 secondslabor Zionism function as a vehicle of settler colonialism and why it was the

7:58

7 minutes, 58 secondsdominant strand for Zionism during the British mandate period. Uh another objective is to uh understand the

8:07

8 minutes, 7 secondsconquest of land and the conquest of labor as a core strategies of labor zionism and their material um consequences on the Palestinian farmers.

8:19

8 minutes, 19 secondsUnderstand also the function of histaded root before and after the Nikkba. And and finally understand that Israeli

8:27

8 minutes, 27 secondsworkers, I mean like the uh histaded root the representatives quote unquote have the always and always been will

8:36

8 minutes, 36 secondssubjugate the Palestinian under Zionism.

8:45

8 minutes, 45 secondsOops. Okay. So uh before we begin you know talking about Palestine. Palestine has as you see in the map has a

8:54

8 minutes, 54 secondsstrategic location because of its position visa v Europe, Africa and Asia connection the three continents through

9:02

9 minutes, 2 secondsthe land and waterways. Palestine was under the rule of various empires throughout the ages and this was a party

9:10

9 minutes, 10 secondsdue to it strategic locations large ports along with Mediterranean and the fact that it bordered the Sinai and

9:18

9 minutes, 18 secondswhich facilitate the large proportion of global trade throughout the Swiss channel. So in in uh exposing the myth

9:27

9 minutes, 27 secondsof saying land without a people for a people without a land wanted to you know the name Palestine actually comes from

9:34

9 minutes, 34 secondsthe word Palestine which is mentioned in 800 BC in an ancient Egyptian uh

9:42

9 minutes, 42 secondsinscription. This land has always various names throughout the centuries and the historian have used some version

9:50

9 minutes, 50 secondsof Palestine of thousands of years. In the early uh 20th century, Palestine’s

9:57

9 minutes, 57 secondsnative population was majority Arab Muslims with a significant Arab Christians uh population and a small

10:05

10 minutes, 5 secondsJewish and Drew population. So we see uh this is important background to see the his geography and the history of that.

10:15

10 minutes, 15 secondsSo do you realize the Zionist project?

10:17

10 minutes, 17 secondsJewish settlers embrace labor Zionism during the British mandate. Labor Zionist through establishing a

10:26

10 minutes, 26 secondsJewishonly economy in Palestine led by Jewish workers that was a majority for them.

10:35

10 minutes, 35 secondsuh labor zionism is taken over Palestine’s economy. The method was two.

10:41

10 minutes, 41 secondsOne is conquest of land, stealing as much land as possible for exclusive Jewish settlers use. And two, the

10:50

10 minutes, 50 secondsconquest of labor, excluding Palestinians workers from the labor market through the discriminatory hiring

10:57

10 minutes, 57 secondsand uh uh violence. So Palestinian you know that the attachment of Palestinians to

11:04

11 minutes, 4 secondsthe to their land it’s really important the connection is both a spiritual and native land and culture and material in

11:13

11 minutes, 13 secondsterms of economical uh livelihood. So when Palestinians are lose their land they be they lose not only their

11:22

11 minutes, 22 secondslivelihood but also their spiritual connection to the land. Palestinian songs, dresses, symbolized poetry,

11:31

11 minutes, 31 secondsculture, all this reference to the land and geography and in the of the indigenous nature of the Palestinian. So

11:38

11 minutes, 38 secondsprior to the creation of Israel, most Palestinians were dependent on their land for their livelihood and working as farmers.

11:49

11 minutes, 49 secondsSo creating the Jewish economy was really important for the Jewish for the settler colonial uh project of Zionism.

11:58

11 minutes, 58 secondsUh you know theft through expulsion and facilitating by by the

12:05

12 minutes, 5 secondsBritish land purchased for exclusive Jewish use. They will force farmers to sell their own lands by many many uh

12:14

12 minutes, 14 secondsways uh to drive them away from their own livelihood. The results basically the Palestinians uh farmers losing their livelihood and connection to their land.

12:26

12 minutes, 26 secondsIf you see the map here, you could see that in 1882 first Zionist colony and

12:33

12 minutes, 33 seconds1947 and the extent of Zionist colonization by the end by end of the British mandate. So the British uh

12:43

12 minutes, 43 secondscolonization was really helpful in in supporting the Zionist movement at the

12:49

12 minutes, 49 secondsearly ages way before 48 and continue to have the Israeli colonization throughout

12:57

12 minutes, 57 secondsthe years up to 1966 was prior to the uh the ex the eniction of uh incubation of Westbach and Gaza in 1967.

13:11

13 minutes, 11 secondsSo uh the mass employing of uh uh of Jewish settlers into Palestine. Uh you

13:19

13 minutes, 19 secondscould see from the 18 to uh 1947 there was the immigration from Europe and you

13:26

13 minutes, 26 secondscould see the map here where uh Jewish population is you could see it in the blue color and uh Palestinians in the

13:35

13 minutes, 35 secondsgreen under the British. The Jewish population in Palestine increased from

13:40

13 minutes, 40 seconds6% in 1918 up to 33% in 1947 and setting up a trade unions. That’s where we start

13:49

13 minutes, 49 secondstalking about his route like the root to sabotage Palestinian worker struggle. So the results was like Palestinian workers

13:58

13 minutes, 58 secondsface deteriorating working condition in that uh period of time.

14:04

14 minutes, 4 secondsSo the the histo has employed many ways to uh sabotage violence and with and

14:14

14 minutes, 14 secondsnecess with the necessary collaboration with the British colonization. They established a

14:21

14 minutes, 21 secondsmajor enterprise, financial transport, a service to exclusively employ Jewish

14:27

14 minutes, 27 secondssettlers using international funds sabotaged by burned down Palestinian produce. Sabotage sabotaged joint

14:36

14 minutes, 36 secondsPalestinian Jewish labor organizing effort. this there was some sort of effort to have Palestinians and Jewish

14:44

14 minutes, 44 secondsto work together in terms of like uh uh trying to get their their workers rights

14:50

14 minutes, 50 secondsand and but they were sabotaged by the histad route in terms of sent Jewish terror

14:59

14 minutes, 59 secondsgangs to threaten Jewish owned businesses that employed Arab workers spread anti-Arab propaganda throughout

15:09

15 minutes, 9 secondsleaflets Then also they played a major role in breaking the historical strike that was

15:17

15 minutes, 17 secondsuh carried out by the workers and population whole population of Palestine in 1936 and it stood until uh the

15:27

15 minutes, 27 secondsrevolution or the farmers and and workers from 1936 to 1939 prior to uh uh

15:36

15 minutes, 36 secondsto the establishment of the state of Israel.

15:40

15 minutes, 40 secondsThis is important about the histo rule during the Nakba and it’s called plant

15:47

15 minutes, 47 secondsdal d which is a plan that was zionist military planned to systematically

15:53

15 minutes, 53 secondscleanse Palestinian village from their native population. This is no almost people hardly know about this but the

16:02

16 minutes, 2 secondshistadrut members founded the hagana which is a zionist milit militia uh that was important that is really the

16:10

16 minutes, 10 secondshelagana and argon they were in in they’re responsible for massacres that

16:17

16 minutes, 17 secondstook place prior to 1948. One of the most you know famous one that people know about is

16:25

16 minutes, 25 secondsthe massacre of Derine. There is other massacres as well during that uh that period of time they carried out the

16:34

16 minutes, 34 secondsvillagers uh and various war crimes resulting in mass cleansing and ethnic

16:41

16 minutes, 41 secondscleansing. I remember those Nakba survivors. If any of you have had the chance to talk to any of the Nakuba survivors, Palestinians, they will say,

16:50

16 minutes, 50 secondsI myself had a conversation with my own grandfather who said that the massacre of Derine really played a major role on

16:58

16 minutes, 58 secondsmaking people scared and fear and they’re able to had to lo to scare leave their own houses so they won’t happen to

17:07

17 minutes, 7 secondsthem like what happened in in Dia and that is as you See this is we will w we

17:16

17 minutes, 16 secondsare witnessing that and what’s happening in Gaza at this moment. This is important picture that

17:24

17 minutes, 24 secondswe see. And then anybody who would talk about histadrut and being playing a peaceful role in this or like uh this is

17:33

17 minutes, 33 secondsthe uh chairman of histaded signing an Israeli missile used in the genocide against Palestinian and

17:40

17 minutes, 40 secondsGaza support is Israel genocide. It will continue to be a mark against anybody

17:48

17 minutes, 48 secondswho is trying to defend the hed root of what they supposed to be standing for or what they claim to be standing for.

17:54

17 minutes, 54 secondsDiscriminate against Palestinian union members. Wage theft. There’s millions of dollars being stolen from Palestinian

18:01

18 minutes, 1 secondworkers. Lack of representation. Punishing and threatening workers who go on strike.

18:09

18 minutes, 9 secondsworked cons consistently with the CIA to train operatives to hamper worker

18:15

18 minutes, 15 secondsstruggle in El Salvador supported and supported the appetite in South Africa.

18:22

18 minutes, 22 secondsOur brothers and sisters in Latin America are well aware of that and they can really help us in in exposing this

18:29

18 minutes, 29 secondshistorical war role that the history played against the working class in Latin America and South Africa. So

18:37

18 minutes, 37 secondslastly, I wanted to end by saying the demands from the BGFTU and Palestinians to boycott and end all the relationship

18:44

18 minutes, 44 secondswith the histaded routtroot to to support the arms embargo on Israel through targeting MK and divest from is

18:52

18 minutes, 52 secondsfrom Israeli bonds. South Africa unions have declared that we must call for the

18:59

18 minutes, 59 secondsisolation of hedroot Israel’s racist trade union which supports unconditionally the occupation of

19:06

19 minutes, 6 secondsPalestine and the inhumane treatment of Palestinians and end quote. Uh I I will

19:13

19 minutes, 13 secondsend here my slides and I tell you that we have a lot more to talk about. I’m be more than happy to hear your your

19:21

19 minutes, 21 secondsopinions about this, your input and your feedback so we could make this presentation in a much more

19:28

19 minutes, 28 secondscomprehensive way and hopefully we will do more education about this. Thank you so much for having me.

19:37

19 minutes, 37 secondsThank you so much Monado that was amazing and such brilliant concise background and overview of this

19:44

19 minutes, 44 secondsorganization and its role in colonizing Palestine and his continued role in colonizing Palestine. Um, just want to

19:52

19 minutes, 52 secondsremind our participants to use the Q&A function to ask questions. I did see a question there about the length of this

19:59

19 minutes, 59 secondsteaching. So, it’s going to be 90 minutes. So, we should end um I don’t want to say sorry the time because we’re all in different time zones, but 90

20:07

20 minutes, 7 secondsminutes an hour and a half is our programming and they will there will be time to go over your questions at the end. Um I’m very pleased now to

Chapter 3: International perspectives

20:15

20 minutes, 15 secondsintroduce our next speaker um who is Clauddio Felitzani, a filmmaker and researcher formed in 1980s Italian

20:23

20 minutes, 23 secondsAutonomous Workers Left. He’s a migrant worker and active in the stop arming Israel campaign in Germany and he’s going to set the stage for the

20:31

20 minutes, 31 secondsinternational stakes of this call and our shared demand to break ties with his and why it’s especially critical in Germany. Welcome Claudia.

20:42

20 minutes, 42 secondsSo thanks you for organizing.

20:45

20 minutes, 45 secondsUm I’m very glad to be here and um so I I speak from Berlin, Germany. Uh I’m

20:55

20 minutes, 55 secondspart of the stop arming Israel campaign here in Germany. Uh the campaign answers to the call of the

21:03

21 minutes, 3 secondsPalestinian trade unions and workers in Palestine.

21:07

21 minutes, 7 secondsUh here in Germany we are connecting the anti-militarist networks with the Palestinian political community

21:15

21 minutes, 15 secondsuh one of the biggest uh uh community in uh in Germany with 100,000 100,000 Palestinian in Germany.

21:24

21 minutes, 24 secondsuh uh we are connecting the the political community uh engaging also for

21:31

21 minutes, 31 secondsthe empowerment of power solidarity of solidarity in the basis of the German trade unions.

21:38

21 minutes, 38 secondsuh recently together with uh trade unionist for Palestine Gaftin and Fugaza uh we organized a series of debates

21:47

21 minutes, 47 secondsevent on the issue of Palestine solidarity in the German trade union uh and we try to give them an historical perspective.

21:58

21 minutes, 58 secondsSo the starting point uh of our debate was a specific question. Why in more than half an year

22:05

22 minutes, 5 secondsof current genocide in Palestine, the Debe, the German trade union federation has not said a word about it

22:14

22 minutes, 14 secondsexcept for a statement of solidarity with Israel victims immediately after the October 723 Gaza uprising.

22:22

22 minutes, 22 secondsWhy has the dig repressed in the basis of the trade unions any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian workers under genocidal

22:30

22 minutes, 30 seconds[Music]

22:31

22 minutes, 31 secondsaggression? We cannot find an answer to this question without talking about the historical partnership between the Gabbe

22:39

22 minutes, 39 secondsthe German uh federation of trade unions and the east Israeli history route.

22:46

22 minutes, 46 secondsSo we are dealing with the paradox here that despite constant exchange programs, educational trips, intensive public

22:53

22 minutes, 53 secondsdiplomacy between the de member structures and the east route, the vast majority of German workers. When asked

23:00

23 minuteswhere what the east route is even do not know what we are talking about. In such a situation, we agreed on

23:09

23 minutes, 9 secondsthe need of a political education campaign exposing more than complicity, I would say, identity of the history with the

23:17

23 minutes, 17 secondsoccupation and apparatide regime in Palestine has absurd the union

23:23

23 minutes, 23 secondsand true agency of colonization uh since the 1920s pursuing the objective of the ethnic segregation of

23:31

23 minutes, 31 secondsthe working class in Palestine, which was from uh very well described by

23:37

23 minutes, 37 secondsMonadal in its uh in its slides.

23:43

23 minutes, 43 secondsUm so uh we found um we found interesting to

23:50

23 minutes, 50 secondsfocus uh on the role of the gabbe in the interaction of postwar Germany with the state of Israel and the Zionist project.

23:59

23 minutes, 59 secondsUh I found an article uh very interesting uh of the Irish Bifton is the foundation Irish

24:09

24 minutes, 9 secondsball uh which is uh the foundation of the green party and uh I will I will

24:16

24 minutes, 16 secondsshare in the in the chat uh uh the link uh in German and afterwards also the the

24:24

24 minutes, 24 secondstranslation. So uh in this in this article it’s described uh it’s described how in postwar Germany uh the

24:32

24 minutes, 32 secondsrelationship with the Gibbe uh was uh was part uh was part of the of the

24:39

24 minutes, 39 secondsprocess of uh was um something pretending to be part of of

24:46

24 minutes, 46 secondsthe um the nazification project. I quote, “For the Israeli Trade Union Federation, Instad was not primarily

24:55

24 minutes, 55 secondsabout class struggle, but about building a Jewish Zionist state.” End quote.

25:04

25 minutes, 4 secondsUm, beyond the warfare of narratives is historically enough proven. Mahmud Mandani gives uh a radically not

25:13

25 minutes, 13 secondseuroentric insight on the failure of the denification in a full chapter of is neither settler nor native the making

25:20

25 minutes, 20 secondsand unmaking of the permanent minorities uh a book I had I had the chance and the honor of translate to my native language

25:28

25 minutes, 28 secondsItalian how in the frame of the cold war uh is pro is proving how in the frame of the cold war and in the anti-communist

25:37

25 minutes, 37 secondsreconstruction of the federal republic of Germany that the napification was traded off against the unconditional political and militarily support to

25:46

25 minutes, 46 secondsIsrael. To make an example, the state secretary of Denau’s government, the first government after

25:53

25 minutes, 53 secondsuh after national socialism in Germany was Hans Kloka uh who was one of the editors of the Nurember racial laws.

26:05

26 minutes, 5 secondsIt’s interesting how the debe the German trade union federation embraced this collaboration representing it as as a contribution to the

26:13

26 minutes, 13 secondsdenification appearing to be setting a discontinuity with the national socialist project while embracing

26:20

26 minutes, 20 secondsactually another ethnationalist settler colonial project in the Middle East.

26:27

26 minutes, 27 secondsIt is important for us according to the aims of the web this webinar uh to understand Zionist from its origins as a

26:35

26 minutes, 35 secondscorporatist ideology offering from its inception at the beginning of the 20th century its

26:42

26 minutes, 42 secondscooperation to both the European anti-semitic elites and the antibbolvic reaction to undermine from inside the

26:50

26 minutes, 50 secondsrevolutionary socialist majority of the Jewish diaspora an offering in addition to the British empire and the European

26:57

26 minutes, 57 secondsruling classes, a colonial outpost in the Middle East. At this point, it’s also worthy to

27:05

27 minutes, 5 secondsmake a reference to the work of Lenny Brener, continued by Tony Greenstein more recently investigating the diplomatic relationship between laborism and NAT Germany.

27:16

27 minutes, 16 secondsThere is uh unfortunately not time now to to discuss the issue but I uh

27:21

27 minutes, 21 secondsum I just want to observe here now uh how until today the anti-semitic extreme

27:30

27 minutes, 30 secondsright-wing in Germany in the EU and and USA as you know uh within the class

27:37

27 minutes, 37 secondsinterest represented by by it is also constantly consistently prozionist

27:46

27 minutes, 46 secondsback to the postwart time relationship between Germany and Israel uh the relationship with the debate and

27:54

27 minutes, 54 secondsisadroot we can see how it it less to do it has less to do with the nification than with the open support to

28:03

28 minutes, 3 secondsa social partnership let’s say a corporativist model that could replace the investment of the owning classes in that of the

28:11

28 minutes, 11 secondsmilitarily defeated fascist the labor science organized with its full mobilization and militarization of the

28:18

28 minutes, 18 secondsworking class for the national interest around the promise of a share in settler colonial privileges represented the

28:26

28 minutes, 26 secondssecond better antidote after fascism against class struggle and proletarian internationalism.

28:35

28 minutes, 35 secondsThis help us in a better understanding of the roots of the German

28:41

28 minutes, 41 secondsanomaly given by the so-cal anti-German antiduts movement as a top-down propaganda warfare.

28:50

28 minutes, 50 secondsSo in division in the international solidarity and trying to sell the endorsement of a settler colonial

28:57

28 minutes, 57 secondsproject as an anti-fascist struggle to highlight the historical legacy of this social partnership

29:06

29 minutes, 6 secondsrelations is for us today crucial to understand the current substantial alignment of the German trade union

29:14

29 minutes, 14 secondsfederation with the German region of state and military-industrial complex.

29:21

29 minutes, 21 secondswith inconditional support to Israel. The deal to deal with this questions help us

29:29

29 minutes, 29 secondsto try to understand in times where a ruling class is head into the world war.

29:34

29 minutes, 34 secondsWhat scope is still available for class interests that cannot be reconciled and definitely for international solidarity among workers to take action from below

29:43

29 minutes, 43 secondsagainst the current genocide in Palestine, the militarization of society and the preparation for the upcoming

29:51

29 minutes, 51 secondsworld war. Thank you.

29:58

29 minutes, 58 secondsThank you so much Cladio for giving us this really important um historical perspective on Europe and Germany uh and

30:05

30 minutes, 5 secondsthe collaboration with of the Zionists with this fascist regimes uh in the past and into the present. Of course, I want

Chapter 4: US labor movement complicity

30:13

30 minutes, 13 secondsto introduce our next speaker uh Elizabeth Mcmanus uh who is an actor and performer and a rank and file member of

30:21

30 minutes, 21 secondsSAG AFA and an organizer with entertainment labor for Palestine. she will share with us the US context uh of

30:29

30 minutes, 29 secondsorganizing against the histadro and in solidarity with Palestine. Thank you so much for being here Elizabeth Beth.

30:35

30 minutes, 35 secondsThank you Shireena. Greetings. I come to you as a union member concerned with the rights of workers and also as someone

30:43

30 minutes, 43 secondscommitted to social justice across borders and across systems of power.

30:49

30 minutes, 49 secondsToday this webinar is focused on a reality that we must confront and that is the historic and ongoing relationship

30:57

30 minutes, 57 secondsrelationship between the AFL CIO and the history and how that relationship must be confronted in light of the ongoing

31:05

31 minutes, 5 secondsapartheid and genocide in Palestine. The AFL CIO has long presented itself as a champion of

31:14

31 minutes, 14 secondsworkers rights and justice. Similarly, the history group has played a central role in the development of the Israeli

31:22

31 minutes, 22 secondseconomy and labor movement. But with this, we must ask whose rights are being protected and whose voices are being

31:31

31 minutes, 31 secondssilenced with more than 214 journalists killed by Israel and the AFL CIO remain silent.

31:40

31 minutes, 40 secondsSad Afraid, an AFL CIO AI affiliated labor union representing many broadcast journalists domestically, has not only

31:49

31 minutes, 49 secondsremained salad, but has also refused to comment regarding the targeting of Palestinian

31:56

31 minutes, 56 secondsjournalists. The roots of the AFL CIO’s relationship with the history group think back to the early years of the

32:03

32 minutes, 3 secondsZionist labor movement. In the 1940s and 50s, American labor leaders viewed the

32:10

32 minutes, 10 secondshistory not just as a union but as a nation building institution in pre-state in early

32:17

32 minutes, 17 secondsIsrael. Under the leadership of those like George Mini and later Lane Kirkland, the AFL CIO developed strong

32:25

32 minutes, 25 secondsties with the history, seeing it as a progressive ally. Over decades, these ties were

32:33

32 minutes, 33 secondsdeepened through formal partnerships, funding initiatives, and mutual exchanges. Several US labor unions

32:41

32 minutes, 41 secondsestablished direct relationship with the history group, including the American Federations of Teachers, Service

32:48

32 minutes, 48 secondsEmployees International Union, United Auto Workers, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

32:58

32 minutes, 58 secondsThese relationships were often framed as international solidarity, but they largely ignored the real realities of

33:05

33 minutes, 5 secondsPalestinian labor exploitation and exclusion under Israeli control. Even after the occupation of

33:13

33 minutes, 13 secondsthe West Bank in Gaza in 1967 and despite mountain evidence of systemic discrimination, the AFL CIO and its

33:22

33 minutes, 22 secondsaffiliates largely maintain these elite alliances. The relationships continued through the decades even as global human

33:30

33 minutes, 30 secondsrights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described Israeli policies as amounting to apartheid.

33:40

33 minutes, 40 secondsRecently in June 2023, the Hisp chairman visited the United States in a delegation arranged by the AFL CIO

33:49

33 minutes, 49 secondsinternational committee and supported by leadership from the American Federation of Teachers and the Retail wholesale

33:56

33 minutes, 56 secondsdepartment store unions workers among others.

34:01

34 minutes, 1 secondOne year ago, labor unions from New York City were part of a delegation that met with the history chairman at their

34:08

34 minutes, 8 secondsheadquarters in Tel Aviv. The delegation included the executive director of DC 37 Union, New York City’s largest public

34:18

34 minutes, 18 secondssector union along with the president of a union that represents superintendent and administrator administrators in New York City public schools.

34:28

34 minutes, 28 secondsThe same AFL CIO that proudly stood in solidarity with South African unions during apartheid must now confront its

34:36

34 minutes, 36 secondscomplicity and another system of oppression. This is about accountability for institutions that enable systemic

34:45

34 minutes, 45 secondsoppression. It’s about holding our own labor movement to the same moral standards we claim to uphold

34:52

34 minutes, 52 secondsinternationally. In June 2024, when the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America made a solidarity

35:01

35 minutes, 1 secondstatement with the historic strike, UEE workers in solidarity with Palestine noted that the statement on the surface

35:09

35 minutes, 9 secondsuh showed uh was on the surface was a show of international solidarity, but neglected to reference the history’s

35:16

35 minutes, 16 secondscomplicity and oppression and massacre of Palestinian workers throughout decades.

35:23

35 minutes, 23 secondsAs trade unionists, we say solidarity is not selective. You cannot pick and choose whose rights matter. If we are

35:31

35 minutes, 31 secondsserious about justice, then we must be serious about Palestinian liberation, too. Thank you.

35:40

35 minutes, 40 secondsThank you so much, Elizabeth, for this crucial perspective on the roles really on the major uh union leaders in the US

35:48

35 minutes, 48 secondsand their complicity historically and into the present. uh with the histatroots and with labor Zionism more

35:54

35 minutes, 54 secondsbroadly. Thank you so much. Um I’m very pleased now to introduce our final speaker, Michael Lewin, a social justice

Chapter 5: Organizing for liberation

36:03

36 minutes, 3 secondsactivist since the 1960s, uh former president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW

36:10

36 minutes, 10 seconds202035 or 2235, excuse me, and a co-founder of Labor for Palestine. Um, Michael is going to talk about why

36:19

36 minutes, 19 secondsPalestine solidarity work is a matter of not crossing picket lines. Welcome. Thank you, Shireina.

36:26

36 minutes, 26 secondsAnd hello, friends and comrades. It’s an honor to be here with all of you today. Sharina, Manado, Claudia, and and

36:35

36 minutes, 35 secondsElizabeth have laid out quite clearly how and why Palestinian trade union bodies have called on rank and file workers and union bodies around the

36:44

36 minutes, 44 secondsworld to boycott the Israeli so-called labor federation known as the histadr.

36:49

36 minutes, 49 secondsAnd as referenced earlier, this was most recently reaffirmed on Mayday of 2025 as follows. quote, “We, the undersigned

36:58

36 minutes, 58 secondsPalestinian trade unions, call on workers around the world to escalate their support for our struggle to end

37:05

37 minutes, 5 secondsthe genocide and dismantle Israel’s colonial aparttheid regime by cutting all ties with the histadrude and

37:12

37 minutes, 12 secondsexpelling it from all international fora.” End quote. So in this context, the most fundamental labor

37:21

37 minutes, 21 secondsprinciple, an injury to one is an injury to all, means that an injury to Palestine is an injury to all, as this

37:31

37 minutes, 31 secondswebinar in fact is is titled. And by the same token, the Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions or BDS

37:39

37 minutes, 39 secondsmovement is a picket line. And as rank and file workers and union members, we know that the first and most fundamental

37:48

37 minutes, 48 secondspart about being a union member is that we never cross a picket line. We walk picket lines, especially when there are

37:55

37 minutes, 55 secondspicket lines against the ongoing settler colonial knockb inflicted on the Palestinian people since and even before

38:02

38 minutes, 2 seconds1948 all the way through today. Because what’s going on today is simply a further extension and escalation of that NAPA.

38:10

38 minutes, 10 secondsAs you’ve heard today, the history is no minor player in this Zionist genocidal project. The photo of a history leader

38:19

38 minutes, 19 secondswriting a message on missiles to be dropped in Gaza says it all. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg as you’ve

38:26

38 minutes, 26 secondsheard. So let’s now just sum up in essence this case that’s been explained.

38:32

38 minutes, 32 secondsthis case against the history which has used its false image as a quote progressive or even socialist

38:38

38 minutes, 38 secondsinstitution to spearhead, whitewash and otherwise project and inflict racism,

38:45

38 minutes, 45 secondsapartheid, dispossession, ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people since it was founded in 1920.

38:53

38 minutes, 53 secondsWhile we could not even touch on all of these issues here today, this indictment of the history includes one from its

39:01

39 minutes, 1 secondfounding in 1920 its alliance with Western imperialism not only to implant Zionism in Palestine but also in as part

39:10

39 minutes, 10 secondsof the same project to attack workers struggles throughout the world and especially in Europe including the Bolevik revolution of October 1917 to

39:18

39 minutes, 18 secondswhich it was promoted as uh as an alternative.

39:22

39 minutes, 22 secondsSecondly, its conquest of land and conquest of labor campaigns that Manado outlined so clearly in the 1920s and 30s

39:30

39 minutes, 30 secondsto make way for the Zionist state by evicting Arab peasants from the land and boycotting Arab labor and products.

39:37

39 minutes, 37 secondsThird, when this provoked the 1936 six-month general strike that Manado also discussed, but which by the way is

39:44

39 minutes, 44 secondsthe longest to date in world history, it supplied Jewish labor to replace striking Palestinian workers and then helped the British colonialists,

39:53

39 minutes, 53 secondsterrorized the Arab population, and finally crushed the Arab revolt in 1939 after 20,000 Palestinian casualties and

40:01

40 minutes, 1 secondmany others jailed or deported. Next, I forgot what the number is here. There’s so many of them. At the same time, the

40:08

40 minutes, 8 secondshistory was collaborating with the Nazis in Europe to bring more Zionist settlers to Palestine while blocking Jewish

40:15

40 minutes, 15 secondsflight from Nazi extermination to anywhere else other than Palestine and in exchange sabotaging anti-Nazi boycots

40:24

40 minutes, 24 secondsand sabotaging alerts to the Jewish communities in Hungary and elsewhere who were facing extermination, which it knew

40:32

40 minutes, 32 secondsabout in advance. Next, its role in terrorizing and ethnic cleansing of at least 80% of the indigenous Palestinian

40:39

40 minutes, 39 secondspopulation subsequent and during during and subsequent to the Nagba of 1947 and 48. next its leadership command of the

40:48

40 minutes, 48 secondsnew Israeli state. Because let’s not forget that for the first 30 years of that state, the history through the Labor Party that it controlled and vice

40:57

40 minutes, 57 secondsversa was the ruling party in so-called Israel and its command of the Israeli Defense Force in which it has played a

41:05

41 minutes, 5 secondskey role so-called defense force in continuing and legitimizing ethnic cleansing and apartheid against the Palestinians. Next, its conduit for CIA

41:15

41 minutes, 15 secondsand MASSAD participation in colonial wars in Africa and its cooperation with the AFL CIO and the CIA in undermining

41:23

41 minutes, 23 secondsand murdering popular movements in El Salvador and throughout Central America.

41:28

41 minutes, 28 secondsNext, its near monopoly over Israeli trade, including weaponry with apartheid South Africa that included the provision of nuclear weapons to that apartheid

41:36

41 minutes, 36 secondsregime. Next, its support for each and every Israeli war and occupation ever committed. Next, it’s ongoing

41:44

41 minutes, 44 secondssegregation, exclusion, and/or exploitation of Palestinian workers in both the 1967 and 1948 areas. And by the

41:51

41 minutes, 51 secondsway, I use those terms because we don’t refer to Palestine, any part of Palestine, as Israel. Israel is not a place. It’s not a people. It’s a regime.

42:02

42 minutes, 2 secondsIt’s a colonial settler regime that temporarily occupies historic Palestine.

42:07

42 minutes, 7 secondsAnd this, by the way, includes uh in during that th those those attacks on Palestinian workers since 1948,

42:15

42 minutes, 15 secondsreprisals against Palestinian workers in Israel, so-called Israel, in other words, the 1948 areas who participated

42:21

42 minutes, 21 secondsin land day in 1976 when the labor Zionist government shot and killed six Palestinian strikers. And of course now that compa that pales in comparison with

42:30

42 minutes, 30 secondswhat’s been done uh in Gaza and throughout historic Palestine and finally at least in this brief summary its ongoing role in opposing the BDS

42:39

42 minutes, 39 secondsmovement or any other resistance to Israeli genocide and camouflaging what that genocide looks like. So for all

42:47

42 minutes, 47 secondsthese reasons and many more, labor bodies in South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Norway, and elsewhere have

42:54

42 minutes, 54 secondshonored the P the BDS ticket mine by severing ties with the histadr. But virtually no US labor body has done the

43:02

43 minutes, 2 secondssame. And so the first question then is why not? And in the brief moments I have left, I would just say that the short

43:09

43 minutes, 9 secondsanswer is that US laborers officials a dominant official adamant Zionism has

43:16

43 minutes, 16 secondsreflected on the right end of that spectrum in affinity with settler colonialism, imperialism, anti-communism

43:24

43 minutes, 24 secondsand racism abroad and at home against workers of color. And meanwhile, you know, during the 40s and and

43:32

43 minutes, 32 secondssubsequently, labor leaders even on the left echoed Stalin’s indispensable military and political support for the

43:40

43 minutes, 40 secondsNagba and establishment of the Zionist state. And so what that meant was that for decades after, all the way through to today, in large part, union leaders

43:49

43 minutes, 49 secondsacross the political spectrum have a long history supporting Israel’s wars in part through buying huge quantities of

43:55

43 minutes, 55 secondsIsrael bonds. Now, since the end of World War II, this labor Zionist consensus, whether people called it that

44:03

44 minutes, 3 secondsor not or recognized it as that or not, in US labor official, has been maintained largely by the history’s US mouthpiece, the Jewish labor committee.

44:12

44 minutes, 12 secondsAnd while similarly painting itself as progressive, the JLC has a long history of promoting Israel, US wars of empire,

44:19

44 minutes, 19 secondsand domestic racism. one just one example of which was its role in attacking the New York City uh teachers uh rather supporting the 1968 New York

44:28

44 minutes, 28 secondsCity teacher strike against community control of the schools and backlash against affirmative action and today that’s led by retail wholesale and

44:36

44 minutes, 36 secondsdepartment store union president Steuart Applebound uh and under his regime the JLC has mobilized top union officials in

44:44

44 minutes, 44 secondsthis country and abroad to attack the Palestinian leds movement so finally how do we try to change all that well first

44:52

44 minutes, 52 secondsby reclaiming and rebuilding the long history of US rank and file labor anti Zionism dating to the 1960s. So for

45:00

45 minutesexample in January 1969 the Detroitbased League of Revolutionary Black Workers championed the Palestinian struggle as

45:08

45 minutes, 8 secondspart of worldwide resistance to racism and colonialism. And continuing that, in 1973, 3,000 Arab auto workers in Detroit

45:17

45 minutes, 17 secondsled a wildcat strike with black, white, and other support to protest the UAW local 600’s purchase of $300,000 in

45:25

45 minutes, 25 secondsIsrael bonds. This is during the 1973 war and led they led a protest also against Benabit’s humanitarian award for

45:35

45 minutes, 35 secondsthen UAW President Leonard Woodcock. And so toward that end and to continue to uplift those struggles and that legacy

45:42

45 minutes, 42 secondsin 2004, Labor for Palestine was founded to promote respect for the BDS picket line. And during the intensified Israeli

45:49

45 minutes, 49 secondsattacks on Gaza in 2010 and 2014, Ulwu, the West Coast Longshore locals 10 and 34 in Oakland refu refused began to

45:58

45 minutes, 58 secondsrefuse to unload ships from ZIM, Israel’s leading maritime shipping company. And soon after UAW local 2865

46:06

46 minutes, 6 secondsgraduate students at the University of California, today known as UAW 4811 and the U the United Electrical Workers and

46:13

46 minutes, 13 secondsa small number of other labor bodies adopted pro PD BDS statements, often with vocal support from anti-ionist uh

46:20

46 minutes, 20 secondsJewish members following renewed appeals from Palestinian unions in 2021.

46:26

46 minutes, 26 secondsSolidarity statements were issued by additional labor bodies and block the boat, a community labor alliance first launched in 2014 by the Arab resources

46:34

46 minutes, 34 secondsand organizing center in Arock along with other campaigners some of whom are here today successfully prevented the Israeli ship Golands from docking

46:42

46 minutes, 42 secondsanywhere on the west coast inspiring the block the vote campaigns in other US and Canadian ports that have prevented them

46:50

46 minutes, 50 secondsline ships for the last 10 years or more from visiting the west coast.

46:56

46 minutes, 56 secondsIn the immediate wake of Israel genocidal attack on Gaza that sharply escalated on October 7th, 2023, most

47:03

47 minutes, 3 secondslabor officials still remain silent or worse. But that same ongoing genocide combined with mushrooming rank and file activism together with the black lives,

47:11

47 minutes, 11 secondsimmigrant rights, and other movements of recent years have produced unprepedented labor outcry against the carnage. Once

47:19

47 minutes, 19 secondsagain, the boss, in this case, the Zionist entity has been the best organizer of resistance. Now, some of this resistance has come from above,

47:26

47 minutes, 26 secondsincluding the seven major unions that have called for a ceasefire and now even an arms embargo against Israel. And this shift from the labor official dome’s

47:35

47 minutes, 35 secondsimplacable Zionism has helped to encourage a growing number of labor bodies to speak out against Israeli genocide. However, as others here have

47:42

47 minutes, 42 secondsalready referenced, even these unions have failed to acknowledge the Palestinian trade union picket line, including its call to separatize with the history or to take any concrete

47:51

47 minutes, 51 secondssteps to divest unions and employee pension funds from Israel bonds or to stop the research, manufacture, and transport of US weapons, much of it

48:00

48 minutesproduced by and in union shops to Israel. And that, by the way, includes the union. I’m part of the the

48:07

48 minutes, 7 secondsUAW. But in the face of relentless USbacked Israeli genocide, that’s not okay. Which is why the Palestinian trade

48:16

48 minutes, 16 secondsunionists recently said the following quote. We in the General Federation, General Federation of Trade Unions in

48:22

48 minutes, 22 secondsGaza addressed this call to you on the eve of International Workers Day, affirming that your struggle for workers

48:29

48 minutes, 29 secondsrights in the United States is inseparable from our struggle against occupation and colonialism. True labor solidarity is demonstrated through

48:38

48 minutes, 38 secondsactions, not just words. And we count on your awareness and determination to take concrete steps to end this strategy

48:45

48 minutes, 45 secondstragedy. End quote. That’s in furtherance of that mission. That’s why we have launched the Labor for Palestine

48:53

48 minutes, 53 secondsNational Network founded in January 2024 to organize workers unique rank and file power from below in our unions,

49:02

49 minutes, 2 secondscommunities, and workplaces to actually go beyond words and shut down Israeli genocide and settler colonialism through

49:09

49 minutes, 9 secondsresistance to the bipartisan real escalation of Israeli genocide that we’re now seeing in Palestine and as well to Trump’s parallel blitzkrieg of

49:18

49 minutes, 18 secondsrepression and destruction at home with democratic uh complicity all too often or at least acquiescence not only

49:26

49 minutes, 26 secondsagainst Palestinian solidarity activists but against all workers, unions, students, immigrants, people of color,

49:32

49 minutes, 32 secondswomen, LGBTQ plus, social services, education, science, free speech, and really humanity itself. And so finally,

49:41

49 minutes, 41 secondsas part of that resistance, we invite both union members and as yet ununized workers to first learn more about the

49:48

49 minutes, 48 secondshistory and labor zionism by visiting labor for palestine.net where we have quite a lot of material there that

49:57

49 minutes, 57 secondsaddresses exactly what we’re talking about here today and I’m going to put that link into the chat. Secondly, to consult Steve Zeltzer’s labor video

50:06

50 minutes, 6 secondschannel on YouTube, which also has a tremendous amount of video and other material on the history in particular, as well as Palestine solidarity in

50:15

50 minutes, 15 secondsgeneral. And then to mention also Jeff Shery’s upcoming book, No Neutrals There: US Labor Zionism, US labor,

50:23

50 minutes, 23 secondsZionism, and the struggle for Palestine, which comes out on October 28th, and reference to which I’m going to post here in the chat as well.

50:32

50 minutes, 32 secondsUh secondly to use labor for Palestine’s forthcoming model resolution which will be calling for union and other bodies to

50:40

50 minutes, 40 secondssupport the Palestinian trade union BDS picket line uh including the call to severize with the histadr and finally to

50:47

50 minutes, 47 secondsu please join us in the lab for palestine national network which consists of 53 member orgs and growing

50:55

50 minutes, 55 secondsand you can do that here and again thank you thank Thank you so much, Michael, for

51:03

51 minutes, 3 secondsthe clarity of these statements and the overview of the crucial role of rank and file organizing. Even the statements

51:09

51 minutes, 9 secondswe’ve seen national federations make, even if just statements are a result, direct result of rank and file pressure

51:17

51 minutes, 17 secondsand power because really the power is with the rank and file workers and it’s always good to have those reminders. Um,

Chapter 6: Q&A and closing remarks

51:24

51 minutes, 24 secondsI want to thank all of our panelists for these really informative um, and important presentations. I think this

51:31

51 minutes, 31 secondswas a really fantastic first session. I know it can feel like we’re just scratching the surface, which is why we

51:38

51 minutes, 38 secondswant this to be part of a series. Um and a series that will be useful for uh workers and unionists who are tuning in

51:46

51 minutes, 46 secondsand who are organizing doing the really you know persontoperson organizing on the ground work that is required to

51:53

51 minutes, 53 secondsbuild the kind of power we need to confront Zionism and its ties to uh racial white supremacy in the US imperialism and settler colonialism

52:02

52 minutes, 2 secondsacross the globe. Um I want to open the floor to questions now from our panelists. I know we have some already

52:09

52 minutes, 9 secondsum that I will read for everybody and um we’re all here. Yes. Yes. Manad had to

52:17

52 minutes, 17 secondsstep out unfortunately. Um so I’ll share some of these questions, invite panelists to respond, but also please

52:25

52 minutes, 25 secondsfeel free to continue asking questions using the Q&A function. I think we have around 20 minutes or so for this. So the first question for panelists, there was

52:33

52 minutes, 33 secondsrecently a uni Europa labor conference in Belfast which pistrute attended activists disrupted it and I’m curious

52:41

52 minutes, 41 secondsif you are aware of any fallout from that within uni Europa. Is there any sign that they will shift their stance

52:48

52 minutes, 48 secondson inviting history to such events? Um, if anyone wants to speak directly to this or otherwise, I know Clausio,

52:56

52 minutes, 56 secondsyou’re a natural contender to respond first, but Elizabeth, Michael, please feel free to weigh in.

53:06

53 minutes, 6 secondsWhat I can say briefly, yes, it was in Belfast was set a very we got the new and it was a very powerful action uh

53:14

53 minutes, 14 secondswhich made clear what is what what is the relationship of of uh of the trade

53:21

53 minutes, 21 secondsunions uh against against uh all over the world should be. But uh

53:30

53 minutes, 30 secondswhat I what I can say about Germany is that in the same time uh the beginning of April there was the 50 the 50 years

53:38

53 minutes, 38 secondsof the partnership uh of of the German Federation of Trade Unions and we had

53:44

53 minutes, 44 secondsthe visit of uh of the famous guy signing bombs uh in the Elit system

53:51

53 minutes, 51 secondsplant. uh he was in Germany and made official an official visit to the to the

53:58

53 minutes, 58 secondsdirection of the uh to the leadership of the of the German Federation of Trade Unions. Uh and unfortunately the the

54:08

54 minutes, 8 secondspower relationship were not uh in uh were not such as in uh as in Ireland uh

54:15

54 minutes, 15 secondsas uh and uh and uh there was no no counter counter action. Uh what uh what we we

54:24

54 minutes, 24 secondscould do this year was uh instead of being u u marginalized again like like the the

54:34

54 minutes, 34 secondsthe year before the first of my uh to 2024. This time uh we decide for another

54:43

54 minutes, 43 secondsfor another uh strategy and we disperse ourself in in in the in the uh

54:49

54 minutes, 49 secondsFederation uh Mayday demonstration and uh starting asking the questions where

54:56

54 minutes, 56 secondswe were asking ourself uh today. Uh but um yes that’s that’s a connection. Maybe

55:06

55 minutes, 6 secondsyou can you can add some more on the on the issue. Thank you, Cladio.

55:15

55 minutes, 15 secondsUm, next question. Did uh DJ Bay follow a similar policy to

55:22

55 minutes, 22 secondsestablish against migrant workers in Germany and specifically against Turkish workers? And um a question similar

55:31

55 minutes, 31 secondsrelated, I’ll just ask it at the same time. Do all German trade unions have close relationships with the roots?

55:44

55 minutes, 44 secondsUm I would say uh it’s um it’s it’s something coming from uh uh from the top is a is a very

55:54

55 minutes, 54 secondsis a top- down relationship. Uh so the the diplomatic relationship with Eastadoot are uh concerning and

56:02

56 minutes, 2 secondsconcerning the uh the leadership and uh the uh the highest rank of the of the

56:09

56 minutes, 9 secondsGerman trade union. Uh I was arguing before as I was arguing before the most

56:16

56 minutes, 16 secondsof the the basis of the giver of the trade union are not even informed of of this kind of relationship.

56:25

56 minutes, 25 secondsUh at the moment at the moment we are we are still we are still waiting for for a clear uh uh positioning of any of the German trade unions against his route.

56:39

56 minutes, 39 secondsUh and even against the genocide officially against the genocide in Palestine made exception for for uh

56:48

56 minutes, 48 secondsgroups in uh in the b in the bases of the trade unions. they are uh uh constantly working uh to organize

56:58

56 minutes, 58 secondsthemsel and and come out uh strategically in the long run. Uh in Germany there is an awful lot to do in

57:06

57 minutes, 6 secondsin this sense. Thank you Cladio. Uh we have

57:13

57 minutes, 13 secondsanother question. Can panelists talk about the role of CWA and its support for aparttheid Israel? CWA has four

57:21

57 minutes, 21 secondsareas that directly relate to this genocide um and its silence and our direct complicity. The CWA News Guild has

57:28

57 minutes, 28 secondsrefused to defend the Palestinian journalists and have even failed to defend their own journalists who’ve been targeted for their Palestine coverage.

57:35

57 minutes, 35 secondsThe health and education sector which includes 20,000 workers in um the University of California represented by UPTE have also failed to support

57:44

57 minutes, 44 secondshealthcare and education workers being killed in Huzza. That’s absolutely the case of my own union aft as well. Um,

57:51

57 minutes, 51 secondsand last but not least, CWA uh, alphabet workers, the IT sector have denounced their complicity and the development of

57:59

57 minutes, 59 secondsIT software that has served the military and targeting civilians and journalists and Gaza. Um and this participant also

58:09

58 minutes, 9 secondsis drawing connections trying to highlight the role CWA’s role within the AFL CIO which has been pretty bad since

58:16

58 minutes, 16 secondsthe 60s um in terms of collaboration with US foreign foreign policy arm to intervene in countries such as Chile um

58:24

58 minutes, 24 secondsetc. Um so would love to invite our panelists to respond um on the CWA.

58:35

58 minutes, 35 secondsMichael, yes. The CWA has uh as the question pointed out has uh remained essentially

58:44

58 minutes, 44 secondsat best silent about the genocide in Palestine. And that’s despite the fact that it, you know, presents itself as a

58:52

58 minutes, 52 secondsprogressive union. So again, we see that similarity with the way that the history and the JLC, the Jewish labor committee present themselves. Um, and of course,

59:01

59 minutes, 1 secondyou know, we support CWA workers as we do workers of all unions who are organizing uh and fighting for their

59:08

59 minutes, 8 secondsrights. Uh, but the CWA leadership has not addressed this at all. And it’s not even one of the seven unions that have,

59:17

59 minutes, 17 secondsat least on paper, come out for ceasefire and for an arms embargo. Um, so I’m glad to say that there is a new uh group called CWA for Palestine.

59:30

59 minutes, 30 secondsum which is uh beginning to organize and if you’re interested in that please do contact us at info laborforal.net and we

59:38

59 minutes, 38 secondswill connect you with the folks who are doing that because you know what that shows again is that whether it’s in the UAW or CWA or any other of the unions

59:46

59 minutes, 46 secondswe’re talking about these movements have to come from below either to get our unions to take a a position against

59:54

59 minutes, 54 secondsgenocide and then equally to get them to do something about the positions that they may have taken as in my union UAW.

1:00:01

1 hour, 1 secondSo um you know please do contact us reach out to us and we will put you in touch.

1:00:07

1 hour, 7 secondsThanks, Michael. Anyone else? I just want to add to that also, just to second your point. Um, we’re going to be sharing out as a resource, which Michael mentioned earlier, model resolutions.

1:00:19

1 hour, 19 secondsSo, um, resolutions that you can take back to your locals, to your caucuses, to your national federations, and I know a lot of the big unions meet in the

1:00:28

1 hour, 28 secondssummer. Um, and I’ve been a part of organizing within AFT to try and push these resolutions. It’s not easy work.

1:00:35

1 hour, 35 secondsUm, we really got the book thrown at us last summer when many of us for our first time were attending this convention and thinking that this would

1:00:43

1 hour, 43 secondsbe a good faith engagement with rank and file to you know share have a member leadership of their unions. That’s

1:00:51

1 hour, 51 secondsreally not how these business unions at this level function. And so um that’s one of the resources we want to share with folks um kind of language you can

1:01:00

1 hour, 1 minuteuse and then maybe another session we can think about in the future is just fact sharing and experience sharing on

1:01:08

1 hour, 1 minute, 8 secondsfor those of us who have participated in trying to pass these resolutions both successes and failures um in that regard I think are useful intel for us to share

1:01:16

1 hour, 1 minute, 16 secondswith each other. Um there’s a question um where did it go because it’s for Elizabeth specifically. Yes. Um, so

1:01:25

1 hour, 1 minute, 25 secondsEntertainment Labor for Palestine has been doing fantastic work. Really second that and applaud the the work you guys are doing. So what lessons do you have,

1:01:33

1 hour, 1 minute, 33 secondsElizabeth, that could help other sections of organized labor emulate uh your successes?

1:01:41

1 hour, 1 minute, 41 secondsOkay. Um, thank you for the question. I would say my advice would be to continue to organize. However, do not do it in a silo.

1:01:51

1 hour, 1 minute, 51 secondsum organize also with the community, you know, figure out the points of unity because you’re not going to, you know, probably agree with everybody on

1:02:00

1 hour, 2 minuteseverything, but um come together on the points of unity in which you can move forward and realize at this moment it’s going to take different strategies, not

1:02:09

1 hour, 2 minutes, 9 secondsjust one. So even with us, yes, we have a labor union that’s been complicit, but we cannot just focus just on that. um we

1:02:17

1 hour, 2 minutes, 17 secondshave to you know try multiple strategies and with within labor you know it’s important to also you know do the coalition building because you know when

1:02:26

1 hour, 2 minutes, 26 secondsyou come to start talking about things as strikes you need the community support you need mutual aid and if you’re in labor and you’re not talking

1:02:35

1 hour, 2 minutes, 35 secondsabout how to build mutual aid in community that needs to be done so that means getting out there um building relationships I’m um very big and I

1:02:43

1 hour, 2 minutes, 43 secondsdefinitely stress build relationships and not just not showing up or individual events. It’s getting to know people um because you have to build

1:02:52

1 hour, 2 minutes, 52 secondstrust in this moment and and that’s what it’s going to take to have um any level of uh relative success. So again, just

1:03:01

1 hour, 3 minutes, 1 secondum organize, reach out, coalition build, and again think outside the box and not

1:03:08

1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 secondsjust within your industry and within labor. Such important insights, Elizabeth.

1:03:15

1 hour, 3 minutes, 15 secondsThank you. This question is kind of related and maybe um all panelists might have some ideas in response not specifically just this question but broader about this coalition building

1:03:24

1 hour, 3 minutes, 24 secondsthat Elizabeth’s talking about. So one of our participants is asking what do you think about the JBP Jewish voice for peace peace le breaking the bonds campaign against Israel bonds.

1:03:35

1 hour, 3 minutes, 35 secondsUm I don’t know if anyone’s been involved here amongst panelists uh or just want to build on the idea of coalition building and the importance of

1:03:43

1 hour, 3 minutes, 43 secondsthat as trade unionists. You can go ahead whoever would like to kick us off.

1:03:51

1 hour, 3 minutes, 51 secondsWell, just to say that, you know, we’ve Labor Palestine has called for breaking exactly those bonds um since, you know,

1:03:59

1 hour, 3 minutes, 59 secondswe founded in 2004. And others, in fact, uh including Stan Heler, who I don’t believe is here today up in in Connecticut, uh has been organizing

1:04:08

1 hour, 4 minutes, 8 secondsabout this, you know, going all the way back to at least that that long. So, um you know, we support all of these

1:04:14

1 hour, 4 minutes, 14 secondsefforts. We’ve endorsed the JBP campaign and uh it’s it is particularly critical in you know that it comes up in a in a

1:04:22

1 hour, 4 minutes, 22 secondsnumber of different contexts. So, Israel bonds are owned by uh you know governmental bodies say like New York

1:04:29

1 hour, 4 minutes, 29 secondsCity which owns a whole mess of Israel stuff uh but also other cities and counties and states and so forth but

1:04:38

1 hour, 4 minutes, 38 secondsalso uh not just by governmental entities but by pension funds which you know are our pensions and often if we

1:04:46

1 hour, 4 minutes, 46 secondseven have a pension those funds usually have Israeli investments including the bonds and then the unions

1:04:53

1 hour, 4 minutes, 53 secondswhich was mentioned earlier. So to sort of echo Elizabeth’s point, this kind of crosses over, you know, the union space,

1:05:00

1 hour, 5 minutesgovernmental spaces, community spaces in the uh Bay Area. Um they’ve had a very effective campaign to uh stop or to to

1:05:10

1 hour, 5 minutes, 10 secondsget uh some of the uh Alama County and others to uh say that they would divest from Israel bonds and Israeli

1:05:18

1 hour, 5 minutes, 18 secondsinvestments. We have to definitely support all these things and they’re critical in and they’re very concrete in terms of uh ways in which our unions in

1:05:25

1 hour, 5 minutes, 25 secondsparticular have been complicit and remain complicit and I should also just add that as a member of UAW labor of Palestine which a number of people here

1:05:34

1 hour, 5 minutes, 34 secondsin the in the call are are part of as well. Um you know this has been a major issue in the UAW going all the way back as I said to the the early 70s. So for

1:05:43

1 hour, 5 minutes, 43 secondsthe 50 plus years the UAW has held and mostly refused to divest even under the

1:05:51

1 hour, 5 minutes, 51 secondsnew Shaun Fain leadership which you know is far better than any other leadership has ever been in the UAW but

1:06:03

1 hour, 6 minutes, 3 secondsnonetheless yes the university should divest and yet we can’t so far get the UAW international executive board to actually divest its own holdings.

1:06:13

1 hour, 6 minutes, 13 secondsin Israel bonds. So this, you know, cut across all sectors and also shows the difference between talking the talk and walking the walk.

1:06:25

1 hour, 6 minutes, 25 secondsAbsolutely. Thank you, Michael. Um Claudia or Elizabeth, uh do you have also comments to share on this question both specifically or more broadly?

1:06:38

1 hour, 6 minutes, 38 secondsYeah, about the about the attempt of coalition building. Maybe I can contribute uh in uh so we as uh as stop

1:06:48

1 hour, 6 minutes, 48 secondshaving Israel. We are uh we are uh working tight with Garin and Fugaza

1:06:57

1 hour, 6 minutes, 57 secondswhich is trade unions for Palestine. I will share some resources at the end in the in the chat. Um and the Jewish

1:07:06

1 hour, 7 minutes, 6 secondsvoice, the Jewish voice, the German Jewish voice for peace, the Yudishim is out is also very uh very active uh in in

1:07:16

1 hour, 7 minutes, 16 secondssupport of uh of this initiative. Uh there was the the there

1:07:22

1 hour, 7 minutes, 22 secondswere attempts uh in the last year uh to uh to try to enter the the bargaining uh

1:07:30

1 hour, 7 minutes, 30 secondsnegotiations. So the the renovation of the of the uh of the contracts uh of the

1:07:39

1 hour, 7 minutes, 39 secondsdock workers for instance in Hamburg and Braymond and uh there were some attempt to to bring a political issue of of the

1:07:48

1 hour, 7 minutes, 48 secondsPalestine solidarity into the negotiation. Uh it’s a beginning let’s say that that is that is a beginning and

1:07:56

1 hour, 7 minutes, 56 secondsand this is a perspective in the long term. uh clashing also with uh with the

1:08:04

1 hour, 8 minutes, 4 secondsGerman with the German uh law labor laws which supposedly uh

1:08:13

1 hour, 8 minutes, 13 secondsare prohibiting the uh the political strike. So the the the trade union can

1:08:21

1 hour, 8 minutes, 21 secondsnegotiate only on base of of salary issues uh and uh on other issues but not not

1:08:29

1 hour, 8 minutes, 29 secondsabout political political issues. Uh this is a point which is uh which is now in discussion. There are actually there

1:08:37

1 hour, 8 minutes, 37 secondsare voices also uh arguing that it’s not it’s not a

1:08:44

1 hour, 8 minutes, 44 secondslegal it’s not a legal obstacle but uh some some kind of constitutionary law uh

1:08:51

1 hour, 8 minutes, 51 secondswhich uh which belongs to the social partnership uh of the trade union with uh with the

1:08:58

1 hour, 8 minutes, 58 secondsindustrial uh with the industrial complex.

1:09:03

1 hour, 9 minutes, 3 secondsUh there are also other examples uh in which uh the in which on the other side

1:09:10

1 hour, 9 minutes, 10 secondsthe networking is difficult. uh with the EG Metal for instance where where the

1:09:16

1 hour, 9 minutes, 16 secondsthe metal industry the metal industry uh trade union which uh which is openly in the

1:09:25

1 hour, 9 minutes, 25 secondsmajority of of its structure is openly on the side of uh of the war the war

1:09:32

1 hour, 9 minutes, 32 secondscredits and the new armament that’s why that’s why I was uh so I think it’s it’s

1:09:39

1 hour, 9 minutes, 39 secondscrucial for us now to talk about the class perspective. Uh and to question to question the the social partnership in

1:09:48

1 hour, 9 minutes, 48 secondsin its rules in in its roots uh when uh when the the ruling class is actually uh

1:09:57

1 hour, 9 minutes, 57 secondsthe industry and the governments are heading to uh to the war preparation.

1:10:06

1 hour, 10 minutes, 6 secondsThank you Claudio. I also I would be remiss not to mention and shout out JVP Rhode Island’s um break the bonds

1:10:13

1 hour, 10 minutes, 13 secondscampaign in the city of Providence which has been a really important um and really deeply community involved effort

1:10:22

1 hour, 10 minutes, 22 secondsto pressure the city to divest from Israeli aparttheid occupation genocide colonialism. Um, and I’ve seen really

1:10:31

1 hour, 10 minutes, 31 secondsthe whole community across higher ed, labor, students, um, immigrant rights organizations, JBP, of course, really

1:10:40

1 hour, 10 minutes, 40 secondscoming together to build each other up in all of our different campaigns. And I think this speaks to Elizabeth’s point

1:10:47

1 hour, 10 minutes, 47 secondsabout different approaches and all using all the approaches and pushing on all the levers of power and influence that

1:10:54

1 hour, 10 minutes, 54 secondswe have and coalitions being a really important way to sustain those efforts.

1:10:59

1 hour, 10 minutes, 59 secondsUm because sometimes, you know, our orgs kind of get beat down in the moment and we need someone else to step up and carry the movement while we sort of

1:11:06

1 hour, 11 minutes, 6 secondsrecuperate. And I think in higher eds we’re definitely, you know, in my specific experience at Brown facing that right now. I know the community orgs

1:11:14

1 hour, 11 minutes, 14 secondswe’ve built partnerships with have been so important in keeping the momentum going in the city. Um, just this week,

1:11:22

1 hour, 11 minutes, 22 secondsuh, the city of Providence raised the Palestinian flag at city hall for the first time in history, and we saw an

1:11:29

1 hour, 11 minutes, 29 secondsoutpouring of that coalitional support and mobilization. um and how people showed up because obviously there were

1:11:37

1 hour, 11 minutes, 37 secondsnational Zionist efforts to smear and slander including the uh mayor of Providence himself who denounced this

1:11:45

1 hour, 11 minutes, 45 secondsact and called it divisive and controversial despite the fact that the Israeli flag had flown literally the week prior. So just want to like upvote

1:11:54

1 hour, 11 minutes, 54 secondsthe importance of coalition building and thank my partners and the coalitions I’ve been a part of for really sustaining me and others uh in that work.

1:12:04

1 hour, 12 minutes, 4 secondsUm okay let’s move on to another question. I think this is important to address. Um so next question. All of us

1:12:12

1 hour, 12 minutes, 12 secondsin unions here believe we need to reform our unions from below even horribly conservative unions in the US. Can the

1:12:19

1 hour, 12 minutes, 19 secondsHistadrru be reformed from below by its members? I’ve had a socialist Jewish educator in the US make this argument.

1:12:26

1 hour, 12 minutes, 26 secondsIs there any hope anti-Zionist Jewish members of the Histadritz could build a reform movement to change the Histadrit’s directions? Um, or if not,

1:12:35

1 hour, 12 minutes, 35 secondscould you elaborate on why? Whoever wants to go, feel free to

1:12:44

1 hour, 12 minutes, 44 secondsjump in. Well, I I would say no. And and the

1:12:52

1 hour, 12 minutes, 52 secondsreason being really the analogy with apartheid South Africa where you had white unions,

1:13:00

1 hour, 13 minuteswhite only unions essentially that were actually quite militant in regard to fighting for their own members

1:13:09

1 hour, 13 minutes, 9 secondsrights, but which were white only unions and that was fundamental to the nature

1:13:16

1 hour, 13 minutes, 16 secondsof that society as being a settler colonial society. Now, of course, we live in this country, the United States, in a settler colonial society, but I

1:13:24

1 hour, 13 minutes, 24 secondsthink there’s different um there’s a difference, and that is there is none, despite all the racism uh and oppression

1:13:33

1 hour, 13 minutes, 33 secondsand genocide in this country, there is also a tradition that parallel exists of

1:13:41

1 hour, 13 minutes, 41 secondsuh multi-racial and multinational labor organizing within and which which a number of unions, you

1:13:48

1 hour, 13 minutes, 48 secondsknow, were really upholding and have upheld and certainly the industrial unions that came from the 1930s on have been much

1:13:56

1 hour, 13 minutes, 56 secondsmore based in that. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t racism or isn’t racism in those unions. Again, the UIW is notorious going back to the late60s in

1:14:04

1 hour, 14 minutes, 4 secondsparticular the struggle over racism in that union. And that struggle of course is not over. But that’s different than a

1:14:12

1 hour, 14 minutes, 12 secondssociety like apartheid South Africa or or the Israeli regime, the Zionist entity which is a kind of settler

1:14:20

1 hour, 14 minutes, 20 secondscolonialism in which uh there are not you know the history in this case plays

1:14:27

1 hour, 14 minutes, 27 secondsthe role as the spearhead of the existence of that society and the maintenance of that society. And that’s why uh the history group never has been

1:14:36

1 hour, 14 minutes, 36 secondsand never can be an instrument of change or of reform or of ending settler colonialism because settler colonialism

1:14:44

1 hour, 14 minutes, 44 secondsis so baked into its DNA and that the Israeli so-called working class by which I mean the the Jewish so-called working

1:14:54

1 hour, 14 minutes, 54 secondsclass is not a working class in any way that we would recognize just as the white South African working class was not. And so there’s a lot more that can

1:15:01

1 hour, 15 minutes, 1 secondbe said about it, but I think that’s essentially the reasons why that’s not going to happen.

1:15:13

1 hour, 15 minutes, 13 secondsThank you, Michael. Um, Claudia or Elizabeth, you want to weigh in? Yes, very very briefly on on Michael. I so I

1:15:23

1 hour, 15 minutes, 23 secondsuh I stay on what Michael said. And I agree 100%. I can build up something

1:15:31

1 hour, 15 minutes, 31 secondssomething more which is also uh particular for for Germany as I was uh telling before. So that the actually the

1:15:40

1 hour, 15 minutes, 40 secondsthere is some some kind of um um privilege sharing. So with the when a

1:15:48

1 hour, 15 minutes, 48 secondswhen a working class like the Israeli working class or the German working class uh is somehow uh co-opted by the

1:15:57

1 hour, 15 minutes, 57 secondsby the program of actually of the program of the of the owner of the owner uh uh uh of the industry. So the

1:16:06

1 hour, 16 minutes, 6 secondsnational interest is becoming uh is is is coming in foreground.

1:16:11

1 hour, 16 minutes, 11 secondsUh the point is uh is the perspective of a uh of a solidarity from below among workers.

1:16:20

1 hour, 16 minutes, 20 secondsuh which uh which is which is now which now I said is is the crucial point and

1:16:27

1 hour, 16 minutes, 27 secondsuh uh I would I would also not expect not expect anything from the Israeli working class. uh from the German

1:16:35

1 hour, 16 minutes, 35 secondsworking class. Uh we have to confront we have to confront the this kind of this cooperation and uh what what I was

1:16:44

1 hour, 16 minutes, 44 secondscalling uh social partnersh the the social partnership uh of the of the labor structure. This

1:16:52

1 hour, 16 minutes, 52 secondsis this is the the heat the point we have to hit uh in the next future. Uh when when the the German industry is is

1:17:01

1 hour, 17 minutes, 1 secondcomplicit in the in the in the second uh in the second uh line after after US is

1:17:08

1 hour, 17 minutes, 8 secondsone of the uh the weapon industry enabling uh genocide in Palestine, the massacre in Ukraine and uh and so on.

1:17:20

1 hour, 17 minutes, 20 secondsSolidarity of among workers against the national against the national interests is the I think the the topic.

1:17:35

1 hour, 17 minutes, 35 secondsThank you Cladio. Um Elizabeth if you have anything to add.

1:17:43

1 hour, 17 minutes, 43 secondsUm go ahead. I have nothing additional. Thank you.

1:17:49

1 hour, 17 minutes, 49 secondsThank you. I’ll just say quickly to close on this question that um we’re we are witnessing we are living the logical

1:17:57

1 hour, 17 minutes, 57 secondsconclusion of what Zionism as ideology looks like in practice and it is a genocidal ideology. There’s nothing

1:18:04

1 hour, 18 minutes, 4 secondsredeemable in Zionism. I really appreciate the question. I appreciate um us weighing in on it and reflecting on

1:18:11

1 hour, 18 minutes, 11 secondsit carefully. Um but I do think in the case of Zionism, all of our efforts have to be organized towards dismantling this

1:18:19

1 hour, 18 minutes, 19 secondsracist exterminationist um settler colonial project so that other things can blossom and bloom in

1:18:27

1 hour, 18 minutes, 27 secondsits place. Right? So I think um that’s where I stand on that question and I think other panelists thank you for your

1:18:33

1 hour, 18 minutes, 33 secondscomments also. Um we’re getting close to the end of our time together. So I think it’s a good moment maybe for our

1:18:42

1 hour, 18 minutes, 42 secondspanelists if you’d like to just offer some closing remarks. Um and then I will also do that and just sum up the uh end

1:18:50

1 hour, 18 minutes, 50 secondsof this session and looking towards the next one. So maybe we’ll go in the order or Elizabeth if you wanted to go first

1:18:58

1 hour, 18 minutes, 58 secondscuz I think maybe your time is a bit limited you can please do so.

1:19:05

1 hour, 19 minutes, 5 secondsUm well thank you. Yes, I do have to head out to another commitment. But um just again like with everything that we

1:19:13

1 hour, 19 minutes, 13 secondsheard today, we see that you know there’s work to do um to bridge the ties to history. But even with that work um

1:19:21

1 hour, 19 minutes, 21 secondsit’s important as rank and file for us to organize. Um this is going to be an effort from the bottom up. And as we um

1:19:30

1 hour, 19 minutes, 30 secondsdo our our work, it’s also important to make changes within our union because we we see in a lot of our unions um what we

1:19:39

1 hour, 19 minutes, 39 secondshave the challenges that we have with leadership. So those are things that we have to address. But as I head out again

1:19:46

1 hour, 19 minutes, 46 secondsto meet my coalition, um again I would just stress that um you know just take you know everything that you’ve uh heard

1:19:54

1 hour, 19 minutes, 54 secondstoday and the two kits that will be made available and do more whatever you’re do whatever you’re doing now see what else

1:20:03

1 hour, 20 minutes, 3 secondsthat you can do and and do more um because there is a lot of work to do. um there’s an urgency of the situation and

1:20:12

1 hour, 20 minutes, 12 secondsall of the letters, all of the papers, documents will not stop what’s going on and it’s going to take action. It’s going to take building and that’s what we have to do in this moment.

1:20:23

1 hour, 20 minutes, 23 secondsUm so that’s what I have. Thank you.

1:20:28

1 hour, 20 minutes, 28 secondsThank you. And really leading by example, you literally do the work. So thank you so much. Um, Cladio do you

1:20:37

1 hour, 20 minutes, 37 secondswant to go next? Uh, yes. So, very very shortly uh I want to highlight again the

1:20:45

1 hour, 20 minutes, 45 secondsthe importance how how crucial crucial is the political education and uh this is this is our

1:20:53

1 hour, 20 minutes, 53 secondsfight now. uh the the fight against uh not only against ignorance but also against

1:21:00

1 hour, 21 minutesuh active disinformation. Uh and uh let’s go on.

1:21:08

1 hour, 21 minutes, 8 secondsI I hope we we will we will have a long we will have the a long way we have a long way and then we will have uh much

1:21:17

1 hour, 21 minutes, 17 secondsmuch of of these exchanges. Uh I’m very very glad to to be to be with you uh now

1:21:25

1 hour, 21 minutes, 25 secondsand um yeah let’s go for more. Thank you Michael.

1:21:34

1 hour, 21 minutes, 34 secondsYeah what Elizabeth and Claudio and Shireina have been saying um and before them and to remember that you know this is such a a difficult moment.

1:21:46

1 hour, 21 minutes, 46 secondsI mean it’s been a difficult moment. Uh it’s been a difficult moment since 1948 and before, but obviously it’s been a

1:21:54

1 hour, 21 minutes, 54 secondsespecially difficult moment since October 7th of 2023 and the genocide that has, you know, accompanied that.

1:22:01

1 hour, 22 minutes, 1 secondBut all of us are affected by that to some degree. I mean, not affected by directly the way people in Palestine are, but nonetheless, we all in our own

1:22:10

1 hour, 22 minutes, 10 secondsways have been experiencing it. And um it’s it’s sometimes discouraging or can feel discouraging. But I think, you

1:22:19

1 hour, 22 minutes, 19 secondsknow, we can take inspiration above all from Palestinians and their uh resistance and

1:22:27

1 hour, 22 minutes, 27 secondsSimood, you know, um and which is part of that resistance, their their steadfastness

1:22:34

1 hour, 22 minutes, 34 secondsand and from each other, you know, from uplifting what all of us here are trying to do and beyond here all the work that

1:22:42

1 hour, 22 minutes, 42 secondsis being done. I mean just one example to take heart from was uh yesterday in London there were more than a half a million people marching for Palestine.

1:22:52

1 hour, 22 minutes, 52 secondsUm and there have been you know hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in this country that have marched for Palestine since October 7th of 2023. and

1:23:00

1 hour, 23 minutesremembering that you know all tyranny eventually can be brought down and will be brought down in injustice and to take

1:23:09

1 hour, 23 minutes, 9 secondsuh you know support each other to take inspiration from each other and to move forward together.

1:23:16

1 hour, 23 minutes, 16 secondsThank you so much. Uh I want to sincerely thank everyone for coming today and participating in this teaching about the Histadritz, its origins and

1:23:25

1 hour, 23 minutes, 25 secondsthe formation of a Zionist state and its ongoing role in the occupation, colonization and genocide against the Palestinian people. I want to remind

1:23:33

1 hour, 23 minutes, 33 secondseveryone that we organized this call to serve as a teaching tool for unionists to take back to their locals, caucuses,

1:23:40

1 hour, 23 minutes, 40 secondsand national federations. So please feel encouraged to share the reporting once we circulate it. We’re also looking into

1:23:47

1 hour, 23 minutes, 47 secondsum having some translated subtitles in different languages. Uh organize a watch party and a discussion um and plan

1:23:56

1 hour, 23 minutes, 56 secondstogether about bringing model or bringing resolutions to your unions at every level. We’ll be sharing a toolkit with participants soon and definitely

1:24:03

1 hour, 24 minutes, 3 secondsbefore our next iteration of this series which is going to take place on June 22nd. So save the date where we plan to

1:24:12

1 hour, 24 minutes, 12 secondsdeepen today’s discussion with an examination of internal labor dynamics within Israel including the mistreatment of Palestinian workers and the history

1:24:21

1 hour, 24 minutes, 21 secondsof Palestinian labor within the settler colony, Israel’s exploitation of migrant workers and further connections to

1:24:28

1 hour, 24 minutes, 28 secondsglobal solidarity movements because we’ve just really scratched the surface on this really important work happening in this moment that many of you are a

1:24:35

1 hour, 24 minutes, 35 secondspart of and I thank you for that. And you know, together we’re going to continue to hold this line. Thank you all and enjoy the rest of your day.

1:24:43

1 hour, 24 minutes, 43 secondsBye-bye.