Solidarity Statement for José Maria de Almeida
Labor for Palestine National Network, May 16, 2026
Demanding the Immediate Dropping of All Charges Against Brazilian Union Leader Zé Maria and Rejecting the Weaponization of Antisemitism to Silence Palestine Solidarity
The Labor for Palestine National Network (L4PNN) issues this statement in full solidarity with José Maria de Almeida — known as Zé Maria — a lifelong metalworker, trade unionist, national president of Brazil’s Unified Socialist Workers’ Party (PSTU), and a veteran of that country’s struggle against dictatorship and for workers’ rights. On April 28, 2026, a federal court in São Paulo, Brazil, sentenced Zé Maria to two years in prison for alleged “racism” stemming from a political speech in solidarity with the Palestinian people that included the slogan “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
We condemn this conviction in the strongest possible terms. It is not a legitimate application of anti-racism law. It is a politically motivated judicial attack on freedom of expression, on the right to criticize state policies, and on the internationalist principles of the labor movement. We call for the immediate dropping of all charges.
A Lifetime of Struggle for Workers’ Rights
Zé Maria is no casual political commentator. He is a living memory of Brazil’s labor movement. Arrested under the military dictatorship for distributing May Day leaflets, he became a leader in the historic ABC strikes that helped break the back of the regime. He was a founder of the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), and later a founder of the independent union federation CSP-Conlutas, which represents more than two million workers. His entire life has been dedicated to the working-class struggle against exploitation, racism, and authoritarianism. Jailing such a figure for a slogan of Palestinian liberation is an insult to every worker who has ever raised their voice for justice across borders.
The complaint against Zé Maria was not filed by a public prosecutor acting in the public interest. It was filed by the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) and the Israeli Federation of the State of São Paulo (FISESP) — private pro-Israel organizations acting as private prosecutors. The court accepted their argument that anti-Zionist political criticism constitutes antisemitism, thereby collapsing the distinction between opposition to a state’s policies and racism against Jewish people. This is a dangerous and deliberate conflation. Zé Maria has explicitly repudiated antisemitism. As he wrote: “Antisemitism is racism, which I repudiate with all my might. Zionists make up a political movement — Zionism, whose racist and colonialist ideology is the basis of the State of Israel.” Criticizing Zionism is not antisemitism. Opposing the Israeli state’s occupation, siege, and settler-colonial project is not racism. It is an internationalist duty.
The Same Legal Logic Is Being Deployed in the United States
We in the U.S. labor movement must recognize this case as a warning. The same legal framework that put Zé Maria in prison is being actively advanced in the United States. Executive Order 13899 and the pending Antisemitism Awareness Act (S. 558) direct the Department of Education to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism — a framework whose accompanying examples explicitly conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. This has already led to campus investigations, faculty discipline, and the abduction of student activists like Mahmoud Khalil. If a Brazilian union leader can be jailed for saying “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” then every worker in the United States who speaks out for Palestinian rights is at risk of censorship, termination, or criminalization.
We reject this entirely. The First Amendment right to criticize foreign governments — including the State of Israel — must be defended without exception. And we note that U.S. unions have already begun to resist this framework. The California Faculty Association, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and New York public sector locals such as DC 37 Locals 1113 and 3005 have all rejected the IHRA definition, passed divestment resolutions, and affirmed that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. This statement stands in that proud tradition.
A Direct Threat to Trade Union Internationalism
Criminalizing political solidarity with Palestine is not a narrow legal technicality. It is a direct assault on the very idea of trade union internationalism. For generations, labor activists have stood with the South African apartheid struggle, with the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism, with the Cuban people against the blockade, with the Chilean people against the US-backed Pinochet dictatorship, with the Afghani and Iraqi people against US imperialist wars, and more recently with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom, return, and liberation. If a union leader can be jailed for saying “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” then cross-border worker solidarity itself is placed in jeopardy.
Our Demands and Commitments
Therefore, the Labor for Palestine National Network in the US demands:
– The immediate dropping of all charges against José Maria de Almeida (Zé Maria) and his immediate release.
– That the U.S. State Department and the current administration refrain from any actions that would legitimize this judicial attack on labor rights and free speech in Brazil, and publicly affirm that criticizing Israeli state policy is protected political speech.
We further commit to:
– Rejecting any conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and opposing the use of the IHRA definition or any similar framework as a tool to suppress Palestine solidarity in the U.S., Brazil, or anywhere else.
– Raising awareness about Zé Maria’s case in our workplaces and communities, and building solidarity with the Palestinian people as part of our union internationalist work — including support for the BDS movement and opposition to the weaponization of antisemitism in U.S. labor and academic settings.
– Sending this statement to CSP-Conlutas (internacional@cspconlutas.org.br) and encouraging all members and allies to sign and share the international petition at change.org/abaixo-assinado-ze-maria.
– Circulating these demands publicly on social media with the hashtags #FreeZeMaria, #PalestineSolidarity, #UnionInternationalism, and #DropTheCharges.
We stand with Zé Maria. We stand with Palestine. And we will not be silenced.
