Canada CLC Breaks With Zionist Histadrut At Their 2026 Congress
May 19, 2026
The Canadian Labour Congress at their 2026 convention after a struggle against the bureaucracy and Zionists voted to break relations with the Israel corporate Zionist trade union the Histadrut. Hassan Husseini who is a unionist and with the Canadian Labour For Palestine committee reported on how this successful struggle took place at the convention. He made this report at a meeting of Labor For Palestine on 5/16/26. Additional Media: Will the CLC Finally Break from its Support for Israel and its Histadrut Federation? https://socialistproject.ca/2026/05/w… The Histadrut and Israel’s Settler Colonial Project I Palestine https://static1.squarespace.com/stati… For More Info: www.labourforpalestine.com https://laborforpalestine.net Production Of Labor Video Project www.labormedia.net
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0:06
6 secondsThank you. Thank you, Michael. And uh very happy to be with you. I just literally arrived from Winnipeg where
0:14
14 secondsthe Canadian Labor Congress convention uh was being held. Uh and uh and the first thing I did, of course, is is come
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23 secondson the call. And I’m happy to to do that because we’re very excited about the victory that we had. Of course, it’s a
0:29
29 secondsum uh not a full victory as we were hoping for, but it’s definitely a very important step forward for the Canadian Labor Congress and the Canadian Labor
0:38
38 secondsmovement and the labor movement generally in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. Um, I think I attended a meeting with you back in uh at the
0:47
47 secondsbeginning of the year if I’m not mistaken and we reported at that time that we have a a hot cargo kills no labor for genocide campaign uh that was
0:56
56 secondsuh we had just rolled out a year ago and it was moving forward nicely. We had a number of federations that had approved
1:03
1 minute, 3 secondsresolutions on hot cargo. Um the way we utilize hot cargo or we use it of course it’s a a concept I’m sure all of you know about. In our context, we use hot
1:12
1 minute, 12 secondscargo for all goods, services as well as relationships, organizational institutional relationships that we were
1:19
1 minute, 19 secondscalling on different institutions to uh to also break as part of the process of the social isolation of the upper tight
1:28
1 minute, 28 secondssettler colonial state of Israel. Um, at the Canadian Labor Congress, we’ve been working for months now to try to put a resolution or to try to pass a
1:36
1 minute, 36 secondsresolution uh on the floor of the convention uh this past week uh calling on them to adopt hot cargo and to take a
1:44
1 minute, 44 secondsa concrete step to break ties with the Israeli central labor body, the Histad, as we did in the past with the South
1:53
1 minute, 53 secondsAfrican racist union organization. Um, as with all um these central labor bodies, they tried to block our
2:01
2 minutes, 1 secondresolution using procedural maneuvers um because they didn’t agree with it, of course, and they don’t want to move in a
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2 minutes, 8 secondsstep that would actually move the needle forward with respect to um the solidarity with the Palestinian people.
2:15
2 minutes, 15 secondsWhat they did is they put their own resolution. They deemed our resolution to be non-concurrence on procedural matters. uh and particularly they said
2:24
2 minutes, 24 secondsthat they cannot force affiliates of the central labor body to act in unison and that’s why they cannot agree to it. So
2:31
2 minutes, 31 secondsthey blocked our resolution and instead they put forward their own resolution that really reiterated already existing
2:39
2 minutes, 39 secondsCLC policy uh which on the whole was good calling for uh um targeted
2:46
2 minutes, 46 secondssanctions on Israeli politicians that are violating international law. uh boycotting settlement products uh uh
2:55
2 minutes, 55 secondscalling on the Canadian government to impose two-way arms embargo um and uh you know the things that they’ve
3:02
3 minutes, 2 secondsreiterated in the past calling on for instance the suspension of the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement. So some really good parts to it but it’s been
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3 minutes, 11 secondsalready a policy of the Canadian Labor Congress and they didn’t want to move any further than that. um when we lost
3:18
3 minutes, 18 secondsour own resolution, we pivoted and we uh made an amendment to that existing resolution that they had put forward by adding a line that the Canadian Labor
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3 minutes, 27 secondsCongress will cut ties with the institute. Uh and uh we fought hard on the floor. We had a really good uh
3:36
3 minutes, 36 secondscontingent of labor for Palestine activists, 60 core activists that were engaging with the floor. Uh we had a for strategy with couple of comrades who
3:43
3 minutes, 43 secondswere coordinating it. We lobbyed heads of federations and labor unions during the floor to try to get them to support
3:52
3 minutes, 52 secondsthe resolution as amended as well as speak to it from the floor as leaders.
3:57
3 minutes, 57 secondsUm we had initiated a uh a petition the week before uh on the cutting ties with
4:04
4 minutes, 4 secondsthe hedroot. Uh we presented the heads of unions with 2,000 union uh names. uh
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4 minutes, 11 secondsmany of them were at the convention uh that they want us to move in the direction of the hot cargo and the
4:18
4 minutes, 18 secondsboycott of the the histadrude. Um uh so we engaged them at so many different
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4 minutes, 24 secondslevels that they could no longer ignore us. Um and we presented a a really united front with other left-wing forces
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4 minutes, 33 secondsand other unions at the convention against the Zionist attacks that were coming. They made a fool of themselves on the floor of the convention. This is a convention of 200 delegates from
4:42
4 minutes, 42 secondsacross Canada. Uh also the week before on May 9th, we organized day of action across the country. We had 10 cities participate calling again on the
4:51
4 minutes, 51 secondsCanadian Labor Congress to adopt HUD cargo and cut ties with the history. Uh at the end of the day, we could not get
4:58
4 minutes, 58 secondshot cargo. Uh and that’s something we’re going to pursue with affiliates one by one. and we already have some of them
5:07
5 minutes, 7 secondsthat have approved it and we uh managed to focus when we pivoted and keep our uh
5:14
5 minutes, 14 secondseye on the prize so to speak and that is something that the Canadian labor movement can do independently of calling on government or calling on this or that
5:23
5 minutes, 23 secondsand that’s to cut ties with the history and um this was about 85 to 90% vote in
5:30
5 minutes, 30 secondsfavor of this resolution the floor was totally with us uh and leader stepped up and supported our resolution for a
5:38
5 minutes, 38 secondsnumber of uh reasons. Now, we were also supported in this by the fact that u the newly elected leader of the new
5:45
5 minutes, 45 secondsDemocratic Party of Canada, the NDP, which is the third party in Parliament.
5:50
5 minutes, 50 secondsUh his name is Avi Lewis. Um he is a a an anti-ionist Jew. The president of the
5:59
5 minutes, 59 secondslabor of the party as well is also an anti-ionist Jew. uh uh and uh uh he
6:05
6 minutes, 5 secondsspoke at our side event uh the day before the resolution came to the floor.
6:11
6 minutes, 11 secondsUh when he spoke to the convention floor in front of the 2,500 delegates and another 500 or so guests and observers
6:20
6 minutes, 20 secondsand so on, he spoke and he gave us a shout out and I can send you the link to that. He gave a very strong shout out to
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6 minutes, 29 secondsSolidarity with Palestine and to Labor for Palestine and the work we’re doing.
6:33
6 minutes, 33 secondsSo all of these together uh really brought us to a historic decision of the Canadian Labor Congress to cut ties with
6:41
6 minutes, 41 secondsthe histadoot. Now my the final point is the the historic element of this is that
6:48
6 minutes, 48 secondslike the AFL CIO, the Canadian Labor Congress had a very close relationship historical going back to the even before
6:56
6 minutes, 56 secondsthe establishment of the CLC when we had the Congress of Canadian Labor to the group and they were
7:04
7 minutes, 4 secondsvery integral relationship together, worked very closely together, raised a lot of money to Israel and were politically aligned especially
7:12
7 minutes, 12 secondsespecially after the purges of radical elements in the labor movement in the 50s including communists and others. So we are changing the tide here and this
7:21
7 minutes, 21 secondsis a one step uh towards uh that more to come. One of the things we’re planning and we wanted to talk to you about of
7:30
7 minutes, 30 secondscourse and other comrades internationally is that I think the time is ripe right now to initiate a global
7:36
7 minutes, 36 secondscall to expel uh Israel from the ILO and to expel the history from the international trade
7:44
7 minutes, 44 secondsunion confederation and that is our next uh work that we will be launching u with organizations such as uh yours and others across the world.
