The Road to UAW Divestment: Fighting for Palestine Solidarity through Shop Floor Militancy (Michael Letwin Presentation)
Greetings all, it’s an honor to be here with UAWD, UAWL4P, and everyone else here today!
My name is Michael Letwin, and I am a former president of UAW 2325, the NYC-based public defender union, a member of UAWL4P and UAWD—the class-struggle caucus of the UAW—and a co-convener of Labor for Palestine.
Thank you to all the amazing speakers here, whose presentations can really be summarized in a number of critical points:
- We, in today’s rank-and-file Palestine labor solidarity movement, are all links in a chain, and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before. UAWL4P was founded in 2023 as part of the national Labor for Palestine movement, founded in 2004 to reaffirm and re-animate the Palestine solidarity of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the UAW Arab Workers Caucus in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in Detroit—who in turn echoed the cutting-edge anti-Zionism of Malcolm X, the SNCC, the BPP, and throughout the Black Liberation Movement, and—above all Palestinian popular resistance. It is essential, and a point of principle, to acknowledge each of these components in this movement with, and beyond, the UAW.
- Palestine solidarity has always been a rank-and-file movement. If labor leaders could be relied on to do the right thing, there would be no need for any of the formations I just mentioned above. Meaningful change comes from below—and from below only. And to be effective, that rank-and-file solidarity must be well-organized—examples of which include the two+yr UAWL4P campaign for UAW divestment from Israel Bonds, which was supported by Engineers Against Apartheid, and of course, the UAWD ConCon victory.
- As shown in this entire history, including the 2024 UAW 551 resolution, Mike Davis (UAW 2021) on the floor of the UAW convention, and the unanimous support there from UAW 600 members, Palestine is not just a white-collar worker issue, and we will not be divided across UAW sectors.
- Support for Palestine is solidarity, not charity. As PGFTU-Gaza reminds us: “your struggle for workers’ rights in the United States is inseparable from our struggle against occupation and colonialism. True labor solidarity is demonstrated through actions, not just words. Therefore, we call on you, the American labor unions, to translate your solidarity into effective actions that go beyond statements and speeches and create real pressure to stop this dirty war.”
- So, Palestine is union business because:
- An injury to one is an injury to all.
- We walk picket lines, we don’t cross the BDS picket line.
- Our tax dollars fund Israel
- Our workplaces arm Israel
- Our unions fund Israel.
- Ongoing US-Israeli genocide in Palestine comes from the same bipartisan perpetrators of war on Iran, Lebanon, and the entire region; of US imperialism in Latin America; of escalating ICE abductions, murders, concentration camps, and deportations; of attacks on workers here in the US.
- And because as long as this country spends trillions to carry out these atrocities, there will never be an end to racism, income inequality, or any other form of injustice.
- Framed this way, Palestine isn’t “divisive,” but rather a unifying, inspiring issue that has ignited, organized, and mobilized workers around all labor issues, to bread-and-butter, and back again.
- Words are cheap, and ceasefire resolutions—however welcome—are not nearly enough. Real solidarity means endorsing the 2005 Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) picket line, which demands an end to occupation and apartheid, full equality for all, and Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the homes and lands from which they were expelled. It means saying: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free!”
- In practice, this means following the example of Block the Boat, ILWU West Coast dockers, and workers around the world who refuse to build or transport weapons destined for Israel; and Severing ties with Israel’s racist labor federation, the Histadrut and its US mouthpiece, the Jewish Labor Committee, and by divesting from Israel Bonds and industries connected with Zionist settler colonialism and occupation. And a growing number of workers around the world doing just that:
- In South Africa, India, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, France, and Morocco, dockworkers have followed your example by refusing to handle Israeli cargo.
- In May, Labor for Palestine-Canada won a landslide vote at the Canadian Labor Congress to sever ties with the Histadrut.
- In June, UAWD and UAWL4P built on 53 years’ organizing by spearheading a successful vote at the UAW constitutional convention to divest from Israel Bonds.
- All of this reflects the enormous power that workers have to show solidarity with Palestine.
And yet, as we celebrate these victories, we must also recognize that so much more remains to be done in the UAW—and throughout labor—to actually shut down Israel genocide and Zionist settler-colonialism.
- We will not be silenced. I’m proud to say that UAW 2325 has been at the cutting edge of Palestine solidarity, despite a vicious Zionist witch hunt featuring not only our employers, but also an infamous House subcommittee.
- No one—including us—actually expected the UAWD Divestment resolution to reach the floor, let alone pass. But it did! So, as the Paris students said in their world-shaking May 1968 uprising, “Be realistic, demand the impossible.” Or, as Marcie put it, Viva, Viva Palestina!
L4P will be holding an onboarding session for new members. To get involved, please email info@laborforpalestine.net
