Category Archives: USLAW

Bay Area Dockworkers Answer Palestinian Call for Solidarity (Labor Notes)

Labor Notes

Bay Area Dockworkers Answer Palestinian Call for Solidarity

ILWUPalestinePicketsmall_0
Seven hundred demonstrators picketed the Port of Oakland near dawn Sunday morning, protesting Israel’s attack on a flotilla trying to break the blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Longshore Workers Local 10 honored the picket and refused to unload a ship bearing Israeli cargo. Photo: Mike Parker.

Bay Area dockworkers refused to cross a picket line early Sunday, leaving a ship loaded with cargo from Israel floating offshore.

Seven hundred demonstrators had gathered to protest Israel’s May 31 attack on a flotilla attempting to break the blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The assault on the flotilla, carrying 10,000 tons of aid, killed nine people and injured more than 100.

After members of Local 10 of the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) chose not to cross the line at the Port of Oakland, citing a contract provision that protects their health and safety, the stevedoring company cancelled the next shift, anticipating another refusal to unload the ship.

The events followed a similar action by dockworkers in Sweden, responding to the call put out by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to turn away Israeli goods. Dockworkers in Norway, Malaysia, and South Africa have also said they will not unload Israeli ships and cargo.

The call for longshore unions to refuse Israeli goods was amplified when Israel dispatched commandos in helicopters three weeks ago to seize small ships that were attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The humanitarian mission was sponsored by Turkish organizations, and hundreds of unarmed activists were on board.

Israel has prohibited food, household goods, and construction materials from reaching Gaza since the 2006 election of the militant Hamas movement to the territory’s government.

Israel, under heavy international pressure since the deadly assault on the flotilla, announced Sunday it will widen the list of goods allowed into Gaza.

Israel’s three-year blockade—and a 2008 military assault on Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and destroyed 4,000 homes along with hospitals and water treatment facilities—has left the tiny territory in ruins, unable to rebuild.

Scores of unions around the world have condemned Israel’s blockade and attack on the flotilla, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling it “state-sponsored piracy.”

Along with US Labor Against the War, Labor for Palestine, a small US-based cross-union network, decried the assault on the flotilla. The AFL-CIO declined to comment.

BOYCOTT STRATEGY

Meanwhile, the South African Municipality Workers, among others, is campaigning to have cities break ties to Israel. Their drive is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which activists in many countries are taking up to pressure Israel to change its behavior toward Gaza and its own Palestinian citizens. The campaign is modeled after the international movement that brought down South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Palestinian labor is asking for union solidarity in the campaign to sever ties with Israeli businesses, and to support new flotillas attempting to bring essential goods into Gaza.

Manawell Abdul-Al, a PGFTU executive committee member, responded to ILWU Local 10’s action: “This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected,” he said. “We expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed.”

Bay Area dockers refused to unload a South African ship in 1984, and would not load bombs headed for Chile’s military government in 1978.

Open Letter to UTLA President A.J. Duffy (NYCLAW)

Open Letter to UTLA President A.J. Duffy

New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) is deeply concerned that the leadership of United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) has buckled to Zionist pressure by canceling its Human Rights Committee’s forum in support of Palestinian rights.

Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian and Lebanese people are well documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other organizations. These crimes are carried out with U.S.-made F-16s, Apache helicopters, and cluster bombs — part of $5 billion that Israel gets each year from the United States government.

The U.S. does not arm Israel to “promote democracy” or for “self-defense.” Even Zionist historians now admit that Israel’s origins are rooted in dispossession of the Palestinian people — whose labor then built the Israeli economy — through an unrelenting campaign of ethnic cleansing: exile, squalid refugee camps, imprisonment, torture and murder.

Rather, it supports this racism and state terrorism because, along with dictatorships in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel is a cornerstone for U.S. domination over the world’s most important oil-producing region.

Clearly, these grave injustices are not in the interest of Palestinian or U.S. workers. Yet, most U.S. labor bodies have a shameful record of complicity with U.S./Israeli crimes.

State employee retirement plans and union pension funds invest hundreds of millions of dollars in State of Israel Bonds. In April 2002, while Israel butchered hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Jenin, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney spoke at a “National Solidarity Rally for Israel.”

This year, American Federation of Teachers specifically embraced Israel’s brutal assault on Lebanon. U.S. Labor Against the War, which opposes the war in Iraq, has remained disturbingly silent.

In sharp contrast, international labor has strongly denounced Israel’s attacks.

On July 10, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urgently called for sanctions and boycotts against the “apartheid Israel state,” which it branded worse than the former racist regime in South Africa.

On July 31, the General Union of Oil Employees in Iraq issued an “appeal to all the honorable and free people of the world to demonstrate and protest about what is happening to Lebanon.”

On August 5, major British trade unions supported a massive London protest against Israel’s attacks. Even before the current escalation, several labor bodies in Britain, Canada and elsewhere called for divestment from Israel.

In this country, growing protests have been organized by the Arab-Muslim community, people of color, anti-Zionist Jews, and other activists who recognize that Lebanon and Palestine are inseparable from Iraq and Afghanistan.

New York City Labor Against the War commends the UTLA Human Rights Committee for courageously standing with this movement, and calls on UTLA’s leadership to take an equally courageous stand for free speech and justice.

—————–
NYCLAW Co-Conveners (other affiliations listed for identification only):

Larry Adams
Former President, NPMHU Local 300

Michael Letwin
Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys

Brenda Stokely
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; Co-Chair, Million Worker March

http://www.traprockpeace.org/nyclaw_blog/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/

Labor and the Middle East War (NYCLAW)

[To endorse the following statement, please send your name, location, affiliation and title (if any) to nyclaw01@gmail.com, or NYCLAW, PO Box 3620166, PACC, New York, NY 10129]

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Labor and the Middle East War
New York City Labor Against the War
August 11, 2006

For weeks, Israel has turned Lebanon into a killing ground, slaughtering and maiming thousands of people, destroying the civilian infrastructure, and turning a quarter of the population into refugees in their own land. At the same time, it continues to brutalize Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel’s crimes are carried out with U.S.-made F-16s, Apache helicopters, and cluster bombs. These high-tech lethal weapons are part of $5 billion that Israel gets each year from the United States, courtesy of the Republican and Democratic parties, with enthusiastic support from Neo-cons and right-wing Christian fundamentalists.

The U.S. does not arm Israel to “promote democracy” or for “self-defense.” Even Zionist historians now admit that Israel’s origins are rooted in dispossession of the Palestinian people — whose labor then built the Israeli economy — through an unrelenting campaign of ethnic cleansing: exile, squalid refugee camps, imprisonment, torture and murder.

Since the 1970s, Israel has also pursued territorial expansion by repeatedly invading and devastating Lebanon, as exemplified by the slaughter of thousands of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatilla in 982. That occupation lasted until 2000, when Hezbollah forced Israel to withdraw.

Since then, Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, taken thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese political prisoners, and tried to strangle the democratically-elected government of Hamas. When Hamas and Hezbollah responded by capturing a few Israeli soldiers, Israel unleashed a new, bloody, long-planned attack on Lebanon; only then did Hezbollah respond by firing crude rockets at Israel.

Behind its empty platitudes, the U.S. government supports this Israeli racism and state terrorism because, along with dictatorships in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it is a cornerstone of U.S. domination over the world’s most important oil-producing region.

Now, with the Iraq war in shambles, the U.S.-Israel partnership seeks to break Lebanese and Palestinian resistance, while recklessly provoking confrontations with Syria and Iran. The U.N. has done nothing to stop this war of empire — what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sickeningly calls “birth pangs of a new Middle East.”

It is not surprising, therefore, that Hezbollah has won tremendous support in and beyond the Arab world, even amongst those who question some aspects of its ideology or tactics. For this spiraling cycle of oppression and resistance evokes Iraq, Afghanistan, Soweto, Vietnam, Algeria, the Warsaw Ghetto, or David and Goliath.

Horrified by the images from Palestine and Lebanon, international labor has strongly denounced Israel’s attacks.

On July 10, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urgently called for sanctions and boycotts against the “apartheid Israel state,” which it branded worse than the former racist regime in South Africa.

On July 31, the General Union of Oil Employees in Iraq issued an “appeal to all the honorable and free people of the world to demonstrate and protest about what is happening to Lebanon.”

On August 5, major British trade unions supported a massive London protest against Israel’s attacks. Even before the current escalation, several labor bodies in Britain, Canada and elsewhere called for divestment from Israel.

In the United States, however, nearly all labor bodies either support Israel or say nothing at all.

State employee retirement plans and union pension funds invest hundreds of millions of dollars in State of Israel Bonds. In April 2002, while Israel butchered hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Jenin, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney spoke at a “National Solidarity Rally for Israel.” The American Federation of Teachers has specifically embraced Israel’s new assaults.

In the antiwar movement, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which consistently segregates the Palestinian cause, has organized no mass response. U.S. Labor Against the War, which promotes union resolutions against the war in Iraq, remains disturbingly silent.

Fortunately, growing protests have been organized by the Arab-Muslim community, people of color, anti-Zionist Jews, and other activists who recognize that Lebanon and Palestine are inseparable from Iraq and Afghanistan.

New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) is part of this grassroots movement, and with Al-Awda New York, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, a cosponsor of Labor for Palestine <http://www.al-awdany.org/lfp/>.

NYCLAW believes that the labor and antiwar movements in the United States have a special obligation to speak out and demand:

1. End the U.S.-Israel war against the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

2. No aid for Israel.

3. Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

4. End Israeli occupation, and fully implement the Palestinian right of return.

5. Out Now from Iraq and Afghanistan — No timetables, redeployment, advisors, or air-war.

——————–
NYCLAW Co-Conveners (other affiliations listed for identification only):

Larry Adams
Former President, NPMHU Local 300

Michael Letwin
Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys

Brenda Stokely
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; Co-Chair, Million Worker March

http://www.traprockpeace.org/nyclaw_blog/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/

National Labor Assembly: An Advance for Opposing the War in Iraq! (Justice Speaks)

National Labor Assembly: An Advance for Opposing the War in Iraq!
Justice Speaks (Black Workers for Justice)

The National Labor Assembly convened by US Labor Against the War (USLAW) was a very important development despite some weaknesses which we hope will be corrected.

There were about 200 participants representing 94 local unions, state organizations, central labor councils allied national unions and worker organizations. This was an impressive turnout, especially since the historical record of the AFL-CIO around wars, has been to support the US policies, as were done doing the Vietnam War and those prior.

The Mission Statement addresses a number of concerns centered around the US war against Iraq in particular and US foreign policies.  It also addresses the “war at home”-the impact of the war in Iraq on the conditions of working people in the US, including workers, immigrants and communities of color.

The center piece of United Labor Against the War (USLAW), the name voted on at the Assembly, is the Iraqi Labor Rights Campaign. This campaign is important for at least a couple of reasons.  It seeks to build support for the Iraqi workers to organize democratic unions so that in addition to fighting for labor rights, they will have powerful worker organizations to
help them impact on shaping the reconstruction and direction of Iraq, which US corporate power led by the Bush administration is currently dictating.

The other reason, is that many of the major US corporations who have contracts to “rebuild” Iraq, are the same ones who exploit and try to bust the unions of workers inside the US and internationally. USLAW is operating on the principle of international labor solidarity.

This USLAW formation has the potential to influence the direction of the AFL-CIO around the continuing US war and occupation of Iraq. The AFL-CIO took a lukewarm position calling for the US to seek support from the UN and international allies before going to war; which in essence, was not really in opposition to the war.  This has been the stand of many in the Democratic Party, to give the impression that they are opposed to the war and different from the Republican Party, who make no bones about being in favor of the war.

USLAW has been very careful not to take positions they feel would not be supported by the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, which in the short term may be tactically necessary; but becomes problematic as USLAW sets itself out as being a voice for labor on US foreign policies.

The obvious silence on the Palestinian struggle in the decisions at the Assembly, reflect a serious weakness USLAW and the unions which has to be overcome, if the US labor movement truly wants to deal with the problems of US foreign policies in the Middle-East.

USLAW set up 6 the following Task Forces to carry out its program and to go deeper in the rank-and-file of the labor movement so that labor’s anti-war and foreign policy voice comes from the bottom up:

Defending Social Programs and the Public Sector: Will publicize what the $87 Billion could buy at home, do teach-ins and actions such as on tax day, and do community forums with votes on supporting social programs and defending public services and the workers who provide them.

Defending Civil Liberties and Labor Rights: Will act as an information clearing house on the web site and will work against the Patriot Act and in defense of labor rights in the U.S.

Labor Veterans and Military Families Against the War: Will reach out to and involve union members and retirees who are veterans or members of military families, set up a speaker’s bureau, participate in a March 20th national anti-war event and fight for vets benefits and rights.

Defending Immigrants and Communities of Color: Will highlight military recruitment of high school youth during Black History Month, focus on unjust incarceration and work for amnesty for immigrant workers. It will help mobilize labor’s response to discrimination and harassment based on race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.

Popular Education and the War Economy: Will develop materials for trainings and coordinate among people wanting to promote and lead educational workshops that make the connection between U.S. foreign policy, a militarized economy and budget, and the impact they have on workers, jobs and communities. Interested labor organizations are encouraged to host and organize a workshop available from United For a Fair Economy, in conjunction with USLAW, for officers, staff and members.

International Solidarity and Labor Rights for the Workers of Iraq: Proposed activities to promote the right of Iraqi workers to organize in the unions of their choice, and to educate the labor movement and the public about the conditions Iraqi workers are facing under the US Occupation. It will help mobilize labor solidarity with workers in other countries who are affected by U.S. foreign policy and military action.

The Assembly was highlighted by presentations and slide show by Clarence Thomas of the ILWU Local 10 and David Bacon of the Newspaper Guild on their trip to Iraq in October as part of an international delegation and by Bill Fletcher, Jr. head of Trans Africa Forum and long time labor activist, who spoke about the history of labor and US foreign policy.

Even though the participation of workers of color at this Assembly increased from the first USLAW meeting held in January, the numbers were still low. This is also true for the composition of the Continuations Committee which serves as the USLAW Coordinating body.

The Southern region was also under represented at the Assembly. Only 3 of the 19 states represented were from the South-North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky.

Black Workers For Justice had representation at the Assembly and has a member that sits on the USLAW Continuations Committee.

To contact USLAW at: U.S. Labor Against the War, P.O. Box 153, 1718 M
Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 www.uslaboragainstwar.org
info@uslaboragainstwar.org