Minneapolis, MN – Both chapters of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59 (MFT59) have voted to pass an arms embargo resolution demanding an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. The final vote in the Teacher’s Chapter was 67% for and only 33% against, while the final vote in the Education Support Professionals (ESP) Chapter was unanimous: 47 for, 0 against, with 3 abstentions.

In the context of the Israeli genocide and scholasticide in Gaza, which disproportionately affects children, schools and educators, this resolution from MFT Local 59 aligns with a growing movement among labor groups advocating for the cessation of all U.S. aid to Israel and supporting the liberation of Palestine.

MFT59 resolved to sign on to a letter to President Joe Biden – which was previously supported by American Postal Workers Union, International Union of Painters, National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and the Association of Flight Attendants – calling for the American Federation of Teachers to do the same. These unions represent a combined 6 million members, almost half of the United States’ 14 million unionized workers.

MFT59 members have repeatedly given public comment at meetings of the Minnesota State Board of Investments (SBI), which manages Minneapolis Public Schools’ teacher, ESP and public worker pensions, demanding that the SBI take immediate action to divest from apartheid Israel. This demand is being made with historical precedent, as the SBI voted in 1985 to divest from the apartheid state of South Africa.

ESP member Neil Radford said, “In light of a new U.S. aid package of $8.7 billion, announced on September 26, it remains to be seen where the bottom truly is in what the Democratic party will facilitate. $3.5 billion of this package is earmarked for ‘essential wartime procurement,’ and $5.2 billion for air defense systems. Without question, this genocide fund is created by the labor of the working class and will result in the deaths of more innocent people in Palestine, Lebanon Iraq, and Syria.”

Radford continued, “Unionized workers, unorganized workers, undocumented people and retirees, we are all being used to fund what is happening to the children of Palestine. The kids in our schools in Minneapolis will go out into a world being made more militarized, surveilled and policed. The technologies which will be used to monitor and catalog them will have already been tested on Palestinian children. To keep increasing pressure and momentum and bring more people into the struggle to end this, the hardworking teachers of MFT59 are speaking out in support of Palestine and highlighting the deep connections between what happens in Minneapolis schools and what happens in Gaza.”

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