Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter, written by Labor for Palestine to the President of the AFL-CIO, urging support for the campaign to boycott Israel.

Open Letter from U.S. Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel

Issued by Labor for Palestine – laborforpalestine.us@gmail.com

“Sanctions alone cannot eradicate apartheid; that task is ultimately left to the people of South Africa themselves. But economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land.” —Richard L. Trumka, June 23, 1987

“We call on other workers and unions to . . . do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.” —Congress of South African Trade Unions, February 3, 2009

“We urge all international trade unions to heed the call of Palestinian civil society, including the trade union movement, by endorsing BDS. We further urge all trade unions and trade union federations to sever their links with the Histadrut, a Zionist organization that has always played a key role in perpetuating Israel's occupation, colonization and system of racial discrimination, and that has justified and applauded Israel's war crimes in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.” —Palestinian Trade Union Movement Unanimously Confirms Support for BDS, November 25, 2009

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Dear Brother Trumka:

As labor and anti-apartheid activists, we strongly disagree with your October 27 speech denouncing the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

The BDS campaign was initiated in 2005 by Palestinian civil society — including its entire labor movement. Inspired by the international boycott that helped topple apartheid South Africa, it demands Palestinian self-determination, including an end to Israeli military occupation, the right of refugees to return to the land from which they have been ethnically cleansed since the Nakba of 1947-1948, and equal rights for all throughout historic Palestine.

Support for BDS has grown rapidly, especially since December 27, 2008, when Israel broke a truce with the democratically-elected Palestinian government and attacked Gaza. In the resulting massacre, Israel killed more than 1400 Palestinians, hundreds of them children; maimed and wounded thousands more; and utterly devastated Gaza's infrastructure, including the Gaza headquarters of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions.

In the best tradition of labor solidarity, South African and Australian dockworkers responded by refusing to handle Israeli cargo, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) “call[ed] on other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.”

Their action echoes the West Coast dock-workers who refused to handle cargo for Nazi Germany (1934) or fascist Italy (1935); those in Denmark and Sweden (1963), the San Francisco Bay Area (1984) and Liverpool (1988), who refused shipping for apartheid South Africa; those in Oakland who refused to load bombs for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1978); and those at all twenty-nine West Coast ports who held a May Day strike against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008).

Since Gaza, the 2005 BDS call also been endorsed or reaffirmed by numerous other labor bodies around the world, including the trades union congresses of Ireland, Scotland and the UK; UNISON (UK); Transport and General Workers' Union (UK); L'Union syndicale Solidaires Industrie (France); Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario; six Norwegian trade unions; and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.

It is no accident that South African workers play a leading role in the BDS movement. They remember that Israel was apartheid South Africa's closest ally. They agree with Archbishop Desmond Tutu's observation that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is “worse than apartheid.” They recognize that the Gaza massacre mirrors the infamous Sharpeville massacre of 1960, which gave birth to an international boycott against South African apartheid.

This rising tide of labor support for BDS has only been further vindicated by Israel's rejection of the war crimes indictments issued against it by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN's Goldstone Report and numerous other bodies — many of them Israeli.

The BDS campaign is particularly relevant to workers in the United States.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be another $30 billion. As in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous and bullets kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers, while both Democratic and Republican politicians condone the slaughter. Amidst deepening economic crisis, workers in this country pay a staggering human and financial price for U.S.-Israeli war and occupation throughout the region.

Despite all of this, however, many U.S. labor officials — often without the knowledge or con-sent of union members — have ignored Palestinian appeals for justice. Instead, they continue to collaborate with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that not only supported Israel's war on Gaza, but which has spearheaded — and whitewashed — racism, apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians since the 1920s.

They have invested billions of our union pension funds and retirement plans in State of Israel Bonds. They have actively encouraged the U.S. to provide the money and weapons that oppress Palestinian workers, and to ensure Israel's role as watchdog for U.S. domination over the oil-rich Middle East.

The Jewish Labor Committee has exploited its carefully groomed “progressive” image by hurling false accusations of “anti-Semitism” against those who challenge racism in the U.S. labor movement, who support affirmative action for workers of color, who criticize notorious “AFL-CIA” support U.S. war and empire, and — above all — who oppose apartheid Israel.

Thus, it was the JLC that in July 2007 mobilized top AFL-CIO and Change to Win officials to condemn British union support for BDS. It is the JLC that seeks to deflect outrage over the Gaza massacres by launching Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine, whose stated purpose is to sabotage the BDS campaign, while demanding boycotts against Iran, which — unlike Israel — receives no U.S. aid and has no “weapons of mass destruction.”

In the 1980s, as president of the United Mine Workers, you rightly argued that, “economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land.” Two decades later, the cause of “justice and freedom” for Palestinians requires no less of you as president of the AFL-CIO. As trade unionists, we must immediately and completely:

1. Divest from State of Israel Bonds.

2. Support workers' refusal to handle Israeli cargo.

3. Break ties with the racist Histadrut.

4. Oppose U.S. military and economic aid for Israel.

Initial Signers

(List in formation — *For identification only)

Monadel Herzallah, President, Arab American Union Members Council, California

Larry Adams, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, NPMHU L. 300*

Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, UAW L. 2325/ALAA*; Al-Awda NY; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network/Labor

Brenda Stokely, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, AFSCME DC 1707*; Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement

Sam Weinstein, Former President, UWUA L. 132*; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network/Labor

Stanley Heller, AFT L. 1547*, Delegate, CT Central Labor Council*

Marty Goodman, Former Executive Board Member, TWU L.100*

Fred Mason, Maryland AFL-CIO*

Clayola Brown, A. Philip Randolph Institute, AFL-CIO*

Frank Rosen, General Vice President (retired), UE*

Steve Zeltzer, Producer, Labor Video Project

Anthony Arnove, National Writers Union/UAW L.1981*

Mike Gimbel, Chair, Labor-Community Unity Committee, AFSCME DC 37 L. 375*; Delegate, NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO*

Dave Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council*

Lee Sustar, Chicago Labor Against the War

Timothy Kaminski, UAW L. 110* (ret.)

Janice Rothstein, AFSCME L. 3299*

Andy Griggs, UTLA*; LA Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee, Cafe Intifada

Emma Rosenthal, UTLA*; LA Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee, Cafe Intifada

Pete Nowicki, AFSCME L. 145*

Jim Crampton, 1199SEIU/UHWE*

Allan Fisher, AFT L. 2121, SF Community College*

Alan Benjamin, OPEIU L. 3*

Sharon Black, AFT L. 2*; Bailout the People Movement

Bill Balderson, Oakland Education Assn.*

Sarah Ringler, AFT L. 1936, PVFT*

Frank Pinto, UPTE-CWA L. 9119*

Steve Desavouret, TCU/IAM 6608*

Louis LaFortune, AFT L. 1936, PVFT*

Azalia Torres, Former Executive Bd. Member, UAW Local 2325/ALAA*

Patrick Langhenry, UAW Local 2325/ALAA*

Lucy Herschel, Delegate 1199SEIU/UHWE*

Carol Seligman, South San Francisco California Teachers Association*

Joe Iosbaker, Executive Board Member, SEIU Local 73*

International Endorsers

Rubina Jamil, Working Women Organization; All Pakistan Trade Union Federation*

Tony Leon, Secretary General, Venezuelan Union of Oil Industry Workers

#UnitedStates #Palestine #AFLCIO #LaborForPalestine

Funded by the State Department, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was set up under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Its mission is “to foster corporate globalism,” and ‘free’ trade agreements. In practice, the NED works to stop revolutions in countries where the U.S. backs the rich people in power. Where pro-people governments are in power, NED works to help overthrow them.

The AFL-CIO has a long history of this kind of activity in foreign affairs. For example, in South America, a military dictatorship was set up in Chile in 1973 under CIA direction. The AFL-CIO, and especially the Teamsters, were involved in overthrowing the previous government there that the U.S. didn’t like. Thousands of Chilean trade unionists died. From involvement like this, it reached the point in the 1970s that activists started calling the union federation the ‘AFL-CIA.’

When the reform leadership under John Sweeney came to power in the AFL-CIO in 1995, unionists and others who oppose U.S. imperialism were hopeful. There were signs that the old departments that had acted against workers abroad were to be dismantled. The International Department, through its Solidarity Center, started doing positive things. For example, they supported the unionists in Colombia who were being targeted by death squads aligned with the pro-U.S. government there.

But then, in 2002, a U.S.-backed coup happened in Venezuela. Patriotic Venezuelans prevented the coup. Following these events, the news came out that the NED and the Solidarity Center had been deeply involved in supporting the efforts to overthrow that democratically elected government. Progressive trade unionists in the U.S. were shocked, and set about to stop something like that from happening again.

Resolution: Create Trust and Unity Among Workers Worldwide

This summer, the AFL-CIO is having their convention in Chicago in July. A resolution entitled, “Building unity and trust among workers worldwide” will be presented there. It was adopted in July 2004 by the California State Federation of Labor, which represents 2.5 million of the 12 million workers in the AFL-CIO.

This resolution is about building solidarity with labor movements in other countries. It calls for:

    \* Clearing the Air about AFL-CIO involvement in events like the coups in Chile and Venezuela.

    \* Detailing involvement in other countries around the world.

    \* Ending funding from the U.S. government, particularly the NED, for the Federation’s activities in other countries.

    \* Solidarity Center should be funded by union dues, led by union members and members should be informed of its activities.

The Latin American Solidarity Committee is organizing support for this resolution among trade unionists and people who support the struggles of workers here and worldwide. Their statement reads, “Organizing the unorganized, protecting workers’ rights, and building workers’ unity at home and around the world: these are the top priorities for U.S. workers. We cannot afford to support the NED’s waste of taxpayer money and of union members’ energy and resources on projects that undermine workers’ unity. We have a job to do: Organize!”

A rally will be held in Chicago to support the resolution. For more information, and to sign the petition supporting the resolution, visit the Latin American Solidarity Committee website at www.lasolidarity.org

Labor For Palestine

Labor For Palestine is a solidarity campaign among labor activists in the U.S. It was founded by organizations including Al Awda, a group that supports the right of the refugees to return to their homes in occupied Palestine, as well as New York City Labor Against the War.

On July 23, one day before the AFL-CIO convention starts, Labor for Palestine (LFP) will hold a national educational conference in Chicago on the issue of Palestine, Labor and the AFL-CIO. They criticize the national AFL-CIO for its support of the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq. In regard to Palestine, LFP is sponsoring a resolution that protests the union federation’s purchases of Israel Bonds. These have helped the Israeli government pursue its continued construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

LFP invites trade unionists and union locals to endorse and participate in this critical conference: www.laborforpalestine.org

#UnitedStates #News #Palestine #Venezuela #NationalEndowmentForDemocracy #LatinAmericanSolidarityCommittee #LaborForPalestine