#MayDay4Palestine – Get organised in your workplace on May 1st!

24th April 2024Leave a Commenton #MayDay4Palestine – Get organised in your workplace on May 1st!

“War & peace are very much a class issue – & Palestine is very much a trade union issue.”

By Jennie Walsh, Stop the War Coalition

War and peace are very much a class issue and Palestine is very much a trade union issue. Our power as organised working people has the potential to force the biggest change in our society. 

Since 7 October over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, 70 per cent of them women and children. Millions are at imminent risk of starvation.

At the heart of the trade union movement lies international solidarity, which the Palestinians urgently require. marching on the streets is incredibly powerful, but when workers withdraw their labour, they can shut things down. 

We’ve seen some really inspiring actions by trade unionists around the world in demand for an end to the arming of Israel and for a free Palestine, such as transport workers in Belgium refusing to carry weapons bound for Israel and port workers in Barcelona refusing to allow them to leave their shores.

Let’s not forget the impact of the brave Rolls Royce workers in East Kilbride who refused to carry out repairs on General Pinochet’s war planes.

Every collective act, big or small, sends a message to those who are suffering in Gaza that we are with them and puts pressure on our government to stop arming Israel.

This is why Stop the War is calling on all those within the trade union movement to join and build for the May Day Workplace Day of Action for Palestine on Wednesday 1 May.

Our open letter to UK trade unionists also calls for labour movement unity in the face of attacks on the pro-Palestine campaign and our right to protest.

We are encouraging all those in work, college or university to mark International Workers’ Day by organising a walkout, a lunchtime or early morning protest, or another collective action, in demand of peace and justice for the Palestinians. 

Where those workplaces are arms or arms components manufacturers, we are clear that our enemies are not the workers making the weapons, but the government that is selling them. All actions challenging militarism and the arms industry must be workforce and union led.

And in some of those factories we are seeing groups of workers taking actions, with workplace meetings and walkouts.

There are any number of activities that union members can organise for 1 May, from collections for Medical Aid for Palestinians or other charities helping the people of Gaza, giving out leaflets around the workplace, to holding a lunchtime protest outside a workplace, or organising a meeting with a speaker from Gaza.

So get organised in your workplace on 1 May and make it a #MayDay4Palestine