Palestine is a trade union issue
Gawain Little
The General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Gawain Little, argues that Palestine is a trade union issue. Here, we reproduce his speech from last Wednesday’s Arise and Labour and Palestine May Day rally.
I’m really pleased to join this platform on behalf of the General Federation of Trade Unions and to support the work of Labour and Palestine backed by a number of our trade union affiliates.
I just want to say a few brief words on why I believe that this issue – the assault on Palestine, the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and the oppression of the Palestinian people – is absolutely a trade union issue and what we can and should be doing about it.
Our movement, the trade union movement, was founded and built on solidarity. The solidarity between worker and worker, in a single workplace, across an industry, across a nation – but that solidarity must know no bounds.
International solidarity is fundamental to the trade union movement and that means we cannot stand by as Palestinian workers and their families are murdered and driven from their homes in what has been widely recognised as a genocide.
We cannot say that arms sales to Israel are okay as long as they create jobs in Britain. No more!
We must stand shoulder to shoulder with Palestinian workers in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to arms sales to Israel; we must stand shoulder to shoulder with members of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions whose headquarters have been destroyed by Israeli forces; and we must act.
Please raise this in your trade union branch. Take your banners on the solidarity demonstrations to show the strength of support right across our movement for the Palestinian people, and please support the workers taking action to block arms sales to Israel.
But most importantly, make this an ongoing commitment; build lasting solidarity. The current violence takes place in the context of the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people by a system of apartheid.
Ultimately, there will be no solution until there is an end to the military occupation of Palestine, and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right to return. So, when this appalling assault ends – and it will end – develop links with sister unions through twinning and solidarity delegations. Continue to oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
One day, that occupation, too, will end, and the Palestinians will win their liberation and a Palestinian state. Our role in the British trade union movement is to stand in active solidarity with the Palestinian people until Palestine is free.
- Gawain Little is General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions
- Watch the whole May Day rally here.
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