Palestine has always been a labor issue -- but until recently, many top US union leaders have been on the wrong side.
As Israel’s genocide in Gaza intensified in late 2023, a small number of U.S. labor unions began calling for a ceasefire. Others soon joined in, and many also started calling for a halt of military support to Israel. For many union members, statements didn’t go far enough, so they formed new national networks or pushed their unions to divest from Israel. Some even went on strike.
Pro-Palestine organizing within U.S. unions is not new, but the breadth of criticism of Israel’s actions and sympathy with Palestinians coming out of the labor movement may have signaled a shift away from U.S. labor’s historic support for the Zionist movement and the State of Israel — a history whose scope and scale is the topic of labor historian Jeff Schuhrke’s must-read new book, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine.
The notion that Palestine shouldn’t concern unions is an odd one, says Schuhrke, because it’s always been a labor issue. U.S. unions, particularly top labor leaders, have just been on the wrong side. Schuhrke’s sweeping and accessible book offers a detailed history of U.S. labor’s century-long alliance with the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, examining the forces and developments that built and sustained that alliance as well as those that opposed it. This is a critical resource for organizers within both the U.S. labor and Palestine solidarity movements as they work to strengthen efforts to build an anti-militarist labor politics that can win justice for workers and oppressed people both at home and abroad.
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The Future of Palestine Solidarity in US Labor Will Come From the Rank and File
https://truthout.org/articles/the-future-of-palestine-solidarity-in-us-labor-will-come-from-the-rank-and-file/cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/4565