Rally Speak Out at SF AFL-CIO, End AFL-CIO Complicity with Genocide

Rally Speak Out At AFL-CIO
End AFL-CIO Complicity With Genocide

Break AFL-CIO Links To Racist Histadrut Trade Union Federation No US NED Money for AFL-CIO “Solidarity Center”

Global Day of Action

Thursday, November 9, 2023 1:00 PM
San Francisco Labor Council 1188 Franklin St., SF


Join the picket and press conference protesting the sup- port of Israel’s genocide by the AFL-CIO national lead- ership and the San Francisco Labor Council leadership.

Nearly all unions around the world are calling for a halt to the bombing and genocide against Palestinians, but not the AFL-CIO national leadership and the San Fran- cisco Labor Council leadership.

Dockers in Barcelona and Belgium logistics workers are stopping all military cargo to Israel and we need to do the same here. Instead of supporting solidarity action with the Palestinian workers and people, the AFL-CIO is on the side of the apartheid regime of Israel.

The AFL-CIO leadership is directly linked with the Zionist “union” Histadrut. The Histadrut helped arm and support Apartheid South Africa and steals money from Palestinian workers. The AFL-CIO also worked with the CIA to murder thousands of trade unionists in South Africa by supporting Chief Buthelezi.

Today, AFL-CIO takes $75 million from the US NED to support operations in 75 countries through it’s so called “Solidarity Center”.

They also openly support the racist ideology of Zionism which says Jews have more rights than Palestinians who have lived their entire lives in that Israel and the occu- pied territories.

The same union leadership have supported Biden and the war mongers in the Congress who voted billions more for military aid to Israel and Ukraine. This is when hundreds of thousands are homeless, hungry, and mil- lions have no healthcare.

In 2021 when delegates in the San Francisco Labor Council wanted to pass a resolution for the defense of the Palestine people, AFL-CIO president Liz Schuler sent a letter to the Council saying it was out of order and SFLC Executive Director Rudy Gonzalez and his supporters shut down the debate without even a discus- sion. The same leadership has organized boycotts of the monthly meeting by delegates, so this month they didn’t even have a quorum.

It is time to rebuild the labor movement with democra- cy and not an agenda controlled by the Democrats and war mongers like Nancy Pelosi.

Silence On Genocide is Support To Genocide
Stop US Military and Economic Aid to Israel
For Labor strikes and boycotts to shut Israel down
No Support For The Democrats and Republicans, Labor Party NOW!

Initiated by United Front Committee For A Labor Party

https://ufclp.org, info [at] ufclp.org

BDS now ‘off the table’ for San Francisco San Francisco Labor Council labor group, leader says
https://www.jweekly.com/2021/09/13/bds-now-off-the-table-for-san-francisco-labor-group-leader-says/
BY GABRIEL GRESCHLER | SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
The quick rise in unions around the country endorsing boycotts against Israel could face a challenge in San Francisco.

A leader in the San Francisco Labor Council tasked with reviewing a proposed BDS resolution said he agrees with the national arm of the AFL-CIO: Backing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel falls outside the local chapter’s purview.

In response, the resolution’s supporters said if it is blocked, they will appeal the decision.

In June, 19 members of the SFLC, a local AFL-CIO body with more than 100,000 workers, submitted “Resolution in Solidarity with Palestine” to the group’s delegate assembly. The resolution included an endorsement of the BDS movement and a call to end U.S. military aid to Israel. The SFLC’s executive committee formed a seven-person group tasked with reviewing the resolution and making recommendations.

As part of that review, Rudy Gonzalez, an SFLC executive committee member and co-chair of the resolution’s review group, spoke on Sept. 9 with Fernando Losada, the national AFL-CIO Western regional director.

After the meeting, Gonzalez told J. that endorsing BDS would put the labor council “in a foreign policy position” beyond its authority; it’s a matter, he explained, that is up to the national AFL-CIO group.

“That’s off the table,” Gonzalez said about BDS remaining part of the resolution.

In an interview with J., Losada reiterated the AFL-CIO’s position on foreign policy matters.

“Expressions of solidarity [are] always good,” Losada said. “But in terms of setting international policy, that is the purview of the national AFL-CIO through our organizational processes. There’s an existing policy in solidarity with working people in the Holy Land. It does not include BDS.”

For his part, while Gonzalez is open to a resolution strictly in solidarity with Palestinians, he would like the council to focus on matters closer to home, such as the country’s wealth gap, the effects of the pandemic and access to health care.

Gonzalez, the secretary treasurer for the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, said if the resolution comes up for a vote and still includes the BDS endorsement, he expects it to be ruled “out of order.”

But supporters of the resolution, including signatory Frank Martin del Campo, S.F. chapter president for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, said they would challenge such a move.

“We respect the thoughts and proposed actions of the AFL-CIO and value their esteemed leadership,” del Campo wrote in an email to J. “However, if the Resolution is ruled out of order, we will be appealing the ruling to the highest body of our council, the delegates assembly. We have fought for the democratic rights of all consistently for the last 10 years.”

The SFLC has passed resolutions in the past regarding international matters, including in Colombiaand Myanmar.

There’s an existing policy in solidarity with working people in the Holy Land. It does not include BDS.

When asked what sets BDS apart from issues addressed in other international resolutions, Gonzalez said it’s because there isn’t a unified position on the BDS movement.

“There’s a place for labor to step in and protect people and draw awareness to something,” he said. But there isn’t agreement on boycotts against Israel, Gonzalez said, adding that he knows both pro-BDS and anti-BDS labor leaders in the city.

“There isn’t unity around that question,” he said.

Susan Solomon, the other co-chair of the SFLC resolution review committee, who is also the former president of the S.F. Unified School District teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco, did not respond to a request for comment.

UESF’s delegate assembly passed a resolution in May that endorsed BDS, making history as the first K-12 teachers’ union ever to do so — and causing an uproar among some in the Jewish community. UESF’s executive board shortly thereafter passed a resolution condemning antisemitism, which now sits side-by-side with the BDS resolution.

The San Francisco Labor Council is part of a growing number of local unions across the United States that are either backing or considering support for boycotts against Israel.

But opposition to BDS among labor leaders at the national level remains strong.

In Los Angeles, after chapters of the teachers’ union advanced a BDS resolution in May, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, stated in a letter that her organization “has never supported BDS.”

But she also said she wouldn’t interfere with decisions made by local chapters.

“We believe strongly in dialogue, debate and the free ability to express a range of viewpoints,” she wrote. “The ‘federation’ in American Federation of Teachers has real meaning: Locals have broad autonomy, and the national union does not override locals over differences or questions of policy.”

A full vote on the boycotts by the L.A. teachers’ union is set for this month.

Richard Trumka, who led the AFL-CIO from 2009 until his death in August, began his tenure by denouncing boycotts against Israel.

In an October 2009 speech before the New York–headquartered Jewish Labor Committee, Trumka said the AFL-CIO was “proud to stand with the JLC to oppose boycotting Israel.” Jeff Schuhrke, a labor historian who has written in the past about labor’s support for Palestinians and BDS, said he doesn’t think Trumka’s absence will change the AFL-CIO’s orientation.

He wrote, “I don’t expect Trumka’s death to change the AFL-CIO’s long-standing positions on Israel, Palestine, or BDS.”

The AFL-CIO Squashed a Council's Cease-Fire Resolution. What Does It Say About Labor Right Now?
The move illustrates larger dynamics currently at play within the U.S. labor movement as the assault on Gaza rages on. While some unions and labor activists are advocating for an immediate end to the onslaught, most officials are keeping quiet.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/afl-cio-israel-palestine-ceasefire-resolution-gaza


A young person mourning after an Israeli attack that struck a refugee camp in Gaza City on Nov. 2, 2023. So far, more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed by the
Israeli military.PHOTO BY MUSTAFA HASSONA/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGESLABORThe AFL-CIO Squashed a Council's Cease-Fire Resolution. What Does It Say About Labor Right Now? The move illustrates larger dynamics currently at play within
the U.S. labor movement as the assault on Gaza rages on. While some unions and labor activists are advocating for an immediate end to the onslaught, most officials are keeping quiet.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/afl-cio-israel-palestine-ceasefire-resolution-gazaJEFF SCHUHRKE NOVEMBER 2, 2023

The Israeli military has been bombarding Gaza for weeks — dropping thousands and thousands of bombs and killing more than 9,000Palestinians—including
more than 3,700 children — and displacing some 1.4 million.

On Oct. 16, Palestinian trade unions issued a call to action for organized labor and workers everywhere ​“to halt the sale and funding
of arms to Israel — and related military research.”

The Palestinian labor coalition — including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions — specifically called on trade unions around the world to: Refuse to
manufacture weapons destined for Israel, refuse to transport weapons to Israel, pass motions in their individual trade unions demanding the same, take action against companies complicit in the siege of Gaza, and apply pressure to governments to stop supporting
and funding the Israeli war machine.

The call resonated with some union members in the United States, including Alice, a delegate with the Olympia, Washington-based Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor
Council (TLM CLC). The TLM CLC represents the AFL-CIO-affiliated local unions in the western Washington counties of Thurston, Lewis and Mason.

Alice saw the call from the Palestinian trade unions and was inspired to draft a resolution for the TLM CLC to publicly affirm its solidarity.

Alice (who asked that her last name not be published because she fears being targeted by anti-Palestinian groups) saw the call from the Palestinian trade unions and
was inspired to draft a resolution for the TLM CLC to publicly affirm its solidarity.

After the council discussed and unanimously adopted Alice’s measure on Oct. 18, according to two TLM CLC delegates, an announcement with a link to the resolution was
posted on the council’s website and Twitter account.

The resolution stated that the labor council ​“opposes in principle any union involvement in the production or transportation of weapons
destined for Israel.” It also encouraged the national AFL-CIO to ​“publicly support an immediate ceasefire and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis.”

But the following Monday, an AFL-CIO senior field representative informed the board that the resolution did not conform with the national AFL-CIO’s official position,
according to interviews and emails shared with In These Times.

He specifically pointed to a press release issued by the national labor federation on Oct. 11 calling for ​“a swift resolution to the
current conflict to end the bloodshed of innocent civilians, and to promote a just and long-lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” but not explicitly mentioning a cease-fire or opposing the production and shipment of weapons destined for Israel.
(Some AFL-CIO-affiliated unions represent workers in the defense industry, including the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and United Auto Workers.)

By differing from the AFL-CIO’s stated position, the field representative explained, the TLM CLC’s resolution was technically void because it violates a governance
rule, Rule 4(b), which states: ​“Area labor councils, as chartered organizations of the AFL-CIO, shall conform their activities on national affairs to the policies of the AFL-CIO.” He further clarified to Alice that the rule ​“has long been understood
to apply to international positions as well as national.”

The Israeli army struck a refugee camp in Gaza City and Palestinians are searching through the rubble and trying to remove debris on Nov. 2, 2023. PHOTO BY ASHRAF
AMRA/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

Meanwhile, the resolution had already gained widespread public attention after the TLM CLC’s statement about it was retweeted by the
Democratic Socialists of America’s National Labor Commission.

But Alice says that after being pressured by the AFL-CIO’s field representative, the TLM CLC deleted the statement from its website and X (formerly Twitter) account
late last week. She adds that the field representative also asked her not make a public statement — including to media — about the situation, but she feels it is urgent to get the word out to encourage more local bodies within the AFL-CIO to take a stand at
this critical moment. (Labor Notes also published an article about the AFL-CIO and TLM CLC.)

A screenshot of a deleted tweet from the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council (left) and evidence that it had been deleted based on a retweet from DSA Labor
(right). PROVIDED TO IN THESE TIMES AND AUTHENTICATED BY THE ARTICLE'S AUTHOR.

“We need more labor councils, we need more locals passing resolutions like this, because they can’t stop us all,” Alice says. ​“If it’s just us, they can sweep it
under the rug like they’re trying to do right now. But if many, many of us across the country start doing it, then it becomes something much harder for them to sweep under the rug.”

The AFL-CIO’s intervention against the TLM CLC’s cease-fire resolution illustrates the larger dynamics currently at play within the U.S. labor movement as the assault
on Gaza, which has been described and decried as genocidal, rages on.

“We need more labor councils, we need more locals passing resolutions like this, because they can’t stop us all,” Alice says. “If it’s just us, they can sweep it under
the rug like they’re trying to do right now. But if many, many of us across the country start doing it, then it becomes something much harder for them to sweep under the rug.”

While some unions and labor activists are advocating for an immediate end the Israeli military’s onslaught and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, most
of the top officials in U.S. labor are either keeping quiet, dancing around the central issues, or — in this case with the AFL-CIO — stepping in to police voices calling for a cease-fire and non-cooperation with Israel’s war machine.

John Campbell, another TLM CLC delegate (we are using a pseudonym because he is concerned about retaliation), says Alice intentionally tried to make the resolution
palatable for people with various viewpoints and that the council wasn’t ​“exactly going out of our way to say anything [outlandish] here” and that ​“I think calling for a cease-fire is pretty reasonable.”

“The fact that even what she did end up putting out, and what the membership did end up voting on — again, unanimously — the fact that that still ruffled feathers
is a bit surprising, honestly,” Campbell says.

The AFL-CIO and the field representative who Alice said she interacted with did not respond to requests for comment.

Kooper Caraway, who was previously president of the South Dakota State Federation of Labor and the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO, says it is not
uncommon for the AFL-CIO to step in and overrule central labor councils when they take actions on national or international issues.

Caraway resigned as executive director of the SEIU Connecticut State Council a couple of weeks ago after backlash from state Republicans
and Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont over remarks Caraway made at an Oct. 9 Palestine solidarity rally in New Haven — making him one of at least dozens of people in the United States who have lost their
jobs or had job offers rescinded resulting from their advocacy for Palestinians in recent weeks.
While not commenting on the circumstances of his resignation, Caraway urges local labor bodies to ​“act locally in any way they can” to support Palestine, similar
to how they did to encourage the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

“There was a lot of local action for a long time in support of the ANC [African National Congress] and supporting the South African struggle against apartheid before
the national labor movement got behind that,” he says. ​“That helped build momentum nationally.”

BUILDING MOMENTUM

U.S. labor officials have a long history of being among Israel’s most stalwart supporters, using union funds to purchase hundreds of
millions of dollars in State of Israel bonds from the 1950s onward.

Only in recent years have some unions become more critical of the Israeli government and more sympathetic to the Palestinian freedom movement, including during
Israel’s 2021 bombardment of Gaza.


In the past few weeks, several local unions and networks of labor activists have issued statements or circulated letters expressing solidarity
with Palestinians, urging a cease-fire and condemning both the unfolding genocide in Gaza and escalating settler attacks in the West Bank.
One of the latest examples is the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), whose house of delegates this week approved signing on to a letter of
solidarity with other unions ​“calling for human rights, for the release of all hostages, and for a cease-fire in Israel and Palestine.” The letter also directly calls on Biden to immediately call for a cease-fire.



White House Requests “Unprecedented” Loophole That Would Obscure Arms Sales to Israel

The measure effectively gives Israel a check to purchase $3.5 billion in arms in complete secrecy.

JANET ABOU-ELIAS, LILLIAN MAULDIN, ROSIE KHAN, MEKEDAS BELAYNEH AND LIV OWENS, WOMEN FOR WEAPONS TRADE TRANSPARENCY

“We Need You to Stand Up”: Bernie Sanders’ Former Staffers Call on Him to Back Cease-Fire in Palestine and Israel

Hundreds of former staffers of the democratic socialist senator have signed a letter urging him to back a peaceful resolution to the war in Palestine.

ELOISE GOLDSMITH

There Is Hope—and a Growing Movement for Palestine. Join Us in Washington D.C. on Saturday.

The time is now for people from all walks of life to raise their voices and demand Biden call for a cease-fire and for the United States to stop funding war and oppression.

NASHWA BAWAB

At the same meeting, the CTU also approved another resolution focused on the classroom and teaching and learning that called for increased
measures around ​“social emotional supports for members and students during world conflicts.” This includes, among other things, professional development ​“to help members understand the historic complexity and profound human impacts of this conflict” and
that the CTU ​“will gather, share, and support options and resources for supporting children and families impacted by this conflict.”

One of the latest examples is the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), whose house of delegates this week approved signing on to a letter of solidarity with other unions
"calling for human rights, for the release of all hostages, and for a cease-fire in Israel and Palestine." The letter also directly calls on Biden to immediately call for a cease-fire.


Meanwhile, after Republicans, right-wing news outlets and Starbucks smeared Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) as terrorist supporters in response to some members posting
statements in support of Palestinians on social media, Workers United President Lynne Fox came to SBWU’s defense.

“At a time when we should be focused on the human tragedy taking place in Gaza and Israel, Starbucks is instead taking every chance it gets to bash its employees as
supporters of hate and violence without any concern for truth — or consequences,” Fox wrote in In These Times.

On October 20, SBWU posted a statement on social media reaffirming their members’ ​“solidarity with the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”

“We are opposed to violence, and each death occurring as the result of violence is a tragedy. We absolutely condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia,” the SBWU statement
said. ​“We condemn the occupation, displacement, state violence, apartheid, and threats of genocide Palestinians face.”

Unions of academic workers at institutions including Rutgers, University of Michigan, University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Columbia and New York University have also published statements expressing solidarity with Palestine in recent weeks. The Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU)’s
attempt to do the same was allegedly obstructed at an Oct. 16 membership meeting through intimidation and procedural delays, according to a press release from a group of rank-and-file HGSU members. (The HGSU did not respond to
a request for comment.)

U.S. Labor Against Racism and War convened a call attended by hundreds of unionists and has organized an email-writing campaign directed at urging national union presidents
to call for a cease-fire. Another national call is planned for tonight (Thursday, Nov. 2).

About two weeks ago, U.S. Labor Against Racism and War convened a call attended by hundreds of unionists across the country, and has organized an
email-writing campaign directed at national union presidents urging them to call for a cease-fire. Since the campaign was launched at that time, more than 28,000 letters have been sent. Another national call is planned for
tonight (Thursday, Nov. 2).


The National Writers Union, which also convened a call in the middle of October for labor activists to discuss the situation in Gaza, has criticized the
Israeli government for violating international law and called on Western media to do a better job of covering the crisis.


The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) has called for a cease-fire. UE is also the only national union to both call
for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel and to endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to peacefully pressure Israel to end the occupation. Together with with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 (and endorsed by a group
of unions including the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers & Support Personnel Local 67), the UE has sponsored a petitionfor unions and members to demand a cease-fire. This is the petition that the CTU signed.

Labor for Palestine, a group that has been active since 2004, is also asking U.S. union members to sign onto a statement embracing
Palestinian trade unions’ call to not build or transport weapons for Israel, while rank-and-file United Auto Workers (UAW) members are circulating an open letter urging the union to endorse BDS, which can be signed by UAW members
or community allies. (In 2015, after rank-and-file members with UAW-affiliated graduate worker unions at the University of California, New York Universityand University of Massachusetts
Amherst each voted in 2014 to endorse BDS, the UAW’s international executive board formally ​“nullified” the measures.)

"MORAL RESPONSIBILITY"


Calls for a cease-fire have been growing and coming from a variety of groups around the world, including coalitions of Palestinian-led organizations, Jewish American
activists holding mass civil
disobedienceprotests around the country and respected humanitarian groups like Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, the International Committee of the Red Cross,
as well as the United Nations General Assembly and hundreds of thousands of protesters across the globe. The editorial board of the conservative Financial Times, one of the most pro-business
publications in the world, has also recently joined the calls for a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, most U.S. union leaders have remained silent.

In These Times reached out to fifteen prominent U.S. unions and asked directly
if their national leaders support the growing demands for a cease-fire and whether they support Palestinian labor’s call for an end to the arms trade with Israel. In what appears to be a sign of the larger movement’s hesitations, only the International Union
of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) responded.

Palestinian children in Gaza following an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City on Nov. 1, 2023. More than 3,700 Palestinian children have been killed
by the Israeli military over the last several weeks, and more than 6,300 other Palestinian children have been injured. PHOTO BY ALI JADALLAH/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES


“We unequivocally condemn the actions taken by Hamas that purposefully targeted Israeli citizens. Civilians now on both sides of the conflict are disproportionately
suffering, and the current humanitarian disaster unfolding in the Gaza strip is entirely preventable,” IUPAT General President Jimmy Williams, Jr. said in an emailed statement. ​“Israel must cease bombing dense urban areas and should immediately allow for
humanitarian aid to reach the people most affected by the conflict. Targeting civilians is a war crime. Collective punishment is a war crime. It is the duty of all working people to stand up and say enough.”


“A conflict of this magnitude cannot be fixed by bombs and bullets,” Williams continued. ​“The IUPAT is proud to join the labor movement across the globe in calling
for an immediate end to hostilities and de-escalation of tensions across the region.”


“A conflict of this magnitude cannot be fixed by bombs and bullets,” Williams continued. “The IUPAT is proud to join the labor movement across the globe in calling
for an immediate end to hostilities and de-escalation of tensions across the region.”


The AFT’s response pointed to recent
tweets by the union’s president, Randi Weingarten, calling
for a ​“humanitarian pause” to allow aid into Gaza and criticizing the Israeli government for not doingenough to stop settler attacks in the West Bank and harassment of
Arab students at Netanya College.


Weingarten and two of the AFT’s other top officers also issued a statement shortly after Hamas had attacked southern Israel and killed 1,400 people,
including more than 1,000 civilians, and the Israeli government had begun its assault on Gaza. That statement said in part that ​“Israel has every right to defend itself as it will now do,” while also expressing concern for Palestinian civilians ​“caught in
the crossfire.”


Only a few other national unions have publicly said anything about the recent violence in the region, or have explained to their members why they will not be speaking out.