Thread by @JeffSchuhrke

To my union siblings in the US labor movement: we have a special obligation to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

Please read this 🧵 for some historical background on why I say that.

Our labor leaders have historically been some of the loudest defenders of Israel. Here is one example: when Israel invaded Lebanon & laid siege to Beirut in 1982, the AFL-CIO took out an ad in the NYTimes to express full support for Israel.

Another example, from 1980: AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland urged opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state. He frequently said a Palestinian state would be a “terrorist state."

Here is RWSDU president Stuart Applebaum, also president of the Jewish Labor Committee, speaking in 2008 about US labor's commitment to Israel/Zionism & opposition to the pro-Palestinian, nonviolent BDS movement.

Here is a 2007 statement by the Jewish Labor Committee—signed onto by several union presidents, as well as then-AFL-CIO president John Sweeney—expressing open opposition to the pro-Palestinian, nonviolent BDS movement. jewishlaborcommittee.org/2007/07/statem…

Here is a 2009 speech by then-AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka, also opposing BDS and conflating opposition to Zionism w/ antisemitism.  jewishlaborcommittee.org/2005/10/richar…

But it goes back much farther. In 1917, the AFL endorsed the Balfour Declaration- the British policy that set the stage for Palestine's colonization. In the 1920s-40s, US unions fundraised millions of dollars for the colonization of Palestine. bitly.ws/WJgQ

In 1948, as the Nakba was underway, US unions adamantly lobbied the US gov't to support the partition of Palestine and creation & arming of Israel. In April, there was even a 1/2 day strike by NYC garment unions to demand Truman support partition/creation of Israel

Immediately after 750K Palestinians were expelled by the new State of Israel, US unions continued raising millions of dollars to fund construction of Israeli homes, schools, clinics, union halls, etc. in villages, towns, cities where Palestinians had just been chased out.

In 1949, members of the ILGWU asked if their union could also give some money for Palestinian refugees. The response was a 1-time paltry donation of $5,000

By the 1970s, there were dozens of public facilities in Israel named after US labor leaders to recognize how US unions funded their construction. Sports stadiums named after David Dubinsky & George Meany; orphanages named after Jimmy Hoffa & Walter Reuther, and many, many more.

Meanwhile, throughout Israel's various wars w/ its Arab neighbors & its attacks on Palestinians, US labor would consistently issue statements of support & launch new fundraising drives for Israel.

After the Oct. 1973 war, Arab American autoworkers in Detroit held a 1-day wildcat strike to protest the UAW's purchase of State of Israel bonds. I wrote about it a few years ago: jacobin.com/2020/08/palest…

As of 1994, US labor had purchased over $1 billion in State of Israel bonds thru union dues, strike funds, & pension funds, according to the Development Corporation for Israel. The current amount is difficult to identify because it’s generally kept secret.

In more recent decades, there's been more US labor support for Palestine, esp. thru @Labor4Palestine. After Israel’s bombing of Gaza in 2021, there was more US union support for Palestine than any time before or since. I wrote about that here: inthesetimes.com/article/palest…

@Labor4Palestine There is *a lot* more to this history, & I’m currently working on a book about it (which unfortunately won’t be finished for a while). Anyway, here’s one more article I wrote in 2021 to try to sum this up for now: jacobin.com/2021/05/us-lab…

Update to this thread: here is RWDSU president Stuart Applebaum's statement on behalf of the Jewish Labor Committee about today's events. The statement speaks for itself: jewishlaborcommittee.org/2023/10/jlc_st…