Workers' Liberty

As we reported in Solidarity 3/164, the University of Sussex Students’ Union recently passed a policy committing it to a boycott of Israeli goods. Workers’ Liberty opposes such boycotts because we believe they cut against what is objectively necessary — international working-class solidarity to help Palestinian and Israeli workers build unity around a programme of mutual respect and equal rights — and create the potential for an anti-semitic backlash by exceptionalising Israel.

Produced by Workers' Liberty students. For a downloadable, copyable version of this briefing, see attachment.

The University of Sussex Students Union is due to hold a second referendum on whether to implement a boycott of Israeli goods in SU outlets. The boycott policy was passed by an earlier referendum at the end of October by a margin of 562 to 450. However, a group of students has now gathered the 150 signatures required to reopen and rerun the vote.

Egyptian writer Hala Mustafa faces threats of expulsion from the country's official Press Syndicate and removal from her job because she met the Israeli ambassador to Egypt as part of her journalistic work.

GMB official Richard Ashcough spoke to Solidarity about the GMB’s amendment to the FBU motion, which aimed to target the focus of the boycott onto goods produced in the Occupied Territories.

John McGhee, FBU National Officer, spoke to Martin Thomas about the FBU’s “boycott Israel” motion to TUC Congress.

On Thursday 17 September the TUC congress voted for a motion from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) for a boycott of Israeli goods. The vote does not commit unions to any real action, and anyway was neutralised by the TUC General Council putting a statement through the congress which defined a much more limited policy. But the TUC vote will boost the "boycott Israel" mood in the labour movement and the left.

Below is the TUC General Council statement on Israel and Palestine adopted at the TUC congress on 17 September 2009. It overrides the FBU motion also carried at the Congress, and effectively enforces the changes in the FBU motion sought by an amendment from the GMB - to limit the "boycott Israel" call to goods produced in the settlements in the Occupied Territories, and to delete the hint of breaking links with the Israeli unions.

Should workers and trade unionists show our support for the Palestinians by boycotting all Israeli goods?

In his speech to this year’s conference of the public services union Unison, in Brighton in mid-June, general secretary Dave Prentis called on the “Labour Link” section of the union to stop funding constituency development plans, and to work only with Labour MPs who abide by the union’s values and objectives.

This year's conference of the public services union Unison (16-19 June) has a motion (no.72) from the National Executive to confirm the "economic, cultural, academic, and sporting boycott of Israel" which Unison voted through in 2007, with amendments seeking to sharpen the "shun-Israel" message.

“The delegation ended its visit with a strong sense of the injustice and human rights violations experienced on a daily basis by ordinary Palestinians,” states the recently published “Report of the Scottish TUC Delegation to Palestine and Israel, 28th February – 7th March 2009”.

Recently Jon Pike, chair of Engage (a group set up to defeat a boycott of Israeli academia), posted a critique of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) to its activist list. Jon is also a member of the UCU NEC. In this critique he assesses the union’s democratic credentials, its ability to stand up for academic freedom, and its willingness to fight all discrimination.

Recently Jon Pike, chair of Engage (a group set up to defeat a boycott of Israeli academia), posted a critique of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) to its activist list.

In June both the RMT and Unison conferences passed motions in solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli unions and supporting dialogue rather than boycotts.

This is the speech I gave proposing the resolution on Solidarity With Israeli And Palestinian Workers at RMT's Annual General Meeting 2008 - followed by my reply to points made in the debate.

The 2008 Annual General Meeting of the RMT transport union voted by a more than two-thirds majority for a two-states, pro-solidarity, anti-boycott, anti-Hamas position on Israel/Palestine, overturning

LEFT WING ANTI-SEMITE

Why do you misconstrue my views?
Believe me, I don't hate no Jews;

The boycott issue in the lecturer’s union, UCU can be seen are composed of two dominant sides, both of which are highly problematic: on the one, the UCU Left and its SWP core that implicitly pushes

The boycott issue in UCU can be seen are composed of two dominant
sides, both of which are highly problematic: on the one, the UCU Left and

That this AGM condemns the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and denials of Palestinians' human and national rights.

Why supporters of "two states" should not join the "smash Israel" boycotters

The debate within UCU, the University and College Union, on whether to launch a boycott of Israeli academia has been called off after lawyers consulted by the leadership declared a boycott “illegal”. After a unanimous vote by the Strategy and Finance Committee, including members of UCU Left, union branches have been told they cannot vote on a boycott,

We are against academic and other boycotts against Israel. Such boycotts will inevitably claw in and target Jewish communities outside Israel, and thereby do more harm — and not only to Jews — than any possible good, any possible help that they could give to the Palestinians.

SWP chief mandarin Alex Callinicos has written a rather surprising volte-face on the Israel boycott debate in the UCU lecturers union.

Workers' Liberty 3/15 - "How can we best help the Palestinians?" Download it as pdf here (see "attachment", below) or read it online.

The equating of Israel with apartheid South Africa dates back to the ‘anti-Zionist’ campaign launched in the Soviet Union and its satellite states in the late 1960s.