Workers' Liberty

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

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.

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.

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

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.

By Jim Denham

John Pilger has a major piece entitled (appropriately in more ways than one) "An important marker has been passed" in the present issue of the New Statesman.

An open letter to Hilary and Steven Rose from John O’Mahony

Comrades: As well-known supporters of the proposal to boycott Israel, you will have been pleased by the boycott resolutions carried recently by the lecturers’ union UCU and the journalists’ union NUJ, and by the move to “boycott Israeli institutions” contained in Resolution 54 to the conference (starting 19 June) of the public services union Unison.

Sacha Ismail and Chris Marks report on the anti-boycott meeting called by ‘Engage’, 11 July 2007

Something like 250 or 300 people attended the meeting on opposing boycotts of Israel called by the Engage campaign on 11 July. The main room in which the plenary sessions were held was packed — despite the £5 entrance fee.

The T&G has joined the growing number of unions voting to support a boycott of Israel in some form. The Biennial Delegate Conference voted on 4 July to “support a boycott of Israeli products and goods” — in very strange circumstances.

The Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU section of Unite voted on Wednesday 4 July to support a "boycott of Israeli products and goods".

The Enough! demonstration today (9 June) to mark forty years of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was small - between five and ten thousand, I would guess - and predominantly a march of ageing British lefties.

Today, Wednesday 20 June, a conference of the public sector union Unison voted by a majority of around three to one to support a boycott of Israel. Click here for a report from the debate. The following open letter makes the case against this and all such boycotts.

On Wednesday 20 June, the conference of the public services union Unison voted about three to one to endorse an "economic, cultural, academic, and sporting boycott of Israel".

About 30 people attended a "Solidarity yes, boycott no!" fringe meeting at Unison conference on Tuesday 19 June, in the run-up to the debate on boycotting Israel on Wednesday 20 June.

Leaflet for the "Enough!" demonstration in London, 9 June 2007

Statement in opposition to the calls to boycott Israeli institutions in resolutions 54 and 53, submitted to the conference of the public services Unison which starts on 19 June 2007. (We understand that resolution 53 is the more likely to be debated). To support this statement, email links.not.boycott@gmail.com. For more on this issue, see http://links-not-boycott.blogspot.com.