In the last several weeks, unions in a number of countries have been engaged in a wide-ranging and often acrimonious debate over the subject of boycotting Israel.
\nIn Britain, both the National Union of Journalists and the University and College Union — together representing some 155,000 journalists and university lecturers — have called for a boycott of Israel. At its upcoming conference, the country’s second largest union, the 1.4 million member Unison, is likely to do the same — or else pass a somewhat watered-down version of the call. The unions and professional associations of architects and doctors are considering similar steps.<\/p>\n
In the last several weeks, unions in a number of countries have been engaged in a wide-ranging and often acrimonious debate over the subject of boycotting Israel. In Britain, both the National Union of Journalists…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-exclusive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAt a recent conference in London organised by the South East Region of the Trades Union Congress, the lay president of the TUC found herself alone and somewhat isolated defending the national centre’s traditional position of support for a two-state solution and engaging with both the Palestinian and Israeli unions.
\nNearly all the major unions in Britain have rallied behind the newly-formed “Enough” coalition which is calling for widespread protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands forty years after the June 1967 Six Day War.
\nThe debate is not confined to Britain alone. South African unions have long been champions of the Palestinian cause and have recently intensified their involvement in demonstrations and boycott calls. In Canada, the decision in 2006 by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario to call for a boycott of Israel made headlines. Several years ago, Norwegian unions backed a call for a boycott of products produced in the Jewish state.
\nBut lest one think that there is a consensus in the international trade union movement, there is not.
\nThe decision by the UCU to call for a boycott of Israel produced a strong response not only within Britain, but overseas as well. The giant American Federation of Teachers (with 1.3 million members) strongly condemned the UCU decision. And when CUPE Ontario decided to back the boycott, they were condemned publicly by, among others, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers, Buzz Hargrove.
\nThe reaction of the Israeli unions themselves has been swift and strong. The head of the union in Israel’s ports has already threatened to instruct members to stop unloading British ships and planes if the boycott threat becomes real. The leader of the Histadrut national trade union centre, Ofer Eini, has issued a public call on British unions to back down.
\nMeanwhile, many Palestinian trade unionists have publicly backed the call for a boycott of Israel, though there have some exceptions — including university teachers.
\nIt is a debate which is tearing apart the international trade union movement and at its core is a workers’ rights issue.
\nProponents of the boycott within the trade union movement are basically giving up on the Israeli left and peace movements, and on the Histradrut national trade union centre, and saying that only external pressure will persuade Israel to end the occupation. Many of them reject the traditional trade union support for a two-state solution, and call for an end to the Zionist state itself.
\nOpponents of the boycott are urging support for those elements within Israel who are seeking a solution to the decades-old conflict with Palestine and the Arab countries. Nearly all of them believe that the only solution is a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, living side by side in peace.
\nThe proponents are claiming that the violation of human rights in general, and workers’ rights in particular, is so extreme in Israel that extreme measures are called for.
\nOpponents point out that there are many countries in which human rights violations are far worse — including Sudan (Darfur), Saudi Arabia, China, Colombia and so on.
\nThat last point is an interesting one. China is a country that has no free trade unions. The national centre is state-controlled and always has been. Independent trade union activists are routinely jailed, strikes and demonsrations are broken up, and the lives of many millions of workers are miserable as a result. (You wouldn’t want your worst enemy to work in a Chinese mine, for example.)
\nAnd yet there does not seem to be any movement anywhere — at least not in the trade unions — calling for a boycott of Chinese products.
\nIn Britain, part of the reason given by the union-backed Palestine Solidarity Campaign for focussing on Palestine is that the U.K. has a special connection — all of Palestine was once a British mandate territory. But of course a case could be made that Britain has a special connection with China as well. Until ten years ago, Hong Kong was a British colony.
\nAsk proponents of the boycott why they want to boycott Israeli goods but not Chinese ones and they’ll likely answer that a boycott of China wouldn’t be effective. The Chinese economy is too big, too strong, it simply wouldn’t work. Israel, on the other hand, is a much smaller country and is therefore more vulnerable.
\nIn the schoolyard, this kind of behaviour is called “bullying”.<\/strong> Israel is being targetted by some groups because it is vulnerable, because it is a tiny country dependent upon exports to survive.
\nThe general rule for unions in dealing with boycotts is to talk to our colleagues in the country concerned. We wouldn’t support a boycott of apartheid South Africa if the workers’ organisations there didn’t call for one. We’d only back a boycott of Chinese goods if independent and democratic Chinese unions were to call for one. Workers’ rights violations take place all the time on plantations around the world, but the only way we’d consider backing a boycott call directed against Dole or Chiquita would be if the unions themselves called for one.
\nThe Israeli unions have been absolutely clear on this point: A boycott of Israel spearheaded by unions overseas strengthens the Israeli right, which always argues that country is alone and friendless in the world. And it does nothing for the Palestinians. It is simply a continuation of the official Arab boycott which began in 1945, and which picked up where the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses ended. It is the inheritor of a disgraceful<\/em> tradition.
\nIt is right for unions around the world to be discussing the plight of the Palestinians and seeking ways to provide assistance to them. But they should be doing so in partnership with the Israeli trade union movement, not in opposition to it. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"