September 23, 2024

From the US, call from labor and student organizations for strikes and actions for Palestine

An Injury to One is an Injury to All: We Won’t Work for Genocide!

CALL FOR MASS LABOR ACTION STARTING OCTOBER 7, 2024

Issued on September 23, 2024 by: UAW Labor for Palestine and Labor for Palestine National Network*
Endorsed by: National Students for Justice in Palestine

This past year, we have witnessed the Israeli regime genocide hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, throughout greater Palestine, and now into Lebanon, using weapons provided by the US under a Democratic administration.

Despite the opposition of the vast majority of Democratic voters and millions of others, and as Israel expands its genocide into Lebanon, the Biden-Harris administration will not stop the genocide. With major union leaders unwilling to go beyond mere words, workers must use our greatest leverage—the ability to collectively withhold our labor, alongside other action—to respond to urgent Palestinian trade unions’ appeals for solidarity.

We are workers from every sector whose labor is directly or indirectly implicated in this genocide. We call upon all workers—unionized and nonunionized—to heed this call. We draw inspiration from students taking material risks in their struggle to end their universities’ complicity in genocide and settler colonialism. Across the country, Gaza Solidarity Encampments demanding divestment and an end to collaboration with Israeli academic institutions were violently repressed with thousands of students and academic workers arrested, some still facing charges. We must stand with students as they continue organizing against the genocide and its escalation into Lebanon despite heightened repression. Together we have the power to disrupt the genocide weapons supply chain ourselves.

Our working and learning conditions in the US are directly connected to the fate of Palestinians. Billions of our tax dollars and labor are sent by the US government to facilitate a genocide instead of supporting universal healthcare, education, or housing while our most basic rights are under attack. We must apply economic pressure on the US-to-Israel pipeline. With Israel’s economy in a tailspin, now is the time to divest from and demilitarize empire.

Consistent with the appeal from Palestinian trade unions to stop working for 15 minutes on October 7, we will begin a rolling mass mobilization of students and workers on October 7, which marks one year of Israel’s intensified genocide in Palestine, building and escalating every two weeks:

• October 7: Student-Labor Day of Action for Gaza – withhold labor through strikes, sickouts, walkouts, pickets, rallies, and other actions to kick off Week of Rage with National Students for Justice in Palestine
• October 21: organize additional sectors to participate in and expand this mass action
• November 4: further expand and heighten the action, escalating to blockades of workplaces complicit in the genocide, including research labs, factories, and logistics that supply the Israeli military

We must also end all complicity with settler colonialism by demanding our colleges adopt BDS and our unions divest from Israel Bonds and break ties with Zionist organizations, like the racist Histadrut and genocide-supporting Jewish Labor Committee.

Take action with us and fight for a free Palestine from the river to the sea. Will you join us?

**Labor for Palestine National Network Member Organizations:

Labor for Palestine (U.S)
UAW Labor for Palestine
Amazon Labor Union - IBT Local 1
Teamsters Mobilize
Vermont Labor for Palestine
Wisconsin Labor for Palestine
UCLA Rank and File for a Democratic Union
NYC City Workers for Palestine
NYC Educators for Palestine
Fair Trade Music NOLA
Pride at Work/Eastern Massachusetts
Purple Up 4 Palestine
SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire
United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, Local 36
1021 Members for Palestine
AFSCME Local 526
No Tech for Apartheid
Brown Graduate Labor Organization, AFT/RIFT Local 6516
Brown Palestine Solidarity Caucus, AFT/RIFT Local 6516
UAW 2325 Labor for Palestine
L.A. Labor for Palestine
American Federation of Musicians,  Local 1000
Union Nurses for Palestine
Educators for Palestine
NYC Labor for Palestine
Green 4 Falasteen
Bay Area Labor for Palestine
Maine Labor for Palestine
Chinese Staff and Workers' Association
Youth Against Sweatshops
SENS UAW Local 7902
New Student Worker's Union
Writers Against the War on Gaza
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
Tech Workers Coalition
UPTE Members for Palestine
M.E.T.A (Meta Employees for Transparency and Accountability)
Colorado Labor for Palestine
IATSE Members for Palestine
Garment Worker Center
Apples Against Apartheid
UE4Palestine
Labor Community-Alliance of South Florida (LCA)

Additional Endorsing Organizations (list in formation)

Philadelphia Healthcare Workers for Palestine
Healthcare Workers for Palestine - Maine
Healthcare Workers for Palestine
CUNY for Palestine
Rank and File Action
SLU Students for Palestine
Palestinian Feminist Collective
Healthcare Workers for Palestine Salt Lake City
Diaspora Pa’lante Collective
Al-Awda, Bay Area