American Unions Long Backed Israel. Now, Some Are Protesting It.
American Unions Long Backed Israel. Now, Some Are Protesting It.
The shift reflects a broader generational change, and has exposed philosophical rifts in the labor movement about what the purpose of a union ought to be.
For decades, the most prominent American unions were largely supportive of Israel. Today, though, amid a resurgence of the American labor movement, some activists are urging their unions to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and succeeding — a change that reflects a broader generational shift.
But many unions are divided over what stance to take or whether to take any stance at all.
Some American labor leaders have remained supportive of Israel’s war against Hamas, and moved swiftly to condemn Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7. They are dismayed by the views of a younger generation of organizers who in some cases oppose Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
“There has been a shift in society, and that’s reflected in the labor movement as it is every place else,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labor Committee and head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
This just in: murdering civilians is unpopular and makes people question their friendship with a bully.
32Then when someone goes, "Please don't kill civilians" they shout "STOP BEING A ANTISEMITE."
14
Regardless of your stance on what is going on in Gaza, I don't think unions should be picking a side either way.
The point of a union is to represent the worker toward their employer. This is most effective if all workers stand together.
Taking a stance on a matter that is so politically controversial as the situation in Gaza/Israel, only serves to divide workers, reducing the effectiveness of unions to achieve their core purpose.If individuals (or groups of individuals) want to support or denounce either Israel or Palestine that should be their choice, but I don't think a union should get involved in that.
24Hard disagree. Unions have taken political stances on numerous occasions throughout history. It's one of the most effective tools the working class has to fight imperialism. Imperialism is something the working class should fight against.
29I agree with this. World conflict, culture war bullshit and other wedge issues are used too often by oligarch funded media to make the working class fight with each other and forget who are really pulling the strings.
Even if I feel strongly about a particular issue, the union should be focused on getting fair working conditions for its members, and separate advocacy organizations should be focused on spreading awareness on the topic(s) they are concerned with.
4World conflict, culture war bullshit and other wedge issues are used too often by oligarch funded media to make the working class fight with each other and forget who are really pulling the strings.
Divide and conquer is one of the oldest games in the book.
4Some issues are obviously more urgent than others and a total massacre is one. No members are gonna disagree with that.
2
Unions made a huge mistake when they welded themselves to the military-industrial complex. Glad to hear the trend might reverse.
0Lmao.
Nothing like watching unions exhibit a complete lack of understanding of nuance, as usual. "I'm just going to say isreal bad because I've completely missed the boat on actually informing myself of the situation over there, but I want the brownie points from strangers to make myself feel good and pretend I'm a good person while contributing literally nothing positive to the situation. My whining and bitching is definitely going to stop the hamas terrorists from conducting terror attacks and raping innocent women and children and my whining will absolutely make sure isreal stops retaliating for the attacks on their people. No need to inform myself further on the nuance of the controlling government body of palestine being a terrorist organization, nor do I need to educate myself on the reality that the isreali government has less than 20% of the populations support! My backwater trash brain will soak up the praise of random idiots who also don't educate themselves on the history of the region so I can feel good about my absolutely terrible and bat shit decisions"
-26What a strange comment. It's the complete opposite. The more people have educated themselves on the situation and history over there, the worse it looks for Israel. The only reason Isreal has gotten away with their behavior this long is because of the ignorance of the general population of the US up to now.
17Totally this. But the jee-bot propaganda machine would like you.to think otherwise.
-2
Did'jew come up with this on our own?
-12Are you older than 10? If so, shame.
0
Of course there's a sign about everyone's favorite boogyman, AIPAC. No one likes to mention the billions in Saudi, UAE, and Qatari influence that drive anti-Israel movements.
-26Israel's own genocidal actions drive anti-Israel movements while AIPAC is trying to unseat progressives.
Are Saudi, UAE, or Qatar trying to get anti-Israel politicians elected? Anywhere? lol
13Plus it's not like anyone is really supportive of those terrible governments either.
5AIPAC is such a tiny player in politics, which is obvious to anyone who can do basic addition. They do make a convenient scapegoat to distract from the real power players influencing US policy.
The USA gives twice the arms to Saudi Arabia than Israel. Ten times more Houthis have been killed than Gazans. At least twice as many are displaced.
I'm not defending AIPAC. I'm pointing out that there is a bizarre and disproportionate vilification of one of the smallest players in the game. AIPAC is smaller than the Real Estate, Finance, or Oil lobby. When was the last time you saw a protester with a sign condemning the Susquehanna International Group, or Thiel Capital, or National Assn of Realtors? They all dwarf the size of the little Israel lobby.
Think about who the distraction benefits.
-5