Editor’s Note: On December 1, Brandon Mancilla, Regional Director of United Auto Workers 9A, announced that the UAW International has called for an immediate cease-fire in Israel and Palestine. The announcement was made at a news conference outside of the White House where a hunger strike in support of a Ceasefire has been taking place. Below is a transcription of the statement from a video on the UAW International Union’s Facebook page.
“We announce that the UAW International has voted to join the call for a ceasefire. The UAW International is calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire in Israel and Palestine so that we can get to the work of building a lasting peace, building social justice and building a global community of solidarity. That is what we’ve committed ourselves to, and that is as important as anything else that we’re doing in this country in order to insure that workers and oppressed people and poor people across the world are on the path to winning the justice that they so deserve…”
Brandon Mancilla, Regional Director of UAW 9A: Good morning everyone. I’m going to start with a quote from our historic President Walter Reuther in 1968. Once he stated his opposition to the Vietnam War, he said, “We must mobilize for peace rather than for wider theaters of war in order to turn our resources and and the hearts, hands and minds of our people to the fulfillment of America’s unfinished agenda at home.”
And what he meant by that was that the labor movement would not be able to achieve the transformative goals it has for social justice, for worker justice, for economic justice, if it turned a blind eye to what was happening across the world. We opposed fascism in World War II. We ended up opposing the Vietnam War. We opposed apartheid in South Africa, and we mobilized union resources in the entire labor movement to join us in that fight. We opposed the Contra War in Central America in Nicaragua that the Reagan administration, with our tax dollars and with our resources was mobilizing. We opposed the killing of Mexican trade unionists down South where so much of our work has been outsourced. We opposed the oppressive government in Poland in support of the solidarity…
We announce that the UAW International has voted to join the call for a ceasefire. The UAW International is calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire in Israel and Palestine so that we can get to the work of building a lasting peace, building social justice and building a global community of solidarity. That is what we’ve committed ourselves to, and that is as important as anything else that we’re doing in this country in order to insure that workers and oppressed people and poor people across the world are on the path to winning the justice that they so deserve.
So I’m here, with you all. I’m proud to stand with our fellow, union members from the postal workers, from UE, from so many other unions. I’m proud to be here with the elected officials who have been so brave to stand with you all and the entire community.
The only reason this is happening is because members of our unions and so many community members and citizens in this country are finally pressuring us to speak about this, and at the very least, to have the discussion. For so long, we’ve been silent and we’ve been ignorant in the labor movement to this issue, and that time is over. I want to thank all the rank and file members who have made this happen. Thank you so much. Solidarity.
UAW President Shawn Fain in a tweet on December 1 said that he was “proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a cease-fire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the @UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe.”
