Editor’s Note: The original publishing of this article by Luis Feliz Leon is at: https://labornotes.org/blogs/2024/07/unions-representing-six-million-workers-demand-end-all-us-military-aid-israel
To view the July 24, 2024 letter the seven unions sent to President Joe Biden calling for him to stop military aid go to: https://x.com/jamieson/status/1815774364937171150
Seven national unions representing 6 million workers in the United States called on President Joe Biden today to end all military aid to Israel. The news came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, came to Washington to speak to Congress tomorrow.
It’s an unprecedented demand, coordinated across some of the nation’s biggest unions. The unions that signed the letter are the Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), Postal Workers (APWU), Painters (IUPAT), National Education Association, Service Employees (SEIU), the Auto Workers (UAW), and the Electrical Workers (UE).
Delegates at the APWU’s national convention last week passed a resolution calling on the government to halt all military aid to Israel and “stop using our tax dollars for more war.”
Last fall, Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000 and UE issued a call demanding a ceasefire soon after Israel began its assault on Gaza following the Hamas attack of October 7. That letter garnered the support of 248 unions, labor councils, and labor organizations representing 9 million members, including the UAW, APWU, AFA-CWA, IUPAT, NNU, and NEA among others.
These unions then formed the National Network for a Ceasefire, a loose coalition advocating for peace. The coalition grew even more formidable when SEIU, the nation’s largest private sector union, signed onto the letter to Biden, adding its heft to the call for a ceasefire.
Outcry over the death toll in Gaza has sparked rank-and-file organizing across the labor movement. The “uncommitted” movement, where Democratic voters declined to back Biden in the primary, galvanized a meaningful portion of the electorate. Many cities have seen sustained protests criticizing the ways Biden has helped fund, fuel, and enable the genocide in Gaza.
“Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein in a press release. “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a ceasefire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off US military aid to Israel.”
Since October 7, the U.S. has provided Israel with an additional $26 billion in military aid, on top of the $3.3 billion it was already providing yearly. The U.S. is Israel’s staunchest arms dealer, and has provided it with 27,000 bombs during this period. Israel has dropped between 70,000 and 75,000 tons of munitions on Gaza.
“Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, continue to be killed, reportedly often with U.S.-manufactured bombs,” the seven unions wrote to Biden. “And the humanitarian crisis deepens by the day, with famine, mass displacement, and destruction of basic infrastructure including schools and hospitals.” On July 9, the National Network for a Ceasefire hosted a webinar with Palestinian trade unionists. Fifteen hundred workers from 375 labor organizations registered.
“We have spoken directly to leaders of Palestinian trade unions who told us heart-wrenching stories of the conditions faced by working people in Gaza,” wrote the unions in the letter.
Human rights experts say Israel is carrying out a genocidal war against Palestinians that has killed at least 40,000 people—and that’s an undercount, because untold numbers are still lying under the rubble, and many others succumbed later to wounds, disease and malnutrition. More than 14,000 children are among the dead and 22,000 others are missing.
The United Nations estimates that Gaza will require $40 billion to rebuild the decimated coastal enclave, a devastation unseen since the aftermath of World War II. Most of the population—2 million people—have had to flee their homes, and those who remain in northern Gaza are on the brink of famine.
This week the International Court of Justice issued a ruling that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories is a violation of international law, and that any other countries aiding Israel in maintaining that occupation can be held complicit in its crimes.
Tomorrow “July 24, 2024” thousands of protesters are traveling to Washington D.C. to call for an end to all U.S. military aid to Israel, part of a large demonstration protesting Netanyahu’s visit, his first to the U.S. since October 7.
Luis Feliz Leon is a staff writer and organizer with Labor Notes.
