Labor Raises Collective Voice Against Genocide in National Network for Ceasefire

Sept. 8, 2024

Workers in Gaza “need us to push back through our unions” to demand an arms embargo, union leader Mark Dimondstein said.

As Israel perpetrates a genocide in the Gaza Strip, key players in the labor movement have joined forces to strategize how unions might apply leverage to help bring about an end to the assault. Over the last year, recognizing the widespread opposition to the war among their membership and the potential for dissent inherent in cross-union solidarity, representatives of over 200 U.S. unions — from many dozens of participating locals, to the leaderships of multiple leading national unions — banded together to form The National Labor Network for Ceasefire (NLNC).

Since its launch in February of this year, the NLNC has amassed public information resources, rallied together leading forces in labor, established links to trade unionists in Palestine and petitioned the Biden administration to meet its core demands: an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an arms embargo and humanitarian aid. Thanks to concerted advocacy and outreach efforts, the group has been able to count some of the nation’s largest labor interests — which would come to include marquee unions like the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), National Education Association (NEA), United Auto Workers (UAW) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — as allies, whether as network members or in the growing chorus of U.S. labor’s calls for ceasefire. These have been noteworthy developments; for so many key facets of the U.S. labor movement to take an official position on an international human rights issue is considered unprecedented.

Labor’s Early Stirrings of Dissent

The concept of a cross-union ceasefire advocacy network came about soon after the October 7 attacks, in early conversations between leaders at the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE), the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and Washington State’s United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000, all of whom shared serious concerns about the emerging Israeli military response. What, they wondered, should be the role of labor in domestic peace advocacy? In answer to that question, they created NLNC: an informal network that coordinates between national union representatives and union locals, brought together by shared moral conviction.

Mark Dimondstein, as executive director of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), heads one of the NLNC’s largest member unions, and was one of the coalition’s founding leaders. “This is a working people’s issue,” Dimondstein told Truthout, speaking of the ongoing genocide.

“Number one, my union and many other unions believe in social justice and solidarity, including international solidarity. We’re going to take our responsibility by not remaining silent. And the fact of the matter is, this kind of situation in the Middle East could easily lead to a wider war. And who’s asked to fight these wars, if not working people?”

The NLNC is premised on the notion that labor can and should take an explicit stance condemning the war crimes on display in Gaza — an issue that fundamentally affects people of the international working class. This is a fairly radical notion for a contemporary American labor union to officially embrace.

“The workers [of Gaza] need us to push back through our unions,” Dimondstein said. “These are bombs often funded by the United States of America. We don’t want our tax dollars being used … to bomb the hell out of innocent men, women and children. And about half of the known deaths in Gaza have been children. This has got to stop. The idea of the NLNC is to bring more organized strength to the issue, to educate on the issue, and to pressure the Biden administration to use their leverage to force a ceasefire and [deliver] massive humanitarian aid.”

Since its initial organizing last year and the official launch in February, the coalition has made steady progress toward those stated aims. After the alliances that would become the NLNC first took shape in the wake of October 7, organizers set about connecting with other U.S. unions sympathetic to the effort, gauging support and rallying allies, laying the groundwork for a coalition. This involved lobbying union leaders as well as internal supporters (the APWU is an AFL-CIO affiliate, and there are numerous movement interconnections) in hopes of establishing ceasefire calls as an official position at flagship U.S. unions.

Once groundwork was complete and alliances forged, the NLNC’s initial organizing efforts involved putting together an initial petition for a ceasefire and calling for restraint in the escalating Israeli retaliation. Early on, it became clear that Israel’s response would be disproportionately violent and indiscriminate in scope. With the death toll among Gaza civilians mounting, it was evident that Israel’s reactionary hardliner Netanyahu administration and its military forces were intent on inflicting harm on civilians, and stemming the immediate killing was paramount.

Some unions were taking official ceasefire positions as early as last fall; Starbucks Workers United, UFCW Local 3000 and UE were among the first, establishing new horizons of possibility. Leading U.S. unions, including Shawn Fain’s UAW and the SEIU, also backed student dissenters and criticized university crackdowns on campus Gaza protests. And, despite early moves against pro-ceasefire locals by AFL-CIO national representatives, the AFL-CIO ultimately backed the demand in February — a nearly unprecedented development.

Though the AFL-CIO is not an official NLNC member, the former’s sanctioning of a ceasefire demand was still quite a coup for the budding coalition. It’s a stance that is all the more noteworthy for the fact that, historically speaking, the AFL-CIO leadership (if not always its rank and file), has repeatedly taken militarist positions. Infamously, the labor federation backed U.S. deployments and escalation during the Vietnam War, arguing that the increase in domestic weapons production was good for the working class — the same working class who would fight and die in an unjust war, of course. And that pro-war position was far from the only reactionary tendency the AFL-CIO has displayed in the past. It’s a history that stands in contrast to the labor movement’s countervailing antiwar tradition, long exemplified by the UAW, among others.

As new fronts opened and major unions rallied around the ceasefire call, the labor leaders who established the NLNC also shared concerns about the potential for global escalation of the war on Gaza as the regional conflict attained new heights of volatility. Now, 11 months into the war, the coalition’s key demands have grown in tandem with the expansion of the genocidal campaign — and its ever-mounting tally of civilian dead.

“As time has gone on, we now have called for withholding military aid to force a ceasefire,” said Dimondstein. “But the ceasefire demand is a basic demand of saving lives. We think the labor movement should step up and use our collective voice to put pressure on the administration to use their power and their leverage — and they have plenty, if they want to use it — to end this tragedy.”

New Symbolic Solidarities

The NLNC organizers have embarked on a public information campaign. In addition to assembling resources and materials on the issue, they have also hosted a series of informational webinars. The first program in February brought together significant union figures, among them UAW President Shawn Fain and NEA President Becky Pringle, along with Michigan’s Palestinian American Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee. During the webinar, Pringle stated, “As educators we have a moral responsibility … to speak out against violence against innocent people, especially children.”

The second NLNC webinar in July sought to reach across international divides and make overtures to the universality of labor solidarity — by taking the noteworthy step of hosting Palestinian trade union leaders, representatives of organized health care, journalism and transportation in Gaza. The connection, Dimondstein noted, was facilitated by the U.K.-based international labor solidarity organization Workers in Palestine.

The Palestinian speakers included representatives of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the General Union of Transport and Communications Workers, and the General Union of Health Services Workers. The war has impacted every facet of life in the Gaza Strip, including labor and working life. Health care workers and journalists, are, of course, some of the professions most deeply intertwined with and affected by the depredations of the continuing genocide, as well as some of the most targeted by the Israeli military. The wholesale destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure has also had grave implications of the lives of its transportation workers. No Palestinian life has gone untouched by these crimes.

During the webinar, Salama Abu Zuaiter of the General Union of Health Services Workers, addressed the viewers. Zuaiter is also a member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).

Displaced by the war himself, he reached the webinar by video call. He stated, in translation:

We urge you to advocate for Gaza, send delegations to visit the Strip to see firsthand all the Israeli violations, show solidarity with those who survived the atrocities, and help them get their lives back at this moment of despair. The sufferings are intolerable, and our people need to see the support of the remaining honorable peoples of the world who still believe in justice and humanity, to support the right of our people of life and right of statehood in the State of Palestine, to give them oxygen to breathe and regain hope in survival after this genocide.

The assembled also heard from journalist and member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate Shuruq As’ad. “We lost 151 journalists in the last nine months,” As’ad attested. She went on to describe the unthinkable conditions in which Palestinian journalists continue to report. “So many material issues, viruses and pollution. Most of them lost their equipment — cameras, editing, mics — due to the Israeli bombing.” She said Israel has now bombed 88 media offices in Gaza, and many Palestinian journalists “have no place to work from,” adding: “They work in very hard circumstances. Some don’t even have shoes to wear.”

Speaking later to Truthout, Dimondstein added that, Gaza’s journalists believe the Israeli military is “purposefully targeting journalists to keep the word from getting out.”

Lastly, Alaa Mayas, a member of the Transport Workers Union and secretary of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions (PGFTU), Ramallah and Al-Bireh Branch, spoke via translation:

The continuous wars on Gaza and the siege on Gaza [means that] transportation is destroyed.… The fishing sector is also completely destroyed.… We blame the whole world who claim they are advocates for human rights and freedom, but they can’t force Israel to make food, or wheat, or one truck [to get] into Gaza.

There is significant value in hearing from Palestinians speak in their own words, more or less face-to-face, or as closely as virtual calls allow. Inevitably, such addresses have a humanizing effect that cannot be matched by abstract statistics or by the impersonal tone of international reportage.

A Missive to the Very Top

In addition to the webinars and other educational efforts, the NLNC turned its attention to writing and delivering a letter to the Biden administration in July, which conveyed the concern within the labor movement at the ongoing atrocities. The letter included signatures from seven major unions that wished to demonstrate dissent with Israel’s assault, perpetrated with both the tacit sanction and the overt material support of the United States. President Joe Biden has always been keen to burnish his image as a union friendly president. As such, there was a perception among labor leaders that Biden might be responsive to the will of the movement.

The New Republic referred to the letter as “a shocking show of force.” It is indeed surprising — not because the missive is especially incendiary, but because it speaks to labor’s new willingness to intervene on the issue at high levels. The text of the letter outlined the recent history of failed ceasefire efforts and declared on behalf of the undersigned that, “We believe that immediately cutting US military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.… Furthermore, Israel’s refusal to minimize civilian harm and its demonstrated restriction of U.S. humanitarian aid call for a halt to U.S. military aid under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Control Export Act.”

This represented the development of the NLNC’s demands — initially limited to a ceasefire, the group joined other activists in expanding calls to include an arms embargo. The fact that the signatories included the NEA, the SEIU, the UAW, the UE, the APWU, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the International Union of Painters (IUPAT) was certainly indicative of the significant weight behind the letter.

Dimondstein also nodded to the efforts of associated unionists and activists, some of them NLNC members, who were part of the attempts to feature a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Though this was not an official NLNC campaign and the NLNC did not have an official presence at the DNC, it was a rallying point for labor allies, most notably the UAW under Shawn Fain, who spoke at the convention.

The fact that the DNC ultimately ignored these calls was indicative of the Harris-Walz campaign’s coming orientation on the issue: Namely, that it will stay Biden’s course, continuing to sanction a genocide, while issuing limp and noncommittal statements in an attempt to placate angry voters. Those voters, who remain troubling for Democratic prospects, are exemplified by the Uncommitted movement, which has exhibited noteworthy staying power.

Featuring a Palestinian speaker “was a demand of the Uncommitted movement. It was a constructive demand,” Dimondstein said. “We think it should have happened. There were members of the National Labor Network that pushed that hard, the UAW being one of them.”

For now, the NLNC will continue to seek opportunities to apply leverage to the Democratic Party. “Certainly, we’re willing and trying to find ways to engage with the Harris-Walz team around this issue. We’re just going to continue to push where we can,” Dimondstein added. Given that the Uncommitted movement has proven so unexpectedly impactful — it’s been widely credited with playing at least some role in Biden’s decision to not seek reelection — the Democrats may find themselves unable to brush off Palestine liberation advocates as easily as they did during the DNC.

Asked about the next steps for the NLNC, Dimondstein responded, “We’ve contemplated helping sponsor a tour of Palestinian trade unionists into the U.S. to meet with trade unionists around the country. That has not taken hold yet, but we’re contemplating those kind of things.… We’re just going to keep the pressure on, wherever we can. That’s what the situation demands.”

Gathering Momentum, Looking Ahead

Even if it’s still finding its footing, the addition of this formidable union coalition to the Palestinian solidarity movement is a welcome one. While criticism from the left has ventured that unions must escalate to more radical, concrete action — e.g. moving from calls for an arms embargo to, say, physically blocking the transfer of weaponry at ports — the commitment to even more restrained acts of condemnation is a marked improvement on U.S. labor’s foreign policy record.

The NLNC promises to be a continuing force in the days to come. As Dimondstein reflected, “We’ve probably had some influence on the rest of the labor movement, even if it’s [just] in words. I don’t know if a majority of the unions now have ceasefire positions, but many of them do, including the AFL-CIO. So, I think by getting organized as the National Labor Network, we’re able to put much more of a spotlight on this issue and bring some strength to the issue within the organized labor movement.” By following the early example of the UFCW Local 3000, and at the urging of its early founding members like Dimondstein, the NLNC has at least helped labor advance past a certain political hesitancy.

The embrace, even tentatively, of a degree of international working-class solidarity by the AFL-CIO and other leading lights of the movement is a signal of qualitative change. It speaks to the wider realignment that’s taken place in recent years, where union activity is, if not reattaining its former heights, still on the relative upswing, compared to the more sedate years of the neoliberal turn. The emergence of more radical leaders like Shawn Fain also speaks to these shifts in the landscape — not yet sweeping, but perceptible.

In speaking of the NLNC’s current and future aims, Dimondstein sought to emphasize the moral dimensions of the coalition’s organizing, as well as the obligations of the U.S. labor movement, given the U.S.’s deep entanglement with Israel’s war-making.

“Let’s use our tax dollars to rebuild the health care system, the education system, the public good like the post office in the United States, rather than using those dollars to enrich the military-industrial complex and [commit what are clearly] war crimes, by anybody’s standards,” he said. “The idea of withholding food, water, medical care against any group of people is a war crime by international standards. These are war crimes, and the Israeli government needs to be called out.”

Dimondstein was also unequivocal in countering one of the primary discursive tools of Zionist ideology — the wielding of charges of antisemitism as a cudgel against any and all dissenters.

“There is a dangerous sentiment out here, pushed by the powers that be, that if you criticize the State of Israel for its inhumanity, for its killings, its war crimes, that somehow you’re anti-Jewish and antisemitic. That’s an effort to quell — and of course, it was used against the campus protesters — that’s an effort to quell dissent. That’s an effort to quell those who fight back,” he said. “I happen to be Jewish, and I’m proud to be Jewish. I have a long history and family history in the fight against fascism. But those of us who are not Zionists, who believe there’s a path to a progressive life in Palestine, are not antisemitic.”

Crucially, Dimondstein cited the widespread support of the rank and file for these forays into peace advocacy, and spoke to the sense of a turning tide on Gaza among unionists: “I travel the country — we have all sorts of meetings and conventions all over the country. When I raise this issue, it’s often the biggest round of applause, and the most positive reaction of anything I say. We’re talking about important stuff: contract negotiations, we’ve got some fights with the way management is implementing their changes, even if basic change is needed. So, there’s a lot of issues people are listening to. But on that issue, generally we’ve gotten an overwhelming positive response.”

“We have to do our part, as a union and as working people, to bring this tragedy to an immediate end, with a long-overdue ceasefire,” Dimondstein said. “Let’s start there: save lives.”

[Top photo: Thousands of pro-Palestine Americans march from Bryant Park to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Headquarters in New York City, led by labor unions calling for a ceasefire on December 21, 2023, in New York City. Selcuk Acar / Anadolu via Getty Images]