LABOR FIGHTBACK NETWORK

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

Every day that passes makes us more outraged: Close to 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, countless others have been injured or disappeared, while 90% of the 2.1 million inhabitants of Gaza have been left without shelter, water, food or medical attention. We are watching genocide unfold before our very own eyes.

The U.S. labor movement could put a stop to this madness. It has the potential power to stay the hands of the warmakers and arms’ providers — the power to “Shut It Down.” In all the recent marches and actions in support of the Palestinian resistance, the call to “End All U.S. Aid to Apartheid Israel” has been heard.

It is time to call upon the heads of our labor movement to take up this campaign. Sister Donna Dewitt, past president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO and Steering Committee member of the Labor Fightback Network, put it this way:

“The LFN is calling for the union leadership to demand an end to the support of arms to Israel at the same time that it calls for a ceasefire. Individual unions should follow up with targeted demands based upon their membership work experiences – the weapons’ industry, the shipping industry, communications, and journalism, etc. A few have done this, and it’s making a difference. However, if they would all demand an end to the war efforts, beginning with an end to arms’ shipments to Israel, it could bring this devastation to an end.”

On Monday, December 18 we will publish this statement with the first list of endorsers. Please be among the first endorsers. Please send us ASAP your name, union or organization (list if for id. only), city, and state [see coupon below; Action Alert Endorsement Form is in the works]. The time to take action is now!

We hope to hear from you very soon,

In solidarity,

Steering Committee,

Labor Fightback Network

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LFN Sign-On Statement; Please Endorse Today!

Every day, every hour, every minute that passes, hundreds of tons of bombs are dropped on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Children, women, and men are murdered, buried, and mutilated by bombs “MADE IN the USA.”

It is a fact recognized by all military specialists: The Israeli army does not have stocks of bombs and artillery shells. If U.S. arms’ deliveries were to be halted, the Israeli army would be forced to stop its bombings in less than two days.

For two months, hundreds of thousands of young people, workers, and union activists across the United States have taken to the streets to demand “END ALL AID TO APARTHEID ISRAEL!” Most notably, tens of thousands of Jewish activists have declared loudly that the genocide being perpetrated against the people in Gaza is “NOT IN OUR NAME!”

We, the undersigned trade unionists, labor activists, community activists, and militants in the Black Liberation Movement state clearly:

It is the responsibility of the leaders of the trade union organizations at the national, state, and local levels to demand:  

END ALL U.S. MILITARY AND FINANCIAL AID TO ISRAEL NOW!

• It is their responsibility, now, without delay, to mobilize their members to refuse to load cargo ships and planes with weapons earmarked for Israel, following in the footsteps of the ILWU, which decades ago blocked all ships with South African  cargo, thus helping to bring down the hated Apartheid regime in South Africa. Most recently, it would mean following the example of dockworkers in Belgium and other countries who refused to load military cargo destined to Israel.

• It is their responsibility to call for action now: Not a single weapon, not a single U.S.-made bomb, must be delivered to Israel!

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