Trade Unionists ask Richard Trumka to support boycott of Israel

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, stated at an October 2009 dinner of the Jewish Labor Committee:  "And tonight, let me tell you that, so long as I'm president, you will never have a stronger ally than the AFL-CIO.  That's why we're proud to stand with the JLC to oppose boycotting Israel."

In response, trade unionists have written a letter to Trumka asking him to reconsider this position, and to support the international boycott of Israel.

The letter states, in part:
In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be another $30 billion. As in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous and bullets kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers, while both Democratic and Republican politicians condone the slaughter. Amidst deepening economic crisis, workers in this country pay a staggering human and financial price for U.S.-Israeli war and occupation throughout the region.
 
Despite all of this, however, many U.S. labor officials -- often without the knowledge or con-sent of union members -- have ignored Palestinian appeals for justice. Instead, they continue to collaborate with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that not only supported Israel's war on Gaza, but which has spearheaded -- and whitewashed -- racism, apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians since the 1920s.
 
They have invested billions of our union pension funds and retirement plans in State of Israel Bonds. They have actively encouraged the U.S. to provide the money and weapons that oppress Palestinian workers, and to ensure Israel's role as watchdog for U.S. domination over the oil-rich Middle East. 

Read the rest here.