Several score unionists, and Palestinian rights activists picket Israel Bonds dinner honoring Dennis Hughes and Stuart Applebaum for their support of the Israeli state.  It’s secret how much union dues and public pension money these men steered to Israel at a time when the U.S. workers are facing desperate times.  Youtube video “Shame on Denis Hughes and Stuart Applebaum”  here

Most of us are working people and big supporters of unions so why would we picket the head of the New York AFL-CIO when he receives a “Peace Medal”? It’s because he’s being given an award at an Israel Bonds dinner and Israel Bonds are one of the ways Israel pays for its Jewish-superiority system, its Wall around Palestinian areas, its Jewish-only roads, etc. etc. Unions representing Palestinian workers have called for labor unions to sell off Israel Bonds.  Several score U.S. unionists have signed onto a letter to Hughes asking him to reject the Bonds award.

Many U.S. unions own Israel Bonds. The total amount is kept private, undoubtedly because members would be outraged if they knew that their dues invested in Israel when workers in the U.S. are desperate for jobs. Estimates in union bond ownership is in the hundreds of millions. That’s not all. State union pension money is often invested in Israel Bonds by State Treasurers with no protest (or even open support) by union officials.

The protest of Dennis Hughes is Monday, June 13 in Manhattan at Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway (at 36^th St) starting at 5 p.m. More at Labor for Palestine.net

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Occupied Palestine, 4 May 2011 – In commemoration of the first of May – a day of workers struggle and international solidarity – the first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organized by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement, including federations, professional unions, and trade union blocks representing the entire spectrum of Palestinian political parties. The conference marked a historic event: the formation of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) as the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement. PTUC-BDS will provide the most representative Palestinian reference for international trade unions, promoting their support for and endorsement of the BDS Call, launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005, guided by the guidelines and principles adopted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), of which PTUC-BDS has become a key component.

Among other measure the group specifically called for reviewing pension fund investments with the purpose of divesting from Israel Bonds and all Israeli and international companies and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid,

For the whole statement see Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS

Banner Calls on Unions to Sell Bonds

At the NYC Right to Return rally Stan Heller unfurled the banner which reads “Unions, Dump Your Israel Bonds.  Use the Money for Jobs in the U.S.   Union Yes” and spoke about the shame that much of trade union leadership is blindly supporting Israeli apartheid.

 Dennis Hughes (IBEW) head of the New York state AFL-CIO and believe it or not former chairman (2009-2010) of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors to be honored for his efforts for Israel bonds.

 Here’s the notice!

 Monday, June 13 at 6 p.m. at New York’s Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway

At its January meeting the Greater New Haven (CT) Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) voted to write a letter to state Treasurer Denise Nappier asking her to sell off the state’s holding of Israel Bonds.  The state has well over $4 million in the bonds.

In Oct of 2009 the council asked the state AFL-CIO union federation to sell its bonds and in the spring of 2010 when the bonds matured the state federation did not buy more bonds.

Information received from the State of CT Treasury department shows that as of last June the state now owned at least $4.4 million in State of Israel bonds..  This is up from $3.9 million at the end of 2009.  We say at least because we’re told there’s all kind of bonds that Israel creates in joint partnership with firms. 

*June 30, 2010

So after the Gaza Massacre with its  hundreds of childern among the thousand civilians slaughtered the State of CT see more ways to make money by supporting Israel.

Why is Union Money Going Abroad?

Washing Away Labor’s War Stain

By STANLEY HELLER

Organized labor is joining with the NAACP in a “One Nation” jobs rally in Washington on October 2nd. No doubt they will be expecting anti-war folks to flock to it.  Lots of peace organizations have already done so.

Trouble is the rally has no obvious peace focus at all. Look at the One Nation Working Together website. The demands are for jobs, education and equality for all. Nothing about peace even as a way to pay for jobs. Nothing about peace even though many, many unions have passed anti-war resolutions. Now there is a formation called “the Peace Table” that’s getting anti-war groups involved in the march, but what is “The Table” getting in return? Is it the poor relation allowed to come to the party as long as it stays out of sight?

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http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2752246.htm —–

*Palestinian Trade Union Movement Unanimously Confirms Support for BDS*

25 November 2009

In reaction to reports alleging that a Palestinian trade union official has stated his reservations about the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the full spectrum of the Palestinian trade union movement has expressed solid support for the BDS National Committee (BNC)* and for the global BDS campaign against Israel as an effective form of resisting its military occupation, war crimes and apartheid policies.

On November 12, the Jewish Chronicle, a staunchly Zionist paper published in the United Kingdom, reported that the Secretary General of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), Shaher Sa’ad, had told a small delegation of British trade unionists that PGFTU

“had so little interest in the subject [of boycotting Israel] it had never discussed boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS).” The head of the delegation, Steve Scott, who is the director of Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI), a well-oiled lobbying front for Israel in the trade

union movement, is quoted in the same article as saying, “the only area where the PGFTU did have a boycott policy was with regard to produce from West Bank settlements. Even then, there was concern about whether that boycott could do more harm than good for the 30,000 Palestinians

employed there.”

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