On July 23, four Peoples Power Assembly organizers raised two Palestinian flags in the stands behind home plate at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Baltimore’s baseball team, the Orioles, has called Camden Yards home since 1993.

As soon as the PPA organizers drew the flags, they were stormed by right-wing fans and Orioles security. It should be noted that seats become more expensive the closer they are to the field. Plenty of working-class people attend Orioles games; however, the individuals sitting in the most expensive seats were, for the most part, wealthy and hostile to the cause of Palestine. 

Several fascists attempted to snatch the flags from the organizers’ hands. Other right-wing fans spit on the group and hurled slurs. That said, support could be heard from the seats higher up in the stands. The masses of the people support Palestine. 

Even though security and fascists forced the PPA organizers from the game, the demonstration generated a large reaction in the mainstream press. The Orioles’ Baltimore Sun beat reporter captured the entire demonstration and altercation on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

In particular, ultra-Zionist media sources such as “Shirion Collective,” “the Media Research Center,” and “Israel Hayom” responded strongly to the anti-Zionist disruption. Shirion Collective actually went as far as to encourage a violent response to the PPA organizers. Yet, it was the Zionists who were inciting. 

Directly after the demonstration, the Orioles released a ludicrous statement: “The individuals displaying political signage, which is a violation of our policy, were not seated in their ticketed seats and inciting fans in the surrounding area.” 

So, to get this straight, four people wave two flags, and that justifies a fascist mob response? There always seems to be an excuse for the right wing’s bad behavior. Fact is, Orioles owner David Rubenstein has skin in the game. Rubinstein’s investment firm, the Carlyle Group, is heavily invested in General Dynamics and similar defense contractors. Needless to say, the genocide against Gaza has been profitable for Rubenstein and Carlyle. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Rubenstein has a long-standing friendship with genocidal maniac-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The movement for Palestine must continue to confront the U.S. warmongers and fascists behind Zionism’s reign. As long as Palestine remains occupied, the U.S. ruling class and their Zionist running dogs must know absolutely no peace. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

Following is an epilogue for the book “War & Lenin in the 21st Century” by Gary Wilson. The book is available in online bookstores.

The chapters in this book were written in the year before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched on Oct. 7, 2023. The following genocide in Gaza by the Zionist regime has sparked a worldwide movement that includes many Jewish people against Israeli apartheid, genocide, and for Palestinian self-determination, from the river to the sea.

According to a report by Bloomberg on Nov. 14, the U.S. was secretly supplying weapons and ammunition to aid in the invasion of Gaza, separate from the official Congress-approved military aid to Israel. The Pentagon covertly increased military support to Israeli forces, providing laser-guided missiles, cannon ammunition, bunker-buster munitions, night-vision devices, and new army vehicles. These deliveries include a variety of military armaments beyond the well-known Iron Dome interceptors and Boeing smart bombs. 

There can be no question that the U.S. is fully behind the apartheid regime’s “ethnic cleansing” of the Gaza Strip, an operation that began after President Joe Biden’s theatrical public embrace of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023. It was the hug that launched an invasion.

Zionist-occupied Palestine — “Israel” — is an apartheid settler state, more like a U.S. colony. Joe Biden recently repeated a line he famously said in 1986: “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” Actually, they did invent one.

Although the British declared the creation of the settler colony in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, it was after World War II, with British power fading, that the Zionist state of Israel was founded (invented) with the backing of the United States. It couldn’t and wouldn’t have been done without U.S. backing. From that beginning, Israel could not have existed for even one day without U.S. financial and military support.

The United States has officially given Israel more than $260 billion in combined military and economic aid since World War II, plus about $10 billion more in contributions for missile defense systems like the Iron Dome, according to a U.S. News report. No other country in the world has received such military and economic support from the U.S. Some have even called it the 51st state of the U.S.

In a speech in December 1981, Gen. Alexander Haig, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State, said Israel is “the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security” (source: NYT article, Dec. 15, 1981).

The profits of this “American aircraft carrier” go to Big Oil and the military-industrial weapons manufacturers.

Taking over Europe’s gas market

Since the 1990s, Washington and Wall Street have been trying to take over the natural gas market in Europe from Russia. The Nord Stream pipeline was the primary route for Russian natural gas, and Nord Stream 2 was built to expand capacity. Before the NATO proxy war against Russia began, Victoria Nuland, then undersecretary of state for political affairs, declared that “one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” On Sept. 27, 2022, the pipeline was blown up by the U.S. military, as reported by Seymour Hersh.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the disruption of the Nord Stream pipelines a “major strategic opportunity for years to come” and highlighted that the “U.S. has become the leading supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe,” which is at a significantly higher price than the Russian natural gas.

LNG, delivered by ships, is the only alternative available right now to Russian natural gas delivered through pipelines. The top two suppliers worldwide of LNG are the U.S. and Qatar. The North Field East Project of Qatar Energy is an ExxonMobil, ENI, Total Energies, ConocoPhillips, and Shell partnership. They are talking of a pipeline across occupied Palestine to the Mediterranean to expedite deliveries to Europe.

The U.S. oil giant Chevron already plunders natural gas from the stolen waters off Palestine. Chevron operates a major natural gas facility, named Tamar, located 12 miles off the coast in the territorial waters of the Palestinian Territory of Gaza. As the New York Times reported, this has been projected to become a hub for exporting natural gas to Europe through the proposed EastMed pipeline.

Military-industrial profits soar

Never to be underestimated, “Wall Street eyes big profits from war,” was a Guardian headline on Oct. 30.

“Wall Street is hoping for an explosion in profits,” the Guardian reports.

“During third-quarter earnings calls this month, analysts from Morgan Stanley and TD Bank took note of this potential profit-making escalation in conflict and asked unusually blunt questions about the financial benefit of the war …

“Joe Biden has asked Congress for $106bn in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine and humanitarian assistance for Gaza. The money could be a boon to the aerospace and weapons sector, which enjoyed a 7-percentage point jump in value …

“Greg Hayes, Raytheon’s chairman and executive director, responded: ‘I think really across the entire Raytheon portfolio, you’re going to see a benefit of this restocking … on top of what we think is going to be an increase in the [Department of Defense] top line [budget].’”

War and Lenin in the 21st century

• Introduction: Imperialism and the road to socialist revolution
• Part 1: U.S. funds war, takes over Ukraine assets
• Part 2: Five key features of imperialism
• Part 3: NATO, the imperialist war machine
• Part 4: Imperialism and the new Cold War
• Part 5: Low-wage workers of the world, unite!
• Epilogue: U.S. complicity in Gaza genocide and military profiteering
• Appendix: Is Russia imperialist?

For Immediate Release

PRESS CONFERENCE: Over 20 Organizations to speak at LA City Hall against a proposed resolution in City Council that would provide upwards of $1 million to Pro-Israel vigilante/security companies for Zionist Defense training.

When: 7:30AM Tuesday, July 2nd

Where: Los Angeles City Hall steps on Spring St.

Contact: John Parker (323)899-2003 (English), Ron Gochez (323)450-6113 (Spanish)

What: Over 20 organizations including Jewish, Palestinian, human rights and anti-racist organizations will demand that LA City Council members vote against a resolution that has been introduced by Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky that would provide $1 million of public funds to racist Zionist vigilante groups such as Magen Am that are composed of former IDF and US military soldiers. Magen Am trains Zionists to use guns, tasers, batons and hand-to-hand self-defense.

Israel Defense Forces Veterans Hired To Protect Jewish Communities In Los Angeles (standwithus.com)

The proposal is supposed to provide funding to protect pro-Israel Zionists from violence but the reality is that even mainstream media outlets have clearly reported that the majority of the violence that took place at UCLA and at the Adas Torah Synagogue Palestinian land auction event was clearly committed by pro-Israel counter protestors.

How Counterprotesters at U.C.L.A. Provoked Violence, Unchecked for Hours – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Unmasking Counterprotesters Who Attacked UCLA’s pro-Palestine encampment | CNN

The proposal also vilifies Pro-Palestinian activists who continue to protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Said Lulu Hammad, co-founder of Yalla Indivisible and the SoCal Ceasefire Coalition: “We are deeply concerned that Mayor Bass and the LA City Council are disregarding the concerns and experiences of the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities in LA. Their actions are escalating tensions rather than fostering understanding. This motion and the Mayor’s statement painfully echo the bias we saw from then-Mayor Garcetti and the LA City Council in May 2021, when they condemned a supposed antisemitic attack at a sushi bar involving two pro-Palestine men—charges that were quietly dropped in 2023. (https://forward.com/opinion/557568/los-angeles-jewish-diner-attack-sentence/)

One would expect Mayor Bass to diligently understand the dynamics of her city, but her actions are making Los Angeles less safe. Allocating public funds to private armed groups like Magen Am, implicated in violent incidents at UCLA, without addressing these attacks, amounts to funding local terrorism.”

Lisa Katz explained: “I grew up hearing stories about my family members who were murdered in the holocaust by the Nazis. It is my sacred obligation to do whatever I can to ensure no people anywhere ever experience what my ancestors did. Never Again means to anyone. Starving children to death, bombing families in their homes, destroying houses of worship and places of learning, these are Zionist values, not Jewish values. Zionism does not represent me, my family, or our Jewish values of tikkun olam and the sacredness of every life. This is a TERRIBLE idea. As a Jewish resident of this city, I and my family are completely against this absurd, reckless proposal.”

One of the organizers of the press conference, John Parker of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice said: “If the city of Los Angeles funds violence and repression of constitutional rights of peaceful pro-Palestinian activists and assemblies, that would make LA Mayor Karen Bass and councilmembers complicit in genocide. What needs to be stopped is the ongoing violence by the LAPD and Sheriffs against Palestinian, Black and Brown victims here in Los Angeles County. The proposed resolutions to fund vigilante groups promoting white supremacy and genocide only empowers and encourages the systemic violence against our working class.”

Last year the South African Government, which also has a history of apartheid, successfully brought the case condemning humanitarian violations in the occupation by Israel in Gaza with the International Court of Justice warning that any enabling of genocide in Gaza is a war crime against humanity.

Attendees will go into city council’s hearings demanding that money should be used instead for social necessities, like the housing of unhoused students, and pointing out that Mayor Bass’ role in exacerbating tensions only encourages Zionist violence against protesters.

On May 29, The Guardian released an opinion piece that criticized Israel for its actions towards the ICC. Titled “By attacking and undermining the ICC, Israel has proved again it is a state gone rogue,” the article highlights “Israel’s” genocidal aggression in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to comply with International Court of Justice warrants against himself and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. 

The ruling class media seemingly wants to convince the public that the U.S. and Joe Biden are goodwill actors in all this. MSNBC, AP, CNN, and Fox News all insist that Joe Biden and the U.S. political establishment are at odds with the current Israeli government because it has “gone rogue.” 

Both the Democrats and the Republicans have always supported arming Zionism. Regardless of U.S. political administration, the U.S. happily supplies the Zionist regime with arms.

There is no doubt that Benjamin Netanyahu is a despicable fascist genocidal demagogue hellbent on the expansion of U.S. imperialist interests in the Middle East. With that said, Zionism’s evil did not begin with Benjamin Netanyahu, and it certainly does not end with him. “Israel” was a bloody colonial project from the beginning. 

Bloody ‘Labor Zionism’

For the first 18 years of Israel’s existence, the Mapai party held most seats in the Knesset, “Israel’s” parliament. Mapai was formed in 1930 by fascist militia leader David Ben-Gurion and prominent labor Zionist A.D. Gordon. According to labor Zionist beliefs, “Israel” was envisioned as a socialist Jewish nation in occupied Palestine. In 1948, Ben-Gurion became the first prime minister of the Zionist regime, holding reign from 1948 to 1953 and 1955 to 1963.

During Ben-Gurion’s second reign as prime minister, he oversaw the Zionist regime’s invasion of Egypt in 1956, sparking the Suez War, with support from British and French troops. The UN forced Israel to withdraw from Sinai; nevertheless, Zionist forces held Gaza until March 1957. From 1956 to 1957, Israel killed, wounded, tortured, or imprisoned approximately 1% of Gazan civilians. Labor Zionism, as an ideology, was packaging to legitimize the full-scale colonization of Palestine on the world stage.

The Second Intifada and Kadima

The Second Intifada, or Second Uprising, began in 2000 after the Camp David Summit failed to establish an independent Palestinian state. 

In the Second Intifada’s first month alone, the IDF murdered 141 Palestinians and wounded almost 6,000. Amnesty International reported that 80% of the Palestinians killed in the Intifada’s first month were unarmed demonstrators or bystanders who posed no threat to “Israeli” security forces. 

Five months later, Ariel Sharon was elected as “Israeli” Prime Minister. Sharon immediately escalated the conflict with expanded IDF operations against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

As the violence escalated, the pressure on Israel escalated. For these reasons, Sharon proposed the 2003 unilateral Israeli disengagement from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank. To be clear, Sharon’s motivation was not a sudden change of heart to anti-Zionism. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, then the defense minister, resigned from Sharon’s government because of the disengagement. Consequently, Sharon founded his own separate party, Kadima. Kadima was explicitly anti-Netanyahu but openly Zionist and supported most “Israeli” settlements. Three years after Kadima’s founding, Kadima leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began a war in Gaza that killed 1,181 Palestinian civilians.

The mainstream liberal narrative is that if Israel just deposed Netanyahu, the problems of Zionism would cease. Tell that to the 100,000 people made homeless in Kadima’s war against Gaza.

Anti–Netanyahu movement 

The last five years have seen the growth of a fairly large protest movement against Netanyahu. However, we have to be clear: these protests are in no way and have never been anti-Zionist. The movement against Netanyahu is not pro-Palestine in any form. 

The initial demonstrations against Netanyahu began in 2020 and continued into 2021. The organizers were a coalition of IDF generals, Shin Bet intelligence officers, and politically moderate Israeli reporters. These early protests broke out after Netanyahu was charged with corruption. Never once was Palestine raised as a central issue in these protests.

Fast-forward to 2023, when anti-Netanyahu protests again erupted across the 1948 borders. This time, led by a coalition of moderate political forces similar to the 2020 protests, the movement targeted Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reform. 

Under the proposed reform, the Supreme Court of Israel could no longer overturn government decisions deemed extremely unreasonable. If passed, the reform would also have allowed the Prime Minister’s office more discretion over appointing judges. 

So again, the moderate forces streamed into the streets of “Tel-Aviv” and “Jerusalem” to protect their democracy! It is hard to take seriously a group of people demanding democracy when that same group of people is committed to the deprivation of democracy from the entirety of the indigenous population. The anti-judicial reform protests ended on Oct. 12, after Netanyahu formed a war cabinet.  

This is not to say that there have not been anti-Netanyahu demonstrations since Oct. 7. There certainly have been; however, these protests did not originate with the organized political center as in 2020 and 2023. The protests against Netanyahu as the war has raged on seem more organic and based on a genuine rage against the Zionist tyrant’s failure to “bring home the hostages.” 

And while somewhat different in their political origin, these two strains of the anti-Netanyahu movement do have one thing in common: their Zionism. Calling for Netanyahu to end the genocidal operations in Gaza is not the same as calling for the abolition of Zionism. Until the mass movements in “Israel” do so, they have to be viewed within their material political context, and that context is ultimately just liberal Zionism. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

June 26 — The militant mobilization of dockworkers at Greece’s major port, Piraeus, on Saturday, 15 June, led to the cancellation of the arrival of “MSC ALTAIR”, a container ship transporting weaponry and ammunition to Israel.

As “Rizospastis” daily reported, MSC ALTAIR began its itinerary from Valencia, Spain, and was due to reach Israel via Piraeus. According to information, the cargo ship was carrying ammunition and other war material destined to be used by the IDF against the Palestinians in the slaughterhouse of Gaza.

The Dockworkers’ Union ENEDEP in Piraeus declared its firm refusal to facilitate the cargo ship, forcing it to change its route towards Italy.

“We, the Piraeus’ dockworkers declare that we will not accept whatsoever to unload the ship”, they said in a statement, adding: “We won’t participate in the slaughter of innocent people for the profits of the few. We are raising our children with humanity and through our struggles we have taught them the lesson of solidarity, resistance and pride.”

In a statement, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) denounced “the arrival at the Piraeus port of cargo ship MSC ALTAIR which among other things is transporting war material with Israel being the final destination […] This is one more proof of the Greek government’s plans for the increasingly deeper involvement of the country in the U.S.-NATO plans and its support towards the ‘state-murderer’ of Israel, at the expense of the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

Source: Labor Today International

Targets weapons profiteers Boeing and RTX

On one of the hottest days of the year thus far, hundreds of demonstrators representing over 20 organizations gathered in the blistering heat at a complex in El Segundo, California, shared by Boeing and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon. 

They were there to demand an end to the provision of U.S.-made arms to Israel and denounce the role of billionaire weapons makers in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Some activists from the Black Alliance for Peace had traveled nine hours from Tucson to participate.

Banners and signs were attached to the gates of the Boeing/RTX campus in El Segundo, charging the weapons manufacturers with complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. The group then marched down to the Los Angeles Times building to demand honest and accurate reporting of the atrocities in Gaza. 

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Boeing and RTX have seen record profits. In the weeks immediately following the outbreak of the conflict, weapons manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, among others, have experienced a nearly $30 billion surge in market capitalization, according to Forbes. This has been mainly facilitated by Congress and the Biden administration’s extensive military aid packages, which include numerous F-15 Joint Strike Fighters, Apache attack helicopters, and thousands of laser-guided missiles, bunker-busters, and other munitions that Israel has utilized in its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the death toll from the conflict reached at least 37,626 on June 24. Save the Children estimates that more than 21,000 children are dead or missing in Gaza.

At the first rally, Ayman Obeid of the Free Democratic Palestine Movement told the crowd, “All of these U.S. weapon manufacturing facilities that are participating in the transfer of these illegal, prohibited, and destructive weapons to the zionazi enemy make them complicit in human rights abuses, to violations of international law, crimes against humanity and the genocide and devastation taking place against our people in Gaza now. These disgusting, dirty war profiteers and criminals should be punished and sent to jail where they belong. They must be held accountable for putting the tools of death in the hands of the zionazi murderers who are committing these savage crimes and for spilling innocent pure Palestinian blood on their monstrous hands.”

Similar sentiments were also echoed by several other speakers at the demonstration, who drew the connection between the devastation and mayhem experienced in Gaza and the death merchants here at home, demanding that enough is enough.

Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter delivered a message of Black solidarity with Palestine when she said, “We demand a world free of genocidal terror. We demand a world free from the kind of capitalist structure that is hellbent on exploiting both its workers and all of the people of the world. … We demand that and are willing to put our bodies on the line for that.” Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter Movement co-founder, is Cornel West’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign.

When the rally at the site of the weapons makers concluded, the crowd took over all four lanes of East Imperial Highway and marched a mile east to the Los Angeles Times building. Among the speakers was Fatin from the Unmute Humanity organization. Judeh blasted the Times for its pro-Zionist reporting and history of completely ignoring the brilliant and widespread protest movement that has taken to the streets over and over again since the Zionist genocide against the people of Gaza began. Soon after the Zionist state launched its bloody assault, the Times banned 38 of its own reporters from covering Gaza after they signed an open letter criticizing the paper for its pro-Israel bias.

The crowd then took over all four westbound lanes of Imperial Highway for a slow march back to the original site, stopping for yet another impromptu rally along the way. 

Endorsing organizations for the June 22 demonstration include Al-Awda, Association of Raza Educators, BAYAN, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Catholic Worker LA, CODEPINK LA, Free Democratic Palestine Movement, Healthcare 4 Us, Justice 4 Palestine Contingent, Jewish Voice for Peace LA, LA Lavender Guard, Struggle-La Lucha, Students for Justice in Palestine from both Santa Monica College and UCLA, Union del Barrio, Unmute Humanity, and Veterans for Peace LA, and others. 

Resistance News Network report from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The position of the resistance factions is clear and firm: complete cessation of aggression and full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip

The war criminal Netanyahu firmly confirms he does not want to stop the war for narrow calculations and rejects Biden’s proposal contrary to American claims.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirms that the announcement by the enemy’s Prime Minister, war criminal Netanyahu, yesterday in a televised interview, stating he “does not want to stop the war, and he wants a partial agreement to resume the war afterwards,” is a definitive confirmation that he does not want to stop the war and rejects Biden’s proposal in this regard, contrary to American claims.

This stance put forth by Netanyahu proves that he is the primary obstacle to the ceasefire agreement and indicates an American-“israeli” game to impose a ceasefire and prisoner exchange proposal without guarantees, allowing the occupation to resume aggression.

The Front emphasizes that the position of the resistance factions is clear and firm: any ceasefire must include a complete cessation of hostilities, a full withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, the return of all displaced persons to their homes, reconstruction, the lifting of the siege, and the unconditional opening of all crossings.

The Front reiterates that the American position is biased towards the occupation and that its efforts to achieve a ceasefire are suspicious and dubious.

Regarding the war criminal Netanyahu’s remarks about “failed plans to have clans manage the Gaza Strip,” and that he “has other plans he will not disclose,” the Front stresses that no Palestinian or Palestinian entity agrees to play this dubious role and that there is national consensus to thwart this plan and determine the future of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu’s statements confirm his relentless efforts to prolong the war for narrow political calculations, even at the expense of “israeli” captives, disregarding all the realities on the ground, the appeals of the families of “israeli” prisoners, or the advice of zionist political and military leaders, who affirm the inability to achieve any goal in the Gaza Strip, that the occupation army is sinking in the mire of Gaza, and that the only solution is to reach a political agreement.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department
June 24, 2024

June 20 — Hundreds of people came to New York City’s reference library on Fifth Avenue today to protest shipping giant Maersk making profits from the genocide in Gaza.

The notoriously anti-labor Danish corporation operates 786 ships with annual revenues of $51 billion. It is a vital Pentagon maritime auxiliary in U.S. wars for oil profits.

Maersk has made millions in shipping U.S. weapons to the Zionist regime that has killed 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza. A worldwide campaign to Unmask Maersk has been launched.

The Palestinian Youth Movement, part of the Shut It Down for Palestine coalition, called the New York City action. Other supporting organizations included PAL-Awda: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; The People’s Forum; ANSWER Coalition; Party for Socialism and Liberation; NYC City Workers for Palestine; and Code Pink.

Reyna from AFSCME District Council 37 and City Workers for Palestine denounced Maersk for shipping the bombs that have killed over 15,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.

Protesters marched to the Grand Central Terminal and Grand Central Tower, where Maersk has its New York City offices. There, they rallied and hung huge banners, including one that read, “Maersk profits from Gaza Genocide.”

Support for Palestine and Cuba wins unanimous approval at the ILWU 39th convention

“Solidarity at the ILWU Convention was not an empty slogan,” reports retired dockworker Clarence Thomas.

Thomas participated in the 39th Convention of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) held in Vancouver, B.C., from June 17 to June 21 as a fraternal delegate representing the ILWU Pacific Coast Pensioners Association (PCPA). 

Solidarity was substantial and real there. Unions shared their resources to help each other stay strong, and courageous union members stood up in support of their sisters and brothers in Palestine and Cuba. 

Million-dollar checks were presented to ILWU President William Adams at the convention podium. Mike Vigneron, President of the Atlantic Coast District of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), gave one check. Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers Union Federation (ITF), matched that donation.

Their historic actions were taken to help restore the ILWU’s assets, which had been depleted by the International Container Terminal Services (ICTS) litigation against the ILWU Longshore Division. A federal court awarded ICTS $20.5 million of ILWU union funds over a dispute involving a job slowdown in Oregon.

International solidarity with Palestine and Cuba  

Addressing the crisis of genocide in Gaza, Brother Cotton from the ITF spoke of his communications with Palestinian trade unionists. He explained that Palestinian taxi and truck drivers want U.S. workers to support their right to self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

Two Australian union leaders appealed for international labor action to stop the massacre and displacement of Palestinians. They received overwhelming applause. 

Cris Cain, National Secretary of the 30,000-member Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU), declared: “Peace is union business.” 

He talked about how the ILWU port shutdowns helped to end apartheid in South Africa and how, recently, dockworkers in Australia have engaged in parallel actions by refusing to work vessels carrying military supplies to enforce apartheid and carry out genocide against Palestine.

Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, called for an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution.

In a video message celebrating Juneteenth, ILWU Honorary Member Angela Davis sent greetings and a plea for support of the Palestinians.

The resolution to remove Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) was first introduced at the Constitution Committee Meeting, where it was passed without opposition. Committee members, including Thomas, spoke about the devastating impact of the 62-year-long embargo, an act of war that deepened the hardship imposed on the entire Cuban population.

That resolution, calling for an end to the boycott of Cuba, was introduced to the convention delegates. They voted unanimously to approve the convention resolution. 

The resolution follows:

Send Pacemakers to Cuba  and end the U.S. embargo

WHEREAS: ILWU policies and actions on foreign affairs have always been built on the 

belief that international labor solidarity and world peace are the cornerstones of 

social and economic justice for all workers, including the membership of the ILWU; 

and 

WHEREAS: The union’s commitment to a peaceful world has been expressed in many ways, 

each following a course of action or basic policy set by the membership through 

the International Convention; 

and 

WHEREAS: Washington has placed Cuba on its list of alleged terrorist nations (SSOT), which severely impacts Cuba’s ability to secure loans and participate in world banking systems, thus disabling tourism, agriculture, and other productive markets; 

and 

WHEREAS: 243 punitive executive orders/sanctions were issued by President Trump and reinforced by President Biden, intensifying hardship for the working people; 

and 

WHEREAS: In 2023, a resolution to end the Cuban blockade [at the UN General Assembly] passed 182 to 2 (U.S. and Israel opposed); 

and 

WHEREAS: Except for empty campaign promises, the Biden administration has done nothing to undo the hardships of the blockade forced on the Cuban people. These policies leave Cuba with a shortage of fuel, food, medicines, spare parts; 

and 

WHEREAS: Cuba has sent 3,700 health workers in 52 international medical brigades to 39 countries overwhelmed by the Covid pandemic. Cuba’s international medical brigades have treated patients and saved lives for the past 18 years in 100 countries confronting natural disasters and serious epidemics, such as the Ebola crisis in West Africa; 

and 

WHEREAS: Cuba has developed five internationally recognized COVID-19 vaccines to meet its commitment to sharing its low-cost vaccines with poor nations and continues to develop new medicines for treating Alzheimer’s, Diabetic foot ulcers, and lung cancer. Thus continuing its tradition as a world leader in medical research and development; 

and  

WHEREAS: Recently, more than 30 labor bodies have passed strong resolutions calling for ending the sanctions and removing Cuba from the SSOT, including multiple entities in California (including the LA Federation of Labor representing 800,000 workers) and Washington State: and  

WHEREAS: The majority of Cuban Americans in Miami oppose the blockade and have demonstrated with car caravans and other actions for years calling for an end to the blockade and instead build bridges of love, Puentes de Amor; 

and 

WHEREAS: the ILWU has historically enjoyed an international relationship with the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC), and in 1947, participated in organizing the International Sugar Workers Committee; 

THEREFORE BE IT 

RESOLVED: that the 2024 ILWU Convention calls on the Biden administration to vote FOR the U.N. Resolution to end the U.S. unilateral extraterritorial blockade of Cuba and remove Cuba from the spurious U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism (SSOT), reset Cuba regulations to January 1, 2017, initiate the discussion to fully normalize US-Cuba relations, and 

BE IT FURTHER 

RESOLVED: that the ILWU will commit to donate $10,000 to Global Health Partners to purchase Pacemakers4Cuba* and

BE IT FINALLY 

RESOLVED: that this Resolution will be distributed to Congressional delegations, the news media, and all labor organizations, urging them to do the same. 

Submitted by Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific

* GHPartners.org/Pacemakers4Cuba Global Health Partners is a 50Jc3 charity with a commerce License to send medical supplies to Cuba 

After weeks of solidarity with student demonstrators, academic workers across the University of California system were ordered to halt their unfair labor practice strike until June 27.

UAW 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers across the UC system, called the strike in response to UC’s serious unfair labor practices, which began on May 1 when the university allowed an organized mob to beat students, faculty, and staff attending a Gaza solidarity protest at UCLA. More than a hundred were injured, and dozens were sent to the hospital. The next night, the university called in riot police to arrest those protesters who remained. 

The union has denounced the restraining order and points out that this temporary restraining order does not mean the strike has been ruled “illegal.”

“UC academic workers are facing down an attack on our whole movement,” said Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Randall J. Sherman issued the order. The ruling arrives after the UC tried and failed on two separate occasions to break the strike through lawsuits filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) claiming UAW 4811 violated its no-strike clause.

Rafael Jaime responded, “PERB, the regulatory body with the expertise to rule on labor law, has twice found no grounds to halt our strike. I want to make clear that this struggle is far from over. In the courtroom, the law is on our side and we’re prepared to keep defending our rights — and outside, 48,000 workers are ready for a long fight.”

The court’s restraining order has galvanized support for UAW across many other unions. United Teachers Los Angeles members recently joined forces with UAW 4811 and 872 academic workers for a “Drop The Charges” rally outside of Los Angeles City Hall. The rally also received the support of LA councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez.