Newham Trades Union Council
With its large Muslim population, Newham has seen thousands of local people travel to central London for protests. And hundreds attended a local protest at Newham Town hall.
The motion also condemned Keir Starmer’s Labour for backing the Israeli state’s war.
The Newham TUC motion was moved by Socialist Party members, expressing “horror at the deaths of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border”.
A couple of union delegates proposed more wording on Hamas’s action on 7 October. An additional line was unanimously agreed: “Newham Trades Council condemns the recent attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians”.
Newham TUC supports “a mass struggle by the Palestinians for self-determination and their own viable state”. While also saying: “Only the struggle for workers’ unity, for full national rights, and for socialism can remove reactionary elites, and lay the basis for an end to oppression and wars, and see Palestinians and Israelis mutually agree on their future relations, free of all coercion, and able to live in peace and prosperity.”
Niall Mulholland, Newham Trades Union Council vice-chair and Socialist Party
Coventry Unite and Coventry TUC
A model motion, prepared by the Socialist Party, was discussed at Coventry ‘Tom Mann’ Unite branch, representing 3,500 workers, and at Coventry Trades Union Council (TUC), the federal body for unions in the city, representing over 20,000 workers. Both organisations overwhelmingly passed the motion.
But there were some dissenting views. A small number of trade unionists at the meetings, members of the Socialist Workers Party, argued that such has been the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, that any form of military action was justified.
Socialist Party members opposed the “targeting and killing of thousands of civilians on both sides”. The killing of 260 young people at a music festival would not separate working-class Israelis from that country’s far-right government, but would drive them to support Netanyahu’s strategy.
We also raised the need for trade union action to boycott supplies of armaments for the Israeli army to use against the Palestinian people.
Italian dockers did this 20 years ago to US arms destined to attack Iraq. Rolls Royce workers near Glasgow did this 50 years ago, refusing to work on engines for the Chilean Air Force to use following the military coup.
The Coventry Unite branch sent the motion to the union’s emergency Executive Council which met on 26 October. Coventry TUC sent the motion to the Midlands and national TUC.
Dave Nellist, Coventry TUC treasurer
Liverpool TUC
Our motion recognised the need for political representatives who oppose capitalist elites, and stand for the rights of the working class, including standing in solidarity with people in Gaza. So, we welcomed “trade union-backed candidates standing in the general election on that programme, including Jeremy Corbyn, who has been banned from standing for Labour”.
Alex Smith, Liverpool trades union council (personal capacity) and Socialist Party
Click here to read the model motion
