See below the points made by the mover of the motion at LE524 Central London Voluntary Sector branch.
“At our Policy Conference three months ago 17 motions on Palestine, including our branch’s motion, were amalgamated into an Executive Council statement The EC statement. with 20 action points, was passed overwhelmingly, and is now Unite’s official policy.
Three of the action points are around initiatives to encourage members to boycott goods going to Israel to be used in war crimes. For example, Action Points 4, 14 and 20.
- Work with PSC to engage and inform members and reps in specific sectors and industries, particularly those working in companies that are identified as complicit with war crimes and the crime of genocide, for an effective assessment of, and to ensure full coordination with the campaigns- reaffirming Unite’s support of PSC.
- And Ensure Unite mobilises to assist sectors, in sectoral specific acts of solidarity with Palestinians counterparts and for the union to fully support these and other sectors actions.
- Heed the call from Palestinian trade unions by encouraging and supporting members to refuse to build, handle or transport weapons destined for Israel, as well as making a public statement in support of such embargo.
Other action points encourage members to engage in divestment and sanctions. One is from our own branch’s motion and asks for defence of members victimised for expressing support for Palestine. Another asks that representatives be sent to speak at PSC demonstrations.
However, it is now three months since the statement was passed, and just one of the 20 action points has been partially enacted. (Our regional secretary was sent as a substitute for Sharon Graham to speak at a PSC march immediately following the Policy Conference.) Since then – there have been 2 marches in London and no Unite speakers..
Meanwhile workers all over Europe and as far as Morocco have taken boycotting action against arms being shipped to Israel. Italian workers had a General Strike. The Liverpool dockers in our legacy union the TGWU boycotted South African and Namibian ships during the apartheid era. What is Unite doing?
The motion before you is very short and simple and has only two action points.
- It condemns the has union’s lack of action on the EC statement over the last three months AND
- It demands a report from the General Secretary on how she will progress all 20 action points – by the end of October 2025.
Branch members will be fully aware of the genocide that has continued to devastate Palestine since the EC statement was passed a full three months ago. I do not have to go into the horrific details. Suffice it to say that there are more than 67 thousand dead without counting those under the rubble, 120 thousand wounded, 1.9 million displaced, a man-made famine raging, and that Gaza lies in ruins.
You will all have heard the unspeakably distressing reports from doctors desperately trying to treat people without medical equipment and anaesthetics in hospitals which have been repeatedly bombed, and the accounts of the slaughter of starving people trying to collect food.
All of this in the interests of one old man trying to hold on to power, a disturbed Israeli far right who have taken away one lesson from their own history which is the necessity to wipe out a whole people – and above all Donald Trump’s efforts to Make America Great again.
So called peace negotiations are taking place as we speak. If any kind of peace agreement is enacted you can depend upon it that Gaza will still be occupied, that Israeli settlers will still be seizing land in the West Bank – and that there will be no recognition of a Palestinian state by Israel.
Under those circumstances all the 20 action points in the EC statement, particularly those aimed at pressuring the Israeli government, will remain relevant.
There is an Executive Council meeting next week, at which EC members hold the General Secretary and the union administration to account. They will be asking what has happened with the 20 Action Points, and this motion will give them more ammunition to do so.
Please support this motion so our union carries out its agreed policy in support of the Palestinian people.