Solidaires - Against repression, solidarity with the Palestinian people

Trade Union Solidaires
Originally published July 30 2014
The Trade Union Solidaires wishes to provide full support to NPA (Nouveau parti anticapitaliste - New Anti-capitalist Party) militant Alain Pojolat threatened today with repression for filing and negotiating with the Paris prefecture, in the name of all those who wanted to demonstrate, requests for demonstrations in Paris in support of the Palestinian people, demonstrations which were finally banned.
 
The authorities accused him of bringing individually what is required from a collective. 

Following complicit statements by the government, it bans protest, the government will not tolerate its inability to prevent the expression of the solidarity of thousands of protestors. After trying to create an amalgam between solidarity and anti-Semitism, an amalgam clearly denied by the solidarity movement, the government now uses repression.

The Trade Union Solidaires believes that the incidents that followed the massive, peaceful demonstration at Barbès on July 19 are the responsibility of those who decided the ban. It assumes its presence in the two Parisian demonstrations banned 19 and 26 July and the public call she made to join them.
 
Solidaires demands an end to any suit against Alain Pojolat and respect the right of expression and demonstration.
 
Solidaires asked the French government to work for:

• ending the bombing;
• lifting the blockade of Gaza;
• the release of Palestinian prisoners;
• the implementation of sanctions against the Israeli state to force compliance with international law.

Solidaires calls for new protests to be held in the coming days.

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Solidaires - Lets be many in expressing our solidarity with Palestine

SUD PTT / Trade Union Solidaires
Issued 29 July 2014
Three weeks after the start of the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, there have been over a thousand casualties, including more than 75% are civilians. Added to these grim statistics, the wounded and the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, wells and the main power plant.

Nothing can justify such a massacre, which is part of the Israeli government’s effort to put pressure on the population and keep it in a state of submission to an order which Israel imposes, regardless of international decisions.

Nothing can justify the complicity of either the French government or Western leaders:
Nothing is done to enforce international law, particularly the UN resolutions adopted since years
Nothing is done to stop the blockade of Gaza, which locks people into a permanent prison.

And in support of the idea that we should not import the war onto the French territory, the expressions of solidarity with Palestine are labelled anti-Semitism and the protestors are stigmatized.

Demonstrations were banned, causing incidents.

The Trade Union Solidarity has long participated in demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian people. It has enrolled in several trips solidarity missions, struggled against the blockade and more recently participated in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), which is the most peaceful way to apply pressure of each and every one on the Israeli government.

For a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, Solidarity with other organizations of the National Collective require:
The immediate cessation of the Israeli intervention,
Respect for international law and end the blockade,
The release of Palestinian prisoners
Sanctions against the State of Israel to impose a policy change.

Solidaires is an integral part in the many manifestations of solidarity planned in cities.

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Victorian Trades Hall Council statement on Gaza

25 July 2014
Originally Published by Australian Unionists Supporting Palestine

The Victorian Trades Hall Council Executive meeting on Friday 25 July unanimously passed this resolution, proposed by Kevin Bracken (Maritime Union of Australia, Victoria Branch).

That this meeting of the Victorian Trades Hall Executive:

• Condemns Israel’s latest horrific assault on the people of Palestine, which has resulted in over 600 deaths in the past three weeks – the overwhelming majority of the dead being civilians, and many of them children. 
• We reiterate previous policy supporting a strategy of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against the state of Israel, similar to actions designed to isolate the former Apartheid regime of South Africa. 
• We support the peaceful community protests called in solidarity with the people of Palestine, to be held on Saturday 26 July at 1pm, and Friday 1 August at 5pm, outside the State Library in Swanston St, Melbourne. 
• We urge affiliates to support these protests through attendance, publicity, and other means.

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Background to this statement: On 7 July 2014, following a severe escalation in hostilities involving intense Israeli aerial and navy bombardment and Palestinian rocket firing, the Israeli Government launched a full-scale military offensive against the Gaza Strip, titled Operation ‘Protective Edge’.

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ITUC - Israel/Palestine: UN Ceasefire Call Must Be Respected

International Trade Union Confederation
Originally published 14 July, 2014

The ITUC has called for urgent implementation of the UN Security Council’s call for a ceasefire as the death toll in Gaza continues to mount. The Security Council has called for a “de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire and respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”

Around 170 Palestinians in Gaza, three-quarters of them civilians according to the UN, have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in the past week by more than 1,200 Israeli airstrikes. No fatalities in Israel have been reported from the 900 rockets fired from within Gaza.

“An immediate ceasefire and urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza must be followed by renewed international pressure to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and find a negotiated settlement to respect the 1967 borders between Israel and a Palestinian state. The world cannot allow the injustice to continue, nor can it accept the prospect of yet more violence causing the deaths of innocent civilians,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

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Palestine - WFTU denounces the Zionist Israel

World Federation of Trade Unions
Originally published 10 July, 2014

The World Federation of Trade Unions true to its internationalist solidarity to the Palestinian people which is being expressed with moral and practical means in a day to day basis denounces the murderous policy of the Israeli Government, the attacks, the kidnappings and the expansion of the settlements in the Palestinian territories.

There is no law or argument that can make these bloody attacks acceptable. The blood of the innocent and the injustice over the Palestinian people is not only in the hands of the Zionist Israel but also those who support it like the USA and the European Union and those who do not do anything to put an end in their torment.

We express our solidarity, support and brotherhood to the WFTU affiliate the GUPW [General Union of Palestinian Workers], to the Palestinian workers and the Palestinian people for a free, independent and sovereign Palestine.

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IndustriALL Global Union: Violence, Blood and Tears Must Stop in Gaza

IndustriALL Global Union
Originally published 14 July, 2014

In just over a week, at least 225 Palestinians and 1 Israeli were killed of whom 80% were civilians and 20% children. According to the news provided, 1,400 are wounded while 1,255 homes are destroyed and 529 arrested.

IndustriALL strongly proclaims that the military action must be halted immediately. There must be an urgent implementation of the UN Security Council’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

“The United Nations Security Council’s call for a ceasefire must be implemented without any delay,” said General Secretary Jyrki Raina. “The Council has urged de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire and respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians”.

IndustriALL shares the call of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in demanding that an immediate ceasefire and urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza be followed by renewed international pressure to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and find a negotiated settlement to respect the 1967 borders between Israel and a Palestinian state.

In her statement ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow commented: “The world cannot allow the injustice to continue, nor can it accept the prospect of yet more violence causing the deaths of innocent civilians”.

“Mostly working people are the victims of the current unacceptable situation” said Jyrki Raina.    “The international community must take all the initiatives to avoid further deterioration which could only bring more poverty, chaos and unsafe living and working conditions”.

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