Stand with Palestine

Unite delegate Megan DeMeo gave a passionate speech in support of a composite on Palestine on the last day of TUC Congress on Wednesday (September 16).

Megan opened her speech by “stressing the importance of engaging with union members and reps in the most affected sectors so that when we take [solidarity] action, we do so from a position of collective power”.

“Because that is the only and greatest tool we have when standing with the people of Palestine,” she said.

Megan spoke of the “complete horror” with which everyone has watched “Israel’s brutal onslaught in Gaza”.

She spoke of the murder of children; the targeting of hospitals and of aid distribution centres; the workers who “lie dead and silenced in the rubble”.

“It appears to be beyond words,” she noted. “But there are words for it and we must not shy away from them — Ethnic cleansing. Genocide.”

Megan went on to welcome the Labour government’s recent announcement on illegal settlement trade, calling it “an important step forward towards lasting peace in the Middle East”.

“This Congress must demand the Labour government uses its international position to bring an end to the genocide and to find a negotiated solution,” she added. “We must demand our government places effective and immediate sanctions on the Israeli economy – including the seizure of assets held in the UK.”

Megan hailed the trade union movement leading the way in calling for the recognition of the state of Palestine as part of a two-state solution.

And she argued that trade union support for the Palestinian people “must be practical as well as political”.

“We must put our collective strength to the task of stopping UK complicity in the genocide and the flouting of international law,” Megan noted.

But she reminded Congress that it is vital to remember that “it is the regimes and governments responsible that need to be condemned not the workers”.

“Unite stands with our fellow unions in being committed to supporting worker-led campaigns to boycott the handling of Israeli goods and services,” Megan said. “Let us not forget that to be effective these must be worker led because the language of our movement is not statements, it is power – power in our workplaces and our communities.”

Megan concluded by highlighting one Unite’s proudest moments in its history, when members of the union’s predecessor participated in a blockade of Pinochet’s Chile.

The members, Rolls Royce workers in East Kilbride, refused to supply aircraft to the fascist Pinochet government.

“Worker-led solidarity was so impactful,” Megan said, urging Congress to “recommit ourselves now to our solidarity with the people of Palestine”.

The composite was carried.

By Hajera Blagg

Photo by Mark Thomas