By Martin R. and Laura R.
The call to the world labor movement for international solidarity and action is receiving immense support and must develop into a real international workers’ movement. The international call from the Palestinian trade unions and federations for action to stop Israeli war production has been answered all over the world by many organizations moved by the terrible situation in Palestine. Militant organizations and trade unions have started to act accordingly, one way or another. The last month of 2023 ended with mobilizations all over the world in support of Palestine.
‘Workers for a Free Palestine’ Shut Down Four UK Arms Factories on December 11
In their biggest action yet, Workers for a Free Palestine mobilized a thousand people to shut down four arms factories across the UK; BAE Systems in Glasgow and Lancashire, L3 Harris in Brighton, and Eaton Mission Systems in Wimborne, near Bournemouth, where over 500 people blocked all three entrances.
Trade unions in Britain responded to the call for solidarity to help end the apartheid system in South Africa in the 1990s. Now it is time to do the same to end apartheid in Israel. The only way this will happen is through increased grassroots action and pressure.
‘Health Workers for a Free Palestine’ Shut Down Palantir, Israel’s U.S. Spy Company
More than 200 health workers and supporters of Health Workers for a Free Palestine shut down the headquarters of the U.S. technology company Palantir for one day. The firm is complicit in oppression, military occupation, and state surveillance around the world, including Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Palantir, run by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel, has just been awarded a £330 million contract with the NHS to implement data systems software, raising serious questions about what will happen to people’s private medical data.
The company is already involved with Britain’s Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and border forces, and when a Home Office request for migrant patient records was recently rejected, this contract was suddenly awarded to Palantir.
The mass picket came on the second day of the ongoing junior doctors’ strike, signaling that the fight for Palestine and the fight for the NHS is one fight, and with more actions like this, maybe we can win both. See a video of the action here.
Stop Arming Israel Campaign in France
On Friday, December 15, there was a protest rally at St. Lazare station in Paris. The event was promoted by the CAIII group (Comité d’action interprofessionnel et intergénérationnel d’Issy les Moulineaux) in support of the Stop Arming Israel campaign in France. The above are photo is from the Stop Arming Israel campaign near Paris, in an area where there the factories and offices of Thalès and Safran, French arms giants, are located.
December 21. Global Day of Action for #shutElbitdown
Israel has become the tenth largest military exporter in the world. One of the main culprits is Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company. It supplies the Israeli military with 85% of its drones and ground equipment. The company’s weapons – manufactured at facilities in Israel, the U.S., the UK, Europe, Brazil and Australia – are being used extensively in Israel’s latest assault on Gaza. And many of the technologies that Israel tests on a captive Palestinian population then make their way back to the heart of the empire, where they suppress protests and guard the borders. So this moment, so ripe for resistance, is an opportunity to intensify the struggle against the Israeli war machine by internationalizing existing campaigns against it and building new ones.
On 21 December, an international call for a Global Day of Action against Elbit Systems was held in the U.S., UK, Japan, Brazil, Belgium and elsewhere. This call for actions to stop production or transport in the U.S., Italy, Australia, and other imperialist and oppressed countries was organized by collectives such as Palestine Action1 (PA) in protest at Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its illegal and apartheid occupation, and its horrific oppression of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In the UK, activists blockaded the Bristol headquarters of Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit’s tactical UAV systems factory in Leicester has also been targeted. In a multi-pronged action in the U.S., protesters demonstrated at Elbit’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. In Japan, activists in Tokyo gathered at the offices of Itochu Corporation and called on it to sever its ties with Elbit.
In India, protesters gathered at Cyberbit’s Delhi office to confront the war machine, while in Switzerland they protested against the Geneva offices of ELCA, a company that provides IT services to Elbit, and Elbit’s own facilities. In Toronto, Canada, activists picketed the Scotiabank headquarters, calling on them to get rid of Elbit Systems. In Sweden, Elbit Systems’ offices were covered in protest graffiti. In Porto Alegre, Brazil, activists gathered at AEL Sistemas, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, to protest and participate in the Global Day of Action. And in Germany, activists organized protests at Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest arms manufacturer and a key research partner of Elbit Systems.
While Israel continues to murder hundreds of defenseless Palestinians every day, the vast majority of them women and children, the imperialist powers and their lackey Arab governments engage in byzantine discussions about how to achieve a new ceasefire. Palestine is bleeding to death and those who are not killed by bombs are dying of cold, lack of water, food, or medicine in the midst of the grave humanitarian crisis that Israel has provoked in the Gaza Strip. Only the working class and the peoples of the world can stop this massacre.
From the IWL we echo all these campaigns and call for a redoubling of efforts to reconvene large united mobilizations ,at the beginning of 2024 all over the world in support of Palestine. Vigils, occupations of railway stations, protests in front of Israeli embassies and blockades of ports and arms factories are equally essential.
In the Spanish state, a state demonstration has been called for January 27, in which the IWL and Corriente Roja will call for your participation. Find the mobilization or act of boycott against Israel closest to where you live and go to it.
This 2024, Let’s Rise Up Against the Israeli Apartheid and Extermination Regime!
https://act.progressive.international/out-palestine/
