Palestine Solidarity and the Labor Movement

This article was first published in The New Labor Press

Since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, the Palestine solidarity movement has entered a new phase of energy and action. In the U.S., the most prominent actions of the Palestine solidarity movement have been within the student sector, with the “Student Intifada” at the forefront, its the first flames of this most recent iteration of the Pro-Palestine encampment movement rising at Columbia University before spreading nationally and internationally. Despite the great battles of the student movement in this field, there is another theater we should look to: the struggle within the labor movement. This article explores the history of the relationship between Zionism and the establishment labor movement, and how Palestine solidarity can make its return to the U.S. labor movement.

In the early period of the labor movement in the U.S. prior to the October Revolution, a significant amount of the leaders were immigrants from Europe. The Jewish labor leaders during this period were often influenced by the various Bundist organizations of Europe (Bundism is a Jewish socialist movement that, at the time, was opposed to Zionism); the 1919 First Jewish Labor Congress in New York passed a measure that rejected Zionism altogether.¹ The Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in the Land of Israel), a trade union center in the occupation which today represents a majority of the “Israeli” workforce, would be founded in 1920 and wasted no time in courting the business unions² of the time, with a delegation being sent to the U.S. the next year. Over the next decade, ties between Histadrut and U.S. organized labor fully crystallized. These Histadrut-influenced unions would go on to strike and rally in support of Zionist forces during the Nakba, influencing President Truman to lift an arms embargo and later fully recognize “Israel”³.

Tragically, at the same time that the Zionist occupation was gaining a foothold in Palestine, the U.S. Communist movement, and by extension the left line of the labor movement, was suffering from a number of setbacks. The Communist Party USA had been degenerating for years, leaving the left line of the labor movement without a clear center of leadership. The material basis for this degeneration of the CPUSA was the U.S. beginning to consolidate its imperialist position in the run-up to World War II. First, in the CPUSA, the Black National Question was liquidated, going against the advice of the Communist International⁴. Then, the CPUSA liquidated its factory cells, and therefore its base among the workers. Finally, the CPUSA as a party was liquidated into the “Communist Political Association” in 1944. Although it was re-founded the following year, a purge of anti-revisionist members would ensure that to this day it has not returned to its formerly revolutionary line or revolutionary practice. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which was a battleground in the struggle between revolutionaries and business unionists, would purge Communists from its ranks, thanks to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which penalized unions with membership holding “anti-American” beliefs. Another factor in the process of the establishment labor movement coming to support Zionism was the Soviet Union’s great error of initially recognizing the Zionist state, before it later switched positions.

Starting in the 1930s, a shift occurred in the “establishment”/rightist U.S. labor movement. The business unions entered the process of becoming integrated into the U.S. bourgeois state apparatus (the state unionism process)⁵. A milestone in the shift was the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which created the NLRB, creating a system where the business unions were “provide[d] with official legal status provided that they played by the rules of the new state-regulated collective bargaining system [and] limited the militancy of their members”⁶. The shift was fully materialized by the time of the passage of the aforementioned Taft-Hartley Act. This ensured that these former business unions, now state unions, would unwaveringly support U.S. imperialist policy, not restricted to Zionism. Quoting from the reactionary, State Department-funded Freedom House: “The AFL helped with direct support to rebuild free trade union movements throughout Europe and fend off communist-dominated labor federations supported by the Soviet Union. Free trade union federations in France, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere helped establish stable conditions for democracy” (Freedom House later admits that the AFL-CIO received funds from the CIA). The merged AFL-CIO in collaboration with the U.S. state would use a revolving door of proxy organizations to provide on-the-ground support to the CIA’s campaign of coups in Latin America and Asia.

In this view, the state unions supporting Zionism is not an aberration, but simply one aspect of being bought into supporting U.S. imperialism. Since the 1950s the state unions have held a significant amount of investment in “Israel bonds”. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters had invested, as far back as 1988, at least $26 million⁷. The exact total is held, by policy, as a secret. Quoting from a manual written by the Jewish Labor Committee: “Please DO NOT discuss with union members, representatives of the press or others, guesstimates of the value of the State of Israel bonds held by unions. ‘Divest from Israel’ activists have used such information in their arguments”.⁸ To make things clear, this means that the state unions literally take money from workers in the form of dues, and invest it into genocide, all while hiding from the workers where their money is being used. Just like their broader support for U.S. imperialism, this is not an aberration. The state unions taking dues money from the workers, investing it, and either pocketing the profits, or using them to back forces which are opposed to the workers they are claiming to represent, is not limited to “Israel bonds”.⁹

In the 1960s, the so-called “New Left” emerged in the U.S.; The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Progressive Labor Party would revive the Black National Question, in a revolutionary sense¹⁰, for the first time in decades. The Black National Question and Palestinian liberation were closely tied, both being struggles for self-determination of oppressed peoples on occupied land. It is not a coincidence that the labor misleaders who supported Zionism were the same misleaders who were racist against workers of the internal oppressed nations (the AFL enforced segregation on union locals at the time). This emergence of the New Left opened ground for major strikes in Detroit in the 1960s and 70s, against the purchase of “Israeli bonds” by UAW leadership, led by the Arab Workers Caucus and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.¹¹ After many of the New Left groups either dissolved, like the League, or fell into a revisionist labor line, the Palestine question was again relegated to the back stage.

After Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Palestine movement was revitalized in a way not seen in decades. In the international labor movement, workers have shown admirable initiative and militancy in opposing the genocide in Palestine. Most notably, workers in Italy organized a general strike in response to the complicity of the fascist Meloni government in the genocide, and the attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla. On September 22, one million participated in the strike. A subsequent strike on October 3-4 had two million participants. In Spain, a general strike was organized on October 22, mobilizing hundreds of thousands in over 200 actions, including blockades and sabotage targeting corporations complicit in the genocide.¹² Dockworkers in Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Morocco have refused to handle cargo headed to the Zionist entity.

The labor movement in the U.S. stands in a stark contrast to its international counterparts. In the aftermath of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the state unions once again went against the workers they claim to represent, and aligned with the U.S. state by falling in line behind the officialdom of the Democratic Party. At their best, they ineffectually released statements “supporting” a ceasefire, while in the same statements unfailingly condemning Palestinian resistance and supporting the occupation’s so-called “right to exist”. At their worst (the International Brotherhood of Teamsters) they completely ignored the genocide. In both cases, they continued issuing endorsements and donations for officials who fully back Zionism.¹³ Under the leadership of Sean O’Brien, the IBT has began donating tens of thousands of dollars in stolen dues to politicians of the Republican Party, while still continuing their donations to the Democratic Party. United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who is often praised in the revisionist “socialist” publications as a “class-struggle unionist”¹⁴, did call for a ceasefire, then later endorsed Kamala Harris anyway. Fain’s maneuver demonstrates how the weak tactic of the “ceasefire resolution” has allowed state union leaders to traffic in the righteous anger and fury of the masses without having to do anything concrete, and in fact, has permitted them to cover for the fact they were actively working against the interests of the Palestinian people and socialist revolution.

While union membership and overall strike activity is at an embarrassing historic low¹⁵, because the state unions have entered the role of enforcing discipline for the capitalists rather than representing workers’ demands; the state unionist set-up also means that these organizations hold an outsized influence in the government thanks to massive amounts of spending on political lobbying (about $2 billion over the past decade¹⁶). This influence that the state unions hold has not been leveraged towards a ceasefire or arms embargo. If the state unions are genuine representatives of the workers, not only those of the U.S. but of the world, why has there been no action taken against Zionism?

On the contrary, the state unions have by now perfected their integration with the U.S. imperialist state, and as a result, Zionism. Police officers (organized either in the Fraternal Order of Police, or the AFL-CIO affiliates International Union of Police Associations or International Brotherhood of Police Officers) and federal agents (border patrol agents also have an AFL-CIO union, the National Border Patrol Council) are trained by the “Israeli” occupation forces, exporting the oppressive measures used against Palestinians to the U.S. In Michiana, UAW-organized labor constructs military vehicles for A.M. General which are similarly tested in occupied Palestine and other nations targeted by imperialism, then brought back to be used against the U.S. population; a variety of unions work to construct an Amazon data center which will be used to provide AI services directly to the IOF and the U.S. federal government. It is clear that the “Palestine solidarity” that the reformists have celebrated is nothing more than left posturing by the state unions.

The hypocrisy of the state unions has led to significant opposition from the rank and file. The UAW has been criticized by those organized in UAW Labor for Palestine for their contradictory action in signing on to a ceasefire statement while taking no concrete steps to withhold UAW-organized labor from the production of equipment for the occupation, including weapons.¹⁷ In the National Education Association (the largest union in the U.S.), there was a significant campaign to boycott the Anti-Defamation League, which collaborates with the U.S. education system to spread pro-Zionist (anti-Palestinian) narratives. After the lower Representative Assembly voted to approve the boycott, it was struck down by the NEA’s Executive Committee.¹⁸ Aside from these and a handful of campaigns (AROC’s Block the Boat and PYM’s Mask Off Maersk), would-be labor organizers in the U.S. have stopped short of carrying out concrete labor actions in solidarity with Palestine, and have instead turned to the strategy of courting their union leadership to release or sign on statements supporting certain demands, such as a ceasefire or an arms embargo against “Israel”. For example, after UE rank-and-file members passed a resolution “For Peace, Jobs, and a Pro-Worker Foreign Policy”, which unconditionally condemned the genocide in Gaza¹⁹, UE signed on to the “National Labor Network for Ceasefire” statement, which supported a ceasefire but not an arms embargo, and placed conditions on Palestinians by demanding the release of “Israeli” prisoners of war.²⁰ This is the “ceasefire statement”, signed onto by a long list of unions, including UAW, APWU, NNU, AFA, and IUPAT, that has been celebrated as a win for the labor movement by the revisionist “socialist” press. NEA and AFT’s individual ceasefire statements were even more centrist, condemning Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as “heinous attacks”.²¹²² The “reform caucus” Teamsters Mobilize’s position on Palestine was that the Trump lackey Sean O’Brien should release a statement to call on the U.S. government to embargo arms to “Israel”, and for the government to *call for* a ceasefire.²³ Not only are these demands incredibly weak, they spread the illusions that the U.S. imperialist state is a neutral third-party in the genocide, rather than being the main aggressor; and that Palestinians should accept the status quo of occupation, dispossession, and displacement, if only there was a ceasefire brokered by international law.

Another significant influence in the “statement strategy” has been the Labor for Palestine National Network, an extension of the organization Labor for Palestine. Taking from L4PNN’s statement on the raid on the Palestine General Federation of Trade Union’s headquarters: “The Labor for Palestine National Network and the Coalition for Action in Higher Education join the International Trade Union Confederation and Public Services International in condemning in the strongest possible terms this unwarranted attack.”²⁴ Not only does the International Trade Union Confederation include the AFL-CIO which supports the U.S. imperialist state, it includes the Zionist Histadrut. On the one hand, the state unions donate to and support the Zionist occupation, either directly or through the Histadrut; on the other, they use these empty statements as a way to whitewash their reputation. All the while, the reformist labor movement “joins with” these organizations in rallying for empty rhetoric. As stated in our article “Why the State Unions Cover for Zionism”, these groups are “’double dippers’, the people who see popular protests against Israel and see the increase in the state unions’ assets and want to take a bite from both. It is exactly this opportunist policy that currently dominates the labor movement and the reformists that cling to it like barnacles.”²⁵ Until these groups break with state unionism, and refocus their efforts on actually organizing workers in their workplace against U.S. imperialism and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, their strategy is inherently flawed and doomed to failure.

In the warped viewpoint of the opportunists, reformists, and revisionists, the centrality of the proletariat in the labor movement and the Palestine solidarity movement is cast aside; leadership has been all but surrendered to the labor aristocracy and union bureaucrats, and the role of the proletariat is solely to pass resolutions and statements to eventually convince these reactionary classes to take on a revolutionary character. Politically, the proletariat forging a path towards socialist revolution and the U.S. imperialism is mutilated (by “Leninists” and “Maoists” no less) into endlessly playing the token opposition role (the so-called DSA Left) in the Democratic Socialists of America, which itself plays “opposition” in the Democratic Party, which puts up a pathetically weak “opposition” against U.S. fascistization. At the end of the day, the reformists fall in line behind the reactionaries (TDU endorsing Sean O’Brien), the DSA Left carries on paying their dues and participating in elections, the DSA stays deep within the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party will not break with Trump. This is the “transmission belt” that turns bright-eyed would-be activists into all-out agents and defenders of the bourgeoisie. In the world of reformism, the labor strike, the “school of war” of working-class struggle, has been discarded. Recalling the words of Lenin in “Economic and Political Strikes”:

The “sympathy of society” and better conditions of life are both results of a high degree of development of the struggle. Whereas the liberals (and the liquidators) tell the workers: “You are strong when you have the sympathy of ‘society’”, the Marxist tells the workers something different, namely: “You have the sympathy of ‘society’ when you are strong.”²⁶

The “statement strategy” is running the sort of liberal course that Lenin describes of trying to gain support for the Palestine solidarity movement by spreading illusions that state unionism is on the side of the workers and can be won over, and that therefore the rank-and-file can gather strength by catering to it, gaining the “sympathy of society” first to then gain material strength.

The internal weakness of the Palestine solidarity movement which naturally comes from running this liberal course divides the movement into two sides. The left asserts that the Palestine solidarity movement, if it is to gain real strength, survive, and win its goals, must reorient itself towards carrying out mass work in the neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. The right ends up accepting the weakest possible concessions (or even just promises of future concessions!) from the ruling class as “historic” victories; for example, the ceasefire statements by the state unions, the actual “ceasefire” which has been brokered in Palestine (which is simply a cover-up of further genocidal “Israeli” military action, the dismantling of resistance, and a scheme for “international” governance in Gaza), and the mayor-elect of New York City “supporting” Palestine. In all of these cases, what is perceived as “victory” is actually a sell-out of the Palestine solidarity movement’s principles, based on al-Thawabet: the right to resistance, the right to self-determination, Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, and the right to return. The purpose of these concessionary measures is for the ruling class to re-establish its rule through securing a sort of “peace” which is predicated on displacement, dispossession, and genocide. What Lenin wrote in “Economic and Political Strikes” is that the working class movement must develop its struggle, through strikes and other concrete labor actions, to gain the “sympathy of society”. Quoting from a statement by the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions – Gaza Strip, “Therefore, we call on you, the American labor unions, to translate your solidarity into effective actions that go beyond statements and speeches and create real pressure to stop this dirty war.” Mass work among the class and its allies, guided and lead by revolutionaries, is the corrective that is necessary to revive the Palestine solidarity movement from the stagnancy it has found itself in since the suppression of the Student Intifada. Specifically, the labor sector is central to Palestine solidarity, because an organized, combative labor movement would have the power and militancy necessary to block the production and distribution of goods sent to “Israel”.

Taking up Lenin’s words, revolutionary labor organizations in the form of unions and workers circles must be formed, in the example of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers²⁷. These revolutionary labor organizations should expose to the workers that Zionism does not benefit them. Zionism is not only oppressing and exploiting Palestinians, but it assists the Old State in the U.S. to carry out its exploitation and oppression (today, in the context of the Old State being in a period of militarization and fascistization). Creative strategy and tactics must be developed to thoroughly link the labor movement within the U.S. to the global anti-imperialist struggle; we must raise the consciousness of workers in this country to stand in solidarity with not only Palestine, but anywhere around the world where workers are struggling for liberation. Additionally, both the labor and anti-imperialist movements must not be limited to short-term demands, but must be connected to the goal of political power for the proletariat in the U.S. We must take up the example of the international labor movement, and move from asking for empty statements to taking action ourselves, as workers, and mobilizing our fellow workers into the class struggle.

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1 https://www.nytimes.com/1919/01/20/archives/oppose-a-jewish-republic-labor-congress-favors-equal-rights-for-all.html

2 “Business unions” refers to the historical right line of the contradiction in the labor movement, opposed to class-conscious or revolutionary unionism.

3 Adam M. Howard, “Sewing the Fabric of Statehood: Garment Unions, American Labor, and the Establishment of the State of Israel”, 86.

4 The Crusader, “The Black National Question and the Black Belt Thesis” https://thecrusader.news/2024/06/14/the-black-national-question-and-the-black-belt-thesis

5 Southern New England Labor Council, “State Unionism in the U.S.” https://newlaborpress.org/2025/02/01/re-publishing-state-unionism-in-the-us/

6 SNELC, “State Unionism in the U.S.”, 7.

7 https://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1988/04/mm0488_10.html

8 Jewish Labor Committee, “Introduction to Labor: The U.S. Trade Union Movement and the Organized Jewish Community”, 17.

9 See New Labor Press, “Political Economy of the American Labor Movement”.

10 We demarcate here between a reformist perspective on the Black National Question, embodied by organizations like the NAACP, with the revolutionary, class-based line originally from the CPUSA and taken up later by New Left organizations.

11 New Labor Press, “Our History: When Detroit Struck for Palestine” https://newlaborpress.org/2025/10/07/our-history-how-detroits-autoworkers-struck-for-palestine/

12 https://redherald.org/2025/10/19/hundreds-of-thousands-strike-for-palestine-in-the-spanish-state/

13 New Labor Press, “Why the State Unions Cover for Zionism” https://newlaborpress.org/2023/11/11/analysis-why-the-state-unions-cover-for-zionism/

14 Paul Prescod, “UAW President Shawn Fain is Showing How to Build Working-Class Struggle” https://jacobin.com/2023/09/shawn-fain-uaw-strike-leadership-class-struggle

15 New Labor Press, “Political Economy of the American Labor Movement”, 3.

16 From figures reported to the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards

17 UAW Labor for Palestine, “Calling for a ceasefire while still making the bombs: an open letter to the UAW”

18 EducationWeek, “Teachers’ Union Backs Away From Anti-Defamation League Boycott”

19 https://www.ueunion.org/ue-policy/for-peace-jobs-and-a-pro-worker-foreign-policy

20 https://secure.everyaction.com/w1qW7B3pek2rTtv9ny5bqw2

21 https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/nea-board-directors-takes-action-reaffirm-neas-call-ceasefire-between-israel-and-hamas

22 https://www.aft.org/resolution/calling-bilateral-cease-fire-gaza-and-promoting-two-state-solution-and-end-weaponization

23 https://teamstersmobilize.com/palestine

24 https://laborforpalestine.net/2025/10/21/labor-for-palestine-national-network-and-coalition-for-action-in-higher-education-condemn-israeli-attack-on-pgftu-headquarters-in-nablus/

25 https://newlaborpress.org/2023/11/11/analysis-why-the-state-unions-cover-for-zionism/

26 https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1912/may/31.htm

27 https://newlaborpress.org/2025/06/30/our-history-league-of-revolutionary-black-workers/