Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, addressing the TUC.
This year’s British TUC Congress in Brighton from 8-11 September 2024 took key decisions to align trade unions with the pro-Palestine, pro-peace and anti-war movements, and demand an end to Britain’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and escalation towards a wider war in the Middle East.
Stop the War’s well-attended TUC fringe meeting heard from PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote, the Fire Brigade Union’s Riccardo LaTorre, TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust, UNISON president Steve North, Sean Vernell from UCU, Louise Regan chair of NEU’s international committee and Chris Nineham, Stop the War Vice Chair.
Every speaker identified the need to oppose the trend in the TUC in recent years, led by some unions representing workers in the arms industry, to argue for an increase in the proportion of Britain’s GDP spent on arms production.
Britain is reeling from fourteen years of Tory austerity, with racist riots scarring our towns and cities. The new Chancellor Rachel Reeves has declared her intention to stick to the discredited Tory government’s spending limits for the first two years of a Labour government.
There will never be a good time for trade unions to argue for more public money to be taken from pensioners and public services to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers, but 2024 is the worst possible time to make such arguments.
Congress debated the British government’s support for the arms industry, focussing on the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza. The NEU’s Louise Regan moving Composite Motion 17 on Palestine said, “… our political leaders continue to sell Israel weapons even as it stands charged in the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide. It is obscene to continue arms sales at a time when two senior Israeli government leaders stand personally accused of crimes against humanity”.
She argued “a comprehensive end to all arms sales is a necessary step towards ending Britain’s complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians”.
The NEU’s motion called on the government to “end all licences for arms traded with Israel, meeting international law”. The motion, was supported by speakers from Unison, Unite, PCS, CWU, FBU, GMB, Aslef, BFAWU and UCU. The GMB speaker said: “We know that the UK continues to supply Israel’s military and is flying reconnaissance flights over Gaza. Our government needs to do more than halting 30 exports licences out of the hundreds that they have.”
The motion supported by the TUC General Council, was welcomed by Palestinian Ambassador who in his address told TUC Congress delegates “it is clear that is calling for a full arms embargo on Israel”.
An emergency motion from the University and College Lecturers’ Union (UCU) supported by RMT called on TUC Congress to campaign to stop the escalation of war in the Middle East. This condemned Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and attacks on Iranian territory, resolved to oppose any attempts to escalate this war and to demand a ceasefire now, and supported the call launched by Stop the War for a UK-wide workplace day of action in support of an immediate ceasefire.
The TUC General Council supported the UCU emergency motion which described Israeli bombing of Lebanon—with the support of Britain—as “a significant and qualitative escalation” that “threatens a much wider war in the Middle East that will lead far greater death, destruction and instability in the region”.
Taken together these two motions put Britain’s official trade union movement in a significantly better place in terms of its international policy by supporting a total ban on arms sales to Israel and opposing the incessant drumbeat of war emanating from neocons in the US State Department, the UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Tel Aviv.
The important work carried out by Stop the War over the past two years in convening trade union conferences to confront political problems in our trade unions on the question of opposing arms profiteering, war and imperialism has found a strong echo in the wider trade union movement.
However, the major influence on trade unionists as on politicians continues to be the unprecedented mass movement of millions of pro-Palestine, pro-peace, anti-war protestors on the streets of Britain for the past 11 months.
To change UK government policy and force a ban on arms sales to Israel, recognition of a Palestinian state and to prevent a wider war we must maintain this movement of millions and bring more trade unionists onto our platforms and into our marches.
The next UK-wide workplace day of action in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza will take place on Thursday 10 October. Start making plans with your union branch and your workmates now.
Alex Gordon is the President of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and an officer of Stop the War Coalition.