On January 10, 2009, thousands of people in the Bay Area protested the US-supported attack by Israel on the people of Gaza at a rally and march in San Francisco. Trade unionists including leaders of the Oakland Education Association and ILWU Local 10 and a leader of the California Peace and Freedom party condemned the attack and supported labor action against Israel by the world trade union movement.
Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10 Executive Board: “There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as the Palestinians are forced to stay in the refugee camps. They must be given the right to return! Self-determination for the Palestinian people! The Zionists claim that there are terrorist rockets coming from the Palestinians, but the initial terror came from the Zionists when they created the state of Israel. They drove Palestinians from their homeland and forced them into refugee camps like in Sabra, Shatila, in the West Bank, and in Gaza. Until the Palestinian people have the right to return to their land, there will continue to be war in the Middle East, and we must oppose Zionist terrorism. And it is in the interest of the Palestinian workers to link up with the Israeli workers to oppose the Zionist state. There must be one state for all workers in Israel and Palestine, not a two-state solution. You cannot have self-determination in a bantustan. That’s what the anti-apartheid movement fought against, and that’s what the Palestinians must fight against, and we must stand with them in that struggle.”
Bob Mandel, Oakland Education Association Executive Board: “Monday night, the union rep council, representatives from every school, passed the following motion: ‘The Oakland Education Association unreservedly condemns the murderous Israeli assault on Gaza. We condemn their deliberate targeting of the civilian population, including schools and hospitals, and Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people, which has been carried out with the strong support of the United States government. We support the right to return, and we call for the establishment of a bi-national secular state in Israel-Palestine.'”
The Labor Video Project produces documentaries and a bi-weekly 60 minute labor TV show. Its show “Labor on the Job” is programmed every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month at 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM on San Francisco Cable Channel 29. “Labor On The Job” is also the longest running labor cable show in the United States since 1983. “Labor on the Job” is also programmed on Philadelphia Drexel TV 54 every Wednesday 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM and St. Louis cable systems on Cable Channel 22 in the “City” of St. Louis Fridays at 9:00 PM. The Labor Video Project also produces labor documentaries and is part of the Union Producers and Programmers Network (UPPNET): <www.uppnet.org>. You can watch Labor Video Productions on Google Video by searching Labor Video Project and on YouTube at <youtube.com/user/laborvideo>. Labor Video Project, P.O.Box 720027, San Francisco,CA 94172; Phone (415)282-1908; lvpsf [at] labornet.org.