(Tuesday 7 April 2009)
Boycott support
I WENT along to a showing of some films by UNISON Scotland international committee on Friday. The bill included The Iron Wall, a recent documentary about the apartheid barrier on Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Israel.
As I watched the bulldozers destroy Palestinian villages and Israeli soldiers uproot and steal ancient olive trees from family land, I was reminded just how brutal the occupation is.
The plan to establish colonising settlements, in complete defiance of UN resolutions and international law, was executed by successive Israeli governments, including the butcher of Shatila Ariel Sharon.
The aim was to create an increasing number of "facts on the ground" which would have to be dealt with in any negotiations.
And now I witnessed the wall snaking its way around the illegal Israeli colonies, stealing yet more of Palestine even as it divides and separates the communities of the oppressed. The aim is clear - to drive out the Palestinians from yet more of their land.
The situation is becoming ever more urgent.
I have just downloaded from the STUC website further evidence of the "facts on the ground" - the recent delegation to Palestine and Israel's newly published report.
Eleven Scottish trade unionists visited their opposite numbers in the Israeli Histadrut trade union centre and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.
They also met representatives of government and campaigning organisations on both sides and travelled extensively in the West Bank.
The objective of the visit was to gather evidence to help the STUC decide whether to support a campaign for an international boycott of Israeli products, plus disinvestment and sanctions.
The report is an unvarnished account of meetings and discussions that gives a clear indication of the complexity of the political issues faced on the ground by workers, whether Israeli or Palestinian, whether Muslim, Jewish or Christian.
The delegation deliberately sought to engage with the Israeli side as well as the Palestinians. Some of the encounters were "uncomfortable," especially the meeting with Israeli foreign affairs officials.
As well as listening, the Scottish delegation had some issues to raise.
"The delegation questioned the officials on Israel's failure to comply with UN security council resolutions, on the high number of civilian deaths and casualties, the political timing of the attacks on Gaza and Israel allowing the ceasefire with Hamas to expire. We did not receive any satisfactory answers to these questions," states the report.
While considering the undoubted negative aspects of boycott, which were unsurprisingly highlighted by Histadrut, the report concludes by recommending that the STUC should support a campaign for international boycott of Israeli products, disinvestment and sanctions.
The STUC delegation also paid a visit to the tomb of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader who died in November 2004.
I was fortunate enough to have been on a previous STUC visit to Palestine, just a couple of weeks before the disastrous turn of events in September 2001, when we met the president in the Ramallah compound where he was effectively held under siege by Israeli forces and where he now lies buried.
On that occasion, the message Arafat asked us to take away was simple: "We are not asking for the moon, only what has already been agreed. Let all the world know what is going on."
Having seen at first hand myself the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli state and the remarkable dignity with which the ordinary people survive and resist it, I can never forget. I am proud that the Scottish labour and trade union movement continues to stand with them.
STUC demands 2009 budget to save jobs
THE STUC published its budget submission entitled A Budget For Jobs on Friday. As ever, the document is well worth reading.
STUC economist Stephen Boyd didn't share the gushing view of the leader-writers who immediately and almost unanimously declared the G20 meeting in London a huge success. The STUC take is much more sober.
"With the failure of the G20 to agree a co-ordinated global stimulus package and monetary policy having reached the limits of its effectiveness, the STUC believes that budget 2009 must bring forward another substantial fiscal stimulus in order to limit the length and depth of the current recession."
However, the analysis shows that, on current predictions, the UK will fall short on fiscal stimulus this year - and that it could even be negative in 2010. A scary thought.
The STUC is arguing for a fiscal stimulus of around 2 per cent of GDP to bring the UK in line with the international average.
General secretary Grahame Smith said: "This should focus on tax cuts for low-paid workers, benefit increases, public works programmes, short-time working incentives and enhanced support for the unemployed.
"These measures will provide direct support for those hit hardest by recession, boost demand and help prepare the economy for the challenges of the future."
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will stand up in the House of Commons in two weeks' time, on April 22 at 12.30pm and present his master's 2009 budget statement.
Nowhere will this statement be more closely watched than in Perth on the third and final day of the Scottish TUC's annual congress.
Check out www.stuc.org.uk to download the budget submission.
Bond has respect for nothing but profit
LIKE many other people whose friends and family have worked in the North Sea oil industry, I scanned the papers last week for the names of the 14 oil workers and two pilots who died in the latest helicopter disaster.
The fact that - this time - none of them were my mates or relatives only meant that some other friends and family have lost someone. It's a bleak feeling.
Which of you would have got aboard the next Super Puma AS332 L2 Mk2 flight as Bond Helicopters resumed normal service on Friday?
This was only 48 hours after the crash and before the retrieval of all the bodies, the wreckage or the flight data recorder - hence before any investigation could guarantee that the other Puma L2s are safe.
Bond said it had suspended flights for 48 hours "out of respect" for the dead men.
It doesn't know the meaning of the word respect.
"In light of the unknown, and the fact that choppers don't fall out of the sky for no reason, it would be appropriate for that model of Puma to be grounded," said Jake Molloy, the OILC branch organiser of RMT.
The recent crash in the oil field off Newfoundland in which 17 died resulted in an entire fleet of Sikorsky helicopters being grounded for safety checks.
But the only thing the oil companies and their attendant subcontractors which exploit the North Sea truly respect is the profit they make.
Join forces against fascists
THE fascist BNP has to be beaten down wherever it raises its ugly little head, so I am always pleased to report anti-fascist activity in Scotland.
The progressive campaigns which run Saturday stalls in Glasgow's Buchanan Street regularly face down the BNP and their like and I understand that Unite Against Fascism has been running a stall in Leith on Saturdays as well.
The BNP will be running candidates in the forthcoming European election in Scotland and elsewhere in Britain, so it is increasingly vital to oppose their vile campaign of racial hatred.
Unite Against Fascism in Scotland has a new email address if you want to get involved in more antifascist campaigning, uafscotland@googlemail.com
Subscribe to the Morning Star online
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment