Thousands of workers and students across the country will take action in workplaces and colleges next Thursday (28 November) in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon and in demand for an immediate ceasefire and end to Britain arming Israel. It is looking like it will be the biggest of a series of workplace days called since Israel’s genocide began.
Workers are organising actions ranging from lunchtime rallies, walk outs and silences, to stalls, bake sales or simply wearing badges and Palestinian scarves.
The action has been called by the groups organising the national demonstrations and protests for Palestine and it has the backing of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The TUC’s support comes as a result of a number of motions in support of Palestine that were backed unanimously by delegates at this year’s Congress. The day is an opportunity to escalate the resistance to the genocide, and to bring trade unionists and other workers who haven’t previously been on our national demonstrations into the anti-war movement.
Unison nationally is supporting the day of action and among the planned activities will be lunchtime online meetings about such things as campaigning for local authorities to divest their pension schemes from Israeli assets.
Bedfordshire Unison branch at the Luton campus of Bedfordshire University is holding a bake sale for staff and students to raise money for Medical aid for Palestine and will be raising a Stop Arming Israel banner. One of the organisers was confident this will be ‘the biggest day of action yet’. In London, Camden Unison members will be holding bake sales and are asking people to go to work dressed in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
At one large NHS hospital trust in the midlands a meet-up and a group walk to outside the hospital entrance has been planned, there will be speakers explaining the ongoing genocide in Gaza and calls for the trust to join the demand for an immediate ceasefire.
In Bradford, health workers at Bradford Royal Infirmary will be holding a ‘Lunchtime Solidarity Rally’ between 12:30 and 13:30, at the Smith Lane main gate. Doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, porters, caterers and cleaners will raise their voices together to call for an immediate ceasefire, to stop the genocide and hands off Lebanon.
The UCU educators union has also been mobilising members for the day and there are a huge number of actions happening in and around universities, tying in with the week of action against the killing of students and teachers in Palestine.
University of Birmingham staff are running a two hour teach-in and rally on campus in support of the right of students to free speech on campus about Palestine.
In London, SOAS students have linked up with Stop the War, PSC, the UCU London region and UCU Birkbeck branch to call a rally in Malet Street at 1pm to defend the right to protest on campus in the face of escalating repression from SOAS management. The students and the unions are calling on staff and students from universities across London to join the rally. Speakers include Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, Andrew Feinstein, Barnaby Raine and suspended student Haya Adam.
In Cambridge, UCU has teamed up with Stop the War, PSC and others to call a Divest Now rally at Great St Mary’s at 12pm, followed by a staff-student assembly.
In the South West a collective of staff members from several universities is hosting a “Speaking up for Palestine” webinar which will discuss academic freedom of speech and equality in higher education. Speakers are Dr Narzanin Massoumi of Exeter University and Professor Rebecca Ruth Gould of SOAS, University of London.
First timers
Many people are saying they are organising something at work for the first time.
A nurse at one West London health centre said people refer to Palestine sometimes around work related issues, but this time they are going to have a Palestine lunch and hopefully sit down and discuss the “whole terrible situation”.
Staff at various non-unionised workplaces have contacted us saying they are trying to break the silence on Palestine at their work by doing collections for the Disasters Emergency Committee which is running a Middle East humanitarian appeal, by doing a bake sale for Palestine or ordering in some Palestinian food at lunchtime.
In many places there are rallies where people can bring groups from their workplace to visit in their lunch breaks or after work. Newcastle Trades Council and PSC have a rally of workers and students in Haymarket at noon, which is supported by the Artists Union England, CWU, FBU, NEU, PCS, UCU and Unison.
Greater Manchester StWC has called a rally in St Peter’s Square for 6pm, with trade union speakers including Tony Wilson from UNISON’s NEC, Kevin Allsopp, the NW TUC regional rep and Tracy Delaney, from the UNISON NW region. There will also be a message of support from Adnan Hussein, the independent, pro-Gaza MP for Blackburn.
In Bristol, the TUC SW region, Bristol StW and PSC are holding half hour lunchtime protests at 12.30 outside 3 Glass Wharf and on College Green by the Ram Mohan Roy statue.
Unite Community Leeds, Wakefield and York, along with York TUC, are planning to bring workers together to march through York city centre. Assembly is 5.30pm in St Helen’s Square. Union branches are being asked to mobilise their members, bring banners and flags and to send speakers.
Back in Birmingham, the staff of a community hub in Balsall Heath are running a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) day against Lidl which stocks many Israeli products and whose owner is a huge investor in Israeli tech companies. And some schools in Birmingham are doing Palestine themed lunches.
NEU members at sixth form colleges up and down the country will be on strike on the day of action, as part of a pay dispute. At the Angel Sixth Form College in Islington, members will also be demonstrating their support for Palestine.
Also in London, there’s a lunchtime rally for Palestine at the main entrance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich organised with Greenwich and Bexley Trades Union Council and Bexley Palestine Action. Local government unions will also be leafleting outside the Woolwich Town Hall.
These are just a few of the actions being planned by trade unionists for the 28th. Get your colleagues involved and join the ever-growing call on Keir Starmer and David Lammy to end their support for Israel as it pursues its genocide in Gaza.
Do contact Stop the War for advice or help, and please, do post everything that happens on the day social media using #Workplaces4Palestine.
