In a fantastic show of Solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, on Thursday workers up and down the country organised the biggest day of workplace action for Palestine yet. Trade-union activists, workers and students turned out in solidarity for Palestine, in many places for the first time.
The day of action was supported by the TUC, which helped strengthen the resolve of unions to promote events and encourage people to take part.
Round-up of actions around the country
London saw a variety of actions, both rallies and smaller protests in workplaces, at universities and schools. A number of London based civil servants and trade unionists marched to Whitehall and picketed those government departments which licence arms exports to Israel (the Foreign Office and Trade Department) demanding an immediate arms embargo.
In Bristol, staff and students from City of Bristol College held a lunchtime demo outside City Hall where they were joined by supporters from nearby colleges and workplaces, including the University of Bristol and striking NEU members from St. Brendan’s Sixth-Form college. Delegates from Bristol Trades Council as well as members from NEU, Unison, UCU and PCS joined the rally on College Green. The rally was hosted by the chair of Bristol Stop the War and speakers included a Professor Emeritus of Bristol University, the chair of Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an NEU rep, a consultant from the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and the chair of PCS and Southwest TUC.
Coordinated action and lunchtime rallies also took place at Glass Wharf and outside Elbit Systems in Filton and a vigil was held at the Bristol Royal Infirmary.
Dozens of other activities and protests took place in the Bristol area including at Southmead Hospital and the Speedwell Centre.
Further north, in Stafford, Unison NHS workers at St George’s Hospital staged a small solidarity protest. Objections from the hospital trust meant the activists were unable to publicise the event but the show of solidarity went ahead regardless.
Manchester saw trade unionists organise events across the city which culminated in a rally in the city centre, with contributions from speakers from Unite, Unison, UCU and local Trades Councils. The assistant branch secretary of GMMH Unison branch, currently taking strike action, gave a fantastic speech linking the struggles in the UK to those in Palestine. Others made links between the Palestine campaign and the campaigns against austerity and climate change. Despite the freezing weather the turn out was good and the mood determined, with activists keen to push their unions to engage with and fully support the Palestine campaign.
The Greater Manchester Transport Unison branch members collected over £50 at lunchtime from passers-by and Unison members in aid of Medical Aid for Palestinians, and Manchester Metropolitan University held a rally during the afternoon. There was also a protest against the arms firm Thales in Stockport.
There was a small march through York city centre, in which members of the York Unison branch took part alongside UCU members and York and District TUC and Unite Community workers.
The Lancashire Trades Council coordinated the day of action and held a rally in the city centre at lunchtime. The rally was joined by workers from local government and education sectors alongside college students from the local sixth-form college. A number of those present signed up for the coach to take them to the national demonstration on Saturday.
In Newcastle about 100 trade unionists and students gathered at the Haymarket in central Newcastle at noon. There were speakers representing the students, the local trades council and unions UCU, PCS, Unison and NEU. There were visibly strong delegations from PCS, UCU and Unison with banners. The rally was organised by ‘Trades Unionists for Palestine’, a new group set up by local Palestine Solidarity Campaign members with support from Newcastle Stop the War.
There was a fantastic show of solidarity at or near university campuses.
At SOAS, part of the University of London, hundreds of students and staff gathered for a rally in solidarity with Palestine but also to support activists being penalised for their campus pro-Palestine actions – a number of students have recently been suspended from the university for speaking out and taking action over Israeli genocide. Speakers at the rally included Andrew Feinstein, Jeremy Corbyn, the student activist Haya Adam, and Lindsey German from Stop the War Coalition. In her speech Lindsey German expressed her support for the students, saying “When you are defending a genocide, when you are defending war crimes, you have to cover up and silence those who are telling the truth”.
Also in London, Imperial College held a lunchtime protest and in east London, at the London College of Fashion around 30 students held a protest.
Birmingham students and staff from the university joined a protest organised by UCU and Unison, and now plan to make it a weekly event.
In Cambridge more than 200 turned up for a rally at the university co-organised by Unite, UCU, Unison and NEU unions and students from Cambridge for Palestine and the PalSoc. The union activists and students marched through the social science and humanities campus where they called on the university to divest from arms companies.
At Leicester University there was also a rally with both students, lecturers and other staff members taking part. Supported by the university’s branch of the UCU whose chair took the opportunity to condemn the arrest of student activists who had been involved in a campus occupation. He pledged to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the arrested activists.
Unison members at Bedfordshire University in Luton encouraged staff and students to eat cake at their popular bake sale in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians and to demand the government stop arming Israel.
At Brighton university protestors went to the local L3 Harris arms company while in the city centre over a hundred people gathered at a Stop the War event, including Unite members with a banner reading “Unite members say Stop the War”.
It was not just unionised workers and university students that participated in the day of action, but also in schools where pupils were keen to play a part. At one school in the Midlands staff and students held a samosa sale raising money for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Pupils and teachers, fearful of being penalised for expressing support for Palestine wore keffiyehs and watermelon symbols as a less overtly political show of solidarity. They hope the more they visually display support for Palestine the more confidence fellow pupils and work colleagues will feel to discuss the issue and speak out against the genocide.
Similarly at a corporate office in London, where staff have traditionally been reluctant to discuss politics, small numbers of people gathered together, shared educational messages, raised funds for humanitarian aid and Oxfam’s ceasefire petition.
Health workers had a large presence on the day of action, unsurprisingly given the attacks faced by their fellow workers in Palestine and Lebanon. Homerton Hospital in London, Bristol’s Royal Infirmary, St Geroge’s in South London and St George’s in Stafford all took part.
A group of workers at a health centre in north London organised a team solidarity lunch with an array of Palestinian dishes. The lunch was dedicated to those who have lost their lives and those who are still enduring unimaginable hardship in Gaza and the West Bank. Unbelievably management had received complaints from co-workers about the group brining ‘politics to work’!
There were many more events around the country than have included in this report, showing the strength of feeling held by workers and students towards the plight of Palestinians and the growth of the movement in recent months.
The day of action was just one part of building the movement against Israeli genocide, we must not stop here.
