The Conditions for a Worker-Led Arms Boycott

A union representative in one of Scotland’s arms factories sets out a feasible strategy for effective solidarity with Palestine.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanction is widely seen as a consumer campaign. This reflects the weakened state of the labour movement and the lack of understanding about the potential power of organised labour in the Palestine solidarity movement. While it’s encouraging to have many thousands of individuals working out how they boycott Israeli products using apps like Boycat, we need to tap into the more powerful traditions of organised labour to raise the pressure on the Israeli regime in a more qualitative way.

There is a rich tradition of international solidarity and boycotts in the British and Irish labour movements. Trade unionists in Britain supported anti-slavery struggles during the American civil war, against the Pinochet coup in Chile and the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

In the 1860s confidence in the labour movement was low following the recent defeat of the Chartists. However, faced with a government that wanted to intervene militarily in favour of the slave-owners, thousands of British workers across the country mobilised in mass protests against slavery and in opposition to the government’s plans. Their action helped the struggle in America succeed, revived the British labour movement, and had enormous consequences for politics in wider society. 

This is the first time that trade unionists agitated victoriously on a political question and it was not to be the last. They linked the fight against anti-Black racism in America with that against anti-Irish racism in Britain. The new labour movement campaigned on political questions like winning universal male suffrage and international solidarity. The campaign strengthened and renewed working-class organisation. It showed that, united and mobilised, workers could win, not only on economic but on major political issues.

Last century, in response to a fascist coup in Chile in 1973 which resulted in the torture and massacre of trade unionists, a powerful international solidarity movement was launched to support coup victims. Against this backdrop, the heroic actions of workers in a predecessor union of Unite blockaded and halted the repair of engines which had been used in aircraft during the coup. The actions of these workers at the Rolls Royce plant in East Kilbride have been widely recognised and celebrated in the film Nae Pasaran.

Still more recently, the labour movement and wider civil society mounted a boycott of South Africa. The labour movement played a key role in supporting the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) in the 1980s. One of the most inspiring examples was in 1984 in Ireland, when female shop workers in Dunnes stores refused to handle South African grapefruit, and struck for nearly three years with huge public support that forced the Irish government to ban all South African produce.

Meanwhile in the UK, by 1990 43 trade unions including every major union were affiliated to the AAM. The AAM worked at every level of the labour movement. It lobbied union leaders and held conferences for rank and file trade unionists. Some took action at a local level. NHS workers in Portsmouth refused to handle South African medical supplies, Ford workers stopped the import of pick-up trucks, and journalists at the International Publishing Corporation pressured management to reject South African government advertisements.

These heroic examples didn’t come out of thin air. The campaign had been building in the labour movement for years. The AAM was launched in 1959 and by the 1980s had become the biggest mass movement in Britain on an international issue. The campaign had become the ‘common sense’ in the labour movement. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of individuals boycotting South African produce. In 1990 the South African regime announced the end to the ban on the African National Congress and released Nelson Mandela. 

To make BDS a real force in the labour movement and wider civil society, we need to work out the steps needed to move us forward. The Palestine solidarity movement has grown across the world in response to the genocide being carried out by the Israeli regime. In every city across Britain there have been weekly solidarity demonstrations for Palestine. Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated for Palestine. Despite the current weak state of the British labour movement and the raft of anti trade union legislation that prohibits much of the solidarity actions taken in the past, the conditions are right to take Palestinian solidarity into the workplace. 

Palestine protest at BAE Systems

Most of the trade union movement has good formal policy on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). However, most unions have yet to divest their own pension schemes or boycott Israeli equipment themselves. The labour movement is in a weaker state than it was during the anti-apartheid campaign against the South African regime. So we have to work out how we rebuild our power in the workplace and how we link this to rebuilding an independent industrial left. Rebuilding an independent left is part and parcel of rebuilding workplace power. The best way to rebuild an independent left today is to build solidarity with Palestine. The Palestinian question is the toughest and most important issue to build around at work. Its toughness may lead people to believe that the best thing is to duck it. However, anyone who is prepared to stand up for Palestine at work will have the political courage to fight over any workplace issue. Many of the best new reps are being recruited from the emerging Palestine solidarity movement and are linking the fight for social justice here with the fight against genocide in Palestine.

Before BDS can become a truly powerful movement, union activists must fight for our own trade unions to divest and boycott. Only then can we build a powerful and meaningful movement that can build pressure on our employers in the private, public and third sectors to boycott and divest. However, we shouldn’t wait for the trade union bureaucracy to get its house in order. There are many things we can do now. If we set realisable aims, we can build up consciousness and confidence while demanding solid support across the movement. We may not be able to organise walk-outs now or stop arms exports today, but we can make a difference while being creative.

The STUC recently organised a conference which brought together some officers and reps from across the movement. A statement encouraging reps to support and build BDS is expected soon. This welcome initiative builds on the work taking place in unions across Scotland. The biggest civil service union, PCS, has warned the government that it is “seriously considering” taking legal action to allow departmental officials to cease involvement in the export of arms to Israel. It has suggested that by forcing PCS members to undertake work involving interactions with the Israeli government, the UK Government is putting them in a position in conflict with certain civil service code obligations and potentially also in contravention of the law. At the same time, it believes that the code is being used to prevent members from supporting the people of Gaza.

Elsewhere in the civil service, concerns from PCS in Scotland around the potential complicity of its members in war crimes due to Scottish Enterprise investment in arms companies have fuelled demands that the Scottish Government review its support for companies implicated in genocide.

Meanwhile, hospitality workers are developing boycott tactics in Glasgow clubs and bars. Unite members working in the hospitality sector in Glasgow have launched a BDS campaign “Serve Solidarity”. After winning union recognition, hospitality workers managed to convince The Stand comedy club in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle to ban Israeli produce and products targeted by BDS. This resulted in a ban on Israeli fresh produce and products produced by Pepsico at all venues. They have also been successful in persuading a cafe, Mibbies Aye in Hamilton, to adopt the BDS agenda, and are looking to spread these successes across the sector. These examples may appear to be small successes, but they nevertheless demonstrate that it’s possible to win BDS in one of the most precarious sectors of the economy. Imagine what’s possible in better organised and more strategic sectors.

None of these examples relate to sites where union members are manufacturing goods that are exported to Israel and used in the genocide. But it is no secret that Unite represents workers in companies that manufacture components for the F35 jets that are bought and used by Israel. 

Since the outset of the recent phase of the conflict, some such sites have been targeted by protestors and, in the early stages of the conflict, some of the protestors targeted workers. Some were called ‘baby killers’. Others were told they ‘had blood on their hands’ or were urged ‘to get another job’. These kinds of protests have had a negative impact on both those inside the factories trying to build solidarity and the growing labour and solidarity movement that’s opposed to genocide. But the response from the Unite leadership has also been unhelpful. A statement from Unite to staff made the following points:

[W]e cannot and will not endorse any organisation which decides unilaterally and without any discussion (let alone agreement) with the workers themselves, to support the targeting of our members’ workplaces or their jobs. To be clear, this will not happen. No outside body, no matter what their political position, will be allowed to dictate terms to our Union and our members … Therefore, there is no contradiction for a trade union to hold a position of solidarity with Palestinian workers, while at the same time refusing to support campaigns that target our members’ workplaces without their support … Unite members have recently been attacked directly, been spat at and called ‘child killers’. We cannot and will not endorse this.

At the recent Unite manufacturing sector conferences held on November 21st, the issue raised its head again when a rep from an arms factory raised the following points in the Q&A session. He said, workers come to work to feed their families and put a roof over their heads, but they are being targeted, harassed and abused by protestors. He went on to ask for the support of the General Secretary. Graham responded by agreeing that these protests were unacceptable and that she’d already written to reps and members offering her full support.

While it is correct to call out tactics that blame the workers for the genocide, the description of the site protests is inaccurate and has been for most of this year. Workers did experience this situation at the outset of the current wave of campaigning. However, senior reps have been working hard to stop this unacceptable behaviour and find common ground with the protesters by taking the following actions:

  1. Challenge the protestors when they blame our members for complicity in the genocide.
  2. Challenge the protest organisers to educate the protestors about how they build solidarity with workers.
  3. Convince reps and members inside the factories that people have a democratic right to protest outside factories against genocide.
  4. Challenge site protestors about their activity in their own workplaces. Are they raising Palestinian solidarity? Are they arguing for BDS in their own workplace?

Details of this work was shared with delegates at the Aerospace and Shipbuilding (A&S) sector conference that afternoon and was warmly received. The rep who raised the original question also accepted that the nature of site protests had significantly changed over the year. Attempts to present an inaccurate picture to the conference delegates only undermines the good work reps have been doing in the sector to build unity with workers and the wider solidarity movement. Moreover, the views of workers on the sites aren’t monolithic. Most do come to work simply to feed their families and put a roof over their heads without making any connection with how the products may be used in the genocide. However, a growing number are unhappy with their employers profiteering from genocide and are looking for ways to oppose it. Many others are happy to get a day off when the protesters target their plant. The situation is complex and dynamic.

Earlier in April, reps in the Aerospace and Shipbuilding (A&S) sector agreed to support the campaign for a ban on ‘direct’ arms export licences. This would affect companies like Elbit, Raytheon and Teledyne Defence that deliver military equipment directly to Israel. The call for a ban on ‘direct’ export licences would leave the F35 work unaffected as it is sold to the US and most of the products do not end up in Israel, even though the F35 is increasingly being used by the Israelis to bomb Gaza and has the potential to attack Iran. 

The solidarity movement is correctly demanding an end to those exports, even if they were not being exported directly to Israel. However, Declassified UK recently reported that F35 components are being directly exported to Israel from RAF Marham. Martin Baker are exporting ejector seats directly to Israel too. These exports are in breach of the policy outlined by reps in the A&S Sector. Reps and officers will be meeting shortly to see if these allegations are true and agree on a way forward.

As pressure grows for the ending of all arms export licences to Israel, with the possibility that PCS members refuse to work on such licenses, then Unite reps who work on F35 components should also be preparing the ground for a potential ban. An A&S National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) earlier this year, concluded that reps should engage with protestors to try and find common ground while encouraging them to also prepare for the possibility of a full ban on Israeli arms export licences by challenging employers for alternative work. This approach will increase the possibility of winning wider support to defend union members in the event that licences are cancelled and companies respond by making workers redundant.

The NISC also concluded that:

Anyone who is uncomfortable for personal, religious or political reasons to continue working on a particular job should approach their Unite rep. A person should not be subject to less favourable treatment for asserting a particular belief, whether or not this is shared by co-workers or by the employer.

This statement creates space for those who wish to take action where they feel unsafe or their conscience prevents them from working on military products destined for the genocide.

The solidarity movement is learning from its mistakes. Most protestors now try to appeal to workers by seeing them as allies. This is a huge step forward. The challenge for reps in the factories is to work out how best they can show solidarity and deliver action to end the genocide. Ultimately, developing a vision beyond arms production would be the best way to guarantee that our skills are not used in pursuit of war crimes and are used in ways that benefit society. In the meantime, finding ways to halt F35 work has to be a priority. We should learn the lessons from the anti-slavery movement where solidarity against the racist regime in the deep south of the United States helped the process of recovery in the labour movement. Building solidarity with Palestine in the workplace is the key to rebuilding an independent industrial left that is necessary to helping us rebuild the workers’ movement.