September 5, 2009
To the Connecticut AFL-CIO Executive Board and AFL-CIO Convention:
We are a group of CT unionists, workers, community leaders and concerned citizens who are distressed that the Connecticut AFL-CIO continues to own $25,000 worth of Israel bonds. The government of Israel is notorious worldwide for its mistreatment of Palestinians, and its anti-labor policies among Jewish workers. We call upon the CT AFL-CIO to join the worldwide movement to bring pressure on the Israeli government by selling its Israel bonds.
Israel controls not only its internationally recognized borders, but the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and parts of Syria. In that area live 5 million Palestinians. Some are Israeli citizens with second class rights (for instance, they are not allowed to work in a number of major industries and they are barred from owning or leasing over 90% of Israeli land). Most Palestinians are not citizens and live in areas surrounded by walls, checkpoints, military bases and Jewish-only settlements. Unemployment rates among these Palestinians are among the highest on earth because very few are allowed to work in Israel itself and because the Israeli government makes sure Palestinian factories and businesses don’t compete with Israeli products. Millions of other Palestinians are refugees, forbidden to return to their homes despite numerous U.N. resolutions and basic human rights.
The Gaza Strip demands separate mention. Long one of the poorest places on earth, its 1.5 million people have been under siege for three years, and often suffer Israeli military attacks In 2008 the Israeli Air Force blew up the headquarters in Gaza of the trade union federation, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. On January 16 of this year Israeli jets attacked the building of the University Teachers Association-Palestine causing severe damage.
The AFL-CIO owns no other foreign country’s bonds. Obviously it bought Israel bonds to help the Israeli government. In the past the AFL-CIO and many other unions supported Israel because of its alliance with the Israeli trade union federation, the Histadrut. At one time the Histadrut represented almost all Jewish Israeli workers. It owned factories and banks and had major influence on the Israeli government. It used that power to create numerous social welfare programs. However, that time is long past. Privatization has made the Histadrut a shadow of its former self. The Israeli Jewish community which used to be famous for its equality is now like the U.S., among the most unequal societies in terms of pay and property
It also must be said that Israeli Palestinians have not benefited from Histadrut membership. For 39 years it was a segregated union with only Jews being allowed membership. After being allowed membership in 1959 100,000 Israeli Arab citizens joined even though there were many complaints of unequal treatment in the union. Once health insurance was no longer administrated by the Histadrut unions, its Arab membership dwindled to a few thousand.
Starting in the 1990’s tens of thousands of Palestinian workers were barred from their jobs in Israel and replaced with workers from China, Rumania, Thailand and other countries. Israel now has the second highest percent of foreign workers among industrialized countries. These workers labor under temporary work contracts and are often thrown out of the country if they complain about working conditions or pay.
To protest its mistreatment of Palestinians, unions worldwide are divesting from Israel and some are calling for boycotts of Israeli products and other measures to pressure its government. These include the UNISON, the biggest union in the UK along with the British University and College Union, IMPACT, Ireland’s largest public sector union, the Ontario section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and COSATU, South Africa’s biggest union.
It is fine that the AFL-CIO wants to use its savings to promote working peoples welfare, but the money would be better put to use buying bonds from hurricane ravaged Louisiana, bonds from the state of Michigan whose government is devastated by the collapse of the auto industry or bonds supporting deficit riddled Connecticut.
We call for the CT AFL-CIO to immediately sell off its Israel bonds and to issue a press release announcing that it will no longer subsidize Israeli government mistreatment of Palestinians or privatization of the Israeli economy.
(organizations listed for identification purposes only)
Initial Signers:
Elizabeth Aaronsohn
Associate Professor, Teacher Education, Central CT State University, and member of AAUP
Jeff Bartos
Teamsters Local #557
Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07
The Rev. David W. Good
An Ordained minister in the United Church of Christ
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Ioanna Gutas
Retired librarian
Stanley Heller
West Haven Federation of Teachers
Central Labor Council delegate
Michael Jefferson
Attorney at Law
Bruce Martin
Hartford
Sadanand Nanjundiah
Professor of Physics, CCSU
G.A. Rosso
AAUP
John Paggioli, M.D.
Physician
Norwich, CT
Frank Panzarella
Former President
IAM, Local 1990
New Haven Area Vice President
CT State Council of Machinists
Chengiah Ragaven
Professor, Central Connecticut State University
Cliff Thornton
Former national Green Party Steering Committee Co-Chair
Subsequent Signers:
Patrick Kearney
Plumber and Pipefitters Local 777
Connecticut
Kristen M. Day
Member, SEIU P-4
Norwich, CT
Immacolata Testa
State Vocational Federation of Teachers
Local 4200A/AFT, AFT-CT, CPEF, AFL-CIO
Alfred G. Gerteiny, Ph.D.
Author/Lecturer
Former President,
University of Bridgeport Chapter,
The American Association of University Professors
Francis Braunlich
New Haven
Elizabeth Neuse
retired, former member Local 34, Yale University
Marissa Blaszko
Steering Committee of CT Students Against The War
Paula Panzarella
New Haven poet
John McGillion
Greenwich,Ct.
Jamilah Rasheed
New Haven
Rob Camp Fuoco
Executive Director – Sharing Nature
Guy Blais
Windsor, CT
Clark Griswold
Connecticut
Morris Shooer.
retired member of TWU local 250.
Gail Courey Toensing
Staff reporter, Indian Country Today
Sam Peterson
Connecticut
Retired Professor of Islamic Art, American University in Cairo, Arizona State University
Former Regional Director, ICOM/UNESCO Museology Program, Cairo, Egypt
Dori Smith
Radio producer, Talk Nation Radio
Syndicated with Pacifica Network
Connecticut
Michael Winterfield
Retired insurance company actuary
West Hartford, CT
Michael M. Beal
Middletown, CT
Justine McCabe, PhD
Co-Chair, International Committee,
Green Party of the United States
Alissa De Rosa
Socialist Action Hartford, CT
Ana Lachelier
West Hartford, CT
Dimitri Gutas
New Haven
Lou Ann Villani
Nurse
Sarah Trobaugh
Manchester, CT
Daniel Piper
Hartford, Connecticut
Howard P. Lenow
Labor lawyer
Founder, American Jews for a Just Peace www.ajjp.org
Massachusetts
Carol Lang,
DC 37 and PSC, NYC
Ann Pett
UTLA member
Janet Loehr
30 year union rep
American Federation of Teachers
Cleveland
Andy Griggs
United Teachers Los Angeles/AFT #1021
Educator
L.A. Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee
Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita,
California State University,
former Vice-President of California Faculty Assn
CFA/SEIU 1983/AAUP
Emma Rosenthal
UTLA/CTA/NEA
Retired
L.A. Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee
Eleanor Roffman
Professor
Lesley University
AAUP member
Hedy Epstein
Jewish human rights activist
St. Louis, Missouri
Jeffrey Blankfort
former member, Newspaper Guild,
California Federation of Teachers
Sherif S. Fam
Cambridge, MA
Abe Hayeem
Chair, Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine
http://apjp.org/
Marilyn Hacker
Professor of English
City College of New York
Member, PSC/ CUNY
Jason Kunin, teacher
member of Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), District 12
Vivian Zelaya
retired teacher
and lifelong union supporter
Hank Silver
Retired Public Sector Worker
Berkeley, CA
Dennis Kortheuer
Lecturer
California State University, Long Beach
James A. Cohen
professor of political science,
Northampton, Massachusetts
Alice Rothchild, MD
American Jews for a Just Peace
Ruth Clark
Edinburgh
Esther Ho
retired teacher
Stan Robinson
co-producer, Truth and Justice Radio
Newton, MA
Denise D’Anne
San Francisco, CA
Jean Pauline and Tom Brown
Members, Women in Black
Newland F. Smith, 3rd
Member, Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy
