Original Post:
Hundreds of protesters have gathered at the Port of Oakland to block an Israeli cargo ship from offloading. The “Block the Boat” effort has been led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). The group says that they’ve successfully prevented the Haifa-based shipping company ZIM from docking in Oakland.
Last month members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union refused to offload a ZIM ship in Durban. The workers were heeding a call from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions for solidarity. Dockworkers in Livorno, Italy also refused to load a shipment of arms going to Israel.
In 2014 AROC launched the Block the Boat coalition in response to ZIM attempting to dock in Oakland and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to offload ZIM’s cargo in solidarity. The company has not tried to dock in the city again until this week. Activists throughout the country have vowed to also block any ZIM ship that tries to offload in their cities.
“Our mobilization is working!,” read a tweet from AROC’s Twitter account this morning, “We’re current picketing 6 different gate entrances with over 600 people, and workers are not crossing the pickets. The message is clear: profiteering from Israeli apartheid is not welcome in the Bay Area.”
1 of 2
Tech Workers at Google, Apple and Amazon Show Solidarity With the Palestinians (truthout.org)
“Tech Workers at Google, Apple and Amazon Show Solidarity With the Palestinians” Truthout, May 29/21, by Rose Lemlich EXCERPT:
“For the first time, tech workers at three major tech companies in the United States have taken public direct action to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against apartheid. Workers at Google, Apple, and Amazon have released open letters calling on management to publicly acknowledge the illegal occupation and human rights abuses by the Israeli government, support their Palestinian workers and the rights of their workers to speak freely about Palestine in the workplace, and (in some cases), review business contracts with the Israeli government. These actions, at companies with little presence or history of organized labor (save the notable exception of the very nascent Alphabet Workers Union), came after eleven days of bombings and arrests by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as street violence against Palestinians by extremist Israeli civilians.
“On May 18th, Google workers from an organization called Jewish Diaspora in Tech circulated a petition calling on the management of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to review all contracts with and donations to ‘Institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, such as the Israeli Defense Forces,’ as well as to listen to Palestinian workers’ demands, donate funds to Palestinian relief organizations, and recognize, ‘The harm done to Palestinians by Israeli military and gang violence.’ On May 20th, workers in the Apple Muslim Association (a group of Muslim workers at Apple) circulated a similar letter internally at the company, demanding Apple’s management publicly recognize the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel, as well as affirm the importance of language around the occupation (demanding that management not use the terms ‘conflict,’ ‘clash,’ or ‘both sides’). On May 25th, workers at Amazon released a similar letter. Collectively, the petitions have gathered several thousand signatures. (cont’d)
2 of 2
“This particular moment is leading to an increase in activism from within the tech industry in part because of increased awareness of the occupation and support for Palestinians globally. ‘This time for me has been different than all the previous intifadas,’ a Palestinian Amazon software engineer (who wished to remain anonymous) told Left Voice. ‘Where there wasn’t as much social media coverage to help show the other side of the story. Before, one side was always more dominant in the media and was kind of controlling the narrative.’ A Palestinian hardware engineer at Amazon (who also wished to remain anonymous) agreed, saying ‘we hope that our message will also be carried into other tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, because those two companies control the content that is shared on their websites, especially when it comes to the Palestinian narrative.'”
Those are my activist buds out there! I was part of the 2014 mobilization, but haven’t been able to join this one as yet.
It’s heartening to see the diversity of protestors, of all races and ages, coming together, just as we’ve seen in the social justice movement in general. No longer can we be ignored when support of social justice crosses all of these boundaries!
Good luck to all. Hope we see many many more.