Time for Canadian Unions to Declare Hot Cargo on Israel!
Labour Day 2025
As workers in Canada celebrate the Labour Day long weekend, Palestinians workers are fighting for their lives. Workers in Gaza are being murdered every day by the State of Israel, including five journalists on August 26th who were killed while reporting on an Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes. Israel’s deliberate policy of starvation, now declared a famine by the UN, is resulting in even more death and is intensifying the suffering of the Palestinian people.
On this Labour Day, Labour for Palestine - Canada renews our calls to the Canadian Labour Congress, federations of labour, labour councils and affiliates to:
Declare all Israeli products, services and relationships with Israel as HOT CARGO, not to be touched by workers of conscience.
Endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Publicly speak out against anti-Palestinian racism and support workers who are being discriminated against in workplaces across the country for speaking out against the genocide.
Publicly oppose the IHRA definition of antisemitism and the attempts to conflate criticism of Zionism or Israeli state policies with antisemitism.
Officially break off relations with the Histadrut (Isarel’s central labour body) for supporting the genocide and discriminating against Palestinian workers.
Israel has escalated the genocide in recent months by targeting journalists, health care workers and aid seekers, using starvation as a weapon of war, and destroying what infrastructure remains of Gaza. They have a deliberate policy to create the conditions for ethnic cleansing by making the territory uninhabitable. Similar tactics are being applied to border towns and villages in South Lebanon, in violation of the terms of the ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, 2024.
Israeli leaders have frustrated every opportunity for a meaningful ceasefire, instead declaring their intention to invade Gaza and expand the settlements in the occupied West Bank, as a prelude to the creation of “Greater Israel” which Benjamin Netanyahu (a war criminal with an outstanding ICC arrest warrant) declared a few weeks ago.
Palestinians have borne the brunt of Israel’s aggression, but their violence has not been restricted to Palestine. They have attacked Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and are now expanding its occupation into Southern Syria. Full support from Western imperialist states, including Canada, has shamefully been granted, with the complicity of authoritarian Arab regimes.
Canada’s complicity in the genocide was exposed in a damning report by the Arms Embargo Now Coalition (AEN) in July. The Canadian Government continues to send military shipments to Israel, including hundreds of thousands of bullets, and lying to Canadians about it. They have made Canadian workers complicit in the genocide in the process.
In the face of the escalating genocide and Canada’s ongoing complicity, more unions are passing resolutions affirming Palestinian human rights and identity (ETFO) and endorsing a two-way arms embargo on Israel (Unifor).
Resolutions are important and critical, but much more needs to be done to concretely respond to the calls of Palestinian workers and unions. We call on the Canadian Labour Congress, federations of labour, labour councils and affiliates to act now!
An Injury To One Is An Injury to All!