Practical International Solidarity

 

In response to popular demand (from regular readers of this blog, Sid and Doris Blogger) here is another extract from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history), an excursion into international solidarity work;

“January 2009 witnessed a particularly brutal episode in Israel’s periodic bombardments of the (effectively) imprisoned Palestinian population of Gaza - to which UNISON responded both nationally and locally. At the beginning of January there was a large national demonstration, which sticks in my memory largely for parenting failure on my part - I had failed to ensure that my (then) seven year old son, who came with me from Brighton to join the march was wearing enough layers and so had to requisition the branch banner to wrap him in!

Later in the month, following discussion at the Branch Committee, we secured the agreement of the Council for our shop stewards to take a collection, around all Council workplaces, for Medical Aid for Palestinians, which raised in excess of two thousand pounds.

Thanks in large part to our energetic International Officer, Gurmeet Khurana (who had been elected unopposed with the support of the “Lambeth activists”) the branch carried forward our solidarity with the Palestinian people beyond the episode of intense international attention that generally arises for a short period when Israel bombards Gaza.

That autumn we raised a further seven hundred pounds in a workplace collection for the Viva Palestina aid convoy and, thanks to a successful bid for funds from the national union which Gurmeet put together, in August of the following year Gurmeet and another of our shop stewards - Sahida Uddin - went to Nablus on the occupied West Bank to sign a twinning agreement between Lambeth UNISON and the Nablus branch of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).

Lambeth UNISON’s association with the struggle for solidarity with the Palestinian people was also carried forward that year - at one step removed - by an illustrious former member of our branch (and former shop steward) Glyn Secker, who in May 2010, skippered one of the boats in the aid flotilla led by the Mavi Mamara, which was boarded unlawfully in international waters by the Israeli Defence Force.

Most of the international work of trade unions is, of necessity, undertaken at a national level between the bureaucratic structures of the respective organisations (because these have the  solidity and permanence to sustain those relationships) - lay activists are mostly involved as an ornamental addition. In my years of union activism I didn’t have the time or space to prioritise international work and, on the rare occasions when I did pay attention to it I advocated involving more rank and file workers. Lambeth’s twinning initiative with the PFGTU in Nablus was probably the only time when I was involved (however tangentially) in actually achieving this.

With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to see that the flowering of local international solidarity activity at the level of our branch was about to be swamped by the tidal wave of redundancies which were, in 2009, just over the horizon - but at the time (and since) I have been proud of what we achieved at that time as a trade union branch.”