No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine

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The definitive history of the US labor movement's complicity in Zionist settler colonialism, and a call for today's labor militants to organize in solidarity with Palestinians.

In trying to organize their unions to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, US trade unionists are often met with arguments that the labor movement should keep quiet and remain neutral because "Palestine has nothing to do with unions" and "weighing in" only distracts from winning better working conditions. Such arguments, however, often serve as cover for top union officials who have historically been far more sympathetic to Israel and Zionism than to the cause of Palestinian liberation and self-determination.

of the US labor movement's century-long involvement in the ongoing struggle for Palestine. Scholar Jeff Schuhrke convincingly demonstrates that unions in the United States have never been silent or neutral on the question of Palestine. In fact, they have played a key role-often overlooked by historians-in the initial Zionist colonization of Palestine, in the eventual foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, in supporting US foreign policy commitments to bolster Israel's global standing and military capabilities, and in ongoing efforts to suppress the Palestinian liberation movement.

In his compelling telling of this history, Schuhrke conclusively shows that US unions helped build and maintain the state of Israel, and also shines a light on important exceptions to this rule: instances of US labor solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle that point the way forward for today's labor movement.

Author Bio

Jeff Schuhrke is a labor historian and assistant professor at the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies, SUNY Empire State University in New York City. He is the author of Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade and his writing has appeared in publications including Jacobin, Jewish Currents, In These Times, and Labor Notes. He is based in New York, NY.