And once again the target is Israel. Engage reports:
UNISON, the public service workers’ union in the UK, has voted today, by a majority of roughly 4-1, to support the campaign to boycott Israel. Motion 53 includes the following:
“Conference believes that ending the occupation demands concerted and sustained pressure upon Israel including an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott.”
Rather mealy-mouthed and cowardly, aren’t they? The wording allows UNISON to claim they aren’t actually boycotting Israel; rather, they simply believe it would be a good idea.
[The motion] also says, using the usual code, that it is for the dismantling of Israel and it opposes a two state solution:
“Conference continues to consider that a just solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict must be based upon international law and Israel should:…
2) allow the refugees of 1948 to return home;
Unlimited “right of return” to pre-1967 Israel is, of course, is a red line for virtually every Israeli, no matter how sympathetic to the Palestinians.
What makes it even harder to swallow is that while the UNISON conference excoriated democratic Israel, it fawned over the repressive, dictatorial regime in Cuba. According to the union’s website:
UNISON has a long history of links with trade unions in Cuba…
Many UNISON branches and regions have established close twinning arrangements with Cuban trade unions…
So while UNISON urges a total boycott of a country with one of the world’s most militant (in the old-fashioned sense) trade union movements, it eagerly establishes ties with a phony government-controlled movement with no record of ever calling a strike. Meanwhile genuine independent trade unions in Cuba are banned and their leaders are arrested.
