Defeat Zionist Backlash Against CUPE Ontario!

(Young Spartacus pages)

This past October, a debate erupted in CUPE Local 3902 (the teaching assistants union at the University of Toronto) over the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) campaign against Israel. The shop stewards council, inspired by Zionists and right-wing political science students, introduced a motion rejecting CUPE Ontario’s motion 50 adopted at a union convention last May, which defended Palestinian national rights and characterized Israel as an “apartheid” state. With boundless cynicism, the Zionist-authored motion sermonized about “peace” on both sides. Several members of the executive rejected this cant, including the chair of the union. Supporters of the Spartacus Youth Club attended the October 24 meeting where this was discussed and put up the only counterposed motion. After a sharp debate, the Zionist motion passed by a single vote.

While the Zionists organized a large contingent, those who opposed their motion were largely union members who came out on their own. During the debate, several people stressed it was obscene to place the actions of Israel and the Palestinians on equal footing and insisted that support for CUPE motion 50 was a basic act of union solidarity. The real purpose of calling for “peace” is defense of the status quo: sanctions starving the Palestinians, the daily assassinations in Gaza and the strangulation of the West Bank by checkpoints and bypass roads.

A supporter of the SYC spoke first. He began by criticizing the BDS campaign: it is absurd to look to imperialist governments like Canada to defend the Palestinians. However, CUPE motion 50 at least takes a clear position of denouncing the ghetto wall sealing off the West Bank, and it asserts the right of return for all Palestinian refugees. He said that, as a revolutionary Marxist, he believes that the national self-determination of all peoples in the Near East (including the Hebrew-speaking people) is impossible under capitalism. An equitable solution to the conflicting national claims in the region requires a socialist federation of the Near East. He then argued that the unions must throw their weight behind all struggles of the oppressed. The attacks against CUPE motion 50 are aimed at weakening the labour movement as a whole.

The motion that the SYC supporters put forward read:

“As a local of CUPE Ontario, we endorse the calls in CUPE motion 50 for ‘the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination,’ ‘the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties,’ and the ‘call for the immediate dismantling of the wall’ strangling the West Bank. We stand with CUPE Ontario against the Zionist-orchestrated backlash over this motion in a basic act of solidarity.”