Unbowed: May Day action shuts down Israel’s ‘sponsors of genocide’
May 1st 2024
PRO-PALESTINE activists, workers and trade unionists took down the “sponsors of Israel’s genocide” on May Day today as they targeted numerous sites across Britain.
International Workers’ Day this year marked the 208th day of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in which more than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the Strip.
The actions were part of a national wave of “People’s Arms Embargoes” amid failure by government ministers and MPs to stop weapons sales and funding for Israel.
Thousands of workers in Glasgow, south Wales and Lancashire shut down BAE Systems’ arms factories while more gathered outside the London building of the Department for Business and Trade, which oversees arms exports to Israel.
At least three people were arrested in the actions, which were in response to a call from Palestine trade unions for workers to mobilise on International Workers’ Day in solidarity.
It also supported civil servants who have requested to cease work immediately on arms export licences and their union, PCS, which is considering legal action to prevent workers from being forced to carry out unlawful acts.
Workers for a Free Palestine organiser Tania, a trade unionist who took part in the London blockade, said: “The government has sought to play down the scale of its arms supplies to Israel.
“But the reality is UK arms and military support play a vital role in the Israeli war machine, and evidence that three British aid workers were killed by a drone partly produced in the UK shows the extent of British complicity in Israel’s genocide.
“If arms company bosses and Britain’s political elite won’t impose an arms embargo, we, the workers, will enforce it from below.”
Aisha, a community worker blockading the arms factory in the north of England, said: “When Israel massacres entire families and razes cities to the ground, companies like Elbit Systems, BAE, Leonardo, Thales and Raytheon make vast profits.
“When we see hospitals turned into mass graves of over 300 people and many of those killed having been stripped of their clothes and had their hands and feet tied, the knowledge that British-made weapons which enable such atrocities are being manufactured on my doorstep makes me feel complicit.”
In Wales, hundreds of people from the Cymru Peace Coalition blockaded BAE Sytems in Glascoed, preventing traffic from entering or leaving the site.
The protests held banners reading: “Stop arming genocide” and “UK weapons kill.”
Healthcare assistant, 26-year-old Simone, said: “Families are being indiscriminately targeted by bombing and shelling in Gaza; while holding white flags, collecting aid or sleeping in their makeshift shelters — 155mm artillery shells made by BAE systems here in Wales are facilitating these crimes.
“We say, not in our name. While both Welsh and UK government sit on their hands — we will act.
“We’ve always been proud to stand against colonialism and for peace — as the Welsh Women’s Peace petition showed — they would be proud of our actions.”
Michael, a 37-year-old community worker, said: “We believe that the workers in this factory play a vital role in stopping a genocide, and we call on them to unionise and join the actions of workers here and in other countries who are refusing to make and ship weapons to Israel.”
On the picket in Scotland’s former Fairfield Shipbuilders site, John Hilley of the Glasgow Palestinian Human Rights Campaign and the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee, told the Star of the importance of such a move on the workers’ day.
“It’s a very symbolic day to get that amount of people in that mobilisation of people right across the country, and the level of public support is very good,” he said.
“They see the horror, they see the slaughter, and it’s really registered now. These images are stamped in people’s minds.”
On speaking to the employees who had turned up for work, Mr Hilley emphasised the importance of empathy in winning their support to halt arms sales to Israel.
“We are totally with the workers. We see this sort of dilemma that some of them feel that they’re in.
“You can see the kind of vulnerability that some people feel when guys say to me: ‘I’m afraid of getting sacked.’
“We are not here to have a go at them, we’re just here to draw attention to what’s going on.
“There was a good number of workers who showed support, empathy, a good moral understanding, and a good political understanding of what’s going on.
“One of the things that we tried to impress on them was that they need to be in a position where they’re engaging with their unions.
“I think we’re at a tipping point now where there is a big general support for an arms embargo, and it’s even growing among the political class.
“That gives unions and workers a bit of political cover in that regard, in particular in relation to the ICJ rulings, where the instruction is going out — don’t enable the genocide!”
Firms BNY Mellon and Barclays, which have shares in Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems that provides 85 per cent of Israel’s drones and 80 per cent of its land-based military equipment, were also targeted by protests today.
Activists from Palestine Action smashed their way inside and the buildings were covered in blood-red paint to symbolise Palestinian bloodshed which “drenches the profits they draw for their shareholders.”
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “While Israel prepares to invade Rafah, looking to slaughter more thousands of starved, sieged and displaced Palestinians, we cannot forget that many people are making millions from this murder.
“BNY Mellon and Barclays have a duty not to aid and abet Israel’s war crimes and genocide — until they decide to enforce this, Palestine Action will continue to remind them of the blood soaking their balance sheets.”
And more students have established protest camps on university campuses in support of Palestine and demanding that their universities disinvest in companies involved with Israel.
Students set up camps at the universities of Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle today.
The camps mark the spread of the tactics of students in the United States where protest camps were set up at 30 universities last week. Some met with a brutal police response.
The Sheffield camp was established by the Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine, a coalition of staff, students and alumni from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University.
University of Sheffield lecturer Dr Lisa Stampnitzky said: “I am proud to see our students taking a stand and joining this worldwide movement against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
At Manchester University, where a camp was also established on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the protesters said: “The struggle of the Palestinian people to keep their dignity and livelihood is still going strong.
“We stand in solidarity with all who are fighting for a Palestine free of genocide and occupation, from the River to the Sea.”
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