PARTISAN!

Comrade Seb both discusses the material basis and problems with the front Trade Unionists for Palestine.

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Trade Unionists for Palestine (TU4P) has become one of the largest sustained political projects for many radical unionists. The project, which was launched only days after Israel’s genocidal forces were fully mobilised, has grown to encompass multiple tendencies, political organisations, and groupings of activists. It has become a force with significant political activity within Australia’s Palestinian Liberation Movement. Despite this, it is important for us, particularly as members of TU4P, to be able to reflect and discuss the material success of the movement.

TU4P is very easily viewed through rose-tinted glasses for many activists within it. It is “the vanguard” of workers regarding Palestine, so to speak, in their eyes. However, material outcomes for TU4P is the only way to truly measure the ability of it to be a “vanguard” if it even has the potential to do so. Therefore, the purpose of this discussion will be to focus on three main points of TU4P: material success, public influence, and issues with the movement. TU4P must be viewed as what it is, that being an organisation of Unionists external to more traditional political organisations, with the potential to funnel radical workers into these existing political organisations. However, it has still been able to amass a considerably impressive number of active workers, not activists, into its fold. Low estimates put it at roughly 300 workers. The movement does have the potential to mobilise, and critical discussion is crucial to analyse its potential for success.

Material Success

Material success is the most defining aspect of any political organisation that wishes to be seen as a mass movement. TU4P has definitely been able to have material successes, but it is the inconsistency of these which are the biggest issues regarding it. In relation to actual solid outcomes, perhaps the most obvious success regarding mass mobilisation was the “Block The Dock” protests. The most successful of their blockades was the action taken at Port Melbourne, against the ZIM Ganges ship. The ship was successfully delayed for five days, causing significant financial disruption to both Israeli and Australian capital. However, TU4P was only involved in organising two days of the action, as it withdrew official support after the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) pulled out. TU4P also had minor successes in actions targeting the metal treatment corporation HTA Global. TU4P has been able to successfully mobilise many workers to shut their Melbourne facility down on multiple occasions. In response, HTA has been purposefully moving their operations across Victoria to avoid further disruptions. This issue is (hopefully) to be resolved through discussions with the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU).

Currently, TU4P has adopted a “Flying Picket” model in the interim, which has seen some success. Another success has been, perhaps unsurprisingly, Teachers & School Staff For Palestine. While officially independent from TU4P, Teachers & School Staff For Palestine has official representatives on the Coordination Committee. They have successfully fought multiple campaigns and have seen significant material success. The biggest win was the ability to wear Keffiyehs in their classrooms, something which was heavily repressed by administrations. Currently, they are engaging in an Anti-Weapons Contract Project, which seems to be growing in strength.

Finally, TU4P’s biggest material success has been, perhaps again unsurprisingly, on a local level. Many workplaces have successfully banned all Israeli goods being purchased, have won the right to have Palestinian Flags up, have won the right to wear Pro-Palestinian articles of clothing and, regarding specifically education, the right to teach and discuss Palestine with children and students when asked.

These wins have been empowered workers to take an active role in fighting for Palestine, and have encouraged workers to develop a sense of international solidarity with the Palestinians. TU4P can take solace in knowing that, despite bigger actions being much less successful, smaller actions have had a material success. With these smaller successes though, and the growing support across multiple Unions, it is possible we will see TU4P play an active role further in Australia’s Palestinian Liberation Movement.

Public Influence

Radical organisations desperately seek public influence, because challenging the status-quo on a mass scale will inherently bring you into the public eye.e TU4P is also in a position of seeking public influence, but perhaps not so desperately. TU4P understands that the current ruling class of Australia is unequivocally pro-Israel, and will continue to push a pro-Zionist agenda. So, instead of attempting to break everything at once, TU4P is engaging in the most important of tasks; Stalls and grassroots organising.

This is incredibly important work, as by simply talking to workers you can understand why they may hold these views. TU4P has seen an influx of ‘blue collar’ workers as of late, and this has been due to their local organising. Many workers, including some of the staunchest comrades in TU4P, have held pro-Zionist views. But by simply interacting with someone who was willing to engage critically with them, they broke from their reactionary beliefs. We can make somewhat of a distinction between Public Opinion and Public Influence, because Public Opinion of TU4P is nowhere near positive. Due to significant political issues, the capitalist press has been able to paint TU4P in an incredibly negative light. Workers with delegates or members involved in TU4P have been able to increase the collective power of workers in the workplace.

The complexity of undermining long seeded Zionist views may seem difficult to imagine for progressive and radical workers, but it is nonetheless a necessary undertaking. TU4P has committed itself to undertaking this task. Educating workers, in a constructive and critical way, has seen significant success in breaking workers from “Well, Murdoch says so”, to “This is a serious issue with which I care for”.

It definitely is beneficial that the political message of TU4P, that ‘Palestine is Union Business’ and workers should care about it, is quite supportable for Rank-And-File workers. TU4P has also begun engaging in the creation of bulletins, news reports, online media, mass meetings & other key public events. These organised meetings and events have played an incredibly beneficial role in developing TU4P’s public influence. However, it is also important that we do not overstate TU4P’s role. While it has been able to successfully break workers from reactionary beliefs, it has only been able to do so in large part due to the prevalence of mass media.

Issues With The Movement

As with all radical movements not tied to a specific political party or program, there are issues with the movement. Perhaps these issues are amplified with TU4P’s wide array of political tendencies that are not exclusively Marxists, revolutionary Socialists, or even revolutionary at all.

There are a wide array of factional disputes. From the “Solidarity Bloc” to the “Radical Bloc”, from the Social Democrats to the Anarcho-Communists, from the Radical Liberals to the Leftists, this movement has become a melting pot of differing beliefs. While each factional dispute could be a discussion by itself (even the disputes between Right Social Democrats and Left Social Democrats), perhaps the most pressing factional dispute is between the Collective Action group and the Direct Action group. Sections of TU4P are fundamentally pro-Direct Action, which has caused serious issues in the cohesiveness of the movement.

TU4P is a collective grouping which means the organisation strives for workers to collectively smash economic support for the genocide. However, the ‘direct actionist’ group views this as a betrayal of Palestinian people, opposing it for being too long term, which in their minds allows more Palestinians to be murdered as unionists struggle to collectively organise. This has caused multiple actions which have been purely ‘direct actionist’ being met with significant police repression, as their small numbers leave them more vulnerable to direct repression. Whilst broad movements of the left are beneficial (the RCO is a perfect example), movements must still be cohered around a collective understanding.

Even if your inclination is to be ‘direct actionist’, you should nonetheless respect and uphold the decisions of the collective. The ‘direct actionists’, while undoubtedly revolutionary, are firmly against collective understanding, or any form of organisational discipline. This has caused significant tension between the contesting groups. Inevitably, different political groupings attempt to use TU4P as a front to their own political movement, hoping to make their view of the world the “right one”.

It is easy for Labor members to recruit independent workers from TU4P off the back of opposition to the ‘direct actionists’. Not only this, but the ‘direct actionists’ hold the less intellectual, ‘blue collar’ sections of TU4P in contempt. Action4Rafah at the dock is a perfect example. The entire Palestinian Liberation Movement was brought into disrepute because there was no collective support for the action. Being Pro-Palestinian at work after that action was difficult. Large numbers of TU4P’s Rank-And-File attended that action because their representative on the Coordination Committee were also present. That single action, despite the police repression, had the potential to actively set back the collective understanding of Palestinian liberation.

The issues regarding two different decisions have slowly died down for now, but the next serious major action will still encounter the same problem. In fact, as of writing, members of TU4P have been messaged about yet another ‘direct actionist’ type protest. Sections of TU4P are actively discussing sabotaging working equipment without the support of those workers. This is a serious issue, which risks the safety of all TU4P comrades.

Because of these issues, TU4P does not have the current ability to become a mass movement. The exclusionary, adventurist tactics push workers away, and turn it into just another “Activist” group. If people want “Activists For Palestine”, they are free to start one of their own. Building workers power for Palestine is not just ‘direct actionism’, but collective work. Until the ‘direct actionists’ realise this, their actions will continue to weaken the case for fighting against the genocide.

Conclusion

TU4P is not an organisation from which a mass Socialist Workers Party can emerge. This is evident. Can Victorian Socialists or Solidarity or WACA (Whistleblowers, Activists and Communities Alliance) become the mass party? TU4P has been able to draw in politically active workers and begin the process of questioning the status-quo. This movement is seeing the famous Lenin quote for many workers: “For some, decades are happening in weeks”. Workers who never questioned Labor are now actively questioning to ALP’s complicity in genocide. Workers who never questioned capitalism are now questioning whether it should exist at all. TU4P has seen significant raising in some workers’ consciousness. Now it is time to build the party that can capitalise on that.