"No Neutrals There" Discussion with Jeff Schuhrke and Hassan Husseini

Tuesday February 3 — 7-8:30PM ET — Online via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84270121974

Webinar discussion and Q&A with author Jeff Schuhrke on his new book "No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine" with guest speaker Hassan Husseini, Labour 4 Palestine National Steering Committee — organized by People’s Voice newspaper, The Canadian Freelance Union, Labour 4 Palestine, and New Labour Press.

Discussion will be hosted and moderated by Aminah Sheikh, Vice President of the Canadian Freelance Union and Peter Saczkowski, PV Forum organizer. 

Contact: pvforumtoronto@gmail.com

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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.

US trade unionists are often told to keep quiet and remain neutral on Palestine because “Palestine has nothing to do with unions” and “weighing in” only distracts from struggles for better working conditions.

No Neutrals There makes a timely and critical intervention against that pervasive sentiment by recounting the history of the US labor movement’s century-long involvement in the 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—in the initial Zionist colonization of Palestine, the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, supporting US foreign policy commitments to Israel, and the ongoing suppression of 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. 

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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 of the forthcoming book No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine.

Hassan Husseini is a longtime labour and international solidarity activist and a member of the National Steering Committee of Labour for Palestine - Canada. He is a national negotiator at Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and a member of Unifor Local 2025.