Congress Global Solidarity Committee meets regularly and would like to share some of the issues discussed at our May meeting.
We were honoured to have a guest speaker from Palestine - Walaa Sabah of We Are Not Numbers along with Fiona O’Rourke spoke with us in advance of receiving Frontline Defenders award in Dublin on 30 May. Picture taken with guests and celebratory tweet to was issues on 30 May – (linked here - https://x.com/irishcongress/status/1796471877764001802 )
Palestine is unfortunately an ongoing issue for the Committee who seek to build trade union solidarity with the Palestinian people experiencing genocide in Gaza. We support the national marches for Palestine and ran a BDS workshop for affiliates recently. The TEVA campaign is a simple and really practical initiative for unions to support. It provides the tools and information to contact your local pharmacist and ask them not to supply you with drugs made by TEVA and can be accessed here. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is an Israeli multinational company who, according to the Who Profits Media Center:
Teva enjoys the advantages generated by the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands allowing the company to exploit the Palestinian market. 'Quality and Security reasons' in conjunction with economic and political justifications create a Palestinian captive market for Israeli and multinational companies... Teva meets little to no competition from the cheaper generic drug industry, as a result of the Israeli Ministry of Health restrictions on drug registration in Israel and their enforcement on the Palestinian market.
The Committee also agreed to support an IPSC Workplace call out on 5th June and welcomed the fact that the Palestinian Ambassador had attended so many union conferences of late. There was also a general welcome on recent State recognition by Ireland but agreed that more needed as per statement issued - https://www.ictu.ie/news/congress-welcomes-recognition-state-palestine-ireland-and-urges-more-action-hold-israel
Other matters included:
Planning for our annual global solidarity summer school to be held in Limerick, Strand Hotel August 15/16th;
Ukraine - Information circulated on:
- Trade Union Summit for Ukraine Declaration https://www.socialeurope.eu/workers-rights-a-casualty-of-the-war-in-ukraine and
The Committee also expressed grave concern about the situation in Cuba - specifically on the continued inclusion by US of Cuba on list of state sponsors of terrorism - available here
