
On Strike! Crisis for Biden & Netanyahu: How Workers Can End the War on Gaza - Interview w/ Joan Wright
Support for the Israeli state’s genocidal war on Gaza is crumbling. A majority of Americans now oppose the war, and just 36 percent support the U.S. providing military aid to Israel to fund the onslaught, which Joe Biden and both the Democratic and Republican parties have done to the tune of billions of dollars. Working and young people are horrified by the carnage in Gaza and are getting organized and taking action – including ongoing protests around the world and a historic strike by nearly 16,000 academic and graduate workers at the University of California. Protests are demanding an end to US military funding of the Israeli war machine and an immediate ceasefire. This growing antiwar movement has created an escalating crisis for Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the warmongers of the capitalist class. On Strike is joined by Joan Wright, a socialist and queer activist in Seattle, and a member of Workers Strike Back who has been organizing against the war. Joan is a rank-and-file member of OPEIU Local 153 – the union of workers at Kickstarter corporation. We speak with Joan about her successful efforts alongside other rank-and-file union members to win a ceasefire resolution in her union against the war, and about what more is needed to end the genocidal war on Gaza. If you'd like to put forward a ceasefire resolution within your union, reach out to Workers Strike Back for support! And check out our template resolution, which was drafted by Workers Strike Back members in WFSE 889 and passed this April: https://www.workersstrikeback.org/new... Both the WFSE 889 and the OPEIU 153 resolutions were inspired by the ceasefire resolution put forward by Kshama Sawant's socialist city council office, which called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and US funding of Israel, and which we won last November by organizing to bring over 500 working and young people to occupy Seattle City Hall. Workers Strike Back is calling for national protests and strikes on Monday, August 19, to coincide with protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago which will run from August 19 through 22. If you’re going to be at the protests in Chicago, join us at our rally there on August 20, where we will be joined by independent left Presidential candidate Jill Stein. Stein has taken a consistent stand against the war, and was arrested alongside other protesters for refusing to back down against police repression. Get in touch with Workers Strike Back if you’d like to begin building for a rally in your area on August 19.
