Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

CUNY Union Passes Resolution Demanding End to All U.S. Aid to Israel

Rank-and-file activists in CUNY’s faculty and staff union fought against bureaucratic machinations to pass a resolution calling for internal discussions of BDS and demanding that Joe Biden end all aid to Israel and other countries participating in human rights violations.

Olivia Wood

June 11, 2021
Facebook Twitter Share
Photo by Luigi Morris

On Thursday, June 10, the delegate assembly of PSC-CUNY, the faculty and staff union at the City University of New York, considered two resolutions in support of the Palestinian people. This resolution comes in light of the May 2021 bombings in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of at least 274 Palestinians (including 71 children) and the injury and displacement of tens of thousands more. Despite union leaders’ attempts to minimize and hollow out the content of the original, more combative resolution, the assembly passed a version explicitly describing Israel as an apartheid state, calling on chapters to discuss support for BDS, and demanding that the Biden administration end all aid funding human rights violations and the occupation of Palestine. 

The original resolution, which Left Voice covered earlier this week, was co-sponsored by the union’s anti-racist committee, international committee, and academic freedom committee. It included a demand for CUNY to divest from Israel, support for BDS, and a demand for the AFL-CIO to break off all relations with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that the Palestinian trade unions specifically mention in their call for BDS. 

You may be interested in: Palestinian Liberation and the Israeli Working Class

Almost immediately after the resolution was introduced, James Davis, the new union president, proposed a substitute resolution, which would take precedence over and replace the original. The substitute, authored by the union’s executive council, lacked almost all of the provisions of the original, simply “condemning the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state” and calling for “discussion” in chapter meetings about how to “influence U.S. policy in Israel.” This bureaucratic maneuver prevented the original and much stronger resolution from being discussed at all.

Rank-and-file activists came prepared with a series of amendments intended to add as much of the original resolution’s content as possible and fix some shortcomings of the original (which did not include any provisions about U.S. aid to Israel, for example). Every proposed amendment passed, although the time allotted for discussion ended before every prepared amendment could be brought to the floor. The final version, including the amendments, passed 84-34. All four principal officers of the union leadership voted against it. 

This resolution makes PSC-CUNY, which represents about 30,000 workers, one of several unions in the United States to take action against Israeli oppression of Palestinians, including fellow educators from the United Teachers of Los Angeles and the United Educators of San Francisco. The chapter chairs in LA who passed the UTLA resolution are already facing backlash from union leadership. Several CUNY delegates expressed concern about possible consequences of such a controversial resolution, including increased difficulty in obtaining more funding for the university at the city and state levels. But resolutions like these are important steps in building international solidarity among workers against Israeli apartheid and U.S. imperialism. Furthermore, they can be useful tools to generate discussion around a union’s responsibility to its community and its ability to effect change beyond the workplace. However, more action is required. First, given the bureaucracy’s opposition to the resolution, rank-and-file activists must remain vigilant of attempts to bury it or limit its implementation, and fight for its provisions to be carried out. Second, statements about BDS must be followed up with mobilizations to support Palestine. 

As the statement Left Voice published in support of the original resolution says, “No single resolution will end the oppression of Palestinian people and the occupation of Palestine, and no single resolution is capable of transforming the PSC CUNY into a real fighting union, but taking a stand on this issue and defending the self-organization of the rank-and-file members who created this resolution is a first step toward those goals.”

Facebook Twitter Share

Olivia Wood

Olivia is a writer and editor at Left Voice and lecturer in English at the City University of New York (CUNY).

United States

20 Years Since the U.S. Invasion of Iraq: A Reflection from a Socialist in the Heart of Imperialism

A Left Voice member and anti-war activist reflects on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and how he learned to hate U.S. imperialism.

Sam Carliner

March 20, 2023

Train Derailment in Metro Detroit Illustrates That Capitalist Control of the Railroads Is Fundamentally Unsafe

With the capitalists in control of the railroads, they will destroy the environment and poison and kill workers. The catastrophe in East Palestine will not be the last if we don’t nationalize our railroads and put the safety of people and the environment over profit.

Emma Boyhtari

February 28, 2023
East Palestine, Ohio in the distance at night, smoke and fire springing up due to the train derailment.

The Ohio Train Disaster Is on Biden’s Hands

Just months after President Biden and Congress blocked railway workers from striking over dangerous working conditions, the exact type of disaster that workers predicted has come to pass. The fate of East Palestine must be a wake-up call for the labor and climate movements to fight for the nationalization of the railroads under workers’ control.

B.C. Daurelle

February 15, 2023
US President Joe Biden speaks during a State of the Union address with US Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, right, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Biden is speaking against the backdrop of renewed tensions with China and a brewing showdown with House Republicans over raising the federal debt ceiling.

Biden’s Populist Speech Can’t Cover Up Capitalist Crisis

Biden tried to paint a picture of a United States that has come back stronger after the pandemic. But despite his populist rhetoric and laundry list of policies, none of these measures can address the real needs of the vast majority of the working class and poor who have been exploited and oppressed for much longer than the last two years.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

February 8, 2023

MOST RECENT

Protesters gather during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023, the day after the French government pushed a pensions reform using the article 49.3 of the constitution. - French President's government on March 17, 2023 faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. Across France, fresh protests erupted in the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

Battle of the Pensions: Toward a Pre-Revolutionary Moment in France

President Macron's use of article 49.3 to push through an unpopular pension reform bill has opened up an enormous political crisis that has changed the character of the mobilizations against the French government. We are entering a "pre-revolutionary moment" that can change the balance of power between the classes in France.

Juan Chingo

March 21, 2023

It is Possible to Win: The Pension Reform Crisis in France

A French socialist reflects on the way forward after Macron invites Article 49.3 to pass pension reform.

Paul Morao

March 20, 2023

“We are your economy”: Trans Youth Walkout and Speak Out

The following is a speech by a young trans person as part of an action called for by NYC Youth for Trans Rights.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 20, 2023
Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023