From May 24 to May 26, thousands of students, workers, organizers, and people of conscience gathered from around the world to attend the People’s Conference for Palestine. Convening in Detroit, Michigan, home to one of the largest Arab diasporas in North America, the union town was the perfect host to a weekend brimming with revolutionary energy where participants and speakers shared ideas, assessed tactics, and strategized for a free Palestine. On Sunday the event closed with breaking news of the Rafah tent massacre. Organizers pledged to mobilize, making major announcements that $200,000 were raised to rebuild Gaza, the announcement of a June 8 national action at the White House marking 8 months of the US-Israeli genocide on Gaza, and the launch of a new arms embargo campaign, Mask Off Maersk.
Maersk’s logistics for weapons
Maersk is the largest integrated logistics and shipping company in the world, with offices and warehouses in over 130 countries. A whopping 68 percent of Israel’s weapons are sent from the US via logistics companies like Maersk. The objective, as outlined by PYM members Aisha Mansour and Celine Qussiny, is to force Maersk to stop the transportation of arms to Israel by isolating Maersk’s Israel portfolio from its overall bottom line. Utilizing popular media, mobilizations, labor, and municipal and campus organizing, Qussiny notes that “since weapons are not the entirety of their business we believe this is winnable.”
Maersk has been singled out in part because of its poor labor practices. The company has been fined for covering up sexual assault cases, sanctioned by the United States Labour Department for unsafe working conditions, and was called out for union busting this spring by workers from the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Copenhagen.
In Canada, Maersk operates ports located in Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal, Prince Rupert, and Surrey, over 200 employees across the country, and a major contract with Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. On May 1st, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, a union that represents more than 9,000 employees with Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) announced that their membership voted in favor of a strike. While in no way a political strike, that Maersk is preparing contingency plans for shipments ahead of this strike action is a strong indication that labor can hit this target where it hurts.
Arms embargo
This April, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), and Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) put out a joint statement calling on the Canadian government to immediately suspend the trade of arms and military equipment with Israel, writing that “Canada exports military equipment to Israel, including via the United States. This means that Canada is at risk of being complicit in the violence and human rights violations Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. Canada also imports military equipment from Israel, which anti-war groups argue supports Israel’s military industry and operations.”
Canada accelerated military exports to Israel in October, approving $28.5 million worth of military exports to Israel between October and December 2023. Although it was announced by Foreign Affairs minister Mélanie Joly in January 2024 that new permits will be paused, military export permits authorized before January 8 have been allowed to proceed. Canada continues to purchase Israeli weapons in the millions, the capital is hosting the CANSEC arms trade show this Wednesday May 29.
As for the student’s front, Ontario Tech University is the first in Canada to reach an agreement with students, where students strategically pushed for and won the disclosure and divestment of all arms manufacturing and delivery companies. Whether this win will pressure larger schools like the University of Toronto and McGill University to follow suit is yet to be determined.
Labour 4 Palestine, Labour Against The Arms Trade, CJPME, Palestinian Youth Movement, IJV, World Beyond War, and Palestine Solidarity Network initiated the ARMS EMBARGO NOW Campaign. Learn more on their FAQ here: https://armsembargonow.ca/
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