Watch the speeches at our TUC Congress Fringe Meeting!

Unite4Palestine held a well-attended fringe meeting at the TUC Congress in Brighton this year.

We had an amazing line-up of speakers, including Huda Ammori (Palestine Action), Mick Napier (Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign), Asa Winstanley (Electronic Intifada), Tony Greenstein (Unite4Palestine) and Jonathan Fluxman (Doctors in Unite). You can hear them talking about how we can build practical solidarity with Palestine in the videos below.

We had also invited the well-known Unite figure Howard Beckett to speak. Unfortunately, Howard was unable to attend, for personal reasons, but instead he sent a powerful statement which was read out in the meeting. You can read it below.

Huda Ammori  

Ammori is a co-founder of Palestine Action.

Mick Napier  

Napier is part of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Asa Winstanley  

Winstanley is an investigative journalist for Electronic Intifada, and author of “Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn”.

Tony Greenstein  

Greenstein is a member of Unite4Palestine, a co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and author of “Zionism During the Holocaust”.

Jonathan Fluxman  

Fluxman is a member of Doctors in Unite.

Howard Beckett  

I am sorry that for personal reasons I could not join you today. I was invited to speak and would very much have wanted to accept the invitation.

It is heart breaking to see the genocide in Gaza and to feel so incapable of bringing it to a stop. We are seeing pro Palestinian journalists arrested, arms supplied to Israel, military support undoubtedly being given, and a media whose silence makes them complicit.

All under a Labour government. And for all of us we know this is a trade union cause.

Trade unions should never be silent in the face of injustice, let alone the march of the far right, let alone the slaughter of innocent children, let alone genocide.

Our movement exists not solely to fight for better pay and conditions, it exists to fight for justice.

And Unite’s silence is the most disturbing.

Unite, of course, has members in the defence sector. But those members, as with all Unite members, are deserving of leadership, not rhetoric that presumes they do not want to stand against this slaughter.

Unite members do not want arms sold to a nation hell bent on genocide.

Unite should be leading the call for sanctions, arms embargo, and The Hague to intervene.

And Unite’s current leadership should be leading the call for members not to be forced by employment terms and conditions, into making weapons that are then sold to Israel for them to inflict terror on Palestinians.

Our words are all we have at the moment, which is why today’s meeting is so important and why those who have organised the meeting should be applauded.

But for the current leadership of Unite they have much more than words to offer. They have given millions to Starmer, they have the ear of Labour, and they have the chance to show true leadership for our entire movement.

So my plea to you today is to call on all of the current General Secretaries, but in particular Unite, to step up and offer true leadership against a racist genocide.

History will be damning on all who could have offered more, yet stood by and watched in silence.

In solidarity, Howard.