UK's T&G union decides to boycott Israeli products

[Scurrilous]

British Transport and General Workers Union votes in favor of launching consumer boycott on all products made in Israel in protest of 'Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.' Histadrut labor federation: We'll cut all ties with them

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3422709,00.html

<snip>

"The British Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has decided to launch a consumer boycott on products made in Israel, in protest of Israel's policy in the West Bank.

T&G is one of the United Kingdom's largest trade unions, representing some 800,000 workers.

The decision was made about a month after another British trade union, UNISON, also decided to launch an economic boycott on Israel, and after the University and College Union's voted in favor of considering a boycott of Israeli academics and institutions.

T&G voted in favor of a resolution calling for a boycott on Israeli products during a meeting held over the weekend in Brighton. According to the union, the decision was made "in protest of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people."

The Union declared that it hoped to repeat the precedence of South African, which was forced to halt its apartheid policy following an economic boycott. We are working to free the Palestinian people from the Israeli war machine, the union said."

[LeftishBrit]

1. Idiots...

More on this from Ha'aretz:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879531.html

Note the key point:

'The decision to call for a boycott, reached at a union conference in Brighton, is declarative and does not include concrete steps to implement the boycott.'

You bet; most British trade unions these days wouldn't know how to take 'concrete steps' if they saw some going down to the union HQ cellar. The union movement in Britain has been trampled on by Thatcher and marginalized by Blair, and the activists waste their time making totally empty gestures about countries 2000 miles away. If they want to boycott countries that have followed oppressive policies, then, sad to say, they'd have to start with boycotting BRITAIN for going into Iraq. (And even if they are concerned specifically with treatment of the Palestinians, they would also have to boycott Lebanon, Egypt - and Hamas.)

They won't do any real harm to Israel (these people couldn't boycott a whelk stall!) but they may do a lot of harm to their own members and to the UK by harming our country's image abroad and possibly bringing on REAL counter-boycotts.

Most British people aren't specially interested in boycotting Israel or anywhere; but in many unions these days, a lot of the activists in supposed 'charge' are incompetent fools, with no grasp of local policy let alone international policy.

[Solo_in_MD]

2. This is less than symbolic, and further points out their ineffectiveness in the UK

[henank]

3. A counter-boycott

Histadrut to cut ties with UK union

The Histadrut Labor Federation is to cut all ties with the Transport and General Workers Union, the 800,000 member British union which last week joined the growing roster of British trade unions demanding boycotts of Israel.

Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini is also expected to propose on Monday that his organization cut all ties with groups that back boycotts. This follows last month's introduction of a bill by Kadima MK Otniel Schneller requiring the tagging of exports to Israel from countries where anti-Israel boycotts are being promoted with stickers stating: "This country is involved in an anti-Israel boycott."

And here's some British democracy at work (from the same article):

The Trade Union Friends of Israel was refused a meeting with the TGWU's general secretary prior to and at the conference last week. Throughout the four-day delegates' meeting, TUFI had a stand in the conference center.

Doreen Gerson, executive vice chairwoman of Trade Union Friends of Israel, said: "The vote was extremely rushed, as time had run over and there was not enough time for discussion, and the many delegates who wanted to speak against the motion were denied the opportunity."

And the crowning glory:

Ahead of the vote, Eric McDonald, secretary of TGWU's Birmingham branch, which proposed the boycott motion, compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

Way to go to persuade Israel Mr. Idiot McDonald.