Instead of Implementing UNITE Policy on Palestine & Trying to Stop the Transfer of Weapons for Israel’s Genocide, Sharon Graham attacked Activists Protesting Against the Arms Factories
UPDATE
This is the email Fiona Sharpe sent to the venue. It consists of a series of lies and smears – two of the five speakers are Jews opposed to Israel’s Genocide – that makes us ‘anti-Jewish racist supporters’. The Zionists will stop at nothing to prevent free speech.
Since writing this blog the venue, Community Base, has confirmed that the meeting will go ahead as planned though we want as many people to attend in case the Zionists decide to come and harass people.
Fiona Sharpe, a well known racist and Zionist, who wears the hats of multiple organisations, instead of wearing her Labour Against Antisemitism hate wrote on behalf of the Sussex Jewish Representative Council, which is another name for Sussex Friends of Israel.
Jim Kelly – Chair of London & Eastern Region Criticises Sharon Graham’s Obstruction of Palestine solidarity
Fiona Sharpe of Sussex Friends of Israel and Labour Against Anti-Semitism,[LAA]is trying to get our meeting cancelled on the grounds of ‘anti-Semitism’. This has not prevented SFI members in the past from demonstrating alongside the EDL. In 2014 SFI invited Israeli academic Mordechai Kedar to speak at a meeting they held. Kedar advocates raping Palestinian women in war.
LAA was involved in the anti-Semitism smear campaign against Corbyn. Its principal spokesperson is Euan Philips, a non-Jew who, as Al Jazeera exposed, uses a Jewish name ‘David Gordstein’ to pretend that he is Jewish when making complaints of ‘anti-Semitism’.
The reason why Unite4Palestine are holding a fringe meeting at TUC Conference is the refusal of General Secretary Sharon Graham to implement Unite policy on Palestine or support any solidarity action with the Palestinians. Graham has even refused to condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Unite policy on Palestine is good – it supports BDS, opposes the settlements and Israeli Apartheid and calls on Unite to ‘support the Palestinian population in Gaza living under siege.’ It describes Israeli Palestinians as ‘second class citizens (and) subject to racist laws.’
There is only one problem. It is nowhere to be found on Unite’s own website. As far as Graham is concerned it doesn’t exist.
The first inkling that Graham was a Zionist and a supporter of Israeli Apartheid came on 8 June when she banned Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie from Unite premises and Asa Winstanley from speaking about his book, The Weaponisation of Anti-Semitism at Unite’s Tony Benn house in Bristol.
SE Regional Secretary Sarah Carpenter, who has now been appointed as Graham’s bag carrier, informed Unite branch SE 6246, that she had asked for screenings of the film to be cancelled ‘whilst I seek further guidance.’
The reasons for the bans were explained in an email of 27.10.23. from Graham’s spokesperson, Gail Cartmail:
The General Secretary… is also clear that the Unite position must be that we do not stoke division through anti-semitism and anti-Muslim racism
What Cartmail was saying was that British Jews would offended by suggestions that supporters of Israel automatically cry ‘anti-Semitism’ whenever Israel is criticised. Except of course that they do!
When the International Court of Justice called Israel’s war on Gaza ‘plausible genocide’ Israeli officials and ministers immediately described them as ‘anti-Semitic’. There are many, many other examples too numerous to count.
‘Anti-Semitism’ is the all-purpose smear of those who support Zionism and its ethnic cleansing settler colonial project in Palestine. What Graham was effectively saying was that all Jews support Israel’s war crimes. This is in itself anti-Semitic. It is the Suella Braverman/Sunak/Starmer line.
The far-right Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, an Israeli government cut out, campaigned strenuously to cancel Corbyn – The Big lie. They wrote asking Graham to ban the film from Unite premises and she was happy to oblige. Yet on 30 August 23 Cartmail sent me an email saying that:
Your disagreeable attack is based on a falsehood. No one in Unite took advice from the Campaign Against Antisemitism, on ‘Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie’, nor indeed any other matter.
Yet on 23 July, the CAA posted an article claiming that:
Following correspondence with Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Unite union has cancelled the screening of a propaganda film about the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that was due to be shown alongside a book signing and talk from Asa Winstanley….
following contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism in which we pointed out that the scheduling of the event appeared to be contradictory to the reports that the film has been banned in all of Unite’s buildings, it was cancelled….
Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Unite for its swift and decisive action to cancel the screening as soon as we brought it to its attention.
I replied asking Cartmail if Unite had put out a statement denying the claims of the CAA. I received no response. Cartmail also wrote that:
Unite as a union is outstanding in both our commitment to anti-racism and solidarity with the Palestinian cause, actions speak louder than words.’
For once she was right. Actions do speak louder than words. Graham’s actions or rather inaction speak volumes.
Graham’s behaviour has been warmly welcomed by the Zionists. Writing in the Zionist Jewish News ‘Liar’ Lee Harpin described how,
In a further put down on far-left foreign policy dogma Graham also wrote “Similarly, we cannot be expected to affiliate to organisations that actively work against our members and their jobs.
“Examples include groups that look to build networks inside trade unions to undermine the defence industry or demand the disbandment of NATO and AUKUS.”
Under Graham’s leadership Unite has also taken great strides in attempting to combat antisemitism within the movement. Despite early claims that the left-wing leader would seek to move the union away from Labour and disaffiliate, Unite now appears to be opting to become a “critical friend” of the Starmer led Labour Party.
Similarly Labour Against Anti-Semitism, in the wake of Graham’s election issued a statement welcoming her election. Euan Philipps (Gordstein) wrote:
“LAAS congratulates Sharon Graham on her election as General Secretary of Unite the Union.
During her campaign Ms Graham was clear that as General Secretary of one of the UK’’s largest unions she would avoid interfering in the running of the Labour Party. We trust Ms Graham will be true to her word and allow Keir Starmer and the Labour Party leadership a free hand to undertake the large reforms required to effectively tackle antisemitism.
We also hope Ms Graham will look to the concerning evidence of widespread antisemitism in her own organisation and begin reforms to tackle anti-Jewish racism there.”
Despite her claims at the time of her election as General Secretary to be ‘non-political’ Zionist groups seem to have been well aware of Graham’s support for Israel and hostility to the Palestinians.
Graham has refused to take part in a single national Palestine demonstration. She has even refused to allow the national banner on the marches and has tried to prevent others giving solidarity.
According to Jim Kelly, Chair of London and Eastern Region, Graham’s representatives ‘advised’ Peter Kavanagh, the Regional Secretary, not to speak at a Palestine solidarity demonstration. Kelly described how activists on Palestine had had to work in ‘an environment of silence and obstruction’ by union officials, in particular Graham.
Graham attempted to prevent attempts to mobilise solidarity in support of the Palestinians. Kelly described an ‘expectation that employees will not speak alongside other General Secretaries’ at demonstrations.
Carpenter even threatened Peter Kavanagh, the union’s London regional secretary, with the loss of a discretionary pension bonus if he did not pull back from his support for Palestinians in Gaza.
Carpenter was appointed by Graham without the position being advertised and without the approval of Unite’s elected executive.
On October 16 2023 Unite put out a statement which said it
‘unreservedly condemns and expresses its revulsion at the recent appalling acts of violence by Hamas against innocent civilians in Israel. We further deplore the subsequent suffering and loss of life being endured by civilians in Gaza’.
Although Graham ‘unreservedly condemned’ and expressed her ‘revulsion’ at the killing of ‘innocent’ Israeli civilians, she merely ‘deplored’ the suffering and murder of Palestinian civilians, who were presumably not innocent. This is BBC language.
By October 16 2,750 Palestinians had died and 9,700 were wounded. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had made clear Israel’s genocidal intent when he said, on October 9 that
I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.
Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari had said that “right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage”. President Herzog said on October 14 that ‘There are no innocent civilians in Gaza“.
Graham and Unite’s Executive refused, like Starmer, to call for an immediate ceasefire.
On 17 October Peter Kavanagh, the Regional Secretary of London and Eastern Region Unite, wrote a letter to Graham asking why there had been no Unite banner or speaker at the previous Palestine demonstration in London on October 7 and why Unite had done nothing to advertise the demonstration on its web site.
Kavanagh asked that Graham write to all branches urging members to attend the demonstration. No reply was ever received.
On November 1 I sent an Open Letter signed by 135 members of Unite to Graham demanding that the Union call for an immediate ceasefire and take part in and publicise the national demonstrations.
On November 3, having resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire up till then, Graham finally issued a statement calling for a ceasefire although it was pitifully weak, failing to mention still less condemn Israel’s genocide. The only good thing about the statement was its headline ‘Unite calls for an immediate ceasefire’.
On March 7 Israel bombed the headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza City. The Federation’s five-story building had attached to it a kindergarten that served 380 children, as well as a large automatic bakery.
On March 25, over two weeks later, Graham penned a letter to the PGFTU General Secretary Shaher Saeed, in which she expressed her solidarity and boasted of Unite’s record including a donation of £50,000 to Medicin Sans Frontiere. This is in the context of £500 million reserves and a report that Graham and Unite’s legal bill for defending itself against Brendan Ogle, their former Ireland Regional Secretary, is over £1m.
Between the November 3 statement and that letter she had done absolutely nothing. This letter was all that she had done. She had clearly written it in order to justify her previous inactivity.
The very next day Graham penned an undated letter to Unite Officers, Organisers and Staff. It was written, it said
to alert and inform you about a number of extremely troubling actions being undertaken by a tiny minority of individuals, inside and outside of our Union.
Some of these individuals are linked to the past leadership and a small number are linked to groups who want us to make decisions detrimental to our membership and their jobs.
It was written in the language of Joe McCarthy and its purpose was to witch-hunt Palestine solidarity and anti-war activists who Graham saw as a threat to jobs in the arms industry. What happens in wider society, with growing militarisation and the danger of nuclear war was irrelevant. The consequences of increased military expenditure, reduced spending on the NHS and the welfare state was irrelevant. According to Graham Unite must tie its fortunes to the military-industrial complex.
Graham could have told Unite workers that she would support them refusing to handle arms destined for Israel’s genocide in Gaza just as happened with Rolls Royce workers in East Kilbride in 1973 when they refused to service engines for Pinochet’s airforce.
According to Graham’s logic the right of workers at IG Farben to produce Zyklon B for the gas chambers trumped the rights of Jews not to be murdered.
Graham made a number of false claims in her letter such as that ‘Unite was the first major union to publicly … call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza’. This was a silly lie. UNISON called for an immediate ceasefire on October 26. UNISON also condemned Israel for its attacks on civilians unlike Unite’s statement.
Rather than supporting the diversification of production and enabling arms factories to produce useful equipment like solar panels and wind turbines, on the lines of the Lucas Aerospace plan, Graham adopted the mentality of the most backward section of workers who believed that opposition to the British Empire spelt doom for British workers.
The USA today is seeking a confrontation with China. Graham’s support for NATO and AUKUS demonstrates that she supports the United States in its war plans. How will a nuclear war benefit Unite workers? International solidarity is not something Graham can even spell. She is an imperialist shill.
Unite should have been trying to persuade Unite workers and dockers not to handle arms shipments to Israel. When it came to Ukraine Graham gave her full support to dockers at Dungeness and Ellesmere Port refusing to unload Russian oil. Graham didn’t mince her words:
“There is overwhelming support being expressed throughout Unite to support the people of Ukraine.
But on Palestine there has only been silence.
Graham was happy to be seen with the Ukrainian flag backing NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, which has armed various neo-Nazi militias, but she has not been seen anywhere near a Palestinian flag.
Getting Graham to condemn what Israel does is like drawing teeth. In her letter condemning the bombing of the PGFTU headquarters in Gaza City Graham failed to even to mention the word ‘Israel’. It is as if the bombing of the Trade union HQ happened by itself.
On March 11 we organised a demonstration outside Unite HQ to coincide with an Executive Committee meeting. About 50 Unite members attended from 3 regions.
Graham justified not discussing Gaza’s genocide because ‘Palestine is not a service we offer members.’ This one phrase sums up everything about Graham’s narrow minded, blinkered chauvinism.
Graham is wedded to capitalism. She simply wants workers to have a larger share of the imperialist cake. At previous TUC Conferences she has supported an increase in arms expenditure despite more military expenditure meaning less expenditure on the NHS, housing etc.
On December 19 166 Unite members sent another letter to Graham pointing out that in the statement of November 3
There was no mention of genocide or ethnic cleansing or war crimes … the bombing of hospitals, the targeting and murder of journalists, academics and doctors… or the murder of 8000 children….
You have done nothing to publicise all the previous national demonstrations.Are you going to ignore the one on January 13 too? There has been no national Unite presence on the marches to date.
The letter demanded that Graham
publicise all future demonstration, that you provide the resources necessary for Unite members to attend, that Unite nationally is present on the march together with its banner and that Unite has a speaker at the rally.
We quoted a report from Vatican News of 16 December as an example of Israel’s war crimes:
‘Israelis have opened fire on Gaza’s Christians … around Holy Family Latin parish in Gaza City, dozens are reported dead… and reports continue to arrive that shooting by Israeli snipers continues during these hours…. A statement released by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed that an Israeli sniper murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war.’
The letter referred to ‘an even more horrifying massacre’ on 17 December when Al Jazeera reported that Israeli bulldozers had crushed Palestinians who were taking shelter in tents outside Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Dozens of Palestinians are reported to have been buried alive. These are Nazi-style massacres and yet you have said nothing and done nothing since issuing your statement You were happy to wave the Ukrainian flag but you haven’t waved the Palestinian flag or expressed any sympathy with the thousands of murdered Palestinian civilians, not least children.
Resistance Street
In April of this year Sharon Graham banned On Resistance Street an anti-fascist/anti-racist film that looks at the role music has played in the fight against fascism and racism. The reasons for the ban were explained by Sarah Carpenter who said that it didn’t conform with Graham’s ‘industrial strategy’ or ‘existing Unite policies’.
One can only marvel at the tunnel vision of Graham. Her ‘industrial agenda’ poses no threat to British capitalism. Existing Unite policy is anti-racist. Graham is politically illiterate if she does not understand how racism has been used to divide and weaken, if not destroy the trade union and labour movements elsewhere. Carpenter wrote that:
In this context the Union should be especially careful to avoid appearing to endorse any material which causes unnecessary offence to members.’
Sarah carpenter explaining why unite refused to allow an anti-racist film to be shown on its premises
In other words we should not give offence to racists.
On Resistance Street revisits the ‘Rock Against Racism’ movement of the late 70s, noting its influence on future waves of radical artists and political activists. The film also highlights the role played by punk rock in uniting young people in 1970s’ sectarian Belfast.
On Resistance Street tracks contemporary drifts to the right in the West, right wing musical cultural appropriation and the role of anti-racist social media groups today. It looks at grime music and the historic role played by Black musicians in British music.
The decision to ban the film is shocking. For a trade union leader to ban an anti-fascist and anti-racist film is a sign of how politically degenerate the Sharon Graham leadership is.
Why Does the Sectarian Left Still Support Graham?
To this day the SWP and the Socialist Party have given their full support to Graham and refused to critice her. Why? Because she has supported workers strikes in this country that means that her support for the murder of workers in Palestine is ok.
It is time for those on the left who placed their faith in Graham to realise they have backed the wrong horse. Graham is a narrow minded British nationalist, an imperialist, racist war monger and a Zionist who has nothing to offer the working class.
Industrial strikes do not by themselves challenge capitalism unless they are generalised and politicised. It is quite possible to combine industrial militancy with racist, imperialist attitudes. The White South African working class was militant as was the Protestant working class of Northern Ireland. Israel’s Jewish working class was militant but it fought like its South Africa counterparts for a color bar.
It is unfortunate that much of the left in Britain is unable to understand that racism and imperialism mean the working class allying with its bosses. Both Marx and Lenin understood these things unlike the SWP, SP and Counterfire.
This is why Unite4Palestine, a pressure group set up to campaign for Unite to implement its policy on Palestine is holding a meeting on Sunday night at 6 pm in Community Base, Queens Road Brighton, about 5 minutes from the railway station.
It is also why the Zionists want to prevent the meeting.
Tony Greenstein
