Watch: Amazon Labor Union Co-Founder Chris Smalls Calls for Day of Action Against AFL-CIO
Amazon Labor Union co-founder Chris Smalls calls out AFL-CIO and ILA complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Photos/Video/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Amazon Labor Union co-founder Chris Smalls on Saturday called for a national day of action against both the AFL-CIO and the International Longshoremen’s Association [ILA] to protest what Smalls said is their complicity in Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people of Gaza.
“I want to connect the dots because people ask the question: ‘Why does an American labor leader need to go out there?’ You know why? Because some of these labor leaders are f—-ing complicit, too,” Smalls told hundreds of protesters gathered on the flagship steps of the New York Public Library on April 16. “They are participating actively by shipping arms and manufacturing weapons for Israel.”
Smalls recounted his assault at the hands of Israeli immigration authorities two weeks ago, after those forces violently intercepted the civilian ship Smalls and 21 others were sailing on in an effort to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver baby formula and other humanitarian aide to the starving people there.
“I want to ask you all for one thing—and it don’t have to be soon,” Smalls continued. “I want you all to pay attention because we know who these people are. We can name them all day. We know who these unions are. Guess what? The ILA—the Longshoremen’s Association—right over the bridge in Jersey, the AFL-CIO—their office is in D.C. right across the street from the White House. What I’m asking everyone here today—and I’m going to reach out to organizations in D.C. as well—we need a national day of action against these two major unions right now. Those two unions have passed zero resolutions since October 7—zero. Those two unions have workers on the docks who have been shipping arms to Israel for the last 22 months every 15 hours.”
Journalism is not a crime: More than 250 journalists have now reportedly been killed in Gaza.
Just three years ago, some of the most powerful and influential union leaders across the country hailed Smalls and the Amazon Labor Union as heroes and the future of the American labor movement after successfully organizing workers at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island.
“We have to support you,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten told a pre-vote rally held outside another Amazon facility in Staten Island on April 2022. “We must support you. Morally we must support you. Righteously we must support you…because with you goes the labor movement. With you goes workers’ rights. With you goes solidarity. With you goes everything.”
Smalls’ ordeal at the hands of Israeli authorities after they captured the relief ship Handela about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza on July 26 has largely gone ignored by U.S. labor leaders, however.
In contrast, IBT Local 808 Secretary-Treasurer Chris Silvera told Work-Bites that what Smalls did as part of July “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza was a “very brave act” and an example of what the US labor movement “needs to be doing to show solidarity in the face of genocidal actions in Israel.”
On Saturday, Smalls recounted some of the anger and frustration he felt while in the custody of Israeli authorities, saying in part that being the only Black passenger aboard the Handala it’s no coincidence that he was one of the last to be released from prison.
This mock flak jacket with “PRESS” emblazoned on the front invokes the ones that are supposed to clearly identify journalists and protect them in war zones.
“The anger and frustration I had…I wanted to crash out,” Smalls said. “But I knew I could jeopardize my crew. In less than two years, half a million people are gone—dead. Forever. And you know what? Those numbers are not even the real numbers. There’s so much death in Gaza right now that 100 miles away from shore our boat was swarmed by flies. That’s how much death is over there. They don’t want us to see what’s going on.”
Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University grad student targeted by ICE and the Trump administration for his role in organizing 1st Amendment-protected protests on campus last year, invoked the final words of 28-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. The celebrated Palestinian journalist and videographer was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike outside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on August 10. Four additional reporters, along with two others, were also killed.
“Palestinian deaths have been sanitized into numbers. Our suffering packaged into statistics. The whole world has failed Gaza and Palestine,” Khalil said before reading Al-Sharif’s words from the steps of the New York Public Library steps on 5th Avenue. “These were not the words of a broken man. These were the words of a Palestinian who knew his people’s struggle was larger them himself. Anas knew his camera was part of of the fight for liberation.”
More than 250 journalists have reportedly been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. An organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement on Saturday jeered those deaths and accused Israel and the U.S. government of attempting to complete the occupation of Gaza under the cloak of a media blackout.
“We’re here today because the U.S. and Israel have been marching together in lock-step committing a genocide on our people in Gaza for the past 22 months,” she said. “Over 200,000 people have died in the past 22 months. Israel now plans to occupy the Gaza Strip and it plans to do so in the dark. It plans to do so after targeting, after murdering every single journalist in Gaza.”