In line with its principles, values and history for peace, justice, human rights, equality, and opposition to oppression wherever and whenever it occurs, the Victoria Branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) on this, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,
Reaffirms its support and solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people for a free, sovereign, and independent state.
Unequivocally condemns,
- the fiftieth-fifth year of the Israeli occupation, the longest in modern history
- Israel’s escalating aggression against the Palestinian people
- the construction and expansion of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which is the intensification of an apartheid regime
- the continuing and unabated colonisation of the West Bank
- the uprooting of Palestinians from their ancestral homes.
Calls for peace and justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the broader Middle East, and the world by uniting against imperialism and the division of the working class.
Calls upon the Albanese Labor Government to distinguish itself from previous Australian governments and go beyond well-intended words of sympathy to the long-suffering Palestinian people. Now in government, the Albanese Labor Government has the opportunity to honour its commitment of recognising the State of Palestine and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
As per the ALP’s 2021 Special Platform, the AMWU ‘calls on the [Albanese] Labor Government to recognise Palestine as a state and ‘expects that this issue will be an important priority for the Labor Government.’
The AMWU and Australia’s broader union and peace movement will continue to:
- Inform and campaign amongst the Australian people about Palestine
- Emphatically express their condemnation of the criminal occupation of Palestine by Israel
- Be part of the international solidarity and peace movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and its imperialist designs.
The AMWU stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people, demanding:
- An immediate end to the Israeli occupation
- The creation of a unified, independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the 1967 borders
- The right of return for all Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homes in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, in particular General Assembly resolutions 76/225 of 11 January 2022, 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 181 (II) of 29 November 1947
- The immediate release of all Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel
- Peace, justice, and prosperity for all people in the region, in defiance of colonialism and imperialism.
TONY MAVROMATIS
STATE SECRETARY
AMWU VICTORIA