TEACHERS, hospital workers and other government workers have come out on general strike in the West Bank and Gaza Strip following the non-payment of their wages for the last six months.
This non-payment of wages is the direct result of the US and UK governments’ refusal to recognise the Hamas government and their putting an international embargo on aid to Palestine.
In fact, they instructed the banks to handle no more aid for Palestine through the Hamas government, effectively taking a decision to starve the Palestinian working class and its families.
In 2005, this aid amounted to about US $1 billion, but the EU and the US suspended all direct aid on 7 April 2006 after the Hamas victory, according to the EU and the US State Department.
In addition, Israel and the Western countries have blocked millions of dollars-worth of monthly financial aid from Arab donor countries.
As a result, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has been unable to fully pay the salaries of 165,000 public servants. These are now on strike.
‘The strike is paralysing all primary health care centres that provide maternal and child health services,’ said Usama Al Najjar, head of the Health Professions Union.
Al Najjar said that if the strike goes on for long, some 300,000 children under the age of three who receive regular vaccinations will suffer.
Government health workers, who number 13,000 in the occupied Palestinian territories have been unpaid for the past six months, said Al Najjar.
When health workers threatened to strike in protest on 23 August, the government responded with a memo on 28 August, signed by Palestinian Health Minister Dr Basim Naeem, warning employees that ‘a strike to protest unpaid salaries serves the occupation’.
The health workers went on strike on the next day, Tuesday, although emergency cases are still being received. ‘This escalatory step was taken after the health minister neglected our demands and threatened to fire whoever participates in the strike,’ said Al Najjar.
The News Line supports the right of the Palestinian trade unions to take strike action to demand that their members be paid.
We are opposed to any move by the Hamas government to declare the strike action illegal.
We consider that the general strike and the crisis over the payment of wages proves the need for the working class to organise independently of the Palestinian bourgeoisie whether it be in Hamas or Fatah.
The Palestinian workers have different interests from the Palestinian bourgeoisie and a workers’ revolutionary party is required to fight for these interests.
We also consider that the trade unions in the US and the UK not only have a vital role to play, but have a duty to come to the aid of the Palestinian workers. They cannot just stand by and watch the Palestinian masses being starved out by Israel, Blair and Bush.
With the TUC conference just a week away, an emergency resolution must be put down at it for emergency action in support of the Palestinian workers.
The TUC must call a one-day general strike to demand that the Blair government immediately recognises the Hamas government and immediately resumes its aid to the Palestinian National Authority.
The TUC Congress must decide to mount a campaign for aid to the Palestinian workers, starting with a £1 million pound donation from the TUC, and then spreading the campaign worldwide throughout the world trade union movement.
It must start its campaign for aid to the Palestinian workers with a massive march through London in the autumn.
It is much better to spend the money of the trade unions and the working class on the Palestinian workers and international solidarity, rather than handing it over to class traitors such as Blair or Brown.
