The Independent Workers Union wishes to express its full support for the efforts of University College Cork students to oppose the ongoing genocide in Gaza, in addition to their calls for the university to enforce a comprehensive policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli state. We stand in full solidarity with the student encampment on college property, alongside the broader pro-Palestinain movement in Cork in general, and urge UCC management to agree to student demands in full as soon as possible.

The Irish trade union movement has a long and storied history in combating apartheid and international injustice, most notably during the Dunnes Stores strikes of the 1980s, where unionised workers attempted to use industrial action to force their employer to cease the sale of goods from Apartheid South Africa. As the genocide of the Palestinian people continues within such a discriminatory state, the workers movement’s efforts to oppose international injustice must also escalate, using collective power to place pressure on the perpetrators of genocide abroad.

The IWU calls on Irish trade unions to clearly display their support for the Palestinian people through helping to escalate the BDS campaign which current student action is supporting on a national scale. We urge the Irish workers movement to take further material action in the cause of preventing the already desperate situation in Gaza from further worsening, as it is clear that the Irish government, alongside many other states abroad, is unwilling to do so.