“I’m proud of the young women who are aware of the complicity of government & corporations not only in arming Israel, but repressing resistance through anti-Palestine legislation, policing protests, arresting activists & even criminalising boycotts.”
This week, activists joined Labour & Palestine and Arise Festival for an online ‘Women For Palestine’ event held in solidarity with Palestine. Young trade unionist Niamh Iliff spoke on behalf of ‘Arise’, discussing the wave of youth solidarity with Palestine. You can watch the event in full or read Niamh’s speech published below:
My name’s Niamh Iliff, I’m a young worker in the UK, a Unite young member, and someone, like many of my peers, who sees the fight for Palestine as inseparable from the fight against imperialism everywhere.
As we’ve heard from other speakers, these discussions are so important to view the role of Palestinian women in fighting against the oppression facing them and their families, and provide community strength for all of us challenging imperialism.
This is why the work Arise Festival do, is therefore so crucial, hosting left discussion spaces for political education here online, at conferences and community events, for us all to learn from each other.
I want to start by making one thing very clear. The Palestinian struggle is a workers’ struggle: and women from Palestine to Britain are leading the resistance.
Palestinian women have always been at the forefront of the struggle, organising in communities and trade unions.
They resist not just Israeli apartheid, but the global order that backs it. From the British Empire’s establishment of the Balfour declaration, the US military complex funding death in Gaza while British politicians defend Israeli war crimes, Trump’s Gaza hotel, paving over Palestinian culture, history, and self-determination. All the while, Western feminists stay silent on Palestine, betraying their own principles; what does ‘women’s liberation’ mean if it ignores the thousands of Palestinian women murdered, imprisoned and driven out of their homes?
As workers in the UK, we are on the side of this global order, but that means we have the power to act. It is so important to see and learn from British workers that have and are standing up against imperialism.
A great example of this was a TikTok video I saw recently of a young Palestine activist who was sat on a train opposite an older gentleman with a Palestine badge on his blazer. That gentleman was Arthur Scargill. They spent the train journey talking about British Pro-Palestine movements, the struggle of Palestinians today and the links to the trade unions.
I think this brilliantly shows how Palestine is radicalising a generation of workers against imperialism, neoliberalism and exploitation from the shop floor up. I’m proud of the young women today who are aware of the complicity of government and corporations not only in arming Israel, but repressing resistance through anti-Palestine legislation, policing protests, arresting activists and even criminalising boycotts.
Just as the British state attacked miners and trade unionists in the past, it is now targeting those fighting against injustice and imperialism today.
I’m proud of the workers that came before me. British dockers in the 70s who refused to handle goods bound to apartheid South Africa. The strike of Irish shop workers in the 80s against the sale of South African produce. And today, workers across the world are refusing to transport weapons to Israel whilst consumers are boycotting Israel’s corporate support.
The fight against Israeli apartheid is a fight against our ruling class. It is a fight for the popular support of Palestine on the ground to pressure our governments and challenge this global order.
I’m going to wrap up today by talking about what solidarity means for British workers. Solidarity is not passive, it’s action in itself.
If you’re in a union, fight for divestment and strike action.
If you’re a student, demand your university cut ties with Israel institutions.
If you’re in the streets, bring your communities.
Every anti-colonial struggle was won through mass mobilisation, not empty words. Our task is to make Palestine a struggle for the British status quo.
Palestinian women are fighting for their lives and land. We must fight with them, not just in words, but action.
Free Palestine.
- Niamh Iliff is a young trade unionist active in Unite, elected West Midlands representative on the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum and part of the Arise Festival team: you can follow her on Twitter/X.
- You can follow Labour & Palestine on Facebook and Twitter/X, and Arise on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
- You can watch back the Women for Palestine event in full here.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
