IE DSA demands the immediate release of Amazon Labor Union Co-Founder Chris Smalls!
Smalls has been kidnapped along with 11 other activists aboard the Handala Flotilla, a humanitarian vessel aiming to break Israel’s genocidal blockade and deliver aid into the Gaza Strip.
Currently, Palestinians in Gaza are facing widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease due to the Israeli Governments control over the flow of crucial aid. Additionally, over 1000 Palestinians have been murdered at aid distribution sites since May, by both IOF soldiers and AMERICAN Military Contractors working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Upon his detainment, Smalls was physically assaulted by seven members of the Israeli Occupation Forces, being targeted with extra violent treatment due to his race and political convictions.
Smalls is trailblazing labor leader, known for spearheading the effort to unionize Amazon’s first warehouse in Staten Island. His decision to join this humanitarian mission is a shining example of Labor Internationalism. Socialists and workers in the Imperial core must follow his lead, and continue organizing for an immediate end of all US aid to Israel.
His arrest, and subsequent targeting highlight how racism and labor struggles at home are linked with genocide and apartheid abroad. The global capitalist economy that sustains the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is the same system that keeps our own workers exploited, overworked, and split across racially-divided lines.
We demand the immediate release of Chris Smalls alongside all remaining activists aboard the Handala kidnapped by the IOF, and reaffirm our unrelenting solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance to genocide and extermination.
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