Solidarity blast from the past targets Israeli arms trade

The inspiring story of a small group of Scottish trade unionists who showed solidarity with Chilean revolutionaries five decades ago is set to take centre stage at a forthcoming conference aimed at ending the arms trade with Israel. The powerful narrative should silence critics of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, who claim that sanctions do not work, and will illustrate how direct action from another era in another conflict in another part of the world can still cause collateral damage against the arms trade today.

It is hoped that survivors of the group will share their story as living proof that movements like BDS can and do work with far-reaching consequences. The men successfully carried out the longest-running act of solidarity against Augustine Pinochet by grounding half of Chile’s air force following the dictator’s 1973 coup d’état.

However, it is only now that they are beginning to realise the huge impact that their actions in Scotland had thousands of miles away in Chile; their story, which was previously only passed on by word of mouth, will now be immortalised in a movie. While the story of the factory workers from East Kilbride whose act of solidarity was so successful will undoubtedly have global appeal, Palestinian activists are hoping that it will also serve to silence BDS critics and inspire many more to join the campaign.

In the 1970s, as Chile found itself within the iron grip of General Pinochet’s military dictatorship, solidarity movements sprung up across the globe as communities and organisations stood with the Chilean people in the face of repression. One such place was the Scottish town of East Kilbride, where factory workers played an active role against the tyranny of Chile’s military ruler. The soon-to-be-made film, Nae Pasarán (“They Shall Not Pass”) will reveal how some of the men at the town’s Rolls-Royce factory refused to work on the jet engines of the infamous Hawker Hunter fighter bombers which attacked the Presidential Palace in Chile during the military coup on the 11th September 1973. The elected President, Salvador Allende, died during the assault.

The aircraft were British-made and their engines were built and serviced in East Kilbride. After being delayed and held for four years in Scotland, the engines disappeared mysteriously from the factory overnight. Three surviving workers, Robert Somerville, John Keenan and 91-year-old Bob Fulton, put their jobs on the line when they refused to work on them.

The organisers of a forthcoming conference in Glasgow want to invite the East Kilbride men to their event on 9 May, in the hope that history may repeat itself, because companies across Scotland are involved in the supply of arms and technology used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). While the Scottish government has called for a UN-led investigation into allegations of Israeli war crimes and an immediate embargo on Israel, it has been business as usual for the arms trade.

Shir Hever, an Israeli economist who has been invited to speak at the conference, commented: “The Israeli army specialises in asymmetrical warfare, in repression of protest and of guerrilla groups. Therefore, the demand for Israeli arms is highest among governments facing high inequality and social unrest. It is no coincidence that the largest customers of Israeli arms are India, Brazil and the US.”

The founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Mick Napier, said that the Roll-Royce engines story of industrial solidarity across oceans should be highlighted in the arms trade campaign. “This is exactly the kind of shop floor activity we aim for, albeit in a very different situation from the Chilean solidarity work that was substantially led in the 70s by the Clydeside industrial section of the Communist Party.”

Describing the solidarity with Chile as the “gold standard in Scotland”, Napier stressed that the history of this sort of action should be promoted. “Such solidarity with the victims of dictatorship and colonialism wasn’t just the actions of the Communist Party exclusively. I and others stood on soapboxes outside Clyde shipyards appealing for the blacklisting of submarines and parts ordered by the overthrown Chilean government and [subsequently] destined for the junta. We did not always succeed but I remember that Barr & Stroud shop stewards’ committee blacked a periscope for one of the submarines that went to the [Pinochet] junta.”

Napier and his colleagues hope that one of the key trade unionists involved in Nae Pasarán will address the conference on 9 May. “It will be inspiring stuff that can encourage trade unionists to attend and also to campaign and agitate in the workplace against arms sales to Israel,” he added.

Also attending the conference will be Palestinian Enas Bahar (pictured) who arrived in Scotland from Gaza recently. “During Israel’s destruction and massacres last summer,” she said, “I lived for 52 days with my family, friends and neighbours under killing and shelling using all types of destructive weapons.” She welcomed the Scottish government’s condemnation of Israel’s “deep inhumanity” and its call for an arms embargo. “But Israel is still buying Scottish technology to carry out its crimes against us and I ask the Scottish people to take action to end this horrible trade.

Other speakers invited include a Palestinian living in Glasgow whose family had 11 members slaughtered by Israeli bombs; those killed included five children. Laser guidance “smart” systems made sure that the Paveway II bombs hit his family’s home in Khan Younis early in the morning on 1 August last summer. The components were made in Fife, Scotland at Raytheon’s Glenrothes factory. Parts for Israeli weapons used in the frequent massacres of Palestinians are also made in Glasgow, Edinburgh and other places in Scotland.

“Many Scottish pension funds, including all twelve of the local authority pension funds across Strathclyde, invest in Raytheon and other merchants of death,” Napier pointed out. “This can be stopped and everyone can play a part. Of all the varied support we can give to Palestine, nothing is more important, more wished for, more human, than stopping the trade in the weapons that Israel uses to murder Palestinians.”

Anyone wishing to attend the Ending Scottish Arms Trade with Israel conference can register here for the day-long event on Saturday, 9 May, at The Renfield Centre, Glasgow. I will be chairing the closing plenary, so please join us and demonstrate that today’s solidarity with the Palestinians can be just as effective as that historic solidarity with the people of Chile all those years ago.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.