Community sector workers to walk out for Palestine again

On 10 September, workers from the social and community services sector will walk off the job to demand action on the genocide in Gaza.

The action is being led by unionised workers in the Australian Services Union across several community legal services. The key demand is for the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Victorian Council of Social Services—the industry peak bodies—to use their profiles to put pressure on the Australian government to sanction and cut ties with Israel.

Many of the workers will be taking unprotected strike action, while others will find other ways to take time off in solidarity. At a union meeting at my workplace, which is part of the social and community sector, a motion was passed in support of the strike, and many of us will be taking leave to join the rally. This action is an example of the kind of action that can be taken by rank-and-file workers to increase the pressure on the government to go beyond gestures and end its material support for Israel.

Almost two years into the genocide, with horrific images of starving Palestinians filling our newsfeeds and Israel openly planning the final stage of its ethnic cleansing, increasing numbers are finding it unbearable to go on with “business as usual” as if nothing is happening. This is particularly the case for those of us in the social and community services sector, whose work in these “values-based” organisations is purportedly about pursuing social justice and upholding human rights. There is increasingly a dissonance between what our CEOs and organisations proclaim about their values and their silence on a horrific genocide that the Australian government is providing ideological and material support for and that many in the communities we serve are affected by.

As Louisa Bassini, a community lawyer and organiser of the walk-out, put it, “It’s absurd that we’re meant to dutifully work through a genocide when, as a class, we have the collective power to stop it. The strike reflects what so many of us want to do—get up, walk away from our desks and workplaces and disrupt everyday life—to stand against the horrors being committed by Israel. More than that, it shows that, with determination and organisation, it can be done”.

This didn’t come out of nowhere—in fact it is the second unprotected strike organised in this sector in solidarity with Palestine. Workers in the community legal centres were well placed to take this action, having previously organised to fight for better pay and conditions in their enterprise agreement in 2022 and 2023. When Israel’s offensive in Gaza started, activists and unionists were already in touch and better placed to organise to do something about it.

These strikes, as well as the growth of rank-and-file union groupings such as ASU for Palestine, have shown that there are substantial numbers of workers in a range of sectors who want to put up a fight around this issue. And when given a lead, they are prepared to act.

Michal Kedem, an ASU delegate and strike organiser, reflected on how the strike “got people talking about historical political strikes like the Dalfram dispute [when, in 1938, unionised wharfies refused to load pig-iron headed for Japan, which had invaded China]”, adding that “rank-and-file workers across workplaces and unions are giving everything they can to organise for Palestine”.

In a positive development, the head office of the ASU has given its endorsement to the protest section of the walk-off. It needs to back these workers all the way. Social and community sector workers are showing what can and should be done in the union movement today.

For those in Melbourne—join workers on 10 September at 1pm at the State Library. For more information follow clcworkersunited and asu4palestine_vic on Instagram.