FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2025
Contact: Chris Smalls | [email protected]
CODEPINK Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected]
WATCH: Labor Leaders and Community Activists Kick off “Disarm Genocide” Campaign Outside AFL-CIO Demanding Unions Take Action Against Genocide
WASHINGTON, D.C. — October 27, 2025: Hundreds of workers, union members, and community organizers rallied outside of the AFL-CIO Headquarters on Friday, October 24, holding the nation’s largest labor federation accountable for complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Led by Chris Smalls and the Disarm Genocide Coalition, the action united labor and justice organizers nationwide. Speakers included Dr. Melina Abdullah, Dr. Jill Stein, Dr. Butch Ware, Hazami Barmada, and Chelsea Alionar. The rally was part of the launch of a larger campaign demanding U.S. labor end its financial and logistical support for Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people. A petition gaining thousands of signatures was delivered directly to the AFL-CIO leadership. This rally represented the kick-off of a campaign to mobilize rank-and-file members to push union leadership to take a decisive role against the apartheid state of Israel.
You can watch the rally here.
“They (AFL-CIO) represent 12.5 million unionized workers in this country. The largest voice for the working class is right here in this building. And the largest voice for the working class has said that they do not give a damn about Palestinian liberation,” labor leader Chris Smalls said in his speech at the rally.
Reminding everyone that the power ultimately lies with the people, Melina Abdula, Black Lives Movement Grassroots, and a unionized worker, summed up perfectly the impact labor has:
“He’s (Trump) not building his own $300 million ballroom himself - so nobody better pick up a hammer and build his ballroom.” He’s not loading no damn ships himself - so don’t pick up anything and load a fucking ship.”
“A majority of Americans now oppose not only sending just military aid to Israel but all aid across the board. Because why should Israel, in the midst of the genocide, have free healthcare at the expense of our tax dollars when we ourselves do not have accessible healthcare?” Dr. Jill Stein, …asked the lively crowd
In her remarks, Hazami Barmada pointed out that “American workers have it double. Not only are they the ones making the weapons that directly support the genocide, shipping the weapons that directly support the genocide, part of the supply that directly supports the genocide - on top of that, they are being taxed and their hard-earned money is also going to fund the genocide.”
The coalition is giving leadership a week to respond to its campaign demands:
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Recognize Israel’s campaign of death and destruction in Gaza as genocide;
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Refuse to ship weapons, divest from war profiteers, and cut all financial ties with the military-industrial complex;
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Mobilize union power to end genocide through coordinated strike actions, building toward a U.S. general strike;
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Condemn the abduction and assault of Chris Smalls and others aboard the Gaza aid flotilla;
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Affirm that attacks on workers anywhere are attacks on all workers;
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Acknowledge Israel as an apartheid state;
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Reject genocidal politics by refusing to endorse or fund any politician who has voted for U.S. military aid to Israel.
BACKGROUND:
For two years, the AFL-CIO — representing 12.5 million workers and more than 60 national and international unions — has refused to condemn Israel’s war crimes or name the mass killing of Palestinians genocide. Union pension funds invest in Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, while unionized ports, factories, and defense plants ship weapons to Israel every 15 hours.
Labor federations in Italy, South Africa, Greece, France, Colombia, and Spain have already shut down arms shipments and divested from Israel. Organizers will emphasize that if the AFL-CIO calls on U.S. dockworkers, transport workers, and machinists to halt weapons production and shipments, the genocide could end overnight.
Participating organizations: Yalla Indivisible; Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice – LA; Palestinian Christians for Justice; Unmute Humanity; Peoples Power Assembly; Baltimore Veterans for Peace; Teachers Against Genocide; Lifeline for Palestine; Labor for Palestine; BLM Grassroots; Palestinian Youth Movement; CodePink; Christians for a Free Palestine – LA; Workers Strike Back, among others.
You can learn more about the Disarm Genocide campaign at https://disarmgenocide.org/
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