Mobilising Power Resources to Build Solidarity. Labour Movement and the Gaza Crisis

Following the Israeli invasion of Gaza, which led to widespread destruction and significant civilian casualties, global attention once again turned to the Palestinian issue. This rekindled a wave of solidarity worldwide, particularly among university campuses. This paper focuses on the role of the workers’ movement in the international solidarity with Palestine, positioning itself within a well-established historical and sociological debate. It has examined the importance of international workers’ solidarity in struggles like the fight against South African apartheid and resistance to dictatorial regimes in Latin America (Nastovski 2014; Cole and Limb, 2017; Cole, 2018; Scipes, 1985; Zorzoli, 2022). Additionally, the debate has looked at the involvement of several trade unions like COSATU in South Africa and CUT in Brazil in the BDS international campaign aimed at applying economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian territories (Bargouthi, 2021).

The paper examines how six trade unions, both traditional and grassroots, responded to the war in Gaza. The study focuses on Italy, Spain, and the UK, covering a timeframe up to the end of 2024. Data collection employs two qualitative methodologies. First, authors conducted a document analysis of materials produced by unions, by reviewing their websites, Facebook and X profiles. Second, authors conducted a protest event analysis by combining unions' information sources with data from the online archives of three national media outlets.

Using the analytical framework of PRT (Schmalz et al., 2018; Refslund and Arnholtz, 2022), the paper investigates the strategies mobilised by these unions, with a particular focus on structural, institutional, discursive, and societal resources. This contribution seeks to enrich and renew the debate on the significance of international solidarity by the labour movement, which can play a pivotal role in shaping economic conditions for peace in a world increasingly marked by military tensions (Brancaccio et al., 2024).