Analysis Breaking

Norwegian TUC votes by overwhelming majority to boycott Israel

88% of delegates in union representing a fifth of Norway’s population support immediate boycott, divestment and embargo

On Saturday, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) cast a historic and overwhelming vote for a comprehensive boycott of Israel, with a huge 88% of delegates voting in favour of the motion.

The boycott covers trade, investments, culture, sports and academic ties. The resolution demands:

  • a complete ban on trade and investment with Israeli companies and entities
  • a boycott of cultural, sports and academic institutions in, or linked to, Israel
  • immediate and complete divestment by Norway’s $1.8 trillion ‘Oil Fund’ from any company complicit in Israel’s occupation

LO now expects the State Pension Fund, Norwegian companies and financial institutions to pull out of companies complicit in the Israeli occupation.

LO’s Palestine Committee.
Delegates stand and applaud the result of the vote.

But the Norwegian boycott move is not the end of the development: if Israel’s occupation does not end by September this year, LO is demanding that Norway lead a global economic boycott – and remarkably, Norway’s government is complaining about what it describes as a “one-sided boycott”, but saying it will not interfere:

It’s not up to the government to decide what free academic or cultural institutions believe.

Norway seems to have a considerably more genuine democracy than the UK or US.

As Norway’s largest union umbrella organisation, LO has more than a million members – in a country with a population of fewer than 5.5 million – and holds genuine political power in a country whose Oil Fund has given it one of the world’s strongest and healthiest economies. Norway’s Parliament is scheduled to vote on 4 June on the Oil Fund’s disbursement and LO is already working on how to implement its resolution and pressure the government to enact it in the mandate, while Norway’s Red Party and Socialist Left (SV) Party are pushing for an arms embargo, legislative bans on settlement-linked firms and investments and complete divestment.

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6 comments

  1. Congrats on becoming the latest natuon of rabid antisemites 👍😉.(isn’t that right, benny?)

    Keef and cor lammy will have their work cut out trying to spin this one ..Well, they would but they and the msm will just ignore it.

    (Pjty Bodo Glimt didn’t make the europa final)

    1. Yup, I can’t find any coverage of this boycott vote, which occurred two or three days ago (8 or 9 May) in any MSM publication.

      Skwawkbox, Al Jazeera, the Palestine Chronicle, Press TV and The Electronic Intifada report the boycott vote, but no MSM newsletter has decided to cover it yet.

      The Times of Israel /European Jewish Congress cover the news only to dismiss it as antisemitic and counterproductive to dialogue and peace.

  2. The beginning of the end for the State of Israel. Already the biggest Trade Union in the US is supporting BDS, but. so far the US is dismissing the calls.
    However, I will expect French, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish Trade Union to follow the example of Norway soon and persuade their governments on the need to implement BDS.
    The judgement from the ICJ will come in between 5-7 years and Israel will be found as to have committed War Crimes and Genocide. Thus, it will persuade others States in the Western World that the wind has changed and they will drop Israel like they drop Rhodesia.
    This is why Israel is engaging in killing as many Palestinian as possible in the next 5 years. Israel wish to impose numbers on the ground. If Israel manages to kill 2 million Palestinian and “persuade” to leave Palestine and resettle abroad other 3 million Palestinian. Israel will be able to survive by the shear superiority of Jewish settlers in the area.
    This is why it is so important to implement an embargo of selling all arms to Israel right now, to make impossible for Israel to carry on with the wholesale genocide of Palestinians.

    1. Great post Maria. SOME British trade unions support and promote Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel:

      – The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and the majority of affiliated unions support BDS as a practical way to pressure the Israeli government to end its repression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

      – In 2011 (pre-Corbyn), the Trades Union Congress itself (and most of its member-unions) adopted resolutions supporting extensive BDS campaign against Israel. FWIW, UNITE’s Len McCluskey was a strong supporter of BDS. His starmer-inplant successor obviously isn’t!!

      – As you said, in July 2024, seven major US labor unions representing 6 million workers called on the Biden administration to halt all military funding to Israel; the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced its complete divestment from Israel Bonds.

      Daily this adoption of BDS by TUs against Israel all over the world is bound to get stronger. And the new American Pope, Leo XIV (who adopted the name of an staunchly pro-workers’ rights predecessor that would be considered ferociously socialist today), will encourage organised workers’ unions to be more resolute in their use of BDS.

      Yes, the times they are a-changing. RECOGNISE Palestine today!!

  3. The UK and US have No Democracy, We in the UK Live in a Starmer Dystopian Horror from which the only escape is DEATH

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