Scottish train drivers refuse to drive Israel-linked trains

Train drivers in Scotland have told employer ScotRail that they will refuse to run the company’s new fleet if the contract to make the trains is awarded to a firm linked to Israel’s ongoing land theft in occupied Palestine.

Basque manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) has been named by the United Nations Human Rights Office on its database of organisations involved in unlawful settlements in the West Bank. The Scottish government has failed to remove CAF from the list of bidders, despite protests.

Railroaded

CAF built and maintains the occupation’s Jerusalem light rail system which runs through areas that Israel has seized illegally. For decades, Palestinian groups have urged European firms to remove themselves from the colonial project. Aslef Scotland organiser Kevin Lindsay condemned Holyrood’s inaction:

Scotland’s train drivers have always stood against injustice wherever it happens. Internationalism and standing for human rights, and for an end to illegal wars, oppression and suffering across the world has always been at the heart of our trade unionism. Such as when train drivers refused to transport munitions to the catastrophic war against Iraq.

We have a long-standing commitment to standing up for Palestine. We have supported the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement for many years. The genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank has made our support even stronger. That’s why we are so disappointed with the Scottish Government They say they support the Palestinians yet offer empty words and no action. They could and should remove CAF from this bidding process, but have hidden behind a process that shows Scotland in an all talk no action light.

Small gestures do help change the world. We saw it here in Scotland when those heroic East Kilbride Rolls Royce workers refused to move the fascist dictator Pinochet’s air force jet engines. Hampering their ability to operate and giving a huge political and moral boost to the Chileans suffering under Pinochet.

The Scottish Government could have given a similar boost to the people of Palestine but has timidly chosen not to. What a travesty and terrible indictment on a government and Cabinet Secretary for Transport who say one thing but do another.

The Scottish worker’s announcement comes as Spanish rail workers demand the termination of their operator’s contracts with Israeli firms over fears of potential Israeli involvement in last week’s deadly Toledo rail crash.