The definitive history of the US labor movement’s complicity in Zionist settler colonialism, and a call for today’s labor militants to organize in solidarity with Palestinians.
US trade unionists are often told to keep quiet and remain neutral on Palestine because “Palestine has nothing to do with unions” and “weighing in” only distracts from struggles for better working conditions.
No Neutrals There makes a timely and critical intervention against that pervasive sentiment by recounting the history of the US labor movement’s century-long involvement in the struggle for Palestine. Scholar Jeff Schuhrke convincingly demonstrates that unions in the United States have never been silent or neutral on the question of Palestine. In fact, they have played a key role—in the initial Zionist colonization of Palestine, the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, supporting US foreign policy commitments to Israel, and the ongoing suppression of the Palestinian liberation movement.
In his compelling telling of this history, Schuhrke conclusively shows that US unions helped build and maintain the state of Israel, and also shines a light on important exceptions to this rule: instances of US labor solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle that point the way forward for today’s labor movement.
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“Schuhrke’s unspooling of American unions’ international machinations is impressive and concise. No Neutrals There is a unique and revealing look at one facet of America’s deep relationship with Israel.“ —Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review
“Jeff Schuhrke repudiates the Zionism of AFL-CIO 'leaders,' and argues that workers should support Palestinian efforts for liberation...This book is excellent, deserves wide attention, and this work, plus his Blue-Collar Empire, has put him in the top rank of today’s labor historians.” —Kim Scipes, Countercurrents
"Schuhrke’s sweeping and accessible book offers a detailed history of U.S. labor’s century-long alliance with the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, examining the forces and developments that built and sustained that alliance as well as those that opposed it. This is a critical resource for organizers within both the U.S. labor and Palestine solidarity movements as they work to strengthen efforts to build an anti-militarist labor politics that can win justice for workers and oppressed people both at home and abroad." —Derek Seidman, Truthout
“The book is incredibly timely and impressively detailed. Schuhrke proves his worth as a historian by telling a meaningful story about U.S. labor with a lesson to be learned.”—Samantha Cooney, UE News
"No Neutrals There tells the shameful story of how U.S. labor leaders supported and helped fund the century-long Zionist project of colonization, occupation, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. But it is also a history of labor anti-Zionism, Palestinian labor politics, and the promise of working-class internationalism. There are no neutrals under colonialism and genocide, just as there are no neutrals in the class struggle." —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression
“No Neutrals There is a vital and unflinching account of the deep entanglement between the US trade union movement and Zionist settler colonialism. It dismantles the myth of union neutrality on Palestine and exposes the cost of silence. This book is a critical resource for all workers organising toward genuine internationalism and justice.” —Rafeef Ziadah, co-author of Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine
“Jeff Schuhrke's book is a damning indictment of the way American trade unions betrayed Palestinians by aiding the colonization of their homeland. This soul-searching journey is needed so that American trade unions, and the Western Left as a whole, can help to rectify a historical injustice that is a century old. This book covers an untold history that needed to be exposed for the sake of the struggle for freedom in Palestine.” —Ilan Pappé, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
"Historian Jeff Schuhrke—author of the “go-to” book on US labor and foreign policy during the Cold War—explains why the AFL-CIO and other US unions’ elected leaders have long provided unquestioning support for Israel. This despite the fact that the global working-class watches in horror as millions of Palestinians starve and believes they deserve what all humans want: peace, equal rights, and justice. To understand the contradiction at the heart of US foreign policy, read Schuhrke’s book." —Peter Cole, author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area
"When some American unions began to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, they were widely criticized in the political mainstream for venturing beyond their proper domain. This crucial, illuminating book shows that nothing could be further from the truth. The US labor movement has been entangled deeply with Zionism since long before Israel's establishment." —Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America