Nov. 28, 1973: Auto Workers Strike for Palestine

In 1973, Arab-American workers in Detroit auto plants walked off the job in protest of the UAW’s investment in bonds from the state of Israel. Source: Walter P. Reuther Library / The New Arab

On November 28, 1973, Arab American workers in Detroit area auto plants led nearly 2,000 fellow workers on a one-day strike demanding that the United Auto Workers (UAW) divest from Israel. This wildcat strike was called by the Arab Workers Caucus after workers learned that the UAW had purchased over $300,000 in Israeli bonds.

Jeff Schuhrke writes for Jacobin,

The caucus learned that on November 28, UAW president Leonard Woodcock would be honored by B’nai B’rith International, a Zionist charitable organization, with its Humanitarian of the Year award at a ceremony in downtown Detroit.

The workers used the event as an opportunity to demand the union divest from Israel. As explained at the time by Ismael Ahmed, a community organizer and future head of the Michigan Department of Human Services, the “newly formed caucus wanted to point out the hypocrisy of this leader who would force his constituency to finance the murder of their brothers and sisters back home with their union dues.”

History.com notes,

The Arab Workers Caucus continued to organize for divestment, taking its fight to its 1974 union convention. While they did not successfully win divestment at the national level, by 1975 they did push multiple locals to divest a total of $48,000 in Israeli bonds. In recent years, workers across unions have waged similar battles in favor of divestment from Israel, in alignment with Palestinian cilvil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).

In November 2024, more than 50 years after this historic wildcat strike, UAW workers in Detroit called for divestment from Israel due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.