Minnesota’s union educators chart a new path for divestment from apartheid Israel

Bloomington, MN – On April 25 and 26, Education Minnesota (EdMN) held its annual convention in Bloomington, Minnesota. Hundreds of teachers, paraprofessionals and aspiring and retired educators gathered for the union’s annual convention, which included more than 600 elected delegates. At the convention, the delegates elected their governing board, voted for constitution and bylaw amendments, and decided on action items put forward by EdMN’s 84,000 members. They also elected EdMN’s first Black president, Monica Byron.

With the Trump administration’s attacks on public education, bargaining rights and immigrant communities, this convention held an air of resistance to the policies of an increasingly oppressive government. A great sense of unity and collective support was widely felt as educators spoke about and made plans for how to stand together and fight back against the attacks.

One of the most popular action items was put forward by members of Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 (MFE) and was a proposal for EdMN to establish a new investigative task force with regards to member pension investments.

The text of this resolution called for the creation of “…a task force to investigate the investment of Education MN member pensions in violation of human rights and civil liberties; as well as its involvement in the desecration of cultural and ethnic identities, war, illegal occupation, land theft and military conflicts.” This task force would compile this information and publish a report of its findings within six months for its members and also would “…host a member meeting to discuss the results of the task force investigation…to explore strategies to bring investments into congruence with humanitarian values and humanitarian law.”

Additionally, the new task force would deliver a letter to the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI), which manages Minnesota’s public sector workers’ pension funds and has become a primary target for a new wave of working-class activism in opposition to Israeli apartheid. Many public sector union pensions currently are invested in funds with ties to Israel. This letter would detail “the investments that violate human rights, civil liberties, cultural and ethnic identities, and [that] contribute to war, illegal occupation, land theft and military conflicts.” Finally, this letter, along with supporting information sent to the SBI would “…advocate for divestment” from identified investments, companies, or government bonds made by the SBI.”

This proposal was briefly discussed amongst the membership of EdMN, with many members of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE) speaking passionately in support.

MFE member Abir Ismail spoke in support of the proposal, “As public school educators, we should have clear ethical guidelines for how our pensions are invested. The investment of our pensions should align with international law and our shared values. We cannot stay silent and say they live thousands of miles away, when our pensions are being used to fund the massacre of children in Gaza, instead of being invested in the future of our own students and communities. Our pensions have contributed to the deaths of thousands of children – children who have been burned alive, dismembered, their body parts scattered among the ruins of what used to be classrooms, playgrounds, and homes. Children who dreamed of becoming doctors, artists, teachers – erased from this earth with the help of our money.” Ismail continued, “What does it say about our values when our pensions contribute to the suffering of children? Where is our humanity? How can we witness these atrocities and still sleep at night?”

The MFE member who introduced and spoke for the proposal received a raucous round of applause from the hundreds of union members in the room. Outgoing president Denise Specht sternly reminded members not to cheer or clap for those speaking in favor or opposition to action items during the meeting, per convention rules. This was the only instance of this reminder being necessary throughout the convention.

Other members who spoke in favor made connections between the oppression and genocide of Palestinian people and the historic and ongoing wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence in America. They focused on the use of Gaza and Palestinians as a testing ground for the technologies which are then used to militarize the southern border of the U.S., as well as databases used to track and monitor immigrants and their families which mirror those the Israeli military uses to track Palestinians. Speakers pointed out the hypocrisy of working people employed in education in America being committed to the wellbeing and education of children only to see their pensions and tax dollars be invested in companies which create weapons used to kill tens of thousands of children in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.

Many EdMN members at the convention were wore keffiyehs and the high level of support in the room for the resolution showed new momentum in the decades long fight for divestment. The motion to create the task force was approved nearly unanimously. Supporters of the motion and those involved in Palestinian solidarity work within their respective unions also shared flyers about the MN Anti-War Committee and their DivestMN website, which lays out which kinds of investments could be affected by this proposal.

#BloomingtonMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #EdMN #MFE