On the 28th of November, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called for an All-Ireland Day of Action for Palestine. In Trinity, workers’ unions and staff–Service Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), Unite, the Irish Federation of Teachers (IFTU), and Craft Unions–alongside the students’ movement led by Trinity BDS, called for a walkout of students and staff during the lunch hour. A crowd of around 25 to 30 people gathered at the steps of the Dining Hall starting from around 1:00 pm, bearing Palestine flags, Students’ Union flags, and posters calling for an end to the complicity with genocide.
At 1:24 PM, Jack Ferguson, a SIPTU representative, started by announcing the action with a banner that read “Israel out of Horizons” as the backdrop. He then made a speech to the crowd gathered. He noted that the action was attempting to make “Palestine a priority for workers.” He also highlighted that the island-wide action was in solidarity with the ICJ rulings on the matter, the updated list of occupied territories, and the work of the United Nations special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese. He also praised the work of the task force that had been formed at the end of the encampment in 2023, which included representatives from the five unions for Trinity staff.
Ferguson then introduced the next speaker, Cieran Perry, the Unite representative at Trinity. To begin with, Perry underscored the work of Trinity, calling it a “beacon” in the academic community. He believed that the work carried out by the task force was “extremely successful” in the face of “opposition from management.” Additionally, Perry praised even small actions, believing that even a small number of people could carry out effective action. He ended on the note that the Palestine movement needed more involvement from the trade unions and from workers, saying that a lunchtime protest wasn’t “good enough.”
While introducing the next speaker, the work of the five unions in the task force was highlighted: they had submitted eight demands to the College asking for a full divestment from Israel. He then introduced the next speaker, Harry Johnston, the Chairperson of Trinity BDS. Johnston began by emphasising the need for continued action, calling the ceasefire “not real” and calling into question the delay in the passing of the Occupied Territories Bill. The ability of the workers to disrupt the establishment and status quo was also brought up. Johnston called for people to draw historical comparisons between Nazi Germany and the current Israeli regime, asking people to prove that they would stand up for what is right, whether it’s popular or not. The injustice of the 1990s Industrial Relations Act–one that prevents unions from striking for political reasons–was also brought up. Johnston called to “escalate action” and “maintain the winds” in Trinity. The basis for a continuation of political action, he said, was to “apply” politics to reality and “do more than vote,” especially in the five years between elections. Finally, he brought up the Columbia Dual BA programme, which has been a main target of Trinity BDS recently for “profiting” off of genocide and proving that through the Dual BA programme as well as the Horizons research programme, Trinity was still complicit.
The final speaker was Harun Šiljak from Academics for Palestine. Šiljak began by explaining how, since its conception, the idea of the state of Israel, settler-colonialism, and apartheid had been normalised in the Western world. In contention, Trinity’s task force helped to break that normality and, as an institution, defied “standing with or for Israel.” According to Šiljak, the results of the task force are “massive” and have been a result of around a decade of work by students and staff against the “brazen normalisation of Israel.” Trinity is a great place to start, Šiljak believes, where once the inertia of inaction has been overcome, it is difficult to stop action. Comparisons were also made between a more identifiable structure of complicity, such as a weapons factory and institutions that continued to be complicit, albeit silently. He said institutions may “look less of a gun” but remain major targets for upholding regimes of settler-colonialism. Finally, he reiterated the notion that action must not stop because of a perceived ceasefire.
Following the end of the speeches, the crowd of attendees who had walked out had grown to around 40. They gathered on the steps of the dining hall for a picture, which was in solidarity with other walkouts being organised across other academic institutions around the island. The crowd then moved to the entrance of the College for another picture. Another banner reading “Israel Out of Horizon Europe” was unfurled from a window above the entrance in Regent House. The crowd dispersed at 1:51 PM.
