Gaza (Quds News Network)- A new database of over 400 companies that operate in the UK and are complicit in Israel’s genocide war on Gaza has been launched by a collective of unions and organisations led by Progressive International.
The international left-wing organisation describes the Watermelon Index as “a tool for worker-led resistance against the occupation and genocide in Palestine”, which will allow employees to connect with each other and with activists to challenge their bosses over connections to Israel.
Among the companies listed are Barclays, shipping firm Maersk, e-commerce giant Amazon, software company Microsoft and holiday rental outfit Airbnb.
A company’s complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza is measured through “the different kinds of support, including financial, military, diplomatic, cultural, trade and social” it provides, according to Progressive International.
The Watermelon Index also contains details of worker-led campaigns that are being mounted against the war, and includes tools that enable workers to organize and connect with each other.
Since the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinian trade unions and other organizations have called for arms and energy embargoes, as well as for workers around the world to act against their employers’ complicity with Israel.
It is in this context that the Watermelon Index is being launched.
“Israel’s war machine is enabled by the financial, military, diplomatic, and cultural support it gets from companies around the world. In ways big or small, thousands of companies are complicit,” Kimia Talebi, the Progressive International’s Watermelon Index organizer, said.
“Workers in these companies hold the power to throw sand in the wheels of the war machine. And many thousands of them are, like the Indian dock workers at 11 ports, refusing to handle weaponry that could be used to kill Palestinians.”
Talebi said that people should “use the Index to find existing campaigns against corporate complicity or contact us to get support in setting up new ones”, with Progressive International and other groups aiming to facilitate worker-led campaigns against complicity with Israeli actions.
Source: qusnan
