Comment: Iran vs. Venezuela: When solidarity becomes selective |
A commentary by a Venezuelan-Canadian who lives in Saanich.
I am Venezuelan. I grew up watching unions matter and then watching them disappear.
So when labour organizations in Canada speak about “international solidarity,” I pay attention.
Not as an academic exercise, but because words used abroad have consequences for people like my family, my friends and millions of Venezuelan workers who no longer have the protection that unions are meant to provide.
The British Columbia General Employees’ Union has issued two public statements that stopped me in my tracks … not because of what they said, but because of how differently they were framed.
In their statement on Iran, the BCGEU did something important: it named repression clearly. It condemned Iranian authorities for violence and centred workers, trade unionists and protesters as the people being harmed. There was no ambiguity about where the union stood. That is what solidarity........