TUFP – time for a change of direction

As colleagues may know, Trade Union Friends of Palestine was established in 1980 in Dundee by Yousef Allan and a number of Labour & Trade Union activists. Support for the Palestinian cause at that time was more controversial than it is today.
In the early 1980's TUFP successfully lobbied for a change in the traditional Labour movement approach to the Middle East swinging many unions behind a more pro Palestinian position. This also had major implications for Labour Party policy.

TUFP then began to operate more as a network of sympathetic contacts. Much of its work was done in conjunction with TUFP's sister organisation, the Labour Middle East Council. Yousef Allan was TUFP's touchstone and when his work took him to Ireland activity did drop, but political support and the TUFP network remained intact.
All of this had to be reviewed following Yousef's tragic death in January 2001. As a result, TUFP organised a number of joint initiatives with LMEC and others:

• Two memorial events at the House of Commons
• A memorial fund was established part of which was used to develop joint websites
• A commemorative edition of "The Palestine Post" was prepared for Union Conferences.

We continued to produce the Palestine Post twice a year (with a peak circulation of 14,000) and organised events at the TUC, Labour Party and union Conferences. We also developed an extensive email network to share campaigning information.

While a large number of unions at all levels continued to affiliate to and support TUFP, attempts to establish a representative steering committee faltered. We were unable to publish the Palestine Post in 2006, the year that sadly also saw the winding up of LMEC.
After a great deal of reflection, we have concluded that the time has come for TUFP in its current form to disband. In doing so however, we intend to:

• Retain our email network for those who wish to remain included.
• Use our remaining funds to establish a permanent memorial to Yousef in Palestine.
• Encourage all affiliates and individual supporters to put their efforts into the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

We have not taken this decision lightly, and would like to place on record our thanks to all those unions at national, regional and branch level, as well as to the many union activists, who have worked to build support for the Palestinian cause over the last 27 years.

Many thanks