THERE are no limits to what we can achieve when we organise collectively to disrupt the war machine, a Stop the War Coalition fringe meeting at the TUC Congress heard today.

Speaking at the Why War, Peace and Palestine are Trade Union Issues event in Brighton, Fire Brigades Union national officer Ricardo De La Torre said: “Any function that goes towards the facilitation of the war machine almost certainly will be turned on somewhere by a worker, turned off somewhere by a worker, made by a worker, cleaned by a worker, delivered by a worker. 

“There are no limits to what we could achieve when we organise collectively in disrupting that machine.”

Mr La Torre told of FBU members being called to help the police detain activists protesting at arms sales to Israel.

He said: “I’m incredibly proud to say [that] time and time again, at the threat of discipline and the threat of worse, FBU members have turned around and said: ‘We are not doing that’.”

Emphasising that events may not always go in that direction, he underscored the importance of having discussions with members and filling the gaps left by the mainstream media. 

PCS general secretary Frances Heathcote said: “The Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s ban of 8 per cent of arms to Israel is totally inadequate. It’s a PR stunt.

“It’s not serious policy to put pressure on the Israeli state to end their war crimes, ethnic cleansing and occupation against the Palestinian people.”

She said that her union was continuing to explore the possibility of taking legal action in defence of members working in departments where the arms are licensed, including the Foreign Office and the Department for Business and Trade.

“But we cannot rely on legal fixes,” Ms Heathcote added. “Until Palestine is a free and independent nation, our movement must continue marching, must continue boycotting and must continue campaigning.”

Unison president Steven North spoke of how some communities connected to the arms or fossil fuel industries might feel that they need continued investment in these sectors.

But, he added: “It is genuine solidarity to those communities, where the arms trade delivers jobs currently, for us to support them and help them to move away from that dance of death to jobs that promote peace, to jobs that are sustainable and climate-friendly going forward.”

TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “As trade unionists, we understand that power concedes nothing without demand.

“Our demand must be clear —  an end to aggressive foreign policies, an end to the hypocrisy of the world order that values profits over people, because the struggle for workers’ rights, the fight against austerity, the call for racial justice and the demand for peace, they are all part of the same fight.”