What We Do
The Palestine Solidarity and Internationalism Working Group (PSIWG) was formed in response to the continual slaughter, occupation, and siege of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Its priority campaign is Boycott War Profiteers, a multi-stage Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) effort that began in May 2024 and seeks to build capacity and awareness in our communities and use that capacity to take on continually bigger targets, culminating in government divestment campaigns.
During the initial months of the campaign, we collected over 1600 consumer boycott pledges targeting Chevron, Sabra Hummus, McDonald’s, and diapers from Pampers, Huggies, and Luv Diapers, in addition to all wine and produce from Israel. We have since leveraged this list of community supporters to direct them to additional actions and campaign work. A highlight of this effort was tabling with Shaun Scott during a joint action with the Electoral Working Group.
We have directly applied pressure to two businesses: Artists & Craftsman Supply in the U District and PCC Community Markets.
- Artists & Craftsman Supply: ACS fired a worker for wearing a watermelon pin and was the target of our letter-writing campaign during which 300+ community members sent letters to ACS demanding they put policies in place to protect workers from anti-Palestinian discrimination. We then hand-delivered these letters to the store before going to our first monthly Liberation Happy Hour at Aladdin on the Ave.
- PCC Community Markets: PCC is carrying 8 brands complicit in genocide: Barkan Vineyards, Golan Heights Winery, Sweet Earth, San Pellegrino, Vital Proteins, Essentia, Solgar, and Garden of Life. In cooperation with an organizing committee made up of PCC workers and members, we have been tabling weekly outside of their stores and have collected letters from over 1000 individuals to their board members and CEO so far, including from hundreds of PCC members.
We’ve escalated by “phone zapping” their customer complaint hotline–over the course of a week, more than 50 individuals called in to demand PCC follow its own stated values and stop carrying products produced under apartheid. They’re starting to get our message; by midweek, they were sending all calls to the hotline straight to voicemail.
We also held two walkthroughs of PCC stores, which included a confrontation with a manager after we showed that they were still stocking goods from the occupied Golan Heights, and two pickets outside of PCC stores. These tactics have led to PCC issuing a memo to their cashiers and quietly updating their Product Origin Standard FAQ.
The campaign was, in part, inspired by the Olympia Food Co-op’s removal of products that support Israel.
We are additionally reaching out to businesses with the goal of creating “Apartheid Free” spaces in the city (maybe even a whole city block). As we have engaged more with businesses we have also expanded to asking them to remove products from Nestle, Pepsi, and CocaCola which are also engaged in business in Israeli-occupied areas. Apartheid free businesses are regularly highlighted on our Instagram @boycottwarprofiteers!
We plan to hold regular Liberation Happy Hours, continue to apply pressure to PCC, and pursue methods for municipal divestment.
PSIWG also aims to provide a space for members of DSA and our partners to do political education on international and anti-war issues and build community and solidarity. We oppose groups and politicians that sell arms to Israel, support such sales, and Zionism generally, in accordance with DSA’s national aims.
Upcoming actions
Other Ways to Connect
The Palestine Solidarity Working Group meets every second Tuesday at 6:30 PM. You can find upcoming actions in the Palestine category on the calendar.
If you’re a SDSA Member, join us on Slack in the #palestine_solidarity_working_group channel.
Not on Slack? Use the “Join our Slack” button to submit a request to join.