In theory, labor unions are supposed to focus on improving the compensation and working conditions of American workers. But graduate student unions at leading universities don’t seem to care much about those things and instead are consumed by hatred of Israel and repeating the talking points of America’s enemies.
I examined the public communication of 21 graduate student unions for which information was available and found that they are generally obsessed with anti-Israel activity, with 76 percent taking official positions critical of the Jewish state. For comparison, I also looked at what they had to say about the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. Only 10 percent had something to say about Ukraine and only 31 percent commented on the situation in Iran, of which about half sided with the protestors and the others opposed U.S. involvement against the regime.
Foreign Influence
It’s no mystery why graduate student unions have become advocates for foreign interests; a large portion of their members are themselves not American citizens. At Brown University, for example, 40 percent of the graduate students that the Graduate Labor Organization (AFT Local 6516) represents are foreigners who entered the country with F-1 visas. Not surprisingly, Brown’s labor union has issued hundreds of public messages attacking Israel, denouncing U.S. imperialism, and praising communism.
Graduate student unions issue calls “to end all US aid to Israel, remove AIPAC from politics, and defeat the zionist [sic] occupation once and for all!” They refer to North America as “Turtle Island (so-called ‘United States’ and ‘Canada’),” preferring the term used by some American Indians over the language of what they believe is the colonial occupier. Their members hold banners that repeat the Marxist slogan “Workers of the World Unite” and celebrate the communist holiday of May Day. None of this increases pay or improves the lives of graduate students, but it does express the views of many of their members and the foreign governments that sponsor them.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization (AFT Local 3550) at the University of Michigan, whose membership is almost a third foreign, has similarly embraced a radical, foreign-fueled agenda. They frequently reposted messages from the TAHRIR Coalition, which describes itself as “a movement dedicated to the liberation of all people. We advocate for resistance against systems of domination and struggle to destroy their manifestations at the University of Michigan, throughout Turtle Island, and across the globe. We act in solidarity with freedom fighters in Palestine and revolutionaries everywhere working to dismantle global imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.” Nothing in this extreme list of goals has anything to do with improving working conditions for graduate students.
Against Free Speech
Neither Brown’s nor Michigan’s graduate student unions are interested in protecting the principle of free speech on campus, which might be a non-monetary interest of their members. Instead, Brown’s Graduate Labor Organization objected when the Brown Students for Israel invited a reserve Israeli soldier for a lecture, arguing that “having an Israeli soldier speak on campus is unacceptable.” Similarly, Michigan’s Graduate Employees’ Organization tried to prevent former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett from giving a talk, calling upon their members to “spread the word and show up tomorrow” at the lecture hall to “SHUT IT DOWN!!”
Of course, both graduate student unions invoked free speech when demanding that their universities forgo any punishment for protestors who broke university rules by occupying buildings, interrupting classes, and camping overnight in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. But denying to one’s opponents the right to speak freely while invoking that same right to shield the advancement of radical agendas through force and intimidation does not demonstrate support for the principle of free speech.
Teacher Affiliation
These graduate student unions are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which, consistent with U.S. labor organizations in general after World War II, adopted anti-communist and pro-American positions. AFT president Al Shanker exemplified those positions by famously protecting Jewish teachers against antisemitic attacks by radical elements of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It is thus a dramatic reversal for teacher unions to endorse graduate student labor organizations that advocate antisemitic and anti-American positions pushed by foreign powers.
If unions would rather be agents of foreign influence than protect the economic interests of their members, policymakers should deny those unions the privilege they are afforded by law to engage in collective bargaining. And government subsidies for higher education should be denied to any university that facilitates these radical graduate student unions.
Jay P. Greene is a senior fellow at the Defense of Freedom Institute. He focuses on combating antisemitism in K–12 education, higher education, and teacher unions.
