Will Local 11 Condemn Its Ally’s Anti-Semitic Candidate?

A key ally of Unite Here Local 11, the Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles (DSA-LA) recently endorsed a radical school board candidate who praised an anti-Semitic book and liked a speech that called Jews “satanic.”

Kahllid Al-Alim, a candidate for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board and an SEIU 721 member, claimed in an Oct. 18, 2022, X post that the anti-Semitic book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews should be “MANDATORY Reading in Community Schools.”

The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews falsely posits that Jews played a disproportionate role in the slave trade. The book was once called the “bible of the new anti-Semitism” in the pages of the New York Times.  In 2018, Al-Alim also liked an X post of a Louis Farrakhan speech in which he calls Jews “satanic.”

The DSA-LA previously posted a message highlighting its parent organizations support for Palestine, a post that came just one-day after the Hamas terrorist attack.

Unite Here Local 11 has several ties to the DSA that go back years, this has included a close relationship throughout the hotel strikes in 2023 and the union’s  support for DSA-LA candidates – most notably Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-Martinez. 

DSA-LA started a strike fund for Local 11.

A Unite Here Local 11 spokesperson touted the arrests of DSA members as a show of “solidarity.”

Local 11 even allowed the DSA’s Phoenix based operation to use its headquarters for a 2024 rally promoting a speaker that posted “All Out For Palestine” just days after the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

Hotel workers deserve to know where Unite Here Local 11 stands on the fight against anti-Semitism and the union should issue an immediate condemnation of its ally’s endorsement of an anti-Semitic candidate.