Stuart Appelbaum

Biographical Information
"Stuart Appelbaum is President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, representing workers in the United States and Canada. He also serves as International Vice President United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and as an officer of two global union federations:  International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and Union Network International (UNI). Appelbaum previously served as Chief House Counsel of the Democratic National Committee. He is currently President of the Jewish Labor Committee."

"Appelbaum is president of the Jewish Labor Committee, a pro-Israeli lobby within the American trade unions. In this capacity, he regularly defends Zionist policy, although in its “moderate” Labor Party version, and denounces Palestinian resistance. He is also associated with Ameinu, the successor to the Labor Zionist Alliance. Prior to the disaffiliation of the UFCW from the AFL-CIO, Appelbaum functioned as a Vice President of the national AFL-CIO and a member of the federation’s Executive Council from 1998 until 2005. He also currently serves as a vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York City Central Labor Council.

"He plays a prominent role in the Democratic Party, having served formerly as Chief House Counsel of the Democratic National Committee. Appelbaum was elected a delegate to the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Democratic National Conventions and an alternate delegate to the 1992 Democratic National Convention. In 2008, he served as a member of the Electoral College as an Obama elector from New York. The RWDSU president also finds time to sit on the board of trustees of Freedom House, a Washington DC institution most closely associated with CIA-directed anti-communist propaganda during the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the other Stalinist regimes."

Affiliations

 * Cofounder, Trade Union Linking Israel and Palestine