May 2005

http://alawda.newjerseysolidarity.org

Where are We Going?

Where are we now -- we the activist movement for Palestine? There are many differing political attitudes among activists for Palestine. The minimum political program for Palestine activism is upholding the right of return, right to national self-determination, and the right to self defense. Also, recognition that only the one state solution is viable and that that state should be democratic and secular. Recognizing the national rights to self determination and self defense of African Americans, the native nations of the Americas, and all oppressed nations is an indivisible part of this program.

We are at one of the worst moments in history. It is not like any other one before it, and things look really bad. While the Russian revolution still inspires us, its present state of defeat disappoints us. The percentage of the world's population living under working class states has plunged. Revolutions are now failing. Organizing on a religious basis has superceded organizing on a secular basis.

Activism for Palestine has waned as has the anti-war movement supporting Iraq. In Palestine itself, activism has also waned but resistance endures. Quiet resistance is practiced at all times. Clearly, we go into higher motion in our activism when there is a revolutionary upsurge, an Intifada, in Palestine. We, the activists right here, become more active and more numerous whenever we feel the heat of an upsurge any where in the world. And there will continue to be groundswells of revolutionary motion. This will not stop and we must continue to grow.

The world's population experiences unnecessary famine while the capacity for food production is underutilized; people are homeless when there are many apartments that they can't afford; people suffer from health problems while medical science provides the ultimate technologies to the few. Palestinians are homeless, their homes being demolished, while settlement units are built for "Jews only" and a huge quantity of them stand empty. Poverty, disease, malnutrition, unemployment, and under employment cause pain to masses of humanity unable to deal with daily life.

Capitalism is no longer able to feed, clothe, house, and care for the health of the people. If we do not take capitalism to hospice care as soon as we can, there will be disaster for the greenness of the globe, the breathability of its air, and for human culture. Remember that human culture is all the labor and know-how that mankind applies to form what the earth gives us freely. Capitalist destruction must be stopped so that human culture can be allowed to protect our globe, its wildlife, and its human population.

Now, I hate using the term "hospice care" to describe the end of a brutal and murderous system, because old people who have worked all their lives deserve gentle grateful and loving care. And the harder they worked, and the more difficult their labor had been, the more tenderness is deserved. Yes, the housekeeper and the janitor deserve a lot better than the CEO, but they do not get much under capitalism.

Capitalism is old indeed and it has worked hard for mankind providing all manner of wonderful things. Do not forget that social development includes revolution and is a natural process and that capitalism is part of that development and had its revolutionary beginnings. Capitalism has lived past its usefulness to mankind and is now a threat. It has become a monstrous formation that is greedily chewing up the world at its weakest social, economic, and military points. US imperialism now destroys people and production in order to make what is not destroyed more valuable. This will continue to impact us until we stop it.

As a Palestinian activist, I love young activists who work for Palestine. The Palestinian resistance has become a symbol and gateway to more international activism and ambitions for liberation of the entire globe. I love young activists who learn and grow and develop and who want to take on the task of stopping this toothy monster. They are the most beautiful people in the world when their political work is sincere effort to really change things. Their work is respect for those who are deprived of equality. It is brave. If charity is helping solve problems on the specific level, then political activism is solving problems on the higher, more general social and international level.

How to organize, how to develop, how to learn real equality, overcome elitism, how to work together - these are difficult questions. The movement needs all types of skills. Sometimes it is hard to organize events and teach-ins, and it is very difficult to plan together and genuinely openly discuss and change with the discussion. It is wonderful when a few people sit together, really listen to each other, and together create ideas and plan. Sometimes, it is up to the individual to keep trying to find what and when to contribute. It is hard to learn to allow each contributor to feel good about their work.

We must build bridges to other movements. We have to learn to listen to oppressed national groups. This comes only with learning their histories. We must become more and more aware of the numbing effects of racism in our society and fight it like tigers. Racism creeps into daily habits like a silent thief and is very painful to combat. Greedy racists are backwards and out of tune with what needs to happen to save the earth and its wildlife including human population and culture.

We need to begin to see the general in the similarities of the experiences of oppressed nations. African Americans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas have received the most brutal and insidious racist treatments. Even while Arabs, Palestinians included, are beginning to get more and more such treatment, we as Palestine activists need to begin learning their histories so that knowledge becomes part of the bridge we build. Religion must be seen as a strictly private matter, and our activism should leave it alone. Learning should be seen as a daily necessity. Read political material with an open mind. Who you study with is important. Seek other activists to study and learn with and not academia. Do not be afraid to read Marxist literature, and then apply it in practice. That is, try to organize committees, to join ones already in existence, and to continue to grow with the movement.