Warning: Cynicism
I am a part of a left org that has been putting efforts into showing support for Palestine. A lot of demos, speaking at city council meetings, pressuring agencies to support a ceasefire, etc.
I'm considering bringing it up to comrades that maybe this has run its course. The IDF has been moving South and is now in Rafah. The only thing the US has done is issue "concerns" that have been ignored; the US has not stopped funding the war. How much destruction is there left that we as American activists are even trying to prevent?
Tell me I'm wrong. I want to be wrong. I just see comrades putting their efforts into this for emotional and not practical reasons at this point.
There was never anything activists could do to make a difference that was legal or only punishable with mild consequences.
US foreign policy is completely divorced from popular will or demand.
Basically every great achievement for the proletarians of the world seemed impossible right up until it was possible and then, in retrospect, it is very easy to lapse into complacency and assume that it was inevitable all along.
Vietnam took on the fucking United States and won.
The Bolsheviks took on the aristocracy and the capitalists of the world and won.
We must guard against cynicism foreclosing on the opportunities that may be presented to us in the present and in the future. If the Viet Minh allowed this to happen, Vietnam would still be a colony. If the Bolsheviks allowed this to happen, Russia would still be a Tsardom.
Here's a quote from Mike Davis in an interview to chew on:
‘Hope’ is not a scientific category. Nor is it a necessary obligation... I manifestly do believe that we have arrived at a ‘final conflict’ that will decide the survival of a large part of poor humanity over the next half century. Against this future we must fight like the Red Army in the rubble of Stalingrad. Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely.
Viet Minh and the Bolsheviks didn't just hold peace rallies and protests. Not that I'm implying anything. Just something to think about.
Absolutely. No disagreements here.
Tbh the world has failed Palestinians and it continues to fail them. This fact eats away at me and I find the lack of action is personally devastating to me. But I think that I'm only feeling a small fraction compared to Palestinians themselves. Maybe it's useful to frame what I'm feeling about the situation as a crash course in deep solidarity idk.
Ultimately we have to contain our need to see action lest it develop into adventurism. And this is coming from someone who suffers from crippling depression and who has to wrestle with a not-insignificant part of me whose overwhelming urge is to do an adventurism (doesn't help any that I have enough knowledge to achieve this, either.)
But individual actions almost invariably achieve very little. It's only when we act collectively and in a sustained way that we are able to achieve change. The task at hand has always been to build knowledge, build the movement, and build the party. Rallies aid in this by educating, agitating, and organising (as insignificant and insufficient as it may feel).
If we can direct this urgent need for things to be different towards being the most committed socialists and to contributing the most towards our organisations and parties (and towards being the most upstanding member of these that we are capable of being) then that's the best place to put all this energy.
We've gotta build the foundation before we can build the structure. I wish that we were further along than we are but the working class has always been in desperate circumstances and I try to remember that fact because if I historicise this experience in the context of the past then it reminds me that I'm just feeling the desperation more acutely but it has always been right there.
Idk. I don't have any real answers and I'm just rambling at you but I guess I just wanted you to know that I think about this a lot.
presuming you live in the imperial core, like me, where working people are so hesitant to sacrifice anything for an internationalist working class struggle, supporting Palestine is arguably one of the most revolutionary actions you can personally take
I've had a lot of good convos at my workplace agitating people pressing them to join their union in response to the bosses silence on the conflict
dont forget to take time for yourself though, so many people are burning themselves out on this shit :/
Hamas is able to fight and score wins against a vastly more powerful and technologically advanced fighting force, backed up by the most advanced surveillance state on Earth and funded with unlimited support.
There's nothing we can learn from that and it's completely unrelated to your question. Just something I think about from time to time, that's all.
Protesting rarely has any impact on actual policy. Both public and foreign policy have little to no relationship to public sentiment.
That being said, I think that more young people in particular than ever before are seeing the visceral evil which is the Western imperialist empire laid bare in front of them.
Over and above it being the right thing to do to stand up for Palestine, and wondering what you're gonna tell your grandkids when they ask you what you were doing during the Palestine Holocaust, it's really radicalising people right now and probably an excellent opportunity to push them further to the left and get them on board with other anti-imperialist / socialist struggles.
BDS and that UN ruling are getting some contracts broken but idk if it's enough.
it doesn't seem like people are willing to
but I don't see how anything short of incredible violence could shake the empire from its path.individual action is exactly what the zionists want, they're longing for someone to go do terrorism in the US so they can use it
yeah that's the problem with minecraft, it only supports the status quo until you get to the mobilized army level
If there are no protests then Zionists and Imperialists will have full control over mass opinion because they control mass media in an environment with atomized civilians.
Then everyone will be completely demoralised and the probability of anything happening moves closer to zero.
The protests are a reality check, a place for communion to for everyone to avoid getting gaslit by the government and corporations into complete apathy.
Perhaps if the protests continue then the probability of something happening will shift closer to 100%.
It's also practice for mass mobilization, gets us used to disobeying civil society.
It may not have an effect on public policy, but public opinion has shifted in a big way. The occupation has been going on for a very long time and until pretty recently supporting Palestine felt like a fringe position. The propaganda machine has been consistently pushing in that direction and replaying the lie that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism so much that it's official state department policies, and there are laws trying to criminalize BDS. That people are pushing back against that narrative is a big step - it shows skepticism of the media and politicians, international solidarity, and a willingness to accept being accused of shit.
But the chances of the US government doing anything to stop the genocide in the foreseeable future are basically zero. Biden is extremely Zionist, he literally once said, "If Israel did not exist, the US would have to invent an Israel to protect its interests in the region." Pretty much all of the people in government were elected in an environment where supporting Palestine was pushed to the fringe and many of them worked hard to get it there. Old people are a crucial voting bloc and they're much more likely to support Israel.
It is an effective wedge to drive in between people and the media/politicians, but it's hard to imagine things changing through the political system. Electoral politics seems like a dead end on this issue, because it's decided at a high enough level that they'll just never give people an opportunity to vote on it. Imo economic pressure such as BDS is more likely to be effective, and getting people on board with the cause means various tactics can carry more weight.
It may not really be affecting change, now, but you know what? It’s keeping the fire going, so that perhaps something will happen. Otherwise we’re sort of surrendering the people of Gaza to the dustbin of history.
And I’m a fucking loser for saying this because I haven’t yet been to a single protest (PSL organizes one almost like every week but I never check their Instashit in time) but, I think it matters, to show them that they aren’t forgotten.
Yeah, it's a little bit of a lib historian impulse, but someday, people will look back on the barbarism of imperialism and ask, "Who challenged the zionists?" Just like we ask today, "who challenged the nazis?" Or "how could it happen here?"
We should fight like hell to show solidarity to the Palestinians who haven't perished yet.
Yes. You're not protesting to convince Brandon and his gang of actual vampires, you're protesting to convince onlookers. Even if it might not feel like it, the US government does depend on public opinion and while they aren't breaking yet, they're taking some heavy hits right now.
Public opinion has shifted massively against Israel and if public opinion didn't matter, the US government wouldn't bother with the insane propaganda, they wouldn't bother with their twisting of words and outright lies. Most people, even in the US, aren't psychopaths. They don't like it when babies are killed and there's only so much rationalizing and ignoring you can do when people are protesting and showing those graphic pictures around. A significant number of liberals are slowly reaching their breaking point.
The platitudes and performative expressions of "concerns" aren't for you, they're there to pacify liberals and you must not let them do that. Decades of propaganda are being undone right now. Propaganda outlets are experiencing internal turmoil because of dissenters, hell, the democrats themselves are having internal struggles over this.
How much destruction is there left that we as American activists are even trying to prevent?
Not to be rude, but do you think this ends with the destruction of Gaza? Do you think Israel "wins" once the last apartment block is bombed into rubble? No, the Palestinians are still there. Hamas is still there. Hezbollah is still there. AnsarAllah is still there. As long as the genocidal occupation exists, there will be a resistance. Israel knows full well that they're doing nothing to destroy Hamas, their destruction of mosques and universities merely serves to project the aesthetic of victory and might, nothing more. October 7th exposed just how fragile they really are and now settlers are fleeing the country by the tens of thousands. Israel is a rabid dog and their demise is inevitable at this point, they're already setting their sights onto Lebanon for crying out loud. The question is just how many innocents have to die before they finally meet their undignified end. And that is exactly the point of pro-palestinian activism. They're fully dependent on the support of people in the West to extend their genocidal rampage as long as they possibly can, and it is on us to deny them that.
Recently I’ve seen a lot more organizing around mutual aid fundraisers from Palestinians trying to evacuate their families from Gaza. I think supporting these fundraisers by donating and also setting up fundraising events for them is one way to directly help people in Gaza right now. There are also charities to support like PCRF.
Is there a point to continue fighting when you're losing? Often yes
It’s a difficult part of leftism for a lot of people that you can do work for decades and never live to see the change you were hoping for. Sometimes baby leftists get so caught up in the bigger picture they they forget to see how the little things add up.
Our activism predictably has very little effect on the decisions of our imperialist leaders.
What our activism has done is shatter the narrative that upholds peoples' allegiance to empire. Moreso than any other time in my life has an event created more communists and anarchists out of Western liberals. That isn't really going to help the people of Gaza in this moment, sure, but imperialist days are definitely numbered now.
I’ve had 3 siblings go from libs to socialists over this. All the things I had been telling them for years that they kind of just nodded along to and then forgot finally clicked all at once
The authorities of the Israeli-American axis know that they can act with impunity as long as protestors are not willing to escalate.
So some type of escalation beyond the civilly obedient mode needs to happen. There are multiple steps of escalation, and many of them may be necessary.
