NefeshBarYochai
2024-05-23 03:00:09 UTC
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PermalinkPalestinian struggle is in the midst of a critical conjuncture. For
months, organizations in North America have been strengthening and
leading a mass movement to advance the cause of Palestinian national
liberation from within the imperial core. The popular and
revolutionary character of the movement has been borne out by the
millions marching in the streets, direct actions across all major
cities, new and newly-energized sector-based organizing and campaigns,
victories across ideological and media struggle, and most recently,
student encampments demanding divestment in the universities and
colleges. Through these developments, thousands of people have been
brought into the struggle, moved to act by the depravity of the
U.S.-led and -funded genocide and the moral clarity of Palestines
resistance.
Amidst this mass movement, we have witnessed the martyrdom of over
50,000 Palestinians, the destruction of the Gaza Strip, and a
concerted effort by Zionism and Western imperialism to break
Palestinian resistance and to sever our people from their lands. To
live through an ongoing genocide has meant battling feelings of
despair and confusion; while daunting, the task of committing
ourselves to political clarity amidst these difficult conditions
remains essential.
On October 18, 1975, the largest public gathering of Palestinians in
the Zionist state since the nakba of 194749 took place in al-Nasra
(Nazareth), aimed at confronting Zionist plans to confiscate Arab
lands across the Galilee. This conference was associated with
leadership of the uprisings now commemorated by Palestinians as Land
Day, having produced many resolutions, laid the groundwork for a
general strike, and established committees to implement its political
goals. It is one node of many in a long history of Palestinians using
conferences to concretize strategic objectives and consolidate on
ideological questions, dating to the pre-nakba period: from the First
Arab Womens Congress in October 26, 1929, to the Youth Congresses in
Jaffa on 4 December 1932, and in Haifa on 10 May 1935all of which
asserted opposition to British and Zionist colonization, and supported
the Great Peasant Revolution of 193639. In moments of crisis and of
revolution, Palestinians have turned to conferences in order to bring
our people and movements together and to breathe conviction and
political clarity into organizations and civil society.
In honor of this tradition, from May 2426, 2024, 14 convening
organizations and over 300 endorsing organizations including
Palestinian organizations that have been leading the mass movement for
Palestine in North America will convene in Detroit, Michigan, for
The Peoples Conference for Palestine. A city that is no stranger to
the depredations of American capitalism, Detroit has been a site of
revolutionary struggle for decades, playing host to the League of
Revolutionary Black Workers (and their participation in the historic
National Black Economic Development Conference, first held in the city
in April 1969), and to one of the largest settings of Arab diasporic
life.
The Peoples Conference for Palestine appears at a juncture when the
liberation struggle in Gaza has generated pockets of revolutionary
energy all across the world. That call has been answered: in the labor
movement, on the campuses, and in the streets, people are being
politicized around Palestine and its attendant imperial contradictions
at a rate heretofore unseen in the 21st century. The popular action of
the last seven months has also posed important questions around
consolidation, unity, scale, and structural form, particularly related
to how the struggle builds on the existing mass mobilizations towards
deeper organization. An organized movement is an effective movement,
better able to politicize and maintain the gains in mass
consciousness, to sustain the long-term relationships required for
base building and advocacy, to protect against and resist state
repression, and to coordinate across the different settings of
struggle with scale and historical specificity.
The question of organization is particularly important in light of the
sustained attacks on the institutions of Palestinian social and
political life, accelerated by a post-Oslo neoliberal period that has
led to a collapse in the strength and militancy of the struggle in the
West. These conditions are being readily challenged by a movement
being rebuilt and led by politically-committed Palestinians, who have
convened this conference alongside journalists and aid workers in
Gaza, activists from Palestine, anti-war movement elders, and student
leaders in order to support each site of struggle in developing its
own assessment of conditions and objectives.
The conferences sessions, assemblies, and teach-ins will focus on
building strong political organizations; confronting Zionism and
imperialism in the heart of empire; advancing the ideological struggle
through art, culture, media, and education; and supporting the student
movement to continue to exert pressure inside and outside their
campuses. Through its direct fundraising role of contributing all
registration fees to Gaza, the conference has already raised over
$100,000.00 USD, asserting that the Palestinian diaspora has a
historic role to play in the national liberation struggle not only in
the realm of political organization, but also with regards to
supporting the steadfastness of our people a concept known in Arabic
as ta3ziz al sumud.
These forms of struggle are critical not only for opposing the horrors
of the ongoing genocide, but for the historic challenge of ending U.S.
support for the Zionist project, lifting the siege on Gaza, and
liberating Palestinian land and people until our return is achieved.
We hope you will join us!
Palestinian Youth Movement
The Palestinian Youth Movement is a transnational, independent
grassroots movement of young Palestinians and Arabs dedicated to the
liberation of our homeland and people. We currently comprise of 15
chapters across North America and Europe.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/strengthening-our-movement-in-times-of-crisis-a-historic-task-of-the-palestinian-liberation-movement/