[Marxism] Lebanon and Palestine: what should we do? [request for discussion]

["Mike Friedman" <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

> I would like to ask for more discussion about what it is that we should
do about the war crisis.  What are we doing that is working?  What
  > should we do

> suggest that we might want to raise money for relief for the victims of
the attacks

Although this is not the first thing that will happen, unfortunately, I'd
like to see a concerted effort made to get the principal anti-war
groupings together in such a campaign. This, to my mind, will only occur
when the movement is massive and the rank-and-file demand it.

In the short run, we (and, here in NY, that means, largely, your folks,
Lou Paulsen, along with the Palestinian and other Arab groups that have
been active) should continue to build demonstrations on a regular basis.
We have seen them grow larger and larger as the crisis continues. I do
think that WWP should bend over backwards to go beyond the standard allies
to broaden the organizational base. This should become easier as Israel's
lies become exposed, but some tactical flexibility is required, some focus
on concrete, key demands. This organizational broadening is essential to
reach further into oppressed communities. African American and Latino
participation has been skimpy. And at several of the demonstrations,
Arab-Americans I spoke to complained that they had only heard about the
demonstrations the day before, by word of mouth.

In the medium-term, I would also reiterate Andy's (Virginia Tilley's)
suggestion for a boycott of Israeli industries or products or those of
firms doing business in Israel. This is, as I said earlier, an important
educational and movement-building tool, concretely addressing
U.S.-complicity in Israeli war crimes and the entire structure of
apartheid in Israel and a tactical focus for movement building. When I was
a Cornell undergrad in the 70s, we built an effective divestment movement
that ultimately focused campus attention on apartheid and U.S. corporate
and governmental support for apartheid and shifted public opinion on
campus to the demand for the immediate end to U.S. aid to S.A.We forced
the Board of Trustees, consisting of many of the corporate giants that did
business in South Africa, to take up divestment and expose themselves as
either favoring or opposing racism. With divestment as a focus, starting
from rallies of a few hundred, we proceeded to organize demonstrations of
9-10,000 (on a campus of what? 18,000?).

I also think Lou's idea of a humanitarian assistance effort is a good
short-term strategy. In 1988, when Hurricane Joan hit Nicaragua, I was
working with Casa Nicaragua in NYC. One of the leaders of the group called
me and asked me to coordinate a relief effort (I was unemployed). So, I
got on the phone with MADRE, the Nicaraguan Medical Aid Committee, IFCO
and other organizations, and we initiated a very successful collective
effort that raised consciousness around Nicaragua and the Sandinista
revolution and achieved significant material results. The most significant
result, in my opinion, was the political one, but that was inseparable
from the humanitarian, material aid campaign. We were able to reach and
educate tens of thousands of people throughout NYC about the Nicaraguan
revolution and the effects of the U.S. war and blockade. The success of
the material aid campaign, in my opinion, was a political act of
repudiation of the Reagan/Bush policies and their effects on Nicaragua
during this natural disaster. Something like what the response was to
Hurricane Katrina among the African American community. The material
response was overwhelming. We were able to raise over a million dollars,
mostly in small donations, and we involved churches, community
organizations and unions -- many in the African American and Latino
communities -- in efforts to gather clothing, food and medical supplies.
We organized multiple packing events to box the supplies for shipment to
Nicaragua in which hundreds of volunteers participated, most of whom had
never been involved in the solidarity movement. I don't remember how many
containers we shipped through the Quijote center. Our coalition also
organized rallies against the U.S. blockade. The key was to involve people
at whatever level of awareness they were at and at whatever level of
committment they were comfortable with.





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