Spirit of the che..
Well the demonstrations are over according to the police estimate over 1000 pro-Palestinians marched in Manchester yesterday, reports say 20’000 in London and I don’t know how many in Scotland. The Manchester demonstration was greeted by a Zionist demonstration of about 30 slightly worrying individuals who went on to film demonstrators in a way I’ve only previously seen by BNP thugs.
Most importantly though it was on of the most impassioned demo’s I’ve seen in a long time due to the large numbers from the General Union of Palestinian Students. Large numbers also marched from the Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity campaign, Respect, University of Manchester and the Palestine Forum (an organisation connected to the Mosques.) As one speaker commented their were more Jewish people on our march then the Zionist counter demo showing the moral bankruptcy of the Zionist movement which once exercised more or less total hegemony in the Jewish community.
Increased awareness of issues in the Middle East from resistance to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has created far greater popular awareness of Israel’s crimes. However much propaganda the UK media throws down painting the invasion of Lebanon as at worst a war against “mad mullahs” (copy right the Sun) or as a “plague on both your houses” from the liberal press it doesn’t wash. The Zionist movement is so disconnected from society in general the mass of pro-Israeli coverage simply doesn’t connect with what is in peoples heads – people, as during the attack on Iraq, can see through the bullshit. This is doubly true for people coming out of education whose entire political awareness has been shaped by western lies and wars in the Middle East.
The strength of the protests was that it brought back into contact the genuine but disconnected forces doing solidarity and campaigning work for Palestine. Popular opinion is consistently moving in our direction but our networks are patching and disconnected making it difficult for us to carry the arguments in wider society effectively. Especially when the Zionists are considerably better organised (and in the student world better funded.) The path from here must lead through the 23rd of September in Manchester but it must also contain the pulling together of our movement for a Free Palestine with a series of jointly called meetings vigils and demos. Without a united movement we will be unable to challenge UK support for Israel’s mass murder in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
posted by Cliffite @ 1:11 PM
9 Comments:
1000-1500 in Glasgow, 300 in Birmingham.
I'm not being funny and I totally condemn Israels overly disproportioante use of force but what about the rockets that Hizbollah lob at civilians.
che-dirty stalinist.
on the other hand, I guess he's vaguely left wing, and popular...
You can call Che a lot of things, voluteerist, substitutionist perhaps even reckless but since his 1,2, many Vietnams speach and the act of putting it into practice Stalinist is a tad unfair. Che epitimised a practical if not theoretical break from Stalinism - "if you are a revolutionary make a revolution" etc. If you consider yourself a leftwing you can't help but admire his spirirt determination. The fact is he pushed himself to his death without selling out for a comfortable life amongst Cubas new ruling class.
Hizbollah have killed less then 20 civilians and approximately 20 soliders. Israel has killed over 300 civilians flattened hospitals, destroyed civilian bridges and exit roads then told people (when it is no longer possible) to evaculate before they restart carpet bombing. Personally I think Israel should release the 300 children it has kidnaped without trial and that Hizbollah and the resistance in Lebanon has every right to defend itself while calling for their release.
You don't resist against civilians. you don't 'surgically remove' them either.
every civillian based attack by either side represents a terrorist atrocity. the sooner you lot in StWC stop pusuing this 'war is peace' agenda, the better.
we can talk in terms of numbers all day. I'm not denying that Israel is worse. but that doesn't make Hizb'Allah great (as Galloway would have us believe) either. War criminals vs richer war criminals. fuck 'em all.
Whatever you think of Hezbollah's "kidnapping" of two soldiers, Hezbollah's actions did not start the conflict. There is also the fact that Hezbollah's attacks have killed more soldiers than civilians.
Simply writing off both sides as war criminals is removing history from the analysis. If you can't support any resistance because civilians are killed, then I'm afraid you can never support any resistance to imperialism. This means you'll always be reduced to supporting neither side, which is in fact tacit support for imperialism.
The current crisis was sparked by Israel - Alex Cockburn has recreated the timeline here. We also have to trace the entire conflict back to the founding of Israel which involved mass ethnic cleansing.
The principle of supporting the resisters of imperialism is one of unconditional but critical support. One must support Hezbollah's, Lebanon's and Palestine's right to resist, but this does not mean they cannot criticize the means of resistance. Such a principle allows one to escape the trap of bourgeois morality that you find your self in.
For me, the indiscriminate killing of fellow workers is a capital sin. at least in WWII they aimed for the factories.
killing of civillians without any sort of targetting is oppression, not resistance. you resist by going for military targets or by targetting the relevant parts of the economy, not simply by trying to inspire fear in civillians. Or do you subscribe to that old 'no-one is innocent' mantra?
Tell you what? the majority are. and to Hizb'allah, innocence means as little as it does to Israel. Nothing.
using fear against the wider population... is terrorism. terrorism is not resistance, as it is itself reactionary, anarchic and primitive in character.
thus, Hizb'allah are no resistance.
StWC has taken sides in a clash of barbarisms, when in fact, they should be supporting the civilised side of each nation concerned; the side to whom peace appeals.
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
Your are Excellent. And so is your site! Keep up the good work. Bookmarked.
»
Post a Comment
<< Home