Since you last saw us… well, you know. Things have been a lot. Israel’s genocide of Palestine has continued. As things stand, over 35,000 Palestinians have been martyred since October 7. More than 70,000 have been injured. Another 10,000 are missing, likely trapped under rubble. More than 1.7 million people, 80 percent of Gaza’s population, have been displaced from their homes. Not to mention the destruction of hospitals and universities and the targeting of aid trucks. Meanwhile IDF soldiers smile and graffiti “Nakba 2023” on the walls of bullet-sprayed buildings. Meanwhile the U.S. is set to send $26 billion in military aid to Israel.
In the United States, many of us who are committed to the Palestinian movement are forced to live split realities. We see the barbaric violence of the Israeli state, actively enabled by our war-profiteering ruling class, Republicans, Democrats, and capitalists alike. The repression of student resistance efforts by cowardly university administrations, police, and bloodthirsty Zionists. The simultaneous abuse and neglect by our consumerist, celebrity popular culture. All the while we still have to survive. It’s horrifying and maddening and painful. And at the same time, in the words of Tommy Lawson from the Geelong Anarchist Communists, “If Palestine continues the fight, so must we.”
We at Movement Mag crave a vision and real relationships to help us hang on throughout all of this. Our movement is our best strategy and we want to see it grow. We know that the task for Palestine movements here in the U.S. is to organize ourselves into a resistance that can win against the forces of American Zionism and end our government’s participation in this genocide. How do we do that?
We had a hard time answering this question ourselves, so we went back to the basics. We came up with four questions to use as a framework to organize our thinking: Where are we at? How did we get here? Where are we going? How do we get there? We see these questions as a tool to clarify and sharpen our vision, and we hope they’re useful for you, too.
We encourage you to discuss these questions deeply with others who are committed to the Palestine movement—your communities, friends, affinity groups, collaborators, and organizations. Working through these questions and the contradictions they inevitably bring up will require bravery and generosity. It will require confronting what we don’t know. It will require potentially ruining a good vibe. And at the same time, it will be crucial that each of us commits to this process of learning and follows through on the things we decide together. And to always, always stay grounded in the reality of war, of which our Palestinian comrades are at the frontlines.
For us, it’s been transformational to have the conversations we’ve had while putting together this zine. Our local movement for Palestine is full of deeply kind, brilliant, passionate, and courageous people. We have what it takes to work together, to grow stronger, and to deepen our commitment to the freedom of Palestine.
Thanks for being here with us.
WE WILL HONOR ALL OUR MARTYRS. ALL POWER TO THE RESISTANCE. FREE PALESTINE!
1. WHERE ARE WE AT?
PASS members continue to meet on a weekly basis. Our general meetings have not only sustained, but grown in numbers, and our subcommittees have been extraordinarily active. Here’s a look at some of what we’ve done since the last zine was published in February.
ARTSWALK WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
Social Justice Block Party
PASS hosted a Social Justice Block Party, along with the Rachel Corrie Foundation and The Brotherhood Lounge, during Artswalk weekend at the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural. Despite unfavorable weather both days, Olympia community came out in strong numbers to see speeches from local activists and organizers for the Palestinian liberation movement, as well as poetry and live music dedicated to Gaza.
Painted Plate Fundraiser
PASS also had a presence at the Painted Plate over Artswalk weekend, selling crocheted watermelon keychains by Haki Farms co-founder Elisa McGee (@hakifarmerscollective); artwork and T-shirts by Bellevue-based artist @8amtrain; as well as buttons and baked goods. The Painted Plate also hosted a silent auction for artwork from local artists supporting the Free Palestine movement. Throughout the weekend, the store was visited by around 4,000 people and raised over $10,000 for the Rachel Corrie Foundation, which was donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
Solidarity Soccer Match
Upon request from a youth soccer team in Gaza, members of the fundraising group held a solidarity youth soccer match in Olympia, which raised over $600 for MECA.
HIGHWAY BANNER ACTIONS THROUGHOUT MAY & JUNE
One of the projects organized by folks on the PASS art committee is a series of ongoing highway banner actions. The project began in December 2023 with several banner-making parties—parties which really helped us build community as a committee. We held them in members’ houses, where cats walked all over the banners and left little white paw-prints on “Free Palestine” and “Stop funding genocide,” and people taught each other how to paint and sew. In January, we started taking the banners to different bridges over I-5. In April we started having regular, weekly actions on the Sleater-Kinney bridge attended by anywhere from three to a dozen people. A core group of six to seven people takes turns leading the actions.
Reactions from the public to our banner actions have been generally positive. In February, a WA Department of Transportation employee drove by and told us we couldn’t hang the banners off the bridges, but she said we could put them up on poles—which we did, and we’ve never had any other law enforcement issues. We get lots of supportive honks (and the occasional flip-off or angry exhaust cloud). Drivers and pedestrians have both thanked us for bringing visibility to the ongoing genocide.
One of the attendees says: “Holding a ‘Free Palestine’ or similar banner over the freeway is an awesome way of being visible to tons of people in a short time. I did a few over I-5 in Olympia. There were many honks and thumbs-up from drivers, which was exciting. I also met some amazing folks/new comrades. Do it if you have the chance!”
CAMPAIGN TO HOLD MARILYN STRICKLAND ACCOUNTABLE
Strickland’s AIPAC-sponsored visit with Netanyahu. At the end of March, PASS caught wind of a meeting in Tel Aviv between Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a bipartisan Congressional delegation sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Part of this delegation was Marilyn Strickland, our 10th Congressional district representative. The news outlet UPI reported that Netanyahu used this meeting to gain support for a ground invasion of Rafah, where over two-thirds of Gaza’s population (1.7 million people) are sheltering after being forcibly displaced from their homes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. Strickland, who has received $105,956 in campaign donations from AIPAC to date, has not made any public statements about her trip to Tel Aviv.
Tax Day Vigil. PASS, along with the Rachel Corrie Foundation, hosted a Tax Day Vigil on April 15 at Strickland’s office in Lacey. The vigil was attended by 50 people and concluded with a demonstration on College Street.
Protest at Lacey City Hall. Shortly after the Tax Day Vigil, PASS learned that Strickland would be hosting two U.S. Service Academy Information Nights for high school and middle school students in Lakewood and Lacey. PASS planned a protest in coordination with Tacoma DSA, who successfully disrupted Strickland’s Lakewood event and featured veterans who spoke truth to power about their experiences in the military. Strickland, who was in attendance, seemed to be on higher alert after this night and decided to skip out on the Lacey event. Regardless, 20-25 PASS members showed up in the rain to let Strickland’s staffers know we don’t want war profiteers representing us in office.
Strickland on Palestine: In November 2023, Strickland signed onto a joint Congressional statement condemning the phrase, “From the river to the sea.” In February 2024, she issued a statement in support of the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 8034), which would give
Israel $26.4 billion in military funding. Despite the continued atrocities committed by the Israeli military, Strickland’s public statements regarding Palestine center disproportionately on the role of Hamas, while being miraculously lenient on the IDF. Per her April 2024 statement, “Hamas and their enablers are the greatest threat to the Palestinian people’s safety, right to self-determination and regional peace,” while, “the Israel Defense Forces must do more to minimize the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians and humanitarian aid workers.”
To date, Strickland has not made any public statements about a ceasefire.
PASS-ENDORSED CANDIDATES
DESIRÉE TOLIVER is running in opposition to Representative Strickland in the upcoming 20242026 U.S. House of Representatives election. Her campaign centers on issues like housing for all, universal healthcare, worker rights, reproductive rights, and human rights issues, including Palestine. PASS will be starting up a subcommittee to support Desiree’s campaign. For information about Desirée, check out toliverforcongress.org.
SYD LOCKE is a candidate for the state House in Legislative District 22, which is primarily Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater. He has been standing up for peace and justice for Palestine for years. Syd also supports housing, health care, higher education, and a sustainable environment as human rights, not expensive commodities that most people can’t afford. With over 30 years of staff experience at the legislature, Syd is well-prepared for the job. To learn more, donate, or volunteer visit sydlocke.com.
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCH
Report back from the May 4 Street Team - On May 4th 2024, people demanding a Free Palestine and an end of U.S. aid to Israel marched through downtown Olympia, Washington. Just after 2pm on a cold and rainy Saturday, around 350 people gathered at the Fountain on 4th Ave and Water Street to rally and march in solidarity with the people of Palestine. The space quickly filled with people of all backgrounds ready to mobilize.
The rally’s first speaker exposed U.S. government complicity in Israeli war crimes, mentioning local U.S. congresswoman Marilyn Strickland’s recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister/War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu on an AIPAC-funded trip. The second speaker shared their own historical and cultural connection to Palestine and highlighted the ethnic and religious diversity in the occupied land. The third speaker, who was inspired to speak at a rally for the first time, emphasized the importance of the Ummah, or community, transcending across cultural and class divisions to work in solidarity with Palestine.
An acrobatic flip from a young taekwondo student concluded the first set of speakers, energizing the crowd. People with signs and banners began chanting “Free, Free Palestine” as everyone moved closer to 4th Ave in preparation to take the street. After our cars and bikes got into position, blocking off vehicle traffic from nearby intersections, protesters poured into the street and the march began.
The loud chants and drums shook the buildings and could be heard from blocks away. Marchers moved in close formation, bicycle riders zoomed past the march to block off each intersection as the group advanced. Informational leaflets and literature about the occupation of Palestine written by PASS were distributed to people in the area. Some people even joined the march from the sidewalk and from inside restaurants.
After the bike brigade assumed control of the busy Plum street intersection, the group moved forward, eventually turning down State Street. The loud chanting kept going and the contingent briefly stopped at the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural. The group paid respect to Rachel Corrie, the martyr from Olympia who was killed by an IDF-operated bulldozer in Rafah in 2003. A speaker got on a mic to emphasize the Olympia-Rafah connection and express solidarity with the besieged people of Rafah. The speech condemned war profiteers like RE/MAX and Boeing who continue to accumulate wealth from the Israeli occupation. The intermission concluded with the speaker demanding an end to the Nakba in Palestine and global dispossession.
The march continued on until it reached its final destination along the water at Percival Landing Park. Three more speakers closed the event with calls for continued organizing against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They drew parallels to various anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles, including student organizing.
Both the rally and march were held without any permits or collaboration from the city or state. The police closely surveilled but did not know the route so remained a step behind the entire time.
The march was intergenerational and diverse. From babies pulled along in wagons to elders distributing literature, different sets of the community rallied for a Free Palestine. People persevered through the rainstorm. The turnout may have been even higher under different weather conditions.
Marching in the streets reminds us that together we have the strength and ability to shut down sectors of society. It lets everyone know that business will not go on as usual while these atrocities continue. Our presence in the streets makes us impossible to ignore.
2. HOW DID WE GET HERE?
HOW DID YOU GET HERE? INTERVIEW WITH THE FUNDRAISING SUBCOMMITTEE
written by jo-ann
As we started reflecting on the question of “how did PASS get here?” we knew we wanted to speak with the Fundraising team. This group has been incredibly hardworking and super successful, raising to date over $40,000 (!!!) in aid to Gaza.
And despite the extent of their success, their team also seems to be somehow free of the problems plaguing other organizing efforts in Olympia. It feels silly to say, but we wanted to know: How are y’all so damn functional?! So we talked to them - about their formation and growth, how they relate to each other, and how they see their role in Olympia’s Palestine movement.
MOVEMENT MAG: Tell us the story of how the fundraising group came about.
SY: The group initially came about at the first meeting at the Olympia Center organized by various groups including Economics for Everyone and the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF). We mapped out a list of different committees that we felt needed attention, and fundraising was one of those groups. That was towards the end of October 2023. Immediately, Imran came up with the idea of doing a fundraiser at ASHHO in Tumwater.
IMRAN: It was teamwork.
SY: Yes, teamwork! But Imran came up with the idea. That was the first push of the fundraising group, in conjunction with RCF to raise funds for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund in Gaza. So a few of us have been together in this fundraising group since before PASS became a name.
MM: We’re hearing that there were relationships pre-existing PASS that helped it along as it was being formed. Can you tell us about those?
SY: Olympia has always had a strong presence with regards to Palestinian support. Then when October 7 happened, right away there was a panel at the Olympia Center that started turning the wheels again. The Palestinian situation has come up and down so many times in Olympia, with Rachel Corrie’s death in 2003, and the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions efforts again in 2009 or 2010. There’s a core group of usual suspects who have been organizing those responses. But since then, the movement has brought in so many new faces to PASS and the fundraising crew.
CRAIG: Yes, after that initial panel at the Olympia Center, Economics for Everyone wanted to gather people that were interested in further organizing. They rented out a space for 25, and 95 people showed up. We were out in the hall! It was a massive, beautiful turnout, and it’s stayed throughout all of these weeks. It’s been pretty amazing.
MM: What do you think your group’s role is within PASS? How does your group’s structure, process, or purpose contribute to this?
creating opportunities for people to get involved
ZACH: This movement was able to connect people who hadn’t been connected before. Like, I had more recently moved to town, and I was at a rally downtown wearing a JVP shirt. Somebody came up to me and let me know, “Hey, people are meeting at the Olympia Center on Monday about this - you should come.” It was because of that first meeting that I have the inroads I have now.
A lot of our process is, “What’s the next big event?” And someone will
say, “I’m connected to the film committee and they’re doing this!” Or Hardy’s like, “There’s this international film festival around uranium!” We’re able to connect with other groups and meet with other people who want to participate. We’ll have a merch table and meet people who want to print things on vinyl at low cost or print T-shirts for us. People are really happy to participate.
innovating ways of collaborating With a clear goal in mind (to raise money for Gaza), the Fundraising Subcommittee has been ambitious in getting better at what they do: refining their processes, learning to work with each other better, and developing new structures. For example, they have been figuring out how to set up an online storefront and how to get money processed more efficiently.
MM: What makes your group so effective? passion and generosity
SY: Nausheen. [Group laughs.] In so many ways. She’s gonna start charging us soon.
NAUSHEEN: We’re all passionate about the cause, each other, and doing the best we can with the resources we have. And the fact that we do live in Olympia and have a connection to Rachel Corrie.
IMRAN: What made me get into this group was the fact that, during that October panel, the group made $1,700 with just passing a bucket around, and everybody donating what they had in their pockets.
playing to each other’s strengths member] a kudos. He’s got amazing connections. Those T-shirts have put us on a different level with fundraising.
SY: One of the things I noticed from the beginning with the group wasthe assumption was everybody was in a collective with different strengths. For example, Zach’s organization. Pretty immediately, we appointed him our project manager.
IMRAN: We started out with buttons, and then we grew. Now we have keychains and T-shirts. I want to give Tyler [Young, subcommittee
humility and trust
SY: There’s such a humility with this group. Nobody tries to supersede each other.
HARDY: And some of our folks aren’t here right now, too! Anyway, that’s something that should be common in human groups: humility and acceptance. People have different skills, and we should be willing to offer whatever we have.
SY: I keep looking at Ella and thinking about the high sense of trust. There’s never a moment where we have to worry about who has the pile of
focus on goals
ELISA: We’re able to move around each other and play to each other’s strengths in a very organic way. It’s not heavily bureaucratic or bogged down with structures or long processes.
cash. For the longest time, Ella would ask, “Are you sure?” and we would say, “Take it!” We know that in this group, there is trust and dependability. Everybody shows up.
ELISA: I want to add to what Sy was saying about how humble this group is. That actually varies from other social organizing I’ve done. There’s a lack of weird ego clashes - everyone’s allowed to include their ideas, and everyone takes each other seriously.
JENNA: People are pretty focused, even though there’s different actions that people are taking. There is a greater sense of respect and desiring to be on the same team, working towards a goal. I’ve been a part of other groups that have been less organized, and there’s been more arguing. The way this group is organized, people take responsibility and show up how they can.
SY: Everybody wholeheartedly realizes we’re doing this for Gaza. We’re doing this for the kids.
CRAIG: What’s impressive to me is the immediacy with which people can get through whatever roadblocks there are. Maybe because of the structure or the emphasis of the other groups I’m in, in comparison this group has a lot of product for the process. It doesn’t get bogged down.
MM: How did you overcome all of the Oly scene BS to build this with each other?!?
ZACH: I feel like it’s a values thing. If a group of people is coming together for Palestinian liberation and freedom, it’s because you believe in the safety, dignity, and belonging of all human beings. Not just conditionally, based on whether someone is useful to empire.
NAUSHEEN: Yes, the purpose is bigger than ourselves.
JENNA: It feels like we’re growing true community. In the past, when I felt like I experienced community, we worked in the same place or we liked the same music. This group has been healing for me in that way. It’s super diverse. People have been so welcoming. Especially facing the things we’re facing, we really need each other. And people keep showing up. So when you meet people like that, that grows a lot of trust.
ELLA: There’s so much connection in this group. You show up and you belong. You have a role to play. It makes you want to keep showing up.
MM: Last question. Why do you want to free Palestine?
SY: So, Nisreen and Nausheen were the one-two punch of the day [at the march on May 4]. One of the things that stood out to me was when Nausheen talked about the Ummah. That’s the understanding that we as Muslims have: we are one nation, we are a whole. Islamically, if another nation is in pain, it’s like your own arm is in pain. Our entire lives, we were raised to understand the Ummah. For the entirety of our lives, Palestine has been suffering. We felt that pain. I’ve seen it firsthand in the West Bank. But to see it at this level is unfathomable.
ELISA: Especially people who have lineages and countries that have also been affected by settler colonialism… we have multiple Kenyans in this group. I hear my family’s stories in the stories of Palestinians now. Even down to the stories that Nisreen was sharing at the rally. It’s so easy to get behind Palestine, because I want all of our people to be free.
written by arlo
HOW DID YOU GET HERE? INTERVIEW WITH THE LEGISLATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE
Continuing our exploration of ‘how we got here,’ we turned next to the Legislative Committee. Since November, they have had an impressive track record of campaigns, including support for the City of Olympia Ceasefire Resolution; impact on the Holocaust and Genocide Education bills; lobbying state legislators; organizing for the first Palestinian-led advocacy day; promoting the Uncommitted Campaign in WA; challenging Marilyn Strickland on her poor response to the war on Gaza; and recently, developing an endorsement process for PASS. We started the conversation wondering how their group has been so effective over the past few months. We learned that behind their success is a deeply committed group of people who readily embrace the responsibility of their work.
MOVEMENT MAG: Tell us about how the Legislative Committee began.
CINDY: It really began in this building, The Olympia Center, one week after the forum on October 17. We announced that there would be a meeting for people who wanted to organize. We rented a room that would hold 25 people and 95 people came; people were in the hallways. I sat down at a table and, because I have worked on legislative issues for many years through my daughter’s [Rachel Corrie] case, I said, “Legislative Committee here.” And a group of people just gathered. The Legislative Committeehas been consistent since that first night.
MM: Why did you join the Legislative Committee?
MIKE: I got involved with the Legislative Committee because back in September I had actually signed up to go to Washington DC, with the American Muslims for Palestine. And that was scheduled for late October. Well, then October 7 happened.
BILL: I work for the Rachel Corrie Foundation. I’m joining for myself, but talking about legislative outreach falls under my job while I’m here on my own behalf. Cindy described our work and said that ‘legislative
is educational work.’ So I feel like it’s all in the right place.
REBEKAH: I’m really interested in systems change and dreaming into a world beyond capitalism and white supremacy. And so I feel like I just ended up in this group by default.
MICHELLE: I had never done legislative work before. It sounded the hardest and most boring, so I thought I should try to challenge myself--anything for Palestine! Turns out, legislative work is neither impossibly hard nor boring!
Group members at an educational panel at Avanti High School.
MM: What makes your group effective?
dedicating time to each other
CINDY: I think we’re still learning how to be effective and how we want to do things. I’m reminded of when the city council was considering the resolution for a ceasefire. And then supporting the advocacy day at the state Capitol that the Washington Coalition for Peace and Justice (a Palestinian led group in the Seattle area) organized…So I think there were specific activities that were very successful.
MICHELLE: The level of human suffering and injustice unleashed by Israel on the people of Gaza is immeasurable and truly beyond the capacity of language to convey. This work sustains me, strengthens my moral courage, and gives me hope. I believe our mind follows our feet. If your feet are moving, your mind will move with it. Move in a positive direction and you’re good. Doing something is the only way I can cope with all this cruelty.
REBEKAH: Part of it is because there are two people on staff with Rachel Corrie Foundation; that makes it run really effectively, because you have more time to put into this. There are also a few people in the group who really put a lot of time into things. It’s been a solid group of core eople who keep showing up to Monday night.
adaptability and commitment
BILL: We bounce around to various issues and address them as they come up. We say, ‘hey, let’s take on this,’ then we draft an agenda for ourselves. We do what we can and a lot of times it gets done. 19
MICHELLE: We are very adaptable. Everyone is busy, so there’s no pressure to follow through, yet follow through is high in our group because we are all very committed to Palestinian liberation and ending this genocide. We focus on the work, yet we also have fun and laugh a lot.
MM: What is different about this movement?
access to knowledge
CINDY: I’ve been working on this issue for 21 years. A real tragedy is that it’s taken attacks on Gaza for people to come out and be truly committed.
What’s different this time is that people know where to go to find out what’s happening; they are still continuing to see what’s happening. Otherwise these things disappear out of the news so quickly. For me, the reason I can keep going is because people keep coming.
building on the past
REBEKAH: We’ve come to this place of climate chaos. We’re in a crisis on our Earth. Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Disability Justice, poor people’s movements, the Palestinian Liberation Movement: there has been all this movement work that has been building and training all of us for this moment now. We have a lot of the skills that we didn’t have 20 years ago.
JAKE: To add to that, 20 years ago the linkages between power structures and institutions and the evil they do were not as widely known. They were relegated to academic circles. I like what you said about us essentially being trained by the movements that have immediately preceded this current moment. For example, with Black Lives Matter, seeing American police brutality, people are connecting the fact that American police and military are training with the Israeli military. The contradictions are just becoming so obvious. We’re learning with each wave of protests, people aren’t forgetting.
MM: Every group organizing for Palestinian liberation contributes something different. What does PASS contribute? What does the Legislative Committee contribute?
giving people a voice
CINDY: A piece of work we do is making sure that everybody learns how to address those in power in our government. We help anybody that decides to spend time with us realize that they have a voice.
They can impact what happens in Washington D.C., here in Olympia, at the City Council, and at the state legislature.
BILL: What exactly our role is changes. Generally, we take on anything that needs to be taken on that involves local and federal legislation.
JAKE: PASS, being an easy group to enter in general and having a community that very clearly cares about Palestine, really speaks well to the longevity of the group. It feels really great as someone recently joining to see that there is widespread community involvement and care.
MM: Why do you want to free Palestine? genocide is wrong
CHRIS: My wife shared an anecdote with me. She was speaking to one of her students at Pioneer Elementary. And she’d asked if they knew someone from PASS and they said, “Oh yeah, I think that’s one of my dad’s old guy friends at the mosque.” And it was just so sweet. You could translate that story to my dad’s friend at the church or the temple or anything. We’re all people, we’re all human. I want everyone’s liberation. I would love it if everybody could recognize that seemingly simple truth like we’re all in this together. We all share this earth and we just have to care for each other.
MICHELLE: Settler-colonialism is wrong, everywhere, including here at home. Fighting for indigenous sovereignty at home is as important to me as fighting for it abroad. The US is the number one political and material backer of Israel. This is a US war and genocide, just as much as it is an Israeli one. 21
palestinians don’t deserve this
CINDY: I’m really blessed because of the Palestinians that I know. I could go on and on with all of the families that I know who have been impacted. That’s really painful sometimes. Today, I got a beautiful picture of the two families that were in the house that Rachel stood in front of. With a lot of money raised, they have gotten into Egypt, but their lives are in limbo at this point. What a hard decision for them to leave; part of their families still remain in Gaza.
MIKE: I think of the people I met when I was in the West Bank. I think of Isa. It was his house we were protecting when we were attacked by the sellers. I just have such really warm memories of all these people who I first met in East Jerusalem, and I want all of them to be free and happy.
freeing palestine frees us all
CINDY: I can’t help but think about Rachel [Corrie], who wrote, “This has to stop. I still want to dance around to Pat Benatar and make comics for my co workers and do all these other things. But I want this to stop.” I know how she felt and she expressed it was the most outrageous thing she had ever imagined. That was long before the current war in Gaza. What’s happening now and on such a larger and
REBEKAH: Fannie Lou Hamer said “no one is free until everyone is free.” I feel that very deeply. That is a Jewish value that I grew up with... As humans we have so much potential for expression and beauty and reverence for the earth, and Zionism has stolen that not just from those people who are directly violently oppressed, but also from those doing the oppressing--on a soul level. Freeing Palestine is freeing all of us because it is welcoming us all to understand the interconnectedness of our lives. We all deserve something different. The depth of our grief around this current moment is uniting us. more deadly scale than anything she experienced. Those are a couple of reasons why I want the war to stop and to move toward freeing those in Gaza and all Palestinians.
written by arlo
MOVING TOGETHER: FROM ECONOMICS FOR EVERYONE TO PASS
“So this was October 7, that Sunday. There was a meeting at the Rachel Corrie Foundation. There were maybe seven or eight people including the Rachel Corrie Foundation, Economics for Everyone (E4E) and individuals like Larry Mosqueda. We decided to do a big forum. It happened 10 days later, October 17th, at the Olympia Center. And it was over 200 people...we didn’t even do that much outreach. We raised $1,800, a really incredible amount of money for Gaza. And it was apparent that people really wanted to know what was going on. The room was more than packed and a few people said they really wanted to do something. The next week, people called me or emailed me and said they’ve been active in the past and they really want to get involved. I’ve never had that kind of response out of a forum. And so we called the meeting.”
—Peter Bohmer recalling what led up to the meeting that would eventually become Palestine Action South Sound (PASS).
It was a moment of acute agitation in Olympia. The headlines were crazy, but one thing was clear: Israel was on the offensive. People recognized that something needed to happen, but the question of where to start loomed heavily. Movement Mag sat down with Peter Bohmer and Antonio to understand how E4E helped lay the foundation for what has become PASS. Our goal was to understand what ideas, groups, and people coalesced in a moment of a crisis to give us something that is, in so many ways, a barrier to sustained action: a first step.
From Economics to Everyone to Palestine Action South Sound.
Economics for Everyone started during the Occupy movement of 2011. It was a moment in history when “the 1% started entering the public lexicon, [and there was a] desire to start having a deeper political economic analysis” (Antonio). While Occupy was principally happening in New York, Olympia had its own occupation that started at Sylvester Park and eventually moved to Heritage Park. Peter added:
23
However, the organizing landscape was about to drastically change once again. In early October 2023, a tidal wave of headlines rushed out of Gaza and crashed into the American media landscape. By the panel on October 17, a pattern was becoming clear. On one hand, it was clear that Israel was on the offensive: a full invasion of Gaza was underway and Palestinians were being indiscriminately killed under the guise of fighting terrorism. On the other hand, American news outlets outright refused to report anything but the obviously fictitious story that Israel’s invasion of Gaza was a matter of self defense. Our political representatives were at best complicit, and at worst, directly enabling the genocide unfolding before our eyes. One day in October, the Israeli flag flew above the Washington State Capitol. It was a shocking dichotomy.
“The level of barbarity that a lot of people hadn’t really been exposed to before brought a unique level of interest to this issue... What changed is that there was so much interest from people who--even if they were leftist before--wanted to actually be part of an organization that could continuously take action” (Antonio).
While E4E was well set-up for political education, their structure lacked a good way to build a strong local movement with popular involvement.
“It’s really important that we look at both strengths and weaknesses in terms of everything we do. I think Economics for Everyone was a pretty small group by October 7. Some people had moved . Others were just not that involved; their private lives had taken over. So when October 7 happened, we were a pretty small group with limited capacity” (Peter).
It was in this moment--when so many people became so activated, and when the needs of organizing shifted from preservation to growth--that PASS evolved into what it is. Since that first meeting at the Olympia Center, we have gone from a group of strangers just wanting to make a difference to a community of organizers, pushing the docket forward, each in our own way. PASS did not appear out of thin air, but rather arose from the combination of 1) existing organizational infrastructure, legitimacy, and relationships built by established groups like Rachel Corrie Foundation and E4E, and 2) a shift in the political landscape that required new frameworks intentionally built for broader coalitions, action, and growth.
PASSing it on: How We Move Forward
“I really see the importance of being marathon runners, but sometimes you have to sprint” (Peter). We are in a moment of growth and acute crisis. We are sprinting. Sprinting is great for progress, moving forward, but no one can spirit forever. Let’s recognize that right now we are being called upon in a very acute way. As we move forward, however, “we need to take care of ourselves, not be too hard on ourselves” (Peter). Part of taking care of ourselves and each other is feeling like our time is being spent well. “We--both individuals and the group--have to have some kind of effectivity. Otherwise people will not stay involved. The group makes a difference. Your involvement makes a difference” (Peter). Movement. That is what we are doing every Monday. We are moving together, and every movement needs direction. Reflecting on this, Antonio said:
“Interrogating the past is remarkably important in terms of informing how you organize and what you organize for. Without deep theoretical analysis, it is very common for leftists to get very activated by one issue, and then not carry it on towards other forms of injustice. So knowledge really does inform how you organize... There has to be a goal of getting from where you are to where you want to be. A lot of times, there’s a goal that’s a pretty vague idea of ‘Justice For Insert Issue Here’. For Palestine, some people will say ending the occupation is the goal. I think the immediate goal should be specifically ending US support for Israel.
Identifying specific and strategic targets is necessary for a leftist movement to be both principled and effective. Being specific does not sacrifice long term desires, it aids them. Within groups, members have to challenge themselves and one another intellectually or run the risk of people feeling like they are wasting their time. We have to be able to learn from both success and failure. Otherwise, people are more likely to become disillusioned with long term organizing. It is through introspective growth that leftist movements develop a crystalized understanding about where we are and how to get to where we want to be.”
Our theory is only half the story, however. Theory informing our organizing, goals, and allies must be complemented by a strong practice, which we can also imagine as a sense of identity. We have to know who we are, how we listen to each other, take action together, and what “we” even means to us. These are critical questions to answer if we are hoping to build something that can last beyond the current moment. Peter reflected three things he has observed as vital to successful groups and movements throughout his life:
“A multigenerational movement is so important because people who are older can share some of their experiences. But often the energy, the risks, the boldness, all of which is necessary for the movement tends to come much more from younger people. That dialectic between different generations is so important...
Second point: we need to center the voices of the most oppressed, or the people most directly affected in building movements and organizations--but not romanticize the people. Olympia sometimes has the problem of romanticizing people or picking somebody to speak for the entire group, which is really problematic, too. So centering, but not romanticizing...
And then my third point is a question of what good leadership is. I do think there is unequal development in people. People have different skills. Really what good leadership means is not saying follow me, but sharing skills, knowledge, contacts with people in the groups and really building the power of other people. This question of leadership is complicated but a really important question that often we don’t deal with.”
Moving forward, the only knowable is that things will change. It is on us to effectively address our needs and the needs of the time. We must make it a priority to reflect on what direction we are going in and how we are moving together. We have to figure out how to move together with these principles. We have to create organizations that can not only coordinate this movement, but also serve as rest stops in the race--where we can meet each other again and again, where we can return to if we fall out of the running. This way, when the next major shift in the political landscape comes, we will be ready.
So that once again, we can take the first step.
Background image of the Sumud Story House in Bethlehem
3. WHERE ARE WE GOING?
WEAVING TOGETHER AFRICAN & PALESTINIAN LIBERATION
written by n. kendeka
“Everyone knows that Zionism is the enemy of Palestine and the Arab general. We conscious Africans know that Zionism is Africa’s direct enemy.” —Kwame Toure
As the call to free Palestine grows in the West, we must also heed the call to globalize the intifada. As a descendent of Kikuyu survivors of British genocide, I hear this call and think of the long histories of African struggles against empire. In the stories that my Palestinian neighbors share, I hear the stories of my people. The occupation of Palestine was orchestrated in tandem with the colonial projects of Africa, and these histories continue to play out today. I write this piece to share these connections.
British Anti-Semitism and Zionist Speculation in East Africa
Preceding the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Zionist entity conspired with the British colonial government to establish settlements in East Africa. The new ethno-state was discussed in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia -- though Ethiopia was already home to a strong, ancient Black Jewish tradition that had evolved outside of the European sphere of influence (a fact that’s often ignored thanks to eurocentrism).
In Kenya, settlement potential was considered in the Uasin Gishu plateau, known as the ‘Uganda Scheme’. Failed efforts to establish a colony there revealed the true anti-semitic and racist disposition of the British. The desires of the colonial government, who wanted the Jews out of Europe, ran up against those of the British settlers occupying the Kenyan Highlands, who were also deeply anti-semitic and expelled the Zionists from East Africa. Eventually, the Zionists rejected the Uganda Scheme, but a small faction formed the ITO (Jewish Territorial Organization) to continue the ultimately unsuccessful mission to find settlement in places other than Palestine.
Parallel Occupations in Kenya and Palestine
British settlers, trying to establish their own Christian ethno-state, displaced Kenyan peoples from their homelands onto surveyed reserves.
It was from this alienation of land and decimation of tribal governance systems that the Mau Mau resistance among the Kikuyu peoples (Kenya’s largest ethnic group) came to be. In 1952 the colonial government enacted a war against the rebellion. Islands of detention camps emerged, similar to the dispersed nature of occupied Palestine today. 1.2 million indigenous Kenyans became captive laborers. Some were marched out at gunpoint to the plantations of white settlers to work the lands they once called home. It’s estimated that anywhere between 10,000 - 20,000 Kenyans were killed, including Mau Mau resisters and Kenyan British loyalist.
The British empire and the Zionist entity enacted parallel violent occupations. The British, in their brutal crackdown of the Kenyan resistance, exposed themselves to be violent occupiers. Though the Mau Mau revolution was thwarted by British counterinsurgency, the war enacted considerable economic and political strain on the colonizing force. As a result, Kenya gained its independence in 1963, but the history of British violence was kept secret from the public for nearly half a century. In 2009 a lawsuit against the crown by Mau Mau Kikuyu elders exposed hidden documents from the genocide, and forced the colonial power to publicize all its secret documents pertaining to its crimes of abuse and genocide in all its former colonies, including Palestine.
Palestine may still be under occupation, but Israel, like the colonial British, has exposed its inhumane violence to the world. Using every resource at its disposal to dismantle Palestinian freedom, digging itself deeper into an economic and political pit. The global call for Palestinian decolonization has never been louder, and Israel will never be able to erase the embarrassment of its violence from the public consciousness.
Palestinian Journalist Ramzy Baroud notes the similarities in a 2019 article for the Kenyan Star:
“What is happening in occupied Palestine is incremental genocide, not self-defense. Israel is asking the Palestinian people to let their freedom die so that the Israeli people can live...Submit or fight. These were the two choices facing Kenyans during their anti-colonial struggle. Like you, we Palestinians have also chosen to fight for our dignity, for ourselves and our children. We will not let our dream of freedom die.”
US Complicity in the Nakba of 2024 is mirrored in Congo and Sudan Co-occurring genocides are taking place in Sudan, Congo and Palestine.
These genocides are perpetuated by the western countries and their close allies through either active support, or criminal neglect.
Sudan. In Sudan, the repercussions of the Bush administration’s failure to take seriously the Darfur genocide is playing out. US backed UAE has claimed to send humanitarian aid, but has been found to be providing weapons to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) instead. The RSF is responsible for the indiscriminately killing of thousands of Sudanese people as well as the abuse and torture of countless more. The war in Sudan is still underacknowledged, despite currently being the largest displacement and food shortage crisis in the world.
Congo. For decades the Congo, rich with minerals, has drawn western opportunists. From the greed of Leopold II, to the US assassination of Patrice Lumumba, to child labor abuses in gold, lithium, diamond, and cobalt mines.
Israel, being a global leader in the diamond trade, has faced criticism from the UN as an active participant in the trade of blood diamonds from African countries in the late 90s and early 2000s. Today the US-backed Rwandan government continues to enable a violent genocide against the Congolese peoples to maintain their foothold in these commercial mines that benefit the development of western tech industries. January of this year, Israel kicked around the idea of forcibly sending Palestinians to Congo. The Congolese government quickly denied requests for negotiations from the Israelis.
• In Tukwila, WA the US’s intentionally anti-black immigration policy has left Congolese asylum seekers without food and shelter for over a year
EYES ON CONGO - EYES ON SUDAN - EYES ON GAZA
What’s happening in Palestine, Congo, and Sudan show the world the intentional, systemic violence of empire. In order for the people of the world to be free, we must work together to stop the imperial machine in its tracks. From Turtle Island, to Tigray to Haiti to Ireland and beyond.
Translation of textile:
“When two people are in love, an enemy has no chance.”
DEFEND PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES: REPORT
BACK FROM THE ILPS SOLIDARITY SCHOOL
On Saturday the April 27th, I and other PASS members attended the Seattle-Tacoma International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) Solidarity School. Present were over 150 young people representing a mosaic of organizations local to the Puget Sound. The event was hosted as a part of ILPS’s ongoing “Defend People’s Struggle” campaign, with the goal to build a unified movement for Palestine that can stand against increasing imperial repression.
In the morning, event organizers gave a presentation about counterinsurgency and repression. They shared the following definitions:
•
• Counterinsurgency: the military, paramilitary, economic, political, psychological and civic actions used to defeat an insurgency. Repression: the process by which the ruling class keeps themselves in power by attempting to destroy or render harmless organizations and ideologies that threaten their power.
They also spoke about the state’s strategies to repress movements through both armed and political repression, categorized into hard or soft power tactics. As someone who’s new to the movement, examples of hard power are easier to distinguish: snipers being deployed on rooftops of student union buildings; NYPD cops brutalizing students at Columbia; Homeland Security openly declaring that Hamas is expanding its reach on college campuses, which places student movements within the legal framework of terrorism and allows more severe repression measures to be dispatched. Soft power, as its name implies, is harder to identify: the media being used to shift the narrative of movements; the liberalization of movements, e.g., the managing director of BLM condemning uprisings.
In the afternoon, an antirepression panel was held focusing on lessons learned from Palestine, the Philippines and the 2020 BLM Movement. The panelists included representatives from Seattle Solidarity Budget, United Front, Samidoun, Bayan Seattle, No Tech for Apartheid, UW Black Student Union, Seattle Alliance Against Racists and Police Violence, and the African Senegalese Party.
Key topics included legislation targeting activists; increases of police power and surveillance capability; tech developed by Google used in Israel’s genocide (Red Wolf, Lavender, Project Nimbus); US counterinsurgency tactics used in the Philippines; and the deep solidarity of jail support, combating individualism and handling friction within our movement.
The event ended with a call to action. Makibaka! Huwag Matakot! (Dare to struggle! Don’t be afraid!) During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the term “makibaka” became a motto for people in the Philippines and abroad to signify social unrest. The chant still rings out as the Filipino people struggle for genuine democracy, freedom, and social liberation. It cannot be understated how linked the liberation of Palestine and the Philippines are. The Israeli occupation and Marcos regime are both kept alive by a constant stream of military funding and support from the US. During the beginging of this genocide in Gaza, it was Filipino organizers who first began building and supporting the national Palestinian solidarty movement. (A personal note here: it was a Filipino friend who first got my ignorant Palestinian ass involved in the struggle.)
The best antidote to repression is to build unity within and between our movements. “Our liberation is intertwined because our oppression is intertwined,” said Sabrene Odeh at PASS’ recent educational forum on May 23. The reality of repression is grim, but we must remember: We have the right to resist. We have the right to win a better world. Nobody can take that away from us.
From Palestine, to the Philippines, to Turtle Island, stop the US war machine.
THE INTERSTATE STUDENT RESISTANCE
Let’s begin with the introduction of two concepts:
1. 2. a revolutionary perspective which is organized, strategic, and politically oriented an organized long-term struggle that includes the networking and coordination of multiple conflicts, overwhelming oppositional forces by advancing from multiple, seemingly disconnected sources, aiming to outlast repression through popular support
Basically, revolutionary political practice should generate relationships and solidarity, not just shine light on problems; it should make strategic connections and try to win, not just show up to tell everyone else about what they’re doing wrong.
This isn’t an attempt at some abstract theoretical argument. It’s a call for more supporters: people from anywhere and everywhere willing to stand with university students demanding the divestment of their educational institutions from Israel. Not only should we defend the actions of the students, but we should also defend the solidarity, material presence, and participation of the broader community, locally and around the world.
These supporters aren’t “outside agitators”. They’re faculty and staff who labor for the universities. They’re students from other schools making the strategic decision to concentrate their forces by going to the most important occupations at the largest, most repressive, or most defensible campuses. And they’re people from the surrounding area who support the students as neighbors and the resistance as a moral responsibility.
People from all over the world should be confident in joining and supporting one another in the Palestinian solidarity movement. We shouldn’t be afraid of travelling to different regions to provide material support and share ideas with others who are also committed to resisting colonialism and genocide. For us, this is especially important to defend because, as an organization, we aim to facilitate the flow of militancy along I-5. This means utilizing the
interstate to keep support and militancy from getting trapped in our most immediate surroundings.
Localism can’t solve an international crisis. Revolutionary politics have to stay on the move, and the same for the front lines of our struggle. Movement like this will be especially important as the repression at universities continues. Right now, the student sector is in full movement, but the front lines are at their limit. Where will the next front lines appear? Will we be ready for this change? How can we organize the rear guards of various sectors to be able to handle an increase in intensity, whether planned or as the result of repression? Politically, this requires a coordinated-gear strategy (see Issue 1) to help figure out where and how to shift the front lines of resistance, not only to different geographical regions, but also to different sectors in society.
No matter where you’re at or where you’re coming from politically, it’s important to talk with each other about the next steps for the resistance movement. This helps prevent slipping into the kind of subcultural individualist fantasies and activist adventurism that romanticizes a grand standoff against the cops. Support and solidarity aren’t about centering yourself, and neither is revolutionary struggle. It’s not only important for international supporters or student activists; it’s important for every single one of us to remember that this movement is about stopping the killing of people in Gaza, not about thrill seeking and clout chasing.
This looks different in different places, so when we’re supporting others, we have to listen to what they need. We have to develop skills we don’t have yet and not just preach about the things we already know. But with that in mind, let’s team up, and let’s stay on the move! The repressive forces should never be able to target a single “outside agitator” because the resistance should never come from just one place. It should be “advancing from multiple, seemingly disconnected sources”.
written by the I-5 Anarchist Federation
IN CRITICAL SUPPORT OF THE EVERGREEN GAZA SOLIDARITY ENCAMPMENT
written by arlo
1. The Evergreen case
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Evergreen signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in which it laid out a plan to divest from all businesses profiting off of the genocide in Gaza. In the MoU, Evergreen laid out 4 initiatives that would each be taken on by a Disappearing Task Force composed of three students, two faculty, and an undisclosed number of administrators appointed by the president. The four issues the MoU alleges to tackle are 1) defining socially responsible investments and suggesting investment policy changes, 2) developing a policy that would create criteria for accepting or refusing grants, 3) police reform to the campus police, and 4) developing a new, non-law enforcement crisis response. None of the projects will be completed until at least 2026, which is plenty of time for the resolutions to become watered down or dropped entirely. It is on us to force Evergreen to follow through, and to do so we will need to understand the context we are organizing in.
Evergreen did not sign its MoU in a vacuum. It would not have signed any such agreement without direct pressure from the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment (The Encampment). The Encampment was set up on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 after a planned campus walkout. The Encampment, like so many actions, was beautiful and imperfect. It provided an important space for connection between the Olympia community and the Evergreen student movement, something that has been missing from Olympia organizing since the start of the acute crisis in Gaza. It also achieved material success in the MoU. While the MoU falls short of guaranteeing meaningful divestment, it does give Evergreen students real increased bargaining power and access to administrators’ meetings— something that can be exploited with a strong movement behind it.
However, it is no secret that the Encampment has faced criticism for the ways in which certain voices were held higher than others. At a certain point, a small, insular group of student organizers came to the Encampment and started to restructure the negotiating process. A new negotiating team was formed that was much more favorable to Evergreen admin. Some of the first people to lay out their tents, who originally
came to the camp with the goal of “interrupting the status quo... and agitating students to use their power as students to push Evergreen to divest” had their ideas for insurgency quashed with “outside agitator” rhetoric — a tactic usually used by oppositional forces trying to fracture movements. While discussing ways to further disrupt Evergreen’s business as usual, those labeled as outside agitators explained that “the question [of how to disrupt] was treated as if it was ‘what are some good arson tactics’.” The Encampment lasted a week, hosting various speakers, workshops, and holding countless meetings. By May 1, the Encampment disbanded as per the agreements in the MoU.
2. Student resistance is a frontline of the popular movement
The Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment lives on, however in a different form. While the tents are gone, the Encampment still meets on campus as an unincorporated organization. Students are being selected to sit on Disappearing Task Forces and are strategizing the coming weeks and months of sustained pressure that will need to be applied to Evergreen. The continued mobilization of students will be vital to the success of the divestment movement, which itself will be vital to end the flow of US dollars to Israel.
The last popular divestment movement responded to South Africa’s apartheid regime and started on college campuses, with students calling for their campuses to remove stocks from companies doing business in South Africa. We now find ourselves in a similar position. The national student movement calling for divestment has made it to every public university in Western Washington. Evergreen, whose foundation controls hundreds of millions of dollars and whose student body is overwhelmingly in support of Palestinian liberation, is our target here in Olympia.
Universities are a uniquely good first target for divestment movements because of their reliance on their student body. Most universities have professors, if not entire departments dedicated to studying genocide, colonialism, the Middle East, militarism, leftist theory, etc. This has the dual function of being a systemic contradiction that can be exploited AND putting students interested in opposing injustice in communication with each other. Students are the University’s patrons and their platform. Without students universities are not worth much, and that is power that can be wielded, but only by students.
3. The popular
movement is a
rear guard of student resistance
Students have a unique ability to catalyze change, but they cannot do what they do without the rest of us. Capacity, longevity, and connection to the local context are all things students need support with. Administrators have the opportunity to work with us to help students address these needs. They are paid for what they do, their contracts are longer than four years, they generally have decades of experience in their position, and it is specifically their job to operate the school. None of this is true for students. Instead, administrators constantly stem insurgency and water down objectives. We need to look no further than 2010, when 75% of the student body voted in favor of divesting from Israel, but the administration chose to do nothing because divestment was “too political.”
As non-students it is our job to incorporate the student movement into our own and consider their struggles in our strategy. While lots of us are lifelong learners, the category of “student” is not a fixed one: many non-students were at one point students, many will go on to be students in the future, and no student is permanently one. It is an institutional position that is ordained by the university, not an inalienable truth. Students have advanced bargaining power within the university, but that is not worth much without a movement that can provide needed support and continue the struggle once students cycle out. Student or not, we can all be part of the student movement—it is just a matter of what role we are able to play. From a wide angle, the student movement cannot be understood as separate from the rest of the political movement to free Palestine. It is one of many conjoined fronts that constitute the movement.
4. The future of Evergreen and Olympia
The Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment was almost entirely distinct from other organizing in Olympia. This partially makes sense; it was a unique action with new participants in a new place. However, the gulf that has grown between Olympia organizing and Evergreen organizing lent the Encampment no favors.
In moments of crisis, having pre-developed frameworks and experience working together are crucial to successful and safe action. These are things that the broader Olympia community organizing can offer, especially considering the number of people involved that have gone to Evergreen.
Additionally, the outsider-insider rhetorical dichotomy could have been avoided altogether had the Encampment been a product of the relationship between the Olympia’s and Evergreen’s collective efforts.
But at the moment, it is not. So what do we do about that? First and foremost: keep going! Whether you are a current, former, future, or never Greener, the only way out is through, and no one is going to move the machine for us. It is time to bring Evergreen students into Olympia organizing (and as such, bring Olympia organizing into the student movement). The thing about local organizing is that our biggest resource is ourselves. What we have to share are our time, skills, intelligence, and our compassion for each other. We have to give ourselves to each other. Go to each other’s meetings, exist in each other’s spaces. Be generous with our resources and time. Figure out how to coordinate our actions. Remain committed to building long-term relationships. Learn to build principled unity and to have principled conflicts. Overcome the individualism and skepticism that contributes to “outside agitator” rhetoric. It is easy to get so caught up in our own stuff that we don’t look beyond our own circles, but that is how we end up disjointed, insular, and isolated. Our greatest weapon is our solidarity, we must use that.
If this is a serious movement, we have to get serious about growing; this is how we grow. What we are now is amazing, but we are fighting the terminator. Israel contains all of the most dangerous technologies of domination: capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, Zionism, patriarchy, in addition to literal weapons of genocide and financial/political support from the West. It upholds these systems and is thus upheld by them. If our movement seriously wants to take that on, we have to build something that centers our togetherness and our shared goals. Evergreen is our test run. This is our opportunity to take money away from the Israeli war machine and build ourselves into something stronger and more collective. When students call in unison with faculty, staff, and community members, Palestine hears our voice.
4. HOW DO WE GET THERE?
A MOVEMENT’S GOT TO LEARN!
EDUCATIONAL MILITANCY IN THE RESISTANCE
The Center for Especifismo Studies (CES) is in full support of the self-educational practices happening around the movement for solidarity with the people of Gaza. The resistance has to continue to be autodidactic if it’s going to break free from the repressive forces of exploitation, domination, and oppression. So far, this has occurred in the form of intel sharing and the distribution of materials about historical events, as well as testimonies of traumatic personal experiences that are hard to hear and even harder to tell. But we have to continue. We can’t stop. We have to be strong enough to hear each other’s stories. There’s no shortcut. If we don’t learn together, then we’re just printing off zines for no reason; we’re just lecturing at each other without any collective sense of why; we’re telling personal stories to no one.
This is exactly why we defend the forms of political education that include a back-and-forth exchange of ideas, a dialogue with others.
At the front lines of the university occupations, in the political study circles and regular action committee meetings, in the one-on-ones with other locals and through regular correspondence with people all over the world, the Palestinian resistance movement has the potential to politicize anyone and everyone who comes in contact with it. But we would like to specifically point out the strategic possibilities of what is called a “grouping of tendency”. We see a real opportunity in further developing the practices we share with other organizations and activists from the broader social movement. This shared terrain is where we think it’s most effective to prioritize political education and militant formation.
Political education can be thought of in two ways. The first is related to the content (what students are learning), but the second is related to the practices, methods, and learning strategies that come from a specific political perspective (how students are learning). We think it’s possible to develop a shared understanding with each other through what we call “revolutionary gymnastics”. This means deciding democratically how to act, collectively realizing the plans, and reflecting on the actions in constructive ways together. A shared point of view like this is key for clearing up differences and for deepening points of unity. Plus, it allows a dependable access point for new folks to get familiar with the already-existing organizational perspective. Without this kind of commitment to collective formation, our resistance movement won’t outlast the genocidal, capitalist, colonial, military powers killing the people of Gaza.
The Tendency to Learn is a self-organized and collective educational movement of people from a variety of different ideological backgrounds. It’s present in the Palestinian movement, in the socialist movement, in the anti-colonial movement. In our own organization, the Tendency to Learn has given us the social and historical context to gain an understanding of each other’s different theories and backgrounds, without compromising the most immediate objectives that brought us together. It’s about curiosity and openness; it’s about asking questions and trusting your comrades not to lecture you but to embrace your questions thoughtfully. It’s about creating and defending a space specifically for learning together, regardless of the content or the location or the participants.
We find it both humbling and empowering to acknowledge that information is constantly changing and that our understanding of something can be challenged by someone else’s without devolving into anti-social and anti-organizational ways of interacting with each other.
Today, political education isn’t illegal, so we think these practices should be defended as public forms of direct action, or what has sometimes been called “mask-off” anarchism. On top of that, we think the Tendency to Learn should be an oppositional force to the tendency to outcast people from protest movements and large organizations. This includes people who are marginalized because of their gender or their race, but it’s also about anyone who isn’t accepted by the “cool” activist clique in town, the people without “pretty privilege”, and those who are disabled by the way protest movements tend to be organized.
Since learning is an essential feature of revolutionary politics and liberating social movements, we see educational militancy as a necessary strategy for defending the Tendency to Learn. This doesn’t at all mean that as militants we’re against activist tactics. In fact, we often find ourselves working side-by-side. But we do have a critique of activism without strategy because of the extreme ebbs and flows it creates. Our militant practice pushes us to accept responsibility for the effectiveness of our actions, including the unintended consequences. Educational militancy is our way of ensuring the presence of formative, educational structures that will dependably allow people of different abilities and capacities to have access to the movement. This requires focus and dedication, but also importantly self-reflection, especially regarding our capacity.
If we want this solidarity movement to continue and if we want it to be successful at stopping war machines, we have to keep creating and defending spaces to learn where we can find out more about the current situation, discuss the possible methods for action, and learn about our fellow comrades in struggle. But at the moment, we’re proud to report that, in the solidarity movement for Palestine, the Tendency to Learn is strong.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE PALESTINE ACTION OF SOUTH SOUND
Basic Principles
• •
• Permanent Ceasefire Now
End of Israeli siege
No additional military aid to Israel; stop all transfer of weapons
Release Palestinian political prisoners and Israeli hostages in Gaza
Immediate access to ALL humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza
Stop ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in historic Palestine including Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem
Challenge Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism
Broader & Longer Run Goals
•
•
•
•
•
End all military aid to Israel
End the Israeli occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem
End the blockade and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza
Self-determination for Palestinians
Anti-Zionism
Sustained support for BDS in Olympia and beyond (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) and oppose corporations collaborating with Israel
Equality for all people living in historic Palestine, i.e., Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza and the right of return by Palestinians
Solidarity with indigenous community struggles for sovereignty, reparations, and self-determination at home and abroad
