Co-operatives and Liberation, not necessarily in that order
There are two different ways to think about the bid for Palestinian statehood, which correspond to two different ways to think about the project of Palestinian national self-determination. One is the way the statehood project has historically been presented to Palestinians, and the other is the way that same project has been presented to Israel […]
Read More Statehood and DecolonizationI was asked to speak last night at an event organized by the Arab Student Association entitled “Gaza: Humanity’s Failure”. I was very happy to do it because it is essential to connect the ongoing cycle of violence in Palestine to western complicity and support for Israeli war crimes, and understand as students and citizens […]
Read More BDS is the just solution to the repetitive and ongoing conflict in GazaOne thing that was made eminently clear during Ross’ discussion of Egypt and Iran last night was the commitment of America and Israel to economic coercion as a mechanism of achieving its foreign policy goals. With respect to Egypt, the whole imperial logic of ensuring Egypt maintains its peace treaty with Israel is based on investment and […]
Read More Imperial and Revolutionary BDSTonight I saw Dennis Ross, famed American negotiator, speak at the University of Toronto. There are a lot of things to say about this event, but I’m very tired and just want to get a few ideas out while they are fresh before I go to bed. The event started with a story, a parable. […]
Read More When Liberals lull you to sleep: Dennis Ross at U of TEveryone I know, more or less, is affected by this war. It covers my Facebook feed, my twitter page dances with explosions reported not by news channels but by people hearing them themselves, sometimes shaking their houses vigorously because the bombs land just a few houses away. Peoples nerves are on edge, they are […]
Read More War and Protest: from stressing out to solidarity actionOf course, there is always much, too much, to say about any war. And there are certainly things to say about this one. But before all that it feels necessary to emphasize how little is new, how much everything feels like repetition, how unsurprised any of the foreseen outcomes will be. At the same time, […]
Read More Is there much to say about the war?On Friday I had the good fortune of taking in the opening panel of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle conference held this weekend in Toronto. The panel entitled “Many Struggles One Fight” was large and extremely diverse – never before have I seen so many struggles brought together in one place, and never have I […]
Read More Building a League of People’s StrugglesThis came across my facebook feed. A twelve minute film about American celebrity culture, gaming culture, reality TV, and imperialism. Basically, it is a film about American narcissism, and the disconnect between American culture and American foreign policy. We in the west could certainly make a film critical of North Korea’s propaganda and internal culture, but […]
Read More North Korea produce remarkable film exposing American cultureA question which I did not hear raised, nor did I have a chance to raise myself this weekend at the SJP national conference was: to what extent are SJPs made up of Palestinians, and if that proportion is as high as I think it might be, in what sense are properly a solidarity organization? […]
Read More Reflections on SJP National: Palestinians and the Palestinian Solidarity MovementA conversation which I think is important, and which I raised several times at this weekend’s SJP National conference is the question of our neutrality as Palestine solidarity activists with respect to the Palestinian political spectrum. From my experience doing this work I feel that I can say with confidence that as Palestinian solidarity activists, […]
Read More Reflections on SJP National: Neutrality in the Palestinian Solidarity Movement
Only a Northern Song 