V, ONLINE
Upon reflection of the historic failure which has been a pro-Palestinian ‘solidarity’ movement here in so-called ‘Australia’, it would be amiss to not beg the question “what went wrong?”.
It would be fairly uncontroversial to state that the goal of all hitherto actions has been to “free Palestine”, logically this should have been taken as a call to action. It was necessary then; to first, properly analyse the conditions of Australian involvement in the genocide of Palestinians; secondly, to utilize the theoretical knowledge achieved from all previous liberation and solidarity movements to best create the theoretical basis for action; and thirdly, undertaken the organizing of an anti-Zionist ‘front’, in whatever form that may be best fit.
It is an unfortunate reality, that the driving premise of rallies has been the liberal idealism of ‘movement-building’ and creating ‘discussion’; that is the idea that by the very existence of a rally, and by its numbers and loudness alone, that the imperialist bourgeoisie and the Australian colonial government, will see the error of its ways. This is largely self evident through the demands made by speakers and organizers, often calling on the Australian Government to take action. However rallies are not measured by the completion of their political demands, but by their existence; in which case, despite objectively worse conditions, and none of the political demands being carried out, these rallies have been an outstanding success!
Where an analytical framework existed, it quickly became merely a backdrop. Discussions of Australia’s involvement in the genocide ended as quickly as they began. Talks regarding the F35 program, companies like ZIM shipping, and Elbit systems or our position in the UN, were glossed over before returning to the regularly scheduled empty slogans and recounts of tragedies to which the crowd will undoubtably groan “Shame!” The very discussions that should have been a call to action, highlighting its unseriousness, laid the foundations for what in its absence would become our failure.
The theoretical conception, i.e. the education and agitation of supporters, was only a partial success. There was certainly a positive development in the partial education regarding the modern history of Palestine, as well as the occasional speech glazing the history of the Australian union movement. It should also be celebrated that various organizations such as Socialist Alliance, and Socialist Alternative had hosted seminars and lectures on relevant topics, even if this is limited to a handful of cadres. At rallies, however, there was very little taught in the way of meaningful actions that could be undertaken successfully, and certainly not so informed by past liberation struggles.
Finally, it is necessary to ponder the practical, organizational, aspect of the movement. Arguably this should have looked like calls to unionize, and organize into a political party tasked principally with the liberation of all people. It is to be said, that there were some initial success in community pickets. However, while rallies had initially praised groups such as Unionists for Palestine (U4P) for organizing community actions, this was never followed by calls to unionize, and to fight for Palestine within workplaces. Ultimately, whether by lack of programmatic unity, or organizational ability to expand into more frequent actions, U4P would too become little more than stage dressing.
It should be brought into question then; since almost every socialist organization in Australia has committed itself to the Palestinian movement, how then is it that we have fundamentally been unable to push the movement beyond its liberal idealism. Was it the inability to look past our own sectarianism? Was it the degeneration of our theoretical knowledge? or perhaps it was an unserious non-commitment. Nonetheless, it should be important to tell no lies and claim no easy victories, for if we have failed the Palestinian people, then we will be doomed to repeat our mistakes unless we are willing to self-criticise.
Plagued by the lack of materialist framework, analysis, theory, and praxis, our calls to “free Palestine” did not actualize. Attempting to correct this would certainly be to the enragement of the backwards and middling within the movement, attempting to push forward the necessity of organization and theory will certainly draw the criticism of taking away from Palestinians. This is correct! However it is important then to decide our intentions; are we to be a dwindling interest group, can offer Palestine little more than bakesales and empty slogans, or are we socialists, who are wholly dedicated to the “workers and oppressed people of the world”. If it is the latter, then it is necessary to correct ourselves, and embark upon a long march towards not only dismantling Australia’s involvement in the genocide, but building real international networks of unions, communist partisans, and all those who are willing to accept our principle of liberation.
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