No to Sectarianism, No to Insensitivity
stu | 20.01.2009 02:49 | Palestine | Sheffield
I was on the Sheffield Gaza demo last Saturday and argued with the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) member with the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. A member of Permanent Revolution was making the same point. I am not now (nor have I ever been) a member of Permanent Revolution (PR) - though I pretty much agree with their position on Palestine and on building solidarity with people in Gaza.
It made me very angry to see that placard on the demo - for the last few weeks I've had to listen to the onslaught of the IDF and the feeble military resitance of Hamas being equated - by the BBC, by liberals, by right wing newspapers and naive pacifists. To see Marxists do the same thing raised a question. Did they realise what effect it would have? Daniel from AWL is honest enough to say that "in a certain sense" the AWL knew that it would "cause trouble". In other words, it was a marketing ploy to differentiate the AWL from the SWP's (and maybe the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's) unwillingness (wrong in my view) to politically criticise Hamas. This was sectarian behaviour. The term "sectarian" isn't used as an insult here - it's a precise description. On a demo held to condemn the IDF's massacres and build support for the survival of people in Gaza, the AWL turned up to "differentiate" (their word) themselves from the SWP etc.
I didn't (and wouldn't on principle) attack another socialist physically. That's why I argued with the AWL comrade holding the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. I equated the placard's slogan with "equally handedly" condeming the violence of the striking miners with that of the police during the 84 strike. Politically that would have been a scab position, in the most violent conflict that I've ever experienced. In the context of the Gazan massacre it's at least that. I said that I thought she should leave the demonstration if she refused to lower the placard. I stand by that view. I find the AWL's position on Palestine appalling - it reminds me of Socialist Organiser (forerunner of the AWL) echoing Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" comment about the Soviet Union back in the 1980's. Some things don't change but I've never seen anything so deliberately provocative and insensitive as that placard on that demonstration at this point in the war on Palestinians.
The argument (heated, for sure) that myself and a PR member were having with 4 or 5 AWL members was ended by the chair of Sheffield PSC physically destroying the offending placard. Not my way of dealing with the situation but then I haven't had members of my family killed by Israeli rockets in the last few days.
One more thing. There's some history to this: on previous Gazan solidarity demos in Sheffield there has been anti-semitic chanting. The chair of Sheffield PSC (backed by the vast majority of demonstrators)has made it clear that this is not welcome. What should we do if a few people continued with these racist slogans? I understand that the AWL were asked by the PSC (on a previous demo) not to bring the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. What reaction would they expect to receive if they came next time waving an Israeli flag (as an AWL supporter did at a Gaza solidarity demo in London!)? It would certainly "cause trouble", "in a certain sense".
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It made me very angry to see that placard on the demo - for the last few weeks I've had to listen to the onslaught of the IDF and the feeble military resitance of Hamas being equated - by the BBC, by liberals, by right wing newspapers and naive pacifists. To see Marxists do the same thing raised a question. Did they realise what effect it would have? Daniel from AWL is honest enough to say that "in a certain sense" the AWL knew that it would "cause trouble". In other words, it was a marketing ploy to differentiate the AWL from the SWP's (and maybe the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's) unwillingness (wrong in my view) to politically criticise Hamas. This was sectarian behaviour. The term "sectarian" isn't used as an insult here - it's a precise description. On a demo held to condemn the IDF's massacres and build support for the survival of people in Gaza, the AWL turned up to "differentiate" (their word) themselves from the SWP etc.
I didn't (and wouldn't on principle) attack another socialist physically. That's why I argued with the AWL comrade holding the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. I equated the placard's slogan with "equally handedly" condeming the violence of the striking miners with that of the police during the 84 strike. Politically that would have been a scab position, in the most violent conflict that I've ever experienced. In the context of the Gazan massacre it's at least that. I said that I thought she should leave the demonstration if she refused to lower the placard. I stand by that view. I find the AWL's position on Palestine appalling - it reminds me of Socialist Organiser (forerunner of the AWL) echoing Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" comment about the Soviet Union back in the 1980's. Some things don't change but I've never seen anything so deliberately provocative and insensitive as that placard on that demonstration at this point in the war on Palestinians.
The argument (heated, for sure) that myself and a PR member were having with 4 or 5 AWL members was ended by the chair of Sheffield PSC physically destroying the offending placard. Not my way of dealing with the situation but then I haven't had members of my family killed by Israeli rockets in the last few days.
One more thing. There's some history to this: on previous Gazan solidarity demos in Sheffield there has been anti-semitic chanting. The chair of Sheffield PSC (backed by the vast majority of demonstrators)has made it clear that this is not welcome. What should we do if a few people continued with these racist slogans? I understand that the AWL were asked by the PSC (on a previous demo) not to bring the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. What reaction would they expect to receive if they came next time waving an Israeli flag (as an AWL supporter did at a Gaza solidarity demo in London!)? It would certainly "cause trouble", "in a certain sense".
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stu
Additions
Posted in error
20.01.2009 11:56
The author of this article didn't mean to post it as an article, it was supposed to be a comment on this thread:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2009/01/418996.html
So it's now going to be removed from the front page of Sheffield Indymedia...
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2009/01/418996.html So it's now going to be removed from the front page of Sheffield Indymedia...
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Well Said:
20.01.2009 09:44
read 20 Parallels of Zionism with Nazism
Permanent Revolution instead of stood there laughing and making crass comments, you should have been a bit more honest, instead you did fuck all but what do expect of the left, there not there in the interest of the working class, indeed members of Permanent Revolution are probation officers make up your own minds on this..
underclass rising did act, The AWL was provoking people no doubt, we talked with them and pointed out the insensitivity of the placard in the circumstance it fell on death ears..
this was the time to ignore them, not be provoked by them.
under class rising have no time for sectarianism, as we have no time for the left, and once again they have proven there grand hypocracey in there blatent suport for nationalism be it The SWP and there support for Hammas or The AWL and there support for a 2 state solution.
In the name of ‘national unity’ the Israeli state bangs the war drums and whips up a frenzy of nationalist fervour to send its conscripted youth off to murder for the state. Simultaneously, in the name of ‘the national interest’ it opposes action by Israeli workers to improve their living conditions, such as the Ashod port workers strike in 2007 and the Tel Aviv airport workers wildcat in 2008. It is clear that the Israeli state represents the interests of the Israeli ruling class, whose sons and daughters are far less likely to be marched off to kill and be killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon…
In the name of ‘national unity’, and as the bombs rain down on Gaza, the Hamas leadership are calling from their bunkers for Palestinians to make martyrs of themselves. While in the name of ‘national interest’ they repress workers - seizing union offices, kidnapping prominent trade unionists, and breaking strikes - and summarily execute those who fall foul of their hardline Islamist views. The secular nationalists are no better; the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attacked the Palestine Workers Radio for “stoking internal conflicts.” Clearly a free Palestine cannot be run by these groups, who are acting like every government does in a time of war - repressing dissent, beating the war drums and calling for blood sacrifices.
as anarchist we are against state and borders, as anarchist we sport the working class to self organise, the left are scum nothing more nothing less, we are polite to them for need not desire and until we make the middle class history our class will suffer.
http://underclassrising.net/
e-mail:
http://underclassrising.net/
Homepage:
http://underclassrising.net/
and the pointless arguing continues...
20.01.2009 10:58
Or did we just want to get the last word in?
"I should be in bed now, not posting this..."
Yes. You should be.
Ae
Fuck bitching, fuck infighting
20.01.2009 13:10
I was a tad sceptical but after reading this all I can say is WELL DONE!
Solidarity with Gaza! It's the whole point!
Whistling Magic Moments