People’s Conference Unites in Struggle for a Free Palestine
The People’s Conference for Palestine was held from May 24th-26th in Detroit, Michigan, home to one of the largest Arab communities in the country. Over 3,400 activists from around the world attended the conference, including a large representation of multi-generational Palestinians from the diaspora. The Steering committee of 15 different organizations, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Students for Justice in Palestine, The People’s Forum and The ANSWER Coalition among others, described the goal of the conference as being “to serve as a space to assess, strategize and prepare for what is required for us in the next phase of the struggle”. And they achieved these goals.
The plenaries and breakout sessions covered an array of topics focusing on the global movements for Palestinian liberation and organizing. The plenary topics included, Palestinian resistance, the student movement in the US; protests, encampments and Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS), Zionism and US imperialism, Palestine and internationalism, and fracturing the two-party system. The breakout sessions centered around four main tracks including: building power through the student movements, the battle of ideas, confronting Zionism and imperialism and mobilizing and organizing. The presenters included an impressive lineup of academics, activists and organizers from around the world.
Some speakers from Palestine, several of whom were refused visas to attend in person, attended online. Multiple speakers from Palestine applauded the efforts of the global Pro-Palestine activists and acknowledged that the people of Palestine appreciated all their efforts. They also emphasized how important it is for activists here and around the world to continue to challenge the Zionist narrative and uplift and share widely the Palestinian narrative which is often missing from Western media. Wisam Rafeedie, a Palestinian revolutionary, prisoner and author of Trinity of Fundamentals reiterated this sentiment saying: “For 76 years, the Zionists succeeded in portraying themselves as the victim and our people as the victimizers. They exploited the crimes of the Nazi massacre…they raised anti-Semitism even in the faces of anti-Zionist Jews…all to build up the architecture of their propaganda.” He urged attendees to continue to challenge the Zionist narrative to correct the decades of misinformation. (Note: PYM recently initiated and completed the English translation of Trinity of Fundamentals, selling over 10,000 copies over its initial launch).
After a struggle to get a visa to come to the US, the keynote speaker finally arrived on the second day of the conference. Sana’ Daqqa, activist, journalist and wife of martyred Palestinian prisoner, Walid Daqqa, along with their 4-year-old daughter, Milad, brought the crowd to their feet with an enthusiastic welcome that visibly affected Sana’ and Milad. Milad was conceived through the smuggling of what her father called, “liberated sperm” from prison (over 100 Palestinian children have been conceived this way). She is a living symbol of resilience and the future hope for the Palestinian people.
People's Conference for Palestine
Sana’ delivered the keynote speech focused on the political prisoners held by the occupation forces and then insisted on returning a day later as a surprise, to share some of her husband’s writings with the conference participants. Milad sat next to her mother on stage, busily coloring and then shocked everyone when she whispered to her mother that she wanted to address the crowd. She took the microphone, gathered her papers and read a note to her mother. In Arabic she said, “My mother, my beloved, you are my entire world.” There were not many dry eyes in the audience after that.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was another surprise speaker at the conference where she called out the Biden Administration for their continued support of the Israeli war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people. She became emotional when she spoke of her grandmother in Palestine, noting her strength and resilience. Through tears and a trembling voice she acknowledged that the only “crime” her “sitte” ever committed was being born Palestinian. While many comrades in the audience had long given up on electoralism, there was nevertheless a lot of support and love shown to the only Palestinian member of Congress.
Recognizing that art and culture play a huge role in the struggle, organizers included several events and exhibits highlighting Palestinian resistance and liberation through the arts. From the recorded songs that played before every plenary, to the evening cultural performances by vocalist, Sana Moussa and oud player and singer Faud Foty, the music highlighted traditional Palestinian resistance songs, as well as traditional folk songs of Palestine. The Resistance/Liberation: Art for Palestine exhibit displayed pieces of art from artists around the world, showing that the call for Palestinian liberation is a global movement that artists are actively responding to in powerful artwork. Organizers hope to bring the art exhibit on the road in the future.
People's Conference for Palestine
Especially impressive was the fact that the organizers managed to put together an amazing array of panelists, sessions and themes in a relatively short time. The extra touches of amazing lighting of green, red and white lights in the main ballroom, to the huge Palestinian flag and banners that hung above the bazaar area and the huge decals with quotes from people like Ghassan Kanafani and Naji al-Ali on the pillars in the bazaar; touches that added so much to the overall atmosphere. An army of volunteers (mostly young people) made registration and getting around the conference a breeze. The technology went above and beyond by producing high quality live stream videos of the plenary sessions, as well as real time social media posts throughout the conference.
The media room was abuzz with content creators and communications people uploading and disseminating clips and photos taken by the many session photographers and videographers often in (or near) real time. The final video of the conference that was shared in the last session even included clips from sessions that had just wrapped up an hour before.
Another theme that was felt and echoed across many of the sessions was the importance of seeing the Palestinian struggle in connection with all struggles for liberation around the globe. There were representatives from South Africa, Philippines, Korea, and others who highlighted this connectedness and encouraged the audience to see the importance of fighting in all struggles for liberation as important in destroying imperialism once and for all. The fact that many detractors and haters label the Pro Palestinian movement as being violent, could not be further from the truth. The love, compassion and commitment experienced among the comrades who attended and facilitated this conference was felt throughout the conference and you could not help but be full of energy and hope for the future of the movement here in the belly of the beast of imperialism, and around the world.
People's Conference for Palestine
In the final statement of the conference, organizers addressed the attendees as well as the thousands of people who were watching the live streams of the conference online. They highlighted key points of the conference, announced that over $200,000 was raised for Gaza and reaffirmed the movement’s continued commitment to ending Zionism once and for all and for bringing liberation, return and justice to the Palestinian people.
They asked activists to begin to organize folks for the demonstration being planned on June 8th in Washington DC where protesters dressed in red will encircle the White House, to show the Biden Administration that while Biden did not honor his own red line regarding Rafah, the people’s red line on the other hand, is defined and clear: Hands off Rafah! Also, PYM announced a new initiative called Mask off Maersk to demand an arms embargo against the shipping and logistics company, Maersk. Rather than only going after individual arms manufacturers, this international effort will aim to disrupt shipping of all arms to Israel by going after the company responsible for shipping 90% of all arms to Israel. The conference concluded with a performance of resistance music leaving the audience in a revolutionary spirit filled with possibility and sincere belief that with the relentless and sustained efforts of all our Pro-Palestine comrades, Palestine will soon be free!
The People’s Conference on Palestine affirmed the socialist perspectives on Palestine centered around our opposition to all imperialism and colonialism. Discussions also stressed the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation by any means necessary. As socialists here on Turtle Island, the conference helped us to focus on the next steps in building an internationalist and anti-imperialist socialist movement to support the Palestinian liberation struggle as well as all other struggles of oppressed peoples (including those right here in the US). The Puntorojo Collective has been actively planning to build a revolutionary socialist alternative through monthly organizing meetings and we invite all to sign up to attend the next one on Sunday, June 23rd entitled “Make Revolution Not War!”. You can register here: http://rb.gy/foazyf
