Tag Archives: israel

National Self-Determination in the 2020’s

Future Hope, , , ,

“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.”

These visionary words of John Lennon in the song, Imagine, are an idea, a kind-of prayer, I fully support. And the fact that this is such a popular song worldwide—it was once played at the closing ceremony of the world Olympics—is a sliver of hope that, despite all of the reasons to doubt it, some day, long after I’m gone, humankind will advance to a point where this is our reality.

In the here and now, however, the issue of the right of nations to determine their own leadership and form of government, for democracy and justice within them, is what’s on our plate, what is before the world as a whole to try to resolve.

How strong is the support among US progressives and leftists today for the right of national self-determination? From what I can see, it’s a definitely mixed reality.

Some US leftist groups have refused to condemn Russia’s 2021 military invasion of Ukraine, an invasion with the clear intention of removing the democratically elected Ukrainian government. For them, the concept of national self-determination is apparently to be applied selectively. If the US government is violating that principle, as it has often done historically and continues to do today in many parts of the Global South, then they will be critical. But if its another government, especially Russia, doing the violating, it is sometimes a different story.

In Palestine/Israel most leftists support the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s brutal aggression and continuing occupation of their historic territory and their right to a state of their own on some or all of historic Palestine. That support is higher now that it has probably ever been in the US because of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Even Kamala Harris, no leftist, has come out publicly and repeatedly in support of Palestinian self-determination and a state alongside the state of Israel.

There are no easy solutions to these two, major, raging hot wars, but it seems to me that an ultimate resolution of both of them has to put the self-determination issue at the center of those solutions.

What would that mean concretely? For Ukraine it would mean that a key element of any diplomatic resolution, an end to the war, would be the holding of democratic and transparent elections under the auspices of the United Nations in Crimea and those parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops. Those elections would be a form of self-determination in what are clearly the most contested areas between Russia and Ukraine. The issue to be determined by those elections is whether those regions continue to be Ukrainian or become part of Russia.

In Palestine it must mean a number of things: an end to Israel’s war, a ceasefire, the release of Hamas held hostages and Israeli held political prisoners, massive humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza and the West Bank. It must also mean provisions for United Nations sponsored, Gaza/West Bank/East Jerusalem elections for a new Palestinian government. Only Palestinian self-determination free of Israeli or any other non-Palestinian influence can make it possible for this long-suffering people and this dangerous situation to begin to change course.

But what about the idea of one bi-national state in which Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims, Jews and Christians live together under some form of interconnected government? Here is how the late Edward Said described his vision for this state in 1999: “After 50 years of Israeli history, classic Zionism has provided no solution to the Palestinian presence. I therefore see no other way than to begin now to speak about sharing the land that has thrust us together, sharing it in a truly democratic way with equal rights for all citizens.” (1)

Others since have come up with various, much more specific proposals for how such a bi-national state might work, including a government more of a federation than a fully unified polity.

It is very hard to see this happening anytime soon, given the widespread fear, anger and bitterness on both sides of the Israel/Palestinian divide. But as a vision for the future, sometime in the future, hopefully not many decades into the future, it is very much consistent with John Lennon’s vision. Indeed, Lennon envisioned, as have many prophets and spiritual leaders going back millennia, including Jesus of Nazareth, something even more radical, more transformative:

“Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.”

You can say that he was a dreamer, but he wasn’t the only one when he wrote this song, and he was right that all of us who share this vision, who struggle to hold onto it at this difficult time, must find the ways to join together to build toward such a world. Our children, our grandchildren, the seven generations coming after us, are dependent on us doing so.

  • Edward Said, “Truth and Reconciliation,” Al-Ahram Weekly, January 14, 1999


Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Harris or Trump: No Difference for Palestinians?

Future Hope, , , ,

Does it make any difference to the Palestinian people whether it is Harris or Trump who wins? I think it does, big time.

I get it on why many Palestinians, Arab Americans and strong progressives in the United States are so anguished and angry at the refusal of the Biden Administration to stop sending weapons of war to Israel, prolonging unnecessarily the agonizing suffering in Gaza. I feel the same way and express it in action every week at a local Free Palestine demonstration. But I don’t agree that, therefore, the right thing to do on November 5th, or before via early voting, is to vote for Jill Stein or Cornell West as a protest vote.

What are the likely consequences for Palestinians of Donald Trump winning?

Trump is Netanyahu’s, guy, and the MAGA Republicans are his US party. It was the Republican controlled House leadership which invited this war criminal to speak to Congress in late July. There are no Republican Congresspeople who have come out in support of a ceasefire. It was during Trump’s Presidency that the US Embassy was moved to Jerusalem. In a Reuters article on August 15th Trump is quoted as saying, “From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hand behind its back, demanding an immediate ceasefire, always demanding ceasefire,” Trump said, adding it “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7 style attack.”

A Trump victory will strengthen the hand of Netanyahu and his now-unpopular government, give a green light to settler and IDF violence in the West Bank and advance their explicitly racist and colonialist agenda of extending the state of Israel “from the river to the sea,” as they say.

If Harris wins, there is a basis to continue to pressure her and Democrats to make real their explicit verbal support for a ceasefire and an end to the war on Gaza by cutting off military aid, if the on-going pressure from below doesn’t achieve a ceasefire before election day. A Harris victory would allow the Free Palestine movement to build upon the massive progressive and liberal energy unleashed by her campaign and enlist additional numbers behind the demands for not just a ceasefire, the release of Israel hostages and Palestinian prisoners and massive humanitarian aid to Gaza, but also for a serious commitment to moving the ball forward as far as Palestinian self-determination. Harris has spoken a number of times in support of “Palestinian self-determination.”

In my view, bringing that self-determination demand forward, and giving it real content, would mean that there must be a Palestine-wide election to choose government leaders, not the imposition of the corrupt and unpopular Palestine Authority or any other scheme where Palestinians are unable to vote for who they want. And it seems to me that relatively soon, there should be a Palestine-wide referendum on what kind of new arrangement they support, whether a two-state solution, and what that would mean, how that would be done in a way which empowers them, or something else.

Only a Harris administration has the potential, if strongly pushed, to do all these things. Voting in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada or Arizona for anyone other than her will not advance and could even jeopardize the Palestinian cause, in my view.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com

The Problems with Purism and Reformism (not reforms)

Future Hope, , , ,

Over 20 years ago I wrote one of these columns examining the issue of “purism” versus “pragmatism” when it comes to organizing for systemic and desperately needed change in this world. I wrote about two essential ingredients that are sometimes in conflict.

One essential is conscious political organization motivated by principles and a genuine desire and plan for improving the lives of the disenfranchised and downtrodden, ending militarism and war, and stopping and reversing environmental devastation. But this alone won’t bring about change.

As a once-great revolutionary once said, “the masses make history.” It is only when large numbers of people identify with a movement for fundamental change and support it, verbally or actively, that we have any hope of winning political power and transforming society. In the USA that means not tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions, but tens of millions of people.

Is this possible? Yes. One big example is the 15 million votes independent socialist Bernie Sanders got in 2016. Another is the NY Times report that 16-25 million people all over the country took demonstrative action in the spring of 2021 after George Floyd was murdered.

We need to go about our organizing work in a way which doesn’t undercut either, which avoids the temptation to be so committed to being principled that one becomes purist and narrow, on the one hand, or to be so committed to being with and interacting with “the masses” that problematic positions are taken and political relationships are built that end up deflecting energies into reformist and dead-end approaches to change. We need reforms, yes, but our broader objective must be to build upon successful struggles for major reforms in a way that leads to truly revolutionary, justice-grounded, social and economic transformation.

Purism versus reformism—the twin dangers of serious efforts to bring about the kind of change that is so, so needed today.

What can be done to lessen these dangers, to increase the possibilities that more of us will keep our eyes, minds and hearts on the prize?

One is the building of independent and progressive organizations that are truly democratic in the fullest sense of the term. As difficult as the process of democracy sometimes is, it is also a way to keep the group as a whole and the individuals within it centered on the stated objectives. Democratic process, sooner or later, frustrates individual power plays on the part of any person in leadership who lets power go to his/her/their head and who becomes either purist or reformist as a result. These things have happened much too much historically, but in this third decade of the 21st century, there is a growing consciousness of this danger increasingly expressed in how more and more of us are going about our organization-building.

Another necessity is an explicit commitment to the testing out of theories and ideas in practice and a process of constant evaluation based upon input from the people the ideas are being tried out on. If an independent candidate is running for office, for example, and has what they think is a great platform but the vote totals are very low, perhaps the problem is that the issues being addressed, or the way they’re being expressed, don’t connect with peoples’ understandings. Since just about any issue can be addressed from a progressive standpoint, a much better approach is to identify what the issues are to speak about because of day-to-day listening to and communicating with working-class people and people of the global majority.

The same with forms of direct action. It may feel good and righteous to some to stand up to the police during an action, but if that is done in a way which makes it easier for the government and the corporate-dominated press to call us violent, that will not generate sympathy for our cause among the wider public. Expressing our sense of urgency and anger is a good thing, if done wisely. Expressing it without political consideration of an action’s impacts is not a good thing.

Ultimately, our ability as a movement to navigate between the dangers of purism and reformism comes down to how each of us live our lives. Do we live in such a way that, on a day to day basis, we are in touch with working class people, regular folks, those in need of change? Do those of us who are white ensure that, in some way, we have regular communication and interaction with people of color so that we are constantly reminded about racism and its pernicious effects? Do we make time for meditation, allow our conscience to make itself heard over the daily demands on our time and energies? Do we interact with others in a way which prioritizes listening and objective consideration? Do we struggle to keep from responding defensively when others make constructive, or not so constructive, criticisms of us?

In the words of the late Rev. Paul Mayer, “What history is calling for is nothing less than the creation of a new human being. We must literally reinvent ourselves through the alchemy of the Spirit or perish. We are being divinely summoned to climb another rung on the evolutionary ladder, to another level of human consciousness.”

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com. 

Activist Risk Taking, Then and Now

Future Hope, , , ,

April 30 is a day I remember because it is my mom’s birthday. She died in 2005. But it’s also a day I remember because, on that day in 1971, while serving what turned out to be an 1l-month sentence in federal prison for my draft resistance activism against the Vietnam war, I was indicted with seven others by the Nixon Justice Department for a supposed conspiracy to destroy heating tunnels under DC and kidnap Henry Kissinger.

Those charges were bogus; when they finally got to a jury in conservative Harrisburg, Pa., they were hung 10-2 for acquittal, and that was the end of that particular “conspiracy” trial during the Vietnam War.

It is inspiring that on that April 30 day yesterday, several hundred people were arrested around the country, mainly students, as part of the massive worldwide movement to stop the Gaza genocide and end this war. And I saw an email just a couple hours ago from someone reminding people that on this same day in 1975, the United States military completely vacated Vietnam. This brought to an end the 30-year US effort to take over the colonizing and repressive role France had played for almost a century.

Here are some personal reflections on all of this:

-There is a level of intensity on the issue of the Gaza war that is very similar to the level of intensify many of us felt as young people during the Vietnam War, for good reason. When the daily body count is in the hundreds (Vietnam) and literal genocide—“ethnic cleansing” Bernie called it—is taking place in Gaza, intense and focused action is absolutely appropriate.

-Many of us who were students who took part in the Black Freedom and/or Anti-Vietnam War movements felt so deeply about these issues that some of us left school and we and others found a way to make a living while being a dedicated organizer for revolutionary change. Frankly, to have hope of success in our people’s movement for human and ecological survival and just and truly democratic societies, we need more young people to consciously take this step.

-It is clear that the overwhelming number of young people taking part in this spring justice uprising are doing so with a peaceful, if angry, spirit. Much of corporate media is spinning it very differently, painting the movement as violent and abusive. It is a responsibility of all of us to criticize these inaccurate characterizations and demand that the truth be reported.

-The dominant forces in the Democratic Party, and of course Republicans, really don’t like to have their policies criticized or their political power undercut by those of us willing to speak truth to power. Democrats respond one way when that happens, Republicans are much harsher. That’s been true for a very long time. As I wrote in my book Burglar for Peace, “The Nixon Administration that was in power 50-plus years ago was a repressive government, known for illegal wiretapping, inflammatory rhetoric, criminal prosecutions of peace and justice activists, and outright physical attacks, including killings, against Black Panther Party members. I had followed the Chicago 8 trial a year and a half before, a clear case of government repression against anti-war and Black Freedom activists, following the police riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968.” 

The years 1969 to 1974, when Nixon was President, were very rough for a lot of us, although most of us survived.

-The conditions for organizing are much more positive under Democrats than under Republicans. This would be particularly the case if Trump is elected this November. He and the Republicans have made clear that they have every intention of taking this country so far backward that the Biden Presidency would come to be seen as a very good four years. It’s not. Some things are good, yes, but some things aren’t, Gaza in particular right now. But compared to a Trump Presidency, it would be like night and day.

So as we keep fighting for a ceasefire and an end to the war and movement toward true Palestinian self-determination for that long-suffering people, let’s be sure to respond to the US electoral process accordingly. Trump and the MAGA Republicans must be defeated. Strong progressive candidates like The Squad need to be supported.

It’s all of one, multi-colored piece. Si, se puede.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.