Tag Archives: Social Movements

The Right to Migrate and the Right to Stay at Home

February 2, 2025Events, Real Utopia, Reflections on Current Events, talks, Talksactivism, political economy, Racial Justice, Social MovementsPeter Bohmer

by Peter Bohmer. February 1st,

ZNET Forum, Immigrant Solidarity with Avi Chomsky, Zafiro Patiño, me!

Immigrant Justice by Peter Bohmer

I will address how to build immigrant justice, including the right to migrate and right to stay at home while challenging and changing the strong anti-immigrant sentiments of ½ the population in the United States. This anti-immigrant ideology and agenda are a central part of the right-wing agenda, not only in the U.S. but much of Europe, Australia, Canada and in many countries in the global south such as Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and South Africa. It is acquiesced to by centrist parties such as the Democrats here, Macron in France and the Christian Democrats in Germany. An example at home is the horrific Laken Riley bill that was just signed into law by Trump, with the vote of 46 Democrats in the House and 12 Democrats in the Senate. This bill supports immediate detention by the Department of Homeland Security for undocumented immigrants being charged, not even convicted, for minor property crimes such as shoplifting and burglary. It empowers State Attorney Generals to sue federal government if an unauthorized immigrant has been charged with a crime in their state. The Democratic Party controlled Senate had opposed this bill in the last session. This is part of the fear mongering about immigrant crime, although a recent National Immigration of Justice study (nij.ojp.org) of Texas found undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than ½ the rate of U.S. born citizens…

My Talk at People’s March, January 18, 2025, Economic Justice and Liberation

January 22, 2025Economics for Everyone, Events, talksactivism, political economy, Racial Justice, Social Movements, Trumpism, U.S. SocietyPeter Bohmer

Talk at People’s March, January 18, 2025

Text of talk! Link above!

Economic Justice and Liberation!

by Peter Bohmer

at the People’s March, January 18, 2025! Olympia, Washington

Thank you for attending this well attended rally. It is a very dangerous period where our actions are necessary to stop the march towards mass deportations, a climate catastrophe and a dictatorship. It is the most dangerous period since I have been alive. We can make a difference by resisting by all means necessary!

We live in a world of gross income and wealth inequality in Washington State, U.S. and globally. In the U.S., the top 1% own 12 times more than the bottom 50% of the population. The top 1% of the world’s population own more than the bottom 95%.

Let me briefly discuss a few major problems, their causes and what is to be done.

In addition to the major issues already mentioned by our presenters– the climate crisis, attacks on immigrants and the serious threat of mass deportations, mass incarceration, and racial oppression-and by the speakers who will speak at the State Capital on resisting the campaign against trans people and against the criminalization of abortion and reproductive justice, I want to add.

Quality and affordable housing are a basic human right. The rise in rent and the price of housing have far outstripped the increases in money wages for the last 25 years. The growing homelessness is an indictment of our capitalist system, not of the unhoused. We need rent control and more social and public housing.

The broken Health Care system! Luigi Mangione, the accused shooter of United Health Care CEO, and the subsequent widespread support for Mangioni shows the anger at a system where many millions cannot afford quality health care and/or are denied health care by a for-profit insurance system. According to the Trump Administration playbook, Project 2025, they intend to further cut Medicaid, the health care system for low-income people and end subsidies for working class people and families. Let us stop cutbacks while demanding quality and free health care, including dental, vision, hearing, and alternative medicine for all including undocumented, and the incarcerated, paid for by taxes on high income households and corporations

Most U.S workers have faced stagnant wages for 40 years. Also, for the most part,

alienating jobs and increasing debt-medical, student and consumer debt to try to maintain their standard of living in the face of rising prices. Let us organize to cancel these debts, to raise wages and benefits.

Inflation, the rise in prices, will increase caused by Trump’s increasing to 25% or more tariffs on goods from Mexico, China and Canada. Mass deportations of farmworkers will decrease the supply of food and raise its price.

What is the fundamental cause of these problems?

Capitalism!

Capitalism is an oppressive system based on production for profit not need. Where the capital is owned by a small number for people, while the great majorly, the working class has to work for them and are exploited by the capitalists. Where there is super exploitation of Black and other workers of color, of immigrants and women. Capitalism expands and destroys internally and externally; it is a global capitalist system where the natural environment is a resource to make profits of. The wealth and power is increasingly controlled by finance capital and the Amazons, Metas, Apple and Musks of the world.

Let is not take capitalism as a given. An alternative is necessary and desirable.

So, what do we do, as we face the Trumpist Administration? They are a government by and for the 1%. We should combine:

Defend what we have—in terms of civil rights and civil liberties, social security, public education, and environmental protection. Yet the status quo is insufficient. The Biden administration has been militarist and imperialist, as has been the Democratic Party. They are a supporter and participant in the genocide of Gaza.
Reforms—Besides what I have already mentioned, let us support at the workplace and in policy and campaigns, the right to organize unions, especially social movement unions. Where these social movement unions are in solidarity with all workers and their needs on and off the job, and work in solidarity with other social movements such as immigrant justice, environmental and reproductive justice, Palestine and global solidarity and Black liberation, and organizing the unorganized.

Reforms within capitalism are always limited. If we raise the minimum to a livable wage or raise taxes on corporations, they may not invest at home, capital flight or capital strike. Capitalism is based on inequality and profits for a few where we are told always strive for more, that individualism is human nature. Revolution is necessary for humanity and nature. Tear it Down, Build it UP!

We need to combine reforms that improve people’s lives and raise consciousness and to build social movements and organizations that organize to end capitalism, to build a participatory socialism. Where production is based on need, the end of corporations and production for profit, where individuals, communities and workplace develop participatory planning, a participatory socialism where there is an end to poverty, global solidarity, meaningful work, that in democratic planning considers seven generations in the future, where racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression are effectively challenged and no longer intrinsic. Equity on a local, national and global scale!

The Democratic party has failed the working class of the United States and threatens war with China.

I suggest we put at the center of our campaigns demands that if won, would meet some major needs and empowerment of the working class, most of the working people of the United States. This includes taxing the wealthy and other economic issues I have mentioned. We also need to develop a program which I call principled unity which means not only a campaign for economic justice, defined narrowly but also combining this with the movements and issues being raised today.

Otherwise, we fall into a neoliberal agenda and politics.

Let us do and make central, popular education, where we talk and listen respectfully to those who are not yet part of our movements. To revolutionize this society, means a majority supports our vision.

We need to build three levels of organization and two coalitions.

1. An underground to fight fascists, white supremacists and white nationalists, and Christian nationalists—to protect and defend immigrants, Palestinians and other activists, and others under attack. For this underground level only, security culture is necessary.
2. Coalition of all organizations and individuals who support all the demands of this march. We are millions nationally, we are a force, let us not underestimate ourselves. But we are insufficient to fight the growing authoritarian threat. I call this a Progressive Coalition. This is what is happening today with the 1000 of you here in Olympia. It needs to be ongoing and growing and coordinated nationally.

This Progressive coalition also needs to actively participate in and if necessary, create what I call a United Front Against Fascism. This was the name of a 1969 Black Panther Party conference in Oakland. This large united front coalition or popular front is necessary to protect civil liberties and civil rights and further peace but may not agree with us on all the issues, e.g., self-determination for Palestine and the end of the Israeli occupation, or Trans liberation or immigrant justice but they are necessary to defeat the Project 2025 agenda. Within this broader grouping, the progressive coalition should be able to continue its full program and demands and not be suppressed, while not demanding full agreement by all members and groups in this broad united front against fascism.

Finally, we need to act now and not wait and not allow the incoming administration to gradually carry out mass deportations and end immigration, or gradually end Medicaid, where these actions becomes normalized step by step.

Join us today at the Festival of Resistance right after our People’s March to the State Capitol and short rally there and then gather at 906 Columbia St. SW for food, to further discuss these issues and next steps.

Le us march through downtown Olympia in unity and strongly behind the large Banner of the People’s March to the Capital steps. A strong presence in the streets, is one important aspect of fighting isolation and resignation and cynicism and building an inclusive community.

What better way to celebrate Martin Luther King than continuing his struggle for civil and human rights, economic and racial justice and peace!

Power to the People and the People’s March.

Mourn and Organize

November 22, 2024Reflections on Current Events, talks, Talks, Writingsactivism, electoral-politics, political economy, Repression, Social MovementsPeter Bohmer

by Peter Bohmer, November 22, 2024

https//znetwork.org/znetarticle/mourn-and-organize/

Trump’s victory is a serious loss for most people in the United States and globally. I disagreed before the election and now, that it didn’t matter who won the Presidential election. Let us mourn and grieve but not give up. Elections matter and this one certainly does but being political means building and gaining power, being active to further what you believe in, much more than voting or supporting a candidate.

I don’t know if any campaign would have caused a Kamala Harris victory. However, her pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian positions, her pro fracking and promoting more oil and gas production by the U.S., and especially her promotion of neoliberal economic policies and not promoting raising the minimum wage, or making unionizing easier or advocating for universal, quality and affordable health care for all was wrong morally and tactically (to win). ..(see link above)

Palestine Can Win!

May 14, 2024Economics for Everyone, Events, Palestine, Reflections on Current Events, talksactivism, Palestine, political economy, Repression, Social Movements, U.S. SocietyPeter Bohmer

Expanded version of my talk at May 4th, 2024 demonstration in Olympia in solidarity with Palestine

by Peter Bohmer, May 14th, 2024; member of Palestine Action of South Sound

I am reminded in May, 2024 of the global movement of 1968. The US war against Vietnam was raging. There were powerful movements across the globe calling for immediate withdrawal of the US from Vietnam and in many cases in solidarity with the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the North Vietnam Army fighting against the US and the South Vietnamese Army.

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, April 4, 1968. There were major uprisings in many cities following his assassination, mainly in Black communities. Social movements increasingly linked the Vietnam War and US imperialism to racial and other oppressions in the U.S. It is important for us to do that now.

1968 was the year of the Columbia University student occupation that demanded the end of the university’s complicity with the Vietnam war and that Columbia not buy up land in Harlem to build a gym for Columbia University, displacing residents. Black students did a simultaneous occupation. There was serious repression at Columbia; 700 were arrested and many more were beaten by the New York Police Department. There was a subsequent occupation there, later in the spring of 1968. The repression furthered resistance at Columbia and beyond and increased the popularity of this movement among students. …

Palestine talk from May 4, 2024 demo, Olympia

A Jewish anti-Zionist Perspective on Palestine, Revised and Updated!

January 16, 2024Economics for Everyone, personal, Reflections on Current Events, Writingsactivism, Palestine, personal, Social MovementsPeter Bohmer

Jewish anti-Zionism revised.

A Jewish anti-Zionist Perspective on Palestine!

by Peter Bohmer, Economics for Everyone

January 16, 2024

My background causes me to support the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation of Palestine including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since 1967, I have actively opposed the U.S. military aid and ideological support for Israel, and in solidarity with Palestine.

I mourn the deaths of 26,000 people murdered in southern Israel and Gaza over the last three weeks (as of January 15, 2024), 1200 in Israel, mainly by Hamas and over 24,000 Palestinians in Gaza and 350 Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers. More than 20 Palestinians have been killed for one Israeli.

My parents grew up in Vienna, Austria. The German military and Nazis were welcomed by much of the Austrian population when they invaded in spring 1938. Germany immediately annexed Austria. My dad was 22 when he was incarcerated in Vienna by the Austrian Nazis and frequently beaten. According to Nazi records, he was imprisoned for being “political” and Jewish. He was released after four months. My parents escaped a few days later to France.

My parents wanted to leave Europe because they expected an imminent Nazi invasion of France. They were denied visas to Australia and Canada because of these countries’ antisemitic immigration policies. After a few rejections, my parents were admitted to the U.S. in June 1939. My grandfather and at least four other relatives were gassed to death in concentration camps.

Antisemitism, as anti-Jewishness, has been prevalent all over Europe and to a lesser but real extent in the U.S. It continues today although less systemic. Many Jewish people as a response have seen their liberation and fair treatment as integrally connected with the liberation of all people, e.g., Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, the many socialist Jews, in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movement and in the Palestine Solidarity movement.

Because of this history of oppression, I grew up believing Jewish people would not oppress others. I was naïve. A majority of Jewish people in Israel and around the world support a Jewish dominated state. A Jewish state where Palestinians are systematically displaced from their land and are treated less than equal within the Israeli state formed in 1948; and less than human on the land Israel seized in 1967: the West Bank Gaza, and East Jerusalem. When you take someone’s land or enslave them, as what also happened in the U.S., there is a strong tendency for the dominant group to justify it.

In addition, Zionism means the right of return for anyone around the world who is Jewish while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their millions of descendants who were expelled from Israel’s 1948 created borders are not allowed to return. Most of the population of Gaza are Palestinians forced out of Israel in 1948 and their children and grandchildren. A Jewish dominated State where Palestinians have lived for millennia is Jewish supremacy.

I am anti-Zionist which is fundamentally different from being ani-Jewish. The Netanyahu led Israeli government, many leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party and some Jewish groups in the U.S. try to undermine criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination and justice by calling criticism of Israel, antisemitic.

Some criticisms of Israel are motivated by hatred of Jews, e.g., white supremacist groups in the US, and we should never ally with them in opposing the Israeli occupation.

Zionism means a Jewish State where the laws, educational system and major institutions favor Jewish people, and that Palestinians are second class citizens or non-citizens. Don’t allow Zionists to define you as antisemitic because you are Anti-Zionist.

Apologists for Israel claim that the focus on Israel’s human rights violations of Palestinians is antisemitic because there are other countries that commit as bad or worse violations than Israel, e.g., Saudi Arabia. My response is that this is not antisemitic; it is important that Israel be strongly criticized. Rather than lessening our condemnation of Israel, let us increase our denunciations of other violators. In addition, no country today is a worse violator than Israel. “The number of people facing possible starvation in the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks is the largest share of a population at risk of famine identified anywhere since a United Nations-affiliated panel created the current global food-insecurity assessment 20 years ago (Stephanie Nolen, New York Times, January 12, 2024). According to Robert Mape, a military historian, “Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history” (Julia Frankel, Associated Press, January 11, 2024).

It is urgent that we in the U.S. oppose the ongoing and growing Islamophobia and racism towards Palestinians and the repression of pro-Palestinian voices in our government, universities, and mass media. Let us support all those whose jobs are being threatened because they are speaking up.

It is not an exaggeration to call the Israeli occupation, apartheid; and Gaza an open-air prison that has become a concentration camp. Violence and displacement by Israeli settlers and the IDF of Palestinians have also increased in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as has the blockade of Gaza even before October 7^th. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the U.N. Secretary General, and the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem use these terms although we seldom find them in the mainstream media or by U.S. politicians.

This does not justify the killing of Israeli civilians in southern Israel but let us understand history did not begin with what happened on Saturday, October 7^th but with British colonialism and the 1948 Nakba (forced removal of Palestinians) and Israeli occupation of the rest of Palestine after the 1967 war. Moreover, Israel’s revenge, mass murder, starvation and collective punishment of Palestinians including the 16-year blockade of Gaza is a war crime that is wrong and will not bring security to Jews.

All Israeli governments, Labor, Likud, Netanyahu, and the recent mass Israeli social movement that had opposed the Netanyahu government’s increasing authoritarianism towards the Jewish population, are rejectionist. This means they do not accept Palestinians as equals, nor Palestinian self-determination, neither in the past nor present.

Whether it’s one state or a real independent two state solution, it must center economic and political justice and equality for all, especially but not limited to Palestinians. This includes the right of Palestinians to return to inside the 1948 borders that Israel imposed. I believe most Palestinian groups, including Hamas would accept this (see, Hamas Contained by Tareq Baconi).

Since 1967, the U.S. has unconditionally supported the illegal, immoral occupation of the West Bank, the annexation of East Jerusalem, and made more than a dozen vetoes in the UN security council of resolutions critical of Israel. The U.S. has since October 7^th, vetoed UN resolutions calling for a cease fire and negotiations. The U.S. provides $3.8 billion dollars of military aid annually and has committed to continue this through 2029. Biden has proposed an additional $14 billion of military aid to Israel, and there is little opposition in Congress. His administration is also sending additional weapons without even getting congressional approval.

Rather than supporting a cease fire now and negotiations, the Biden administration is also sending Israel military advisers, and given Israel carte blanche to continue its invasion of Gaza and commit the murders of tens of thousands and further ethnic cleansing. The Biden administration has carried out the bombing in Yemen of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) on January 11^th and 12^th. The Houthis have been attacking ships going to and from Israel and will stop attacking them when Israel stops attacking Gaza. It has become an Israel and U.S. war against Palestine and its allies.

I differ from the few groups and individuals who justify the October 7^th murder of Israeli civilians by the Hamas led attack. They claim because the Palestinian struggle is anti-colonial and for self-determination all actions are justified. The killing of Israeli civilians, especially those and their descendants who fled the Nazi control of Europe is wrong. Many of them were not granted permission to immigrate to Great Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia and other countries because of antisemitism and had no place else to go but Palestine. This does not justify the forced displacement of Palestinians but makes Israel somewhat different from other settler colonialists.

I am critical of those who ignore or even worse, support the mass killing by Israel in Gaza, directly by massive bombing and the ongoing military invasion. But also, indirectly by blocking most food, water, electricity, fuel and medical supplies from getting in. To defend Israel’s genocidal policies by calling it self-defense is horrendous. The Israeli starvation of the population in Gaza, the forced displacement of 90% of its population and the resulting spread of contagious diseases and the destruction of hospitals will cause far more deaths this year of Palestinians than even the bombing and shootings. It is an Israeli war on the people of Gaza, not only Hamas.

On Thursday, January 12^th, South Africa presented its strong case charging Israeli with genocide against Gaza to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). South Africa documented in great detail the various elements needed to make the legal case that Israel’s policy was genocidal, i.e., 1) Israel’s intent to destroy a group of people; and 2) Physical acts that carried out this intention. The ICJ is likely to make a finding soon that there is a real possibility of genocide and therefore, Israel must end its war against Gaza until the full case is heard. This ruling won’t get Israel to begin a cease fire but can help to strengthen our movements to work towards this end. For the full text, see Jewish Voice for Peace. Also see the Center for Constitutional Rights, a major U.S. law organization, providing legal analysis of Israel’s genocidal polices in Gaza and U.S. complicity.

Israel claims a Zionist State is the only security for Jews around the world. Long run security cannot be based on the oppression and domination of another people. People will rise up. Israel is developing formal relations with and recognition by some of the conservative Arab states in the Abraham Accords. That will not further security in the long run, as the population in Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc. strongly support the Palestinian struggle.

The Hamas attack of October 7^th shows the limits of this immoral strategy of Israel. Even if Israel destroys Hamas, oppression breeds resistance and Israel will eventually be defeated. Moreover, this security state strategy moves Israelis further to the right.

For moral and political reasons, the security of Jewish people and Palestinian people requires the end of the Israeli occupation, the end of U.S. support for Israel, and justice for all Palestinians.

The goal of a Palestinian socialist organization, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, DFLP, is, “a people’s democratic Palestine, where Arabs and Jews live without discrimination, a state without classes and national oppression, which allows Jews and Arabs to develop their national culture together”.

A global movement in support of a permanent cease fire now and ending the Israeli siege of Gaza is growing rapidly. There were coordinated protests all over the world with this demand on January 13^th, 2024. In the United States 400,000 protested in Washington DC on this date and in addition calling for the end of U.S. military aid to Israel. In Olympia, many hundreds marched in spite of the cold weather. Very hopeful is the growing social movement against the Israel war on Gaza and U.S. complicity and in support of Palestine self-determination. Contact me to get involved in the Olympia area if you are not already, peterbohmer@gmail.com.

Let us get involved and do what we can in the streets, in letters to newspapers, by pressuring politicians to oppose U.S. military aid to Israel including proposed increases, and for ending U.S. support for Israeli aggression. Israel could not continue its war on Palestinians without U.S. government military support. Expose and challenge US corporations like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed-Martin that have profited from the sale of billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, paid by our taxes. Support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel.

Educate yourselves, friends, family, workplace and community about the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Speak up! It’s our responsibility to do what we can to change U.S. policy so that it is more in line with popular sentiment all over the world including majority U.S. support for a cease fire now. A minimal demand is for an immediate cease fire, an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza and no increase in U.S. military aid to Israel.

I often hear that Palestine-Israel is too complicated to take a position on, or there is no solution because Israelis and Palestinians are equally victims. An insightful response in a talk at Evergreen by Khader Hamide, a leading Palestinian activist who the U.S unsuccessfully tried to deport, “Palestinians are losing their land, and their lives and Israelis are losing their humanity.”

A common slogan among Jewish people and Israeli leaders is “Never Again”, which they usually restrict to Jewish people. The holocaust against Jewish people is horrendous but so is the holocaust against African people, Native and indigenous people, and others. Let us mean by “Never Again” for All People. That is both the moral and strategic position.

Thank You!

Stop Israeli Apartheid

December 10, 2023Economics for Everyone, Events, personal, Reflections on Current Events, talks, Talksactivism, Palestine, political economy, Social Movements, U.S. SocietyPeter Bohmer

Stop Israeli Apartheid!

by Peter Bohmer, December 9, 2023

I want to thank the organizers of this important event. We are living in a time of many crises. Let’s draw strength from gathering together in community and solidarity.

I will talk about anti-apartheid activism for Palestine.

Apartheid was the name given to the institutionalized segregation in South Africa–from the land where one could live, to voting and employment. Every aspect of life was dictated by apartheid. It was legal and institutionalized from 1948 until 1994 when Nelson Mandela became President.

Zionism means a Jewish State where the laws, educational system and major institutions favor Jewish people, and Palestinians are second class or non-citizens. It means Palestinian families expelled in 1948 and their offspring cannot return to Israel, inside the Green Line, even though they lived there for generations.

This is apartheid. So is the illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem where Palestinians have been displaced, imprisoned, and killed by the Israeli military and settlers. Gaza is an open-air prison that has become a concentration camp.

Don’t let Israel define antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Many Jews are anti-Zionist, e.g., JVP, and some Zionists, e.g., many Christian evangelicals, are Zionist and anti-Jewish.

I’m anti-Zionist which is fundamentally different from anti-Jewish. The Netanyahu-led Israeli government, most Republican and Democratic politicians, and some Jewish groups in the U.S. undermine criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination by calling criticism of Israel, antisemitic.

Let’s not let them get away with it!

I recently completed a civil rights tour of key sites in Mississippi and Alabama of the powerful 1950’s and 1960’s Black Freedom Movement. The connection between Israeli apartheid and Jim Crow in the South was undeniable. The bravery and resilience of Black people and civil rights activists is analogous to the courage of Palestinians resisting occupation. My “End Israeli Apartheid” button resonated with most Black people we met.

In the 1970’s, a powerful social movement against South African apartheid developed globally. Activists supported the many levels of struggle inside South Africa.

We boycotted South African goods, pressured universities and cities to divest from stock and bonds of complicit companies and pushed for sanctions against corporations profiting from Apartheid. This is BDS. It isolated South Africa and contributed to the eventual end of apartheid although racial oppression continues.

Nelson Mandela, the leader of the anti-apartheid movement made the connection to Palestine: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians.”

There is a history of global movements against Israeli occupation and apartheid that continues today. It includes those of us here and courageous local activist, Rachel Corrie, who led by example. In 2003, Rachel went to Rafah as part of the ISM. She was murdered by the IDF for protecting the home of the family she was staying with.

Her death is mourned all over the world, her life, celebrated. She inspired our local food co-op, who donated to tonight’s auction, to be the first co-op in the US to join the BDS movement. Let’s honor Rachel’s legacy of Palestinian solidarity which has taken great leaps forward since October 7^th by our actions.

Across the world, including in the US, millions are mobilizing against Israelis genocidal policies and the US Military’s support. On November 4, 3000 people participated in a demonstration in Olympia. Two days later, hundreds of protesters delayed for hours a ship headed to Israel with munitions.

This movement is multigenerational, multiracial, and practices a diversity of tactics. More want to get involved. Every Monday night, 80 of us have been organizing Palestine solidarity actions including tonight’s benefit. Talk to me later if you’re interested in planning actions targeting corporations supporting Israel’s war or future fundraisers.

Today’s movement gives me hope for the future, but Palestine cannot wait. Two apartheid movements have been defeated. Let’s join the fight to make it three.

Since 1967, I have been in solidarity with Palestine and actively opposed U.S. military aid and ideological support for Israel. My history of lifelong activism stems in part from being Jewish.

My parents grew up in Vienna, Austria. My dad was 22 when he was incarcerated and frequently beaten by Nazis for being Jewish. My parents escaped Europe and eventually were admitted to the U.S. in 1939. My grandfather and many relatives were killed in concentration camps.

I grew up believing Jewish people wouldn’t oppress others because of our history of oppression. I was naïve. Sadly, most Jewish people in Israel and around the world support a Jewish dominated state. I don’t want this done in my name.

We live in the U.S. Our government’s backing made this mass-murder possible. The more we fight for the end of Israeli occupation and against U.S. support, the more we have the right to criticize Hamas’ killings and taking of 240 hostages. However, history didn’t begin October 7^th but with British colonialism and the 1948 Nakba.

Yesterday, the US shamefully vetoed a UN resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire. To call Israel’s ethnic cleansing ‘self-defense’ as the US does is grotesque. A ceasefire and end of the siege are important but insufficient.

A solution, whether it’s one state or a real two state, must center economic and political justice and equality for all, especially Palestinians. This includes the right of Palestinians to return to inside the 1948 Israeli imposed borders.

Educate yourselves, friends, and family about Israeli settler-colonialism. It’s catastrophic. Our responsibility is to do what we can to change fundamentally, U.S. policy. We are the majority and beginning to have an impact. Khader Hamide, a Palestinian activist said, “Palestinians are losing their land, and their lives and Israelis are losing their humanity.” This is even more true today.

A common slogan among Jewish people is “Never Again”, usually limited to only Jewish people. The holocaust against Jewish people was horrendous but so is the holocaust against people of African descent, Native and indigenous people, and now Palestinians.

Let us mean “Never Again” for Everyone. This is the moral and strategic position.

Stop the war on Gaza, end Israeli apartheid and occupation!

Solidarity!

dec9benefitfinalversion

A Jewish Anti-Zionist Perspective, updated, October 29, 2023

October 30, 2023Economics for Everyone, personal, Reflections on Current Events, Talks, Writingsactivism, Palestine, Social Movements, U.S. foreign policy, U.S. SocietyPeter Bohmer

The Jewish Case for Palestine:

Jewish anti-Zionismrevised1029a

By Peter Bohmer, Economics for Everyone

Given at “A Conversation on Gaza-Israel War”, program at the Olympia Center,

October 17, 2023, revised 10/29/2023

I want to share how my background causes me to support the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since 1967, I have actively opposed the U.S. military aid and ideological support for Israel, and in solidarity with Palestine.

I mourn the deaths of 9500 people murdered in southern Israel and Gaza over the last three weeks (as of October 29^th) over 1400 in Israel, mainly Israeli civilians by Hamas and over 8000 Palestinians in Gaza and growing numbers in the West Bank by the Israeli military, the IDF. Let us take a moment to reflect on this death of human life and the injuries of many more.

My parents and grandparents were Jewish from Central Europe, my parents grew up in Vienna, Austria. The German military and Nazis were welcomed by much of the Austrian population when they invaded in spring 1938. Germany immediately annexed Austria. My dad was 22 when he was incarcerated in Vienna by the Austrian Nazis and frequently beaten. According to Nazi records, he was imprisoned for being “political” and Jewish. He was released after four months. My parents escaped a few days later to France.

They wanted to leave Europe because they expected an imminent Nazi invasion of France. They were denied visas to Australia and Canada because of these countries’ antisemitic immigration policies. After a few rejections, my parents were admitted to the U.S. in June 1939. My grandfather and at least four other relatives were gassed to death in concentration camps.

Because of this history of oppression, I grew up believing Jewish people would not oppress others. I was naïve. A majority of Jewish people in Israel and around the world support a Jewish dominated state. A Jewish state where Palestinians are systematically displaced from their land and are treated less than equal within the Israeli state formed in 1948; and less than human on the land Israel seized in 1967: the West Bank Gaza, and East Jerusalem. When you take someone’s land or enslave them, as15 what also happened in the U.S. there is a strong tendency for the dominant group to justify it.

On Facebook recently and for years, I have been accused by individuals of being antisemitic. An earlier version of this talk given on October 17^th in Olympia, Washington was censored and removed by Facebook administrators for being inappropriate. I am anti-Zionist which is fundamentally different from being ani-Jewish. The Netanyahu led Israeli government, many leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party and some Jewish groups in the U.S. try to undermine criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination and justice by calling criticism of Israel, antisemitic.

Some criticisms of Israel are motivated by hatred of Jews, e.g., white supremacist groups in the US, and we should never ally with them in opposing the Israeli occupation.Zionism means a Jewish State where the laws, educational system and major institutions favor Jewish people, and that Palestinians are second class citizens or non-citizens.

Zionism also means the right of return for anyone around the world who is Jewish while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their millions of descendants who were expelled from Israel’s 1948 created borders are not allowed to return. Most of the population of Gaza are Palestinians forced out of Israel in 1948 and their children and grandchildren. A Jewish dominated State where Palestinians have lived for millennia is Jewish supremacy.

Moreover, the Israel government has supported many anti-Jewish and antisemitic governments such as Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban in Hungary, and provided arms and military training to the military dictatorships in Guatemala and Argentina in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Israel was furthering US foreign policy in these actions, one important reason why the U.S. has been such a supporter of Israel. While opposing antisemitism, don’t allow Zionists to define you as antisemitic. My perspective is similar to Jewish Voice for Peace (jewishvoiceforpeace.org). They have been organizing a series pf powerful demonstrations and sit-ins in, mainly in D.C., demanding an immediate cease-fire and against U.S. support for the Israeli war.

It is not an exaggeration to call the Israeli occupation, apartheid; and Gaza an open-air prison that has become a concentration camp. Violence and displacement by Israeli settlers and the IDF of Palestinians have also increased in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as has the blockade of Gaza. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the U.N. Secretary General, and an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem use these terms although we seldom find them in the mainstream media or by U.S. politicians.

This does not justify the killing of Israeli civilians in southern Israel but let us understand its causes did not begin with what happened on Saturday, October 7^th but with British colonialism and the 1948 Nakba (forced removal of Palestinians). Israeli’s revenge, mass murder, starvation and collective punishment of Palestinians including the16 year blockade of Gaza is a war crime that is wrong and will not bring security to Jews.

All Israeli governments, Labor, Likud, Netanyahu, and the recent mass Israeli social movement that has opposed the Netanyahu government’s increasing authoritarianism towards the Jewish population, are rejectionist. This means they do not accept Palestinians as equals, neither in the past nor present.

Since 1967, the U.S. has unconditionally supported the illegal, immoral occupation of the West Bank, the annexation of East Jerusalem, and made more than a dozen vetoes in the UN security council of resolutions critical of Israel. The U.S. just vetoed a UN resolution calling for a cease fire and negotiations. The U.S. provides $3.8 billion dollars of military aid annually and has committed to continue this through 2029. Biden just proposed an additional $14 billion of military aid to Israel, and it is sure to be passed by Congress.

Rather than supporting a cease fire, negotiations and opposing the massive Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, the Biden administration is sending Israel additional weapons and military advisers. The U.S, has sent since October 7^th, two aircraft carriers and 2000 marines to the Middle East in support of Israel, and has given Israel carte blanche to invade Gaza and commit the murders of tens of thousands and further ethnic cleansing.

The more we actively support the end of the Israeli occupation and U.S. support for Israel, the more we have the right to criticize the Hamas killings and taking of more than 200 hostages. I differ from the few groups and individuals who justify the October 7^th murder of Israeli civilians by the Hamas led attack. They claim because the Palestinian struggle is anti-colonial and for self-determination all actions are justified. The killing of Israeli civilians, especially those and their descendants who fled the Nazi control of Europe is wrong. Many of them were not granted permission to immigrate to Great Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia and other countries because of antisemitism and had no place else to go but Palestine. This does not justify the forced displacement of Palestinians but makes their situation somewhat different from other settler colonialists.

I am also critical of those who ignore or even worse, support the mass killing by Israel in Gaza, directly by bombing and the ongoing military invasion. But also, indirectly by blocking most food, water, electricity, fuel and medical supplies from getting in. To defend Israel’s increasingly genocidal policies by calling it self-defense is horrendous.

Israel claims a Zionist State is the only security for Jews around the world. Long run security cannot be based on the oppression and domination of another people. People will rise up. Israel is developing formal relations with and recognition by some of the conservative Arab states in the Abraham Accords. That will not further security in the long run, as the population in Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, etc. strongly support the Palestinian struggle.

For moral and political reasons, the security of Jewish people and Palestinian people requires the end of the Israeli occupation, the end of U.S. support for Israel, and justice for all Palestinians.

Let us do what we can in the streets, in letters and by lobbying politicians to oppose U.S. military aid to Israel including the massive, proposed increases and for ending U.S. support for Israeli aggression. Expose and challenge US corporations like Boeing and Raytheon that have sent billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, paid for by our taxes. Support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel.

Educate yourselves, friends, and family about the colonization of Palestine. It is a horrible situation for Palestinians, especially in Gaza and it is our responsibility to do what we can to change U.S. policy so that it is more in line with popular sentiment all over the world including declining U.S. support for the Israeli occupation. A minimal demand is for an immediate cease fire and an end to the siege of Gaza.

I often hear that Palestine-Israel is too complicated to take a position on, or there is no solution because Israelis and Palestinians are equally victims. An insightful response in a talk at Evergreen by Khader Hamide, a leading Palestinian activist who the U.S unsuccessfully tried to deport for 20 years: “Palestinians are losing their land, and their lives and Israelis are losing their humanity.”

A common slogan among Jewish people and Israeli leaders is “Never Again”, which they usually restrict to Jewish people. The holocaust against Jewish people is horrendous but so is the holocaust against African people, Native and indigenous people, and others. Let us mean by “Never Again” for All People. That is both the moral and strategic position.

Si Se Puede!

Thank You!

My trip to Europe

July 29, 2022personal, Reflections on Current EventsEurope, political economy, Social MovementsPeter Bohmer

My travel to Europe, 2022

by Peter Bohmer, peterbohmer@gmail.com

July 26, 2022

I recently returned from a two month visit on July 7, 2022 to seven countries in Europe visiting friends, families and activists. It was a very meaningful and enjoyable trip. I visited Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, the northern part of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The hospitality and warmth people showed to me was incredible. Many were members of the group Real Utopia, Realutopia.org. Thank You my friends, family and comrades! I truly appreciate you. Part of the reason for my warm reception is the respect people in most countries show to elders, which is much less common in the U.S.

I saw and appreciated beauty in many of the places I visited, nature, homes and beautiful gardens, beaches and lakes and seas, and cities. I learned about the history of partisan resistance against the Nazis in Slovenia, of collaboration with the Nazis in several countries, e.g., Sweden, of the Irish Republican struggle for a united Ireland, and more on my family history, especially with regards to the Nazis.

A further summary based on my conversations with people in the countries!

I visited!The “left” as a social force is currently weak in the seven countries I visited–whether anarchists, radical social movements or socialist organizations. However, there are active left groups doing good work in all the places I visited such as “The City Upside Down” in Salonika, Greece and the Pekarna Cooperatives in Maribor, Slovenia and the Kapsylen Cooperatives in Stockholm. Kapsylen is involved in supporting actively political prisoners and selling olive oil from Palestine and coffee from the EZLN.

The isolation caused by the Coronavirus has been a major factor in the weakness of the left as it has limited face to face interactions and meetings and community gatherings. A greater cause of weakness of the left in the U.S. but also in the countries I visited is the growth of extreme identity politics and the related tendency to cancel people for perceived limitations in their political consciousness, often around transgender issues. Identity of course matters, I am critiquing where identity becomes destiny and the possibility of empathy across identities is denied. This expelling, canceling of people, the turning on each other is exacerbated by social media. This destructive behavior is caused by the weakness of the left, our feelings of powerlessness, and a cause of its further weakness. This problem is probably worse in the U.S. but also widespread in Europe. Transphobia is a continuing problem in the left and wider society; my criticism is how it is being addressed and challenged.

The authoritarian right is a serious danger in almost all of the countries I visited, but at least, not growing. For example, the Swedish Democrats, whose origins are fascist, are an example of the growing right-wing anti-immigrant political parties that have recently grown throughout Europe. They seem to have levelled off at about 20% support in the polls and popular support. Ireland was the one exception, fascism and the authoritarian right except for a few Unionist (pro British) groups in the north are minuscule. The Irish history of being colonized up into the 20th century by the British and up to the present in the six counties in the north of Ireland is a cause of identification with the people from other ex-colonies.

In Greece, Golden Dawn is no longer a force but authoritarian rightists including supporters of the 1967 military coup are in the New Democracy led government. The Social Democrats throughout the countries I visited are neoliberal and declining. There is some growth of the Greens but their economic program is mainly neoliberal and they increasingly accept the growing militarism of Europe. Political parties in this current period of a global neoliberal economy, unless they are explicitly anti-capitalist or at least anti-neo-liberal in their analysis and policies become neo-liberal over time. The global and elite pressures are very strong for movement in this direction as is their increasing professional-managerial class membership and the decline of working-class labor unions as their base.

I was surprised at the public support in Sweden for joining NATO. Based on the popular perception of the history of Russian aggression against Sweden and reinforced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, their fear of Russian expansionism and militarism is even stronger than in the U.S. I don’t see Russia as a threat to Sweden or to Finland, who Sweden is closely aligned with.

I see the possibilities of the growth of a left in the countries I visited based on climate and housing justice whose base is precarious workers. Almost everyone I spent time with,mentioned that the climate crisis was here, not just a future danger. I heard much support for an anti-militarist and global Green New Deal.

Except for Vienna, there are housing shortages and rapidly rising rents in every major city in western and southern Europe. The extensive amount of social housing in Vienna has limited the rise in housing prices there, compared to other cities such as Dublin where housing prices are skyrocketing. Housing as a human right and not as an asset to make money off resonated among the people in all the countries I visited.

Neoliberalism has caused less and less secure jobs and more jobs with no benefits, e.g., college teachers increasingly are hired on limited contracts. Young people are the most adversely affected by these changes in the labor market. In Athens, there is important labor organizing among these precarious workers.

Europe is no longer, overwhelmingly, “white”. Immigration from the Global South is substantial. Immigrant and refugee justice must be combined with anti-austerity programs in order to combat the belief that immigrants are causing the decline of social benefits, pensions and secure jobs. Challenging in theory and practice this zero-sum ideology that gains for immigrants are the cause of the decline for domestically born workers is a necessary part of creating unity among them.

Many people I was with asked me what is going on in the United States–the repeal of Roe vs Wade, the voter suppression, the amount and worship of guns, mass killings, the support for QAnon, and the continued support for Trump and Trumpism—that it is beyond understanding and worse than anything occurring in Europe. I sadly agreed. I pointed out at the same time, tens of millions participated in the recent Black Lives Matter protests, the growing support for universal health care, the high support for the right to abortion and for socialism. We need to get more organized.

In Solidarity, Peter Bohmer