We Must Stop Them (Patreon)

One of my girlfriends gave me a really bad cold so I'm very sick. I've also been unable to write anything because all I can think about when I sit down to write is Gaza. So I've taken the time while I'm stuck in bed to write this, and when I'm well enough to be on camera I'll be recording this and getting it out on my channel immediately

We are in a moment where it is important to act and I am aware that one of the most significant ways that I act on the largest part of the world around me is by saying things on this channel. If I am to say something useful I should first think about who I’m speaking to - then I can consider what I am able to say.

I don’t think I’m going to change anyone’s mind about whether or not a genocide is happening, in part because I feel strongly that everyone knows one is and a minority of the world, including practically everyone in power in the most powerful countries on Earth have decided to ignore it. They hope it is over quickly and forgotten about.

Genocide is a political tool, and as a political tool it is used all the time. It behoves us to step away form rigid definition in order to understand what is happening right now, but I don’t mean what is happening in Gaza. What is happening in Gaza is nakedly genocidal and meets everyone’s definition. Everyone understands that a genocide is happening. But I repeat myself.

The reason we have to step away from the definitions of genocide is to understand the response by the people of the world to genocide in Gaza. The reason that people are marching in London, Washington, France, India, Turkey, Australia, Indonesia - all around the world - is not that they see the political tool of genocide alive and well and simply fear that they could be its eventual victims. Rather, people all around the world are being exposed in concrete terms to how our geopolitical order systematically uses violence to maintain control and they see that this is wrong.

This of course speaks to “their struggle is our struggle” - just as systemic violence means ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucuses, and all resource rich indigenous lands, it also means the eternal genocide of the poor by the rich all around the world. The contradiction between our supposedly peaceful, supposedly democratic societies and the systematic use of tremendous violence is exposed spectacularly, and this is why our politicians hope that is over quickly and forgotten.

So let’s think a little more about who I’m speaking to. I know that the people who hear this will largely be people in the richer countries that are allies of Israel: in Europe, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and of course, the United States. I am speaking largely to people who are experiencing this genocide through articles, podcasts and screens - I am myself. Because of this it is important that we turn our gaze on ourselves and understand how we are materially situated in relation to Gaza. If we only experience this spectacularly we will feel as though there is nothing we can do, and then it might even feel easier for us if it was over quickly and forgotten. Not so! There is plenty we can do.

I’d like to start with something that appeared on my screen in relation to this around which I would like to structure a lot of the rest of what I have to say. The following is a passage from the Quran:

Allah's Apostle said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Allah's Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others."

So in understanding our material relationship to Gaza it is important for us to see that we are embedded in the infrastructure of the oppressor. The US & UK continually send enormous support to Israel not just financially but through physical shipments of arms manufactured by our countries.

Here I can revisit the idea that I’m not going to change anyone’s minds, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it is expedient for the politicians of our countries for Gaza to be levelled and to move on because once again, genocide is a political tool.

Azerbaijan recently used military violence to ethnically cleanse the Artsakh region in Armenia. The British All-Party Parliamentary Group on Azerbaijan were, of course, aware of this, but it was politically expedient not to care because Azerbaijan is an ally of the UK and they wanted a firmer control of the Baku oil field. This, for nation states, is so much of what being an “ally” means. When defenders of the status quo want us to defend an ally nation, this relationship is very important, and when they want us not to stop our allies committing atrocities they work very hard to tell us there is no way that Britain for instance could possibly influence the decisions of Israel. This is of course, nonsense. If Britain had no say whatsoever over a ceasefire in Gaza, our parliament wouldn’t have voted on it.

Whether it is in Armenia for control of oil, Ukraine or Gaza for land, or the Congo for cheap labour and cobalt and other rare earth metals for consumer electronics, we can see that violence is used against this group or that to reinforce extraction, exploitation and imperialism. For those working to perpetuate the system that uses this systematic violence it is easier not to care, so I’m not going to change their minds.

Secondly, I recognise my position as some random woman in a video online in contrast to the position of all the people I’m speaking to. If your brother is an oppressor, your ability to help him by changing his mind is far greater than mine. That includes your ability to change the mind of your elected representative by withdrawing your support, or by marching or writing to them or protesting outside their offices.

However, to be realistic about our position enmeshed in the machinery of death: often to stop an oppressor from oppressing others, we must stop them.

For years now, Palestine Action have been shutting down weapons factories in the UK, informing the people of the local communities what is being done on their doorstep and gaining their support because once again, the people of the world want rid of this systemic violence in all its forms, and once they start to see it they see how it is all the same.

In recent weeks Palestine Action have been joined by Workers for a Free Palestine who have blockaded British arms factories supplying Israel, Palestine Action US, and protesters working to stop arms shipments leaving for Israel in the US & Australia. Recently an autonomous group of anarchists poured cement into the water supply of a venue holding an auction gala for Friends of the IDF, rendering the venue unusable and stepping the fundraising effort.

On November 13th, activists from the Stop Cop City movement in Georgia set fire to six cement trucks set to be used in the construction of “Cop City” an ersatz urban environment to be used for the training of American police an invading force into working class communities. I’m not saying that doing this directly benefits Gazans of course, but everything here is part of the same machine. IDF instructors train American police, the IDF plan to use Cop City for training themselves, and even have something very similar they call their “mini-Gaza” where they can preemptively deaden themselves to the horrors of war by practising in a physical simulation. Stop Cop City, which Palestine Action US has described as “the vanguard of direct action in our country” recognises the attempt to make the people there less human, to make the use of systematic violence against them easier, and recognises that we must stop them.

It is vital that sabotage and protest build in parallel because while direct action can slow this atrocity immediately, it also shows everyone the same thing as the growing protests - that the people overwhelmingly want one thing and our elected representatives are not listening, that they are hostile even, and another contradiction is exposed - that our parliaments work to mediate class tensions in favour of the ruling class. That their policies and platforms are not representative of a base within the population who agree with them but wholly of their own interests and the only things they do in our interest are to make us pliable and productive. That our democracies are only democratic as long as they make us believe they are, and when they act so starkly against what we want, they risk shattering the illusion.

Biden has said there is “no possibility” of a ceasefire. British MPs have voted against it. Now is a moment where it is important to act, and they are doing all they can to keep us inactive and by doing so perpetuating the system that murders Gazans, Armenians, Congolese, starves the poor and burns the planet and deprives us of democracy, dignity and justice. The same system that also brings us back around to moments like this. This is a moment where everyone is coming to see, we must stop them.