Palestine, Organizing Strategy, and Interpersonal Connections
by M.W.D.
On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell—a local unaffiliated comrade who was deeply involved in local mutual aid efforts, and a friend to many—self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. in protest of the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of the US military. On March 1st, friends of Aaron organized a vigil, not only to commemorate Aaron, but to “pay homage to Palestinians taken from our world, the resistance fighters and ordinary people who continue to love humanity in the face of unspeakable brutality and genocide.”
M.W.D., a friend of Aaron and an active member of San Antonio DSA, gave the following speech at the vigil.
I am a comrade of Aaron Bushnell, and I would like to share two stories and offer thoughts on strategy.
In early September last year, mutual aid comrades spent an evening at Canyon Lake. As we were walking back to our cars, I was whistling The Internationale. Aaron was behind me, and started singing along. I thought it was a delightful interaction, and I remembered it two months later, when a group of his friends came together to sing karaoke to celebrate Aaron. We sang Dolly Parton, we sang The Internationale, among other songs. Aaron was leaving to Ohio to skillbridge out of the military industrial complex, once his contract was up.
In the idea of internationalism, let me offer some thoughts on strategy. We must win a permanent ceasefire, and stop US military and diplomatic aid for Israel. Let us be accomplices in achieving a free Palestine, to achieve a lasting peace built on community—not on repression, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Organizing always begins somewhere, so start organizing where you are. Use Aaron's protest, the South Africa Genocide Case against Israel, the daily atrocities—to talk with your friends, family, and coworkers, at church, at social groups. Hell, talk with normal people here, trade numbers, share food together, and connect with San Antonio for Justice in Palestine (SAJP). Merely connecting with each other won't let us win—but I know it will be a necessary part of any strategy to win. We need a mass movement, of ordinary people, of civilian and military populations.
More broadly, we must have a diversity of tactics, with coordination and trust between groups wherever possible. Some people will put pressure electorally, and I would like to also emphasize direct action as described in the Crimethinc zine, Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity. It describes tertiary targeting, where companies with economic ties to weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel are targeted to cut their ties with those weapons manufacturers.
If you are active duty, I encourage you to check out the GI Rights Hotline, which has a high success rate of getting people out of the military through conscientious objection.
We—you—we must be inventive. All tactics are necessary, the moment is urgent. In terms of diversity of tactics, Aaron probably would have liked me to say that you might be wary about "Party" organizations that can put a clamp down on radical inventiveness and diversity of tactics.
Aaron was a deeply compassionate person. I would like to emphasize that we must care for each other, challenge each other to develop, politically, as people. We must support each other deeply, like Aaron's comrades and their social groups have supported each other in these past few days, and deeply, as the people in Palestine have done since the start. While organizing, avoid snarky dismissals of serious issues. Instead, I suggest to take the time to deliberate—to give cause-and-effect reasons for why an action will probably be (or not be) materially effective, and to fill in each other's blindspots. Be kind and patient with each other.
There is a genocide in Gaza happening right now. The conditions for life are being withheld and destroyed. People are massacred trying to get food for their children.
This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. But we are not the ruling class. And we can decide things to be different. Free Palestine.
