An interesting thing about the US Social Forum is how they describe themselves:
The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and changes history.
We must declare what we want our world to look like and we must start planning the path to get there. The USSF provides spaces to learn from each other’s experiences and struggles, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, build relationships, and align with our international brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.
In that spirit StandWithUs proposed a workshop along the following lines:
The purpose of this workshop is to expose the underground LBGTQI Liberation movements that currently exist across the Middle East. We will seek to explore the cultural context of the status of the LGBTQI community across time and the vast mosaic of cultures that make up the region. After establishing a historical context, we will introduce participants to the stories of young people from across the region striving for acceptance. Some stories are harrowing and gut wrenching, while others are triumphant, but all are inspirational. The end goal is to engage the participants in supporting the cause of LGBTQI Liberation, and to connect them with outlets through which they can offer their support. We plan on having information available on how to connect with the offices of different Middle Eastern LGBTQI non-profits, and will offer material produced by StandWithUs which uses information collected by such organizations as Amnesty International for participants to walk away with so that they can better educate their own communities about the realities of the Middle East.That seems to be a project within the purview of the USSF and "building a better world"
However, this event got up the noses of some of the other participants.
Why?
Well, first the program was sponsored by StandWithUs "a Zionist organization that sought to represent Israel as a safe haven for LGBTQI communities and undermine the broadening support for the cause of justice in/for Palestine." That is interesting.
So, because the sponsoring organization believes in national self-determination for Jews, it can't be allowed to sponsor a workshop here. That is interesting.....What is even more interesting is that the problem with the workshop is that exposing the state homicidal homophobia of most middle eastern regimes would potentially "undermine the broadening support" for the Palestinians. Let me get this "straight" as it were, having a workshop that discusses the experiences of gay/trans people in the Middle East might cast Israel in a somewhat positive light and so must be cancelled. Wow!
The statement by the National Program Committee is even more stunning. They stated that this kind of workshop, one that might cast Israel in a positive light with respect to gay/trans rights is banned "for being in violation of the anti-racist principles central to the U.S. Social Forum". This can only make sense if the organizers have a position that Zionism is inherently "racist" and therefore anything that could support Zionism, even if objectively true, is inherently "racist." Wow and double wow!
The statement from the USSF Palestine Program goes on to say the following:
racist, Zionist, colonialist and Islamophobic politics and actions are as abhorrent as the politics and practices of homophobia and therefore have no place within movements for justice. We agree with this position and stand steadfastly and with unwavering commitment with this just struggle. Likewise, we stand steadfastly and with unwavering commitment to struggles against US and Israeli policies of war against poor and marginalized communities here in the US and that seek to undermine our unity and solidarity.Let's unpack this a little. Zionism, alone of all movements for national self-determination, is identified as intrinsically "abhorrent" and equivalent to racism, etc. The movement for Jewish national self-determination (which resulted in the only state in the contemporary Middle East with anything like respect for gay/trans rights) is as "abhorrent" as homophobia. Israel and the US are identified as oppressors engaged in "war" against poor and marginalized communities in the US. They (the US and Israel) are attempting to "undermine our unity and solidarity".
This is a victory for our struggle and indeed the struggle for justice for all. This victory makes it clear that the struggle for justice in/for Palestine is an integral part of the worldwide movement for freedom, dignity, justice and peace.
Expelling this "abhorrent" Zionist group and preventing them from telling the truth about gay/trans rights in the Middle East is a "victory" in the struggle for "justice for all."
I detect some frightening tendencies in this emerging ideology. Jews alone are not to have the right to a state because a Jewish state, unlike all others, is inherently racist. The Jewish state is the enemy of those who struggle for justice for all. The Jewish state engages in war on the poor. There can be nothing good said about the Jewish state because the Jewish state is inherently opposed to the struggle for justice. Anything that is said in support of the Jewish state must merely be an attempt to undermine the unity of the "movement" in order to prevent the "movement" from achieving justice for all. In fact, eliminating the Jewish state must be an "integral part of the worldwide movement for freedom, dignity, justice and peace."
In other words, the collective Jew - the state of Israel - is now playing the role for this new movement that the individual Jew played for previous totalitarian movements. Jews are the perpetual "other", irredeemably evil and engaged in a war against the people. The collective Jew manipulates in order to stay in power in order to preserve injustice from which the collective Jew benefits.
There are the seeds of totalitarianism here. The language is that of a monumental world important struggle between a failed past and a golden future. The language is evocative of earlier totalitarian movements that are primarily bound by a common enemy in order to preserve internal unity. The Nazis had to bind together to act defensively against the Jewish attempt to undermine the "volk". The Communists had to bind together against international capitalism.
This is why this workshop had to be cancelled. It threatened a core narrative. It risked, at least for those who care about LBGTI issues, causing some members of the "movement" to think well of Zionists. And that, can't be allowed. Because then the foot soldiers of the movement will not have ideological clarity. The clarity needed to overturn the war-wrought, polluted, corrupt international capitalist order and replace it with a "new world."
Trade unionists need to be wary of the new totalitarianism. Hatred of Israel, Zionism, Jews has become a watchword for this "movement". It is a litmus test.
Let's think back for a second to the theme of the cancelled workshop, LBGTI rights. Let's put it this way, if I were gay/trans I would rather walk hand in hand with my partner down Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv than in any Arab city outside Israel. That is not ideology. That is fact. At least at the end of our stroll we would be alive and unharmed. Can't say that about Gaza City, Ramallah, Riyadh. Just sayin'
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