By JAMES MARKIN
As Israel escalates its genocidal war on Gaza and expands the carnage into south Lebanon with scarcely any criticism by Washington, it has become more critical than ever for the U.S. working class and student movements to fight to end U.S. military aid to Israel. This focus on arms has become more prominent alongside the existing demands of the pro-Palestine student movement for divestment and disclosure, which dominated the encampment fight over the last school year.
During the summer, with this new urgency to prevent the transfer of arms, student Palestine activists began to re-assess the tactics, strategies and goals of the movement against Israel’s war in Palestine. San Francisco State University (SFSU) student organizers spearheaded the formation of a statewide student activist coordination formation. As part of this effort, an organizing meeting was held after the Labor for Palestine forum (https://workersvoiceus.org/2024/08/02/bay-area-workers-face-retaliation-for-palestine-solidarity/) in Oakland on July 7. At this event, students and labor activists came up with the idea for a mass democratic organizing conference, inspired by those organized by the movement against the war in Vietnam as well as the methods of the First Intifada, which could bring in all the different parts of the Palestine movement—students, labor, and political organizations.
The underlying theory that motivated this idea was best expressed by an elected leader of Students for Gaza leader, Sohrab: “The role of the students is to act as a catalyst for workers to go on strike, to politicize and empower their classmates who are the next generation of workers, and to turn their campuses, which act as a place to reinforce imperialism and Zionism, into popular universities.”
During the meeting in Oakland, it was agreed that the best way that the students could play this role alongside working-class activists was through the construction of a democratic general assembly that would be open to all who supported a free Palestine. Again, Sohrab explained the purpose of this tactic: “Democratic buy-in is required for mass action. If the masses of students themselves steer the struggle, it will instill the urgency and agency for them to go out, organize their classrooms, and demand change.” Out of this meeting a committee was put together that was tasked with bringing the conference together.
This continued with a public organizing meeting a month later. At this meeting details were hammered out and a presiding committee was elected to oversee the work of building the conference. As the day grew closer, the list of important organizations supporting the conference grew longer—including the Bay Area Student Coalition for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Workers Voice, Palestinian Feminist Collective, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), DSA, and Bay Area Labor for Palestine. The convention was also endorsed by four union locals (the union of University of California academic employees, UAW Local 4811; the California Faculty Association (CFA) at SFSU, the Oakland Education Association; and the United Educators of San Francisco), as well as by a dozen student organizations in the Bay Area, including many Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Over 700 people registered and more than 350 attended the conference, which was held at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California on Sept. 15. Over the course of the day, the attendees heard greetings from endorsing organizations and voted on slogans, actions and leadership for the movement.
The first order of business was a discussion of the demands. The presiding committee presented three proposed demands, focusing on ending U.S. aid to Israel, fighting back against repression of activists, and reinvesting funds away from war into jobs and education.
Blanca, a CFA-SFSU and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) activist speaking on behalf of the presiding committee, argued that “students and workers and faculty and community members have been fighting against many targets. Now we need specific demands that can elevate and put the pressure on the real power—the U.S. government—which is the main economic, military, and political backer of the state of Israel. We want to bring together all the active constituents that have stood in solidarity with Palestine to build a mass movement that can win, as was the case with the struggle against the Vietnam War, for civil rights, and so on. We know working people can exercise independent power to fight for social change.”
Following a process of discussion in breakouts and amendments, the convention adopted three main slogans based on a vote of all present (with all three demands receiving more than 88% of the vote):
- End all U.S.-backed aid to Israel; withdraw all occupation troops from Palestine; and end the genocidal war against Palestine
- Stop repression of students and workers and communities who are in solidarity with Palestine
- Money for health care, housing, jobs, and education—not for war and occupation
Next up, following lunch, was the proposal for coordinated days of action. Another member of the presiding committee spoke and argued for the need for coordinated actions, saying, “For many years, we have had a problem where student work never extended past the limits of the campus. Coordinated days of action bring the scope of the students to the broader region. This is the essential next step. We need to build out from the encampments and build a unified Bay Area that stands up for Palestine.”
The goal of these coordinated actions would be to provide common work that could be carried out by students, labor, and community activists but also be adjusted to fit the needs and contexts of different local areas. Ultimately, following another period of amendments, the convention endorsed the following coordinated actions:
- 5/6: Palestine Action Network International Days of Action.
- 6: Bay Area fundraiser at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California.
- 7: Day for healing and education.
- 8: Student-led Day of Action, with the goal of shutting down campuses, culminating in an evening rally, where workers, students, and community could unite in one place.
- 8-10: Three days of action, where families, students, and workers can participate in a massive march on a weekend and move toward larger student and workplace/community actions, with the goal of an economic shutdown in cooperation with port workers.
- Additional further actions to be organized and endorsed by the Action Coordinating Committee with a focus on supporting the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions’ call for an embargo on weapons for Israel.
This entire slate of very ambitious actions was approved, again with the support of over 85% of those present. However, given the goals of the convention, it will take the combined effort of all who were present, as well as those in the movement not yet part of this formation in order to successfully carry them out.
The final order of business before the convention was over was the creation of the Action Coordinating Committee (ACC). As explained by members of the presiding committee, the goal of the ACC is to “bring together three major sectors of the Palestinian Liberation Movement—student, labor, and community—from across the Bay Area.” Instead of electing the ACC at the convention, the presiding committee proposed that the ACC be composed of representatives of endorsing groups, and that it create a process by which new endorsers could also be represented on the body. Eventually, the ACC would also be responsible for organizing future popular conventions. This plan was passed with a super-majority for and no votes against.
Overall, it is fair to say that the convention was a smashing success. Built on the foundations and democratic methods of the student struggle at SF State, it showed the potential for mass democratic organizing for Palestine. As Blanca, from the FJP, put it, “One of the important achievements of this convention was bringing out and generalizing the method of organizing of student and faculty at SF State University: the method of our strikes and our fight for democratizing the union. This is the model that the students organized the encampment around. This became a model of success because we showed that when we organize this way, we can prevent repression, we can bring more people into the movement, we can have a leadership that is accountable to the ranks, and we can win. And we show we win because SFSU divested from four companies and agreed to full disclosure.”
Blanca continued, “This conference was an opportunity to expand this method of organizing, connecting the student movement with all the emergent work that has been happening within the rank and file of unions and calling on workers to support Palestine with their methods. Students, workers, and community realized that workers’ democracy is what they need to fight, align on demands, and reflect on the types of action that would unite them and not divide them. Ultimately, we want to understand the rhythms and methods of organizing in every sector. And that truly happened; students were listening to what workers need, and workers were listening to student methods of organizing. In the end, the results of the convention left everyone feeling very confident in the process and strategies that came out of it.”
Ultimately, the convention showed that this model can be generalized in order to bring students, labor, and community activists together to fight for Palestine. What is needed is now for the ACC and the convention organizers to continue the work and to organize successful coordinated days of action. At the same time, we need to build similar conventions all around the country to help students in the campuses and workers in their unions break from isolation and experience the power they have if they act united with the Palestinian community.
Our goal should be to spread the organization from local, to regional, to national—with the ultimate goal of unifying a popular resistance to the war on Palestine and Lebanon. As the SF State student Sohrab put it, “Students must be working with, not disrupting, their faculty, staff, and surrounding communities, bringing them into the process and actions. We need the masses in order to end all U.S.-backed aid to Israel, and the students play a vital role both on their campuses and in the broader movement. If we set our intentions on this and full liberation instead of just honing in on divestment or campus wins, we will take the steps needed to build truly revolutionary action.”
This is true because it is only the working masses of the United States who have the kind of power necessary to actually force the U.S. to stop arming and backing Israel. Student activists are at their most powerful when they are able to mobilize on campus but then bring their forces off campus and unify with working class people in order to strike out at the forces of the capitalist class in the broader community.
Finally, with the U.S. election approaching, and both establishment parties supporting continued aid for Israel and the repression of pro-Palestinian activists, it is essential to keep our organizing efforts independent of the forces that try to deflate, co-opt, and repress us, and to start building a real political alternative for working people.
