Maine Public's Instagram post was among very few reports on Portland, Maine's March 2 rally
The decision to ignore last Saturday's massive "Hands Off Rafah" rallies appears to have been coordinated across the U.S. My guess is that Aaron Bushnell's extreme protest and the actions it inspired have our corporate overlords spooked.
But when Maine's largest city's daily newspaper failed to notice 1,100+ marching down Congress Street on March 2, they missed a lot.
Today, I'm sharing one of the best of several speeches the Portland Press Herald failed to cover, by permission of its author. I know Maryam because we are both members of the Maine Coalition for Palestine.
My name
is Maryam Aswad, and I’m speaking to you on behalf of my wonderful comrades in
the Labour for Palestine working group. I’m also a student, teacher,
researcher, and an organizer for the graduate employee union at UNH.
We know
there is a lot happening in a lot of places, but especially in Gaza. We also
know that we can’t really fathom the extent of it. We get details here and
there from what’s being shared by brave reporters on the ground in Gaza, but
every now and again, we learn something new, something uniquely unimaginable
that had been happening throughout the past four months, four years, eighty
years… and it’s gut wrenching each time. You feel weak, small, insignificant…
what could you possibly do about something you can’t even understand?
I’m a
mathematician, and when I encounter a complicated problem, my intuition is to
walk back and think about something simple, make small steps towards
understanding this complicated problem. Today I want to talk to you about
things that are simple.
First,
people are good. Removed from the imperialist systems of oppression that push
them towards fear and greed, people are good.
When you watch videos from Palestinians in Gaza,
journalists describing the latest Israeli aggressions, there is a lot that is
seen, but goes unsaid. Back when most people lived under roofs, you saw people
walking in and out of houses because everyone kept their doors open. If you’re
looking for something and I have it, come in, take what you need. Come where
you feel safer or where you have compassionate company.
You see men rushing
towards collapsed buildings even as they still smoke with Israeli bombs and
fire to find anyone trapped under rubble, others rushing to find water and
medical aid.
You see little kids holding their cat after an explosion because
she gets scared of loud sounds. Meanwhile, the entire community is collecting
food for this cat even as they sleep hungry each night.
Maybe you’ve heard about Hamza, the prisoner in Sacramento
who donated 136 hours of his labour to Palestine. Hamza has been in prison for
40 years for a gun accident he caused as a teenager. 136 hours netted him
$17.74. Thirteen cents per hour. His life savings, and he donated them to Gaza.
Second
simple truth, people, communities, collectively, are powerful.
The people of Gaza who have evacuated towards Rafah
released a letter together the night before the occupation forces began a
massacre at what they had previously called a safe zone.
It reads:
We will not leave Rafah under any circumstances, and have
decided to die here or return to our homes victorious.
We call on the powers of the world to move towards punishing the aggressors and
stopping the slaughter to avoid the impending catastrophe of Rafah.
We will not return and leave the people of Rafah who have welcomed us and
opened their hearts before their homes to us, and shared with us their every
bite, their clothes, their drink. We will not leave them alone.
We call on the free people of Egypt and her beautiful people to mobilize and
pressure their government to deter the invasion of Rafah.
I’m not going mince words today. The people of Gaza have
been facing a genocide imposed on them by an inherently genocidal colonialist
entity backed by the world’s largest imperialist forces and war machines. And
they are surviving with their hearts intact. Not one government institution
stands behind them. What keeps them alive and what keeps them strong is their
love and compassion towards one another.
Palestinian labourers have called on the global workforce
to refuse to cooperate with the genocide machine, and we hear them loud and
clear. Union workers in Belgium, Barcelona, Italy, Japan refuse to handle
Israeli ships all together. Trade unionists in Britain and Australia blockade
Israeli weapons manufacturers to disrupt genocide. Indian unionists refuse to
be used to replace Palestinian labour in occupied territories. That is
collective power.
Have you heard about the hunger strikes in Dartmouth? Early
on in October, Dartmouth College orchestrated two extremely one-sided panels to
discuss the aggressions. They stifled protests and absolutely refused to
acknowledge their Palestinian students. Two students were arrested as they
peacefully protested, and Dartmouth’s President Beilock accused them of
threatening violence. Dartmouth then went on a victory lap, telling every media
outlet that listened about how wonderfully they handled tensions in the Middle
East. In February, students went on a hunger strike from February 19th and
broke it just yesterday when the school finally sent and email acknowledging
their Palestinian students, agreeing to drop the charges against the protestors
acknowledging them as “consistently peaceful,” and agreeing to meet with the
Dartmouth New Deal to discuss divestment. That right there is community power.
Even me right now. I don’t stand here and talk back against
the empire with my own power. I’m here because I know I’m surrounded by
hundreds of people who will not let the government tell them to limit their
compassion to artificial borders drawn by the powers that be. People who will
stand up and defend each other when they see injustice.
THIS is power.
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