Behind Enemy Lines 10/30

Every day brings new news of the criminal devastation brought down on the people of Gaza by the US-Israel war machine. US-made bombs murder children, annihilate whole families, and land on churches and homes. The criminal blockade prevents lifesaving medicine, food, and even clean drinking water from reaching Gaza, where half the population is children. While carrying out a genocidal bombing campaign and threatening a ground invasion, Israel with its US weapons and backing has expanded its violent dispossession in the West Bank, and bombed sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, belligerently threatening a larger war. 

Tens of millions of people around the world have taken to the streets in defiance of the US-Israel war machine, demonstrating once again that the people of the world stand with Palestine. In the US, mass protests have expressed a growing and deep opposition to US funding and support for Israel. Protests have pierced the veil of consensus promoted by ruling class politicians and their pliant media, and even forced some US officials to start speaking about humanitarian concerns. In this moment of stifling censorship and “decolonizing” professors refusing to stand with Palestine, these mass protests have strengthened the pole of support for Palestine, and encouraged further resistance like civil disobedience and campus walk-outs. With preparation underway for a ground invasion of Gaza, many people are asking what else can be done besides turning out for protests, and it’s a critical time to raise the question: where does the outrage go from here? 

While these mass protests have been important, they have not become the mass resistance that is needed to slow down and obstruct the US-Israel war machine. And where people, especially young people, have attempted to move beyond just protests, it has been the protest organizers themselves who have held back this righteous resistance. In Chicago, we have seen protesters held back from burning an Israeli flag or attempting to cross a police line to confront the Israeli consulate. In other cities protesters attempting to challenge police repression, confront symbols of Zionism, or the would-be genociders who counter-protest have been held back and kept inside of police pens. While different protests require different tactics, the overall trend from protest organizers has been towards compliance and doing the work of the police themselves, rather than supporting the righteous anger of those attempting to disrupt business as usual. Indeed, the radical-sounding rhetoric of these protest organizers is in stark contrast to the actions that they’re willing to take. 

In some cases, the organizers of these protests are well known opportunists. Organizations such as the PSL (which stands for Protesting Safely behind police Lines) have been playing this role for decades now, organizing radical-sounding protests that, as a policy, don’t confront the rulers tactically or strategically. Unfortunately the problems of this political culture run deeper than any single organization holding back outrage. Too many organizations (even those leading important protests) are content to stay within the bounds of protest as usual, either because of careerist ambitions and ties to politicians and nonprofit organizations, or because they don’t have a vision of resistance beyond protests led by their own small social group. 

To transform this situation, we think there needs to be a culture of discussion and debate, we’re putting out this position paper to help spark that. We look back to the period, during the movement against the Iraq war in 2003, when activists in cities large and small held open public meetings to plan demonstrations, discuss responses to repression, and debate the strategy and tactics for the anti-war movement moving forward. Different political tendencies would put forward arguments for their positions, and the discussions and struggles were held openly. While not perfect, this political culture allowed for an honest engagement with different positions, and encouraged people to get involved and join different organizations. Today, almost all of this discussion happens on social media platforms, where the quality of the debate almost never changes people’s minds and serves to enrich the owners of these platforms. And the discussions about the direction of the movement, the slogans, strategies and tactics and next steps happen either behind closed doors, or in private group chats.

We envision a resistance that is willing to break through the police barricades, both metaphorically and physically. We envision a resistance that holds open discussions and debates, brings anti-imperialism to the people and unites all who can be united against the war machine by disrupting business as usual. Outside of and in addition to protest, there needs to be a spirit developed of going out broadly to the people, to break through the imperialist consensus being promoted by the rulers and challenge complicity and inaction. For one piece of inspiration, people can look to the 1960’s: while known for their protests, a main activity of the Students for a Democratic Society radicals was countless hours of tabling, and going door to door in dormitories to convince people that the war in Vietnam was unjust. In Behind Enemy Lines, we are preparing two weekends of intense street and neighborhood activities with our poster campaign to bring the situation in Palestine to the people, and give them an immediate and visible way to support Palestine, and we invite others to join us in that effort. Educational meetings, discussions, and movie showings can be held in schools, churches and other houses of worship, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Small groups can bring flyers to a transit stop, classroom, or cafeteria, and agitate, combining exposure, education, and a defiance of business as usual. 

We base this on our experience as an anti-imperialist organization that has been organizing people over the past year to stand with Palestine. We’ve held educational events. We’ve distributed more than 1,500 copies of our “Stand with Palestine” flyer that exposes the history and reality of the US-Israel war machine and the barbarity of the occupation of all of Palestine and gives people concrete ways to join the struggle. And we’ve carried out a poster campaign that distributed more  than 100 “Stand with Palestine” posters, and posted more than 80 photographs of people on our Instagram, on the street, taking a small but visible step of support for Palestine and against the imperial consensus. Even as a small organization, we have a deep sense of the potential well of support for Palestine that exists in people of different classes and nationalities if it can be organized and mobilized. 

As long as there is mass outrage and there are mass protests, the protests need to be as large and as defiant as possible. Initial forms of resistance have already emerged that should be encouraged and spread. Jewish comrades declaring “not in our name” have engaged in civil disobedience demanding a ceasefire, high school and college students have held walk outs, and the defiant resistance of Palestine Action in the UK provides one crucial template for direct confrontations with the war machine. The youth and others who want to confront their enemies should be encouraged to do so, and when protest organizers get in their way, they should be opposed and exposed. As the Behind Enemy Lines mission statement says:  “Rather than engage in routinized protests that threaten no one or begging the rulers for concessions, we envision a militant anti-imperialist movement that throws wrenches in the gears of the war machine, develops anti-imperialist consciousness far and wide, deprives the empire of loyal soldiers, and aims to stop new imperialist wars through mass resistance.”

Strategically people should look for targets of protest and resistance that are profiting from and in turn perpetrating the occupation of Palestine. There are weapons companies and contractors, complicit politicians, and pro-war think tanks and academic institutions, all of which should be targeted with protest and resistance. In our view, this agitation and resistance shouldn’t just target institutions of profit, or symbolically make requests to politicians,  but lay bare the workings of the whole imperialist system: the nexus between the media and other ideological apparatuses, pro-war politicians of both parties, and weapons contractors. Our own #CancelCrown campaign lays out the way that key Democratic Party donors and Chicago-based philanthropists/dilettantes the Crown family are implicating dozens of Chicago institutions in the bloody profiting from their ownership stake in General Dynamics. In Boston, The Mapping Project has exposed the deep connections between Boston-area research and academic institutions and the US-Israel war machine. 

There is a question before all of us: will this moment be recorded by history as one in which mass protests registered powerful dissent, only to fade away in the face of atrocities, or be swept into yet another dead end electoral campaign? Or will this moment mark the point at which a section of the people in the US betrayed imperial privilege and joined with the people of the world, taking the side of the people of Palestine to prevent genocide in Gaza. We are making our plans to do just that, here in Chicago and with a few people around the country, and we invite friends and comrades to reach out and conspire with us on these and other ideas. Behind Enemy Lines is committed to doing our part to stand with the people of the world. Join us. 

The empire is the enemy. From the belly of the beast, we choose to resist it.

Behind Enemy Lines