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On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Ralph Johansen <[email protected]>wrote: Why can't a movement grow in strength through a > strategy of divestment? Because movements do not grow through an exclusive focus on their intermediate goals. People need something they can immediately do, to plug in, take ownership, and feel empowered. That's why union organizers always ask enthusiastic recruits to go out and collect authorization cards from their fellow workers, or something very similar, whether they need the damn cards or not. > but how can > we in the US participate in a boycott against Israel, and against the > Israeli workers who will bear the brunt, when it is so obviously our > government who have for years been the primary supporters of Israel, > including its policies toward the Palestinians, providing many billions > of dollars in aid and trade annually, including military weapons and > materiel and diplomatic support. Wouldn't we also have then to support a > boycott against the US, lower AND upper case? > No, because as I said here a very short time ago, BDS is a political strategy and not a moral obligation. It is, moreover, a strategy proposed by the Palestinians themselves, who had nothing specific to say about the United States. You are welcome to review their statement, which I also posted here very recently, for yourself: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52 The essential question here is one of solidarity, or as Florence Reece said, "Which side are you on?" Palestinian civil society has requested a specific means of support. Do you stand with them or against them? It's not a complicated question; in fact, any recourse to childhood Sunday School lessons about hypocrisy is already too complicated for it. -- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
