Showing posts with label The Hampton Institute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hampton Institute. Show all posts

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Palestinian Anarchists.

        If you look you can find information about anarchists from anywhere in the world, well almost. One place that doesn't spring to mind when thinking of anarchism is Palestine. Their battle has been against 60 odd years of occupation, land stealing and genocide, there battle has been one of survival against a brutal expanding occupying power. This tends to, though not necessarily so, lead to nationalism, a coming together under a different banner. I have no doubt that their battle will employ principles of anarchism, but that type of battle tends to emphasis a people against another people. However nationalism is not a healthy state of mind, it tends to have an "us" mindset and usually leads to differences, rather than similarities, divisions rather than co-operation.
       Importantly, Hassan extends her own understanding of anarchism beyond positions merely against state or colonial authoritarianism. She refers to Palestinian novelist and Arab nationalist Ghassan Kanafani, noting that although he challenged the occupation, "…he also challenged patriarchal relations and the bourgeois classes… This is why I think we Arabs - anarchists from Palestine, from Egypt, from Syria, from Bahrain - need to begin reformulating anarchism in a way that reflects our experiences of colonialism, our experiences as women in a patriarchal society, and so on."
      "Just being part of political opposition won't save you," warns Ramadan, who adds that for many women, "When you stand against the occupation, you also have to stand against the family." In fact, the over-emphasized portrayal of women at protests, she maintains, masks the fact that in reality many women have to fight just to be there. Even attending evening meetings requires young women to overcome social boundaries not faced by their male counterparts.
Well worth reading the full article HERE:
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