By Abayomi Azikiwe
“Gaza is the Compass” was the theme of the Second People’s Conference for Palestine which was held between August 29-31 in downtown Detroit at the Huntington Place convention center.
This gathering was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) which is active across the United States and Canada.
PYM, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), among many others have taken a leadership role in the struggle to not only expose the role of the United States is propping up the State of Israel, they are demanding the full divestment by higher educational institutions and public entities of financial interests involved in the occupation. The U.S. government has waged a campaign of slander and repression against the Palestine solidarity movement in an effort to undermine its legitimacy and commitment to fostering change.
In the program for the conference, the organizers list their objectives as being: “Responding to the genocide and starvation by documenting the genocide, demanding accountability, and mobilizing. To engage our ability and role to support the material needs and steadfastness of our people. To isolate and expose zionism by making it impossible to recover its image after this genocide. Also to offer concrete tools and lessons for attendees to bring back to their organizing locales and communities.”
Invited speakers at the conference included Huwaida Arraf, Mahmoud Khalil, Mirian Barghouti, Chris Smalls and others. There were several plenary sessions which dealt with Zionism, Imperialism and the Shifting Battlefield; No Weapons for Genocide, The People Demand an Arms Embargo; Gaza is the Center of the World; The Struggle Continues, The Fight for Palestine in North America; The Palestinian Struggle Behind Bars; and Palestine Today, Struggle, along with Resistance and the Path Forward.
One of the most compelling exhibits at the conference was created by PYM. A physical reconstruction of the Gaza Strip illustrated the history and displacement of the Palestinian people.
This display was put together in the offices of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition which has been staunch supporters of the cause of the Palestinians and all of the oppressed peoples of West Asia and North Africa. The Moratorium NOW! Coalition also provided space for the students involved in the Palestine solidarity encampment at Wayne State University during May and June of 2024.
The encampment, described as the “Free University for Gaza”, was broken up by the police at the aegis of the WSU administration. Like many others across the U.S., the demonstrations, encampments and building occupations at higher educational institutions were targeted for destruction by the previous administration of President Joe Biden and the majority of members of the House of Representatives and Senate.
This extreme hostility against Palestine has continued into the presidency of Donald Trump and the current Congress. Trump has proposed the total removal of Palestinians from Gaza in order to build resort hotels. Nonetheless, the resistance to the occupation and genocide continues inside the Gaza Strip and throughout the entire Palestinian nation.
Despite the repressive policies aimed at maintaining corporate and institutional support for the genocide in Gaza and the worsening plight of the people living in the West Bank, the solidarity movement has not been deterred. The fact that 3,000 people registered for the conference speaks volumes on the vibrancy of the antiwar and anti-imperialist sentiment existing among youth and workers in the U.S.
Literature and Artistic Displays Provided Important Resources for the Palestine Solidarity Movement
There were dozens of literature tables and artistic contributions present at the gathering. Groups such as the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), 1804 Books, Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and others distributed materials on the Gaza genocide and the need to build support for the liberation of the people.
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Anti-Fascist Organizing Coalition (AFOC) and the Michigan Coalition Against Genocide shared a literature table where they distributed many pieces of information, pamphlets, t-shirts, Khafiyehs and posters. Moratorium NOW! Coalition reproduced pamphlets from the Fighting Words website (fighting-words.net) dealing with the history of zionism, the centenary of Malcolm X and his contributions to the struggle for Palestine, analyses of the situation involving Russia and Ukraine, the role of the People’s Republic of China in the modern world, the links between the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage, etc.
An organization based in Wisconsin has already announced classes utilizing two of these pamphlets dealing with historic ties between imperialism and the occupation of Palestine. Another clergyman said that his religious institution will also use these pamphlets to educate their members.
The gathering provided a space for networking to build even stronger alliances committed to the freedom of the people of Palestine and the entire region. Workers, youth, religious entities and community organizations will be pivotal in building solidarity actions moving into the future.
Detroit and its suburban environs constitute the largest concentration of Arab Americans, Muslims and other ethnic groups from the West Asia region inside the U.S. Consequently, the conference provided for greater cooperation of people living in the Metropolitan Detroit area with the broader national and international movement for the liberation of Palestine.
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