Boston meeting discusses Libya, Palestine, Wisconsin

WW photo: Stevan Kirschbaum

A multinational crowd filled the room at the Action Center here on April 16 for a World View Forum featuring Joyce Chediac, editor of the new book, “Gaza: Symbol of Resistance.” Chediac’s topics were the U.S.’s real aims in Libya and the central role of the Palestinian struggle.

Chediac discussed the current imperialist war that has been launched against Libya and analyzed the role of the U.S. She pointed out how terms like “democracy” mask what is really going on, and that the only way to make sense of it is to start from the role of imperialism. Chediac showed on a map how at the beginning of the 20th century the imperialists had carved up the territory of the Arab world to suit their own interests and described how every imperialist intervention for “humanitarian” purposes has actually harmed the people and served only to tighten imperialist control, citing recent events in Haiti as an example.

Chediac also highlighted the heroic role of the Palestinian people in resisting Zionism and imperialism, pointing out that the recent Arab uprisings show that the Israeli settler state remains imperialism’s only reliable police force in the Middle East. Israel is prepared to take any military action to further imperialism’s control of and access to the resources that belong to the people of the Middle East — above all, oil. A lively and vigorous discussion followed, and at the end of the evening many copies of “Gaza: Symbol of Resistance” were sold, signed by the editor.

The program was rounded out with a dynamic eyewitness report from the workers’ struggles in Wisconsin presented by Ed Childs, chief shop steward of UNITE/HERE Local 26, Harvard University’s cafeteria workers. Childs gave a vivid sense of the surging rise in mass consciousness that is palpable in the workers’ resistance movement in Wisconsin. He cited as an example an anti-war demonstration that became a workers’ demonstration with the unions, leading the way, carrying anti-war signs.