Some think solidarity protests are merely symbolic dead-end gestures, feel-good moments or a way to vent indignation for do-gooders. Symbolic, empty gesturing isn’t why Palestinians have held the Great Return Marches for over one year now, facing off unarmed against Israeli snipers. That isn’t why Kashmiris came out yesterday also unarmed against nearly a million soldiers with pellet guns & rubber bullets. That isn’t why Syrian Arab Spring activists protest despite Russian, Syrian, & US-coalition bombing. It isn’t why the Egyptian, Bahraini, Tunisian, Yemeni Arab Spring uprisings organized protests of millions for months nor why the Sudanese protesters continue to protest against military dictatorship. Protests are political power. Protests are to counterpose the power of resistance to the power of tyranny, to mobilize, agitate, educate, broaden, strengthen opposition to war, occupation, persecution, injustice, genocide.

If solidarity protests are not ineffectual, how can we explain that there have been millions who’ve protested for Palestinians but Israel has accelerated genocide & ethnic cleansing? That there were hundreds of thousands who protested for the Rohingya & still they suffer in refugee camps with no prospects for human, democratic, & civil rights in Burma? That there were massive protests against the US invasion of Iraq & now the US controls the country & continues to bomb there? There were millions of women on every continent at the Women’s Marches & still the conditions of life for women & children continue to deteriorate? So what’s the purpose of those protests anyway if they haven’t changed the world? The best authorities on that might be the Vietnamese who encouraged the international antiwar movement, who understood it as a force that could restrain US military aggression. But Vietnam was over 50 years ago & things have changed? Protests are no longer enough?

Protests alone were never enough. Just as they aren’t in Palestine, Kashmir, Burma, Syria, Iraq, China, or anywhere else. Protests are to mobilize those who understand an issue to put political pressure on governments; to educate those who know nothing about what’s going on but would be concerned if they did; to publicly give moral support to those on the front lines of oppression, to let them know they are not alone, that we have their backs. But along with protesting, we have to develop other tactics like educational forums & campaigns, speaking tours, boycotts & campaigns like BDS, strike actions, work stoppages & slow-downs, humanitarian missions & investigative tours. Developing all that requires an authoritative, democratic, international movement & network with a collaborative structure that doesn’t let things be willy-nilly but has the resources & commitment to call emergency actions, coordinated, consistent, regular actions & connects the struggles against war, occupation, genocide.

Maybe 50 years ago we could let such a collaborative structure slide & stick with the ad hoc model of protesting. But not anymore. Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingya, Uyghur, Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Yemenis, & so many others are facing life & death survival against barbarism, against military power that can push a button & blow up the whole damn world & is trying to do that piece by piece. We need to get our act together & use social media to facilitate that. We should thank our lucky stars the internet & social media emerged just in time for the work we have to do.

Where do we begin? Let’s put our minds together on that & come up with a plan. Right here, right now, today. How do we work together to end the savagery, to support the political power of the oppressed, to make this world suitable for human beings to come of age in before fascism engulfs the whole damn planet or global warming fries us to death, whichever comes first? Call this a manifesto.

“I don’t think I’ve seen enough condemnation of India’s communication blockade in Kashmir. It’s cruel, illegal, immoral and reprehensible. No other country has deprived an entire people of their fundamental right to speak with their loved ones. I condemn it. Will you join me?”

–Kashmiri writer & journalist Mirza Waheed

“Most Indians are so politically illiterate that they do not know their real enemy. It is the Indian State. It is not the Kashmiri people, not even the Pakistani state. Indian citizens who know what is what and which is which know they have a lot more to fear from the Indian State’s legal monopoly over violence, than from the Pakistani state and Islamist terrorism — mostly a manufactured ‘threat’ in the South Asian context so far. The ‘patriots’ of India, especially those who earn a salary for their ‘patriotism’, are enemies of all the peoples in the subcontinent. They are essentially mercenaries of the world imperialist order, and defenders of the pimps of subcontinental natural resources and labour.”

–Indian activist Satyadeep Satya

“Since Kashmiri people have not voted for India in a plebiscite, Parliament had no right to take any decision on Article 370. Not just Parliament, even the Supreme Court has no right to change anything about Kashmir’s relationship with the Republic of India. Not until Kashmiris choose to approve the feudal-autocrat Hari Singh’s decision through free and fair voting. Only Kashmiris have the right to decide on the kind of relationship they want with the Republic of India.”

–Satyadeep Satya

Images of #StandWithKashmir protests across the U.K.: Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, London.

The Syrian Arab Spring contingent at the NYC #StandWithKashmir rally.

(Photo from Omawi Aseel)

National Demonstration for Kashmir from London on 10th Aug 2019:

Maybe some wonder why all these strangers from Ohio, McAllen, Bellevue, Gaza, Manchester, Toronto, Berlin, London, Lahore, Delhi, NYC, DC, & elsewhere give a damn about Kashmiris. What’s it to us what happens to them? Well there’s a whole raft of reasons, including primarily the justice of Kashmir’s right to self-determination & their struggle against colonialism & occupation. There’s also the problem of India’s relationship with Israel & its conflict with Pakistan that could set off a war in the region that would involve the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. But it’s also because a Kashmiri alliance with Palestinians, Rohingya, Uyghur, Syrians, Afghans, Yemenis, Iraqis, & others would change the course of human history.

A victory for any on the front lines of oppression, especially a victory against the merciless hatred incited against Muslims, would strengthen the struggles of the oppressed around the world, would hearten them in their own struggles, would weaken the forces of oppression. It’s also worth mentioning that Kashmiris have long been exemplary in standing up for the oppressed despite the occupation they sustained. But maybe the biggest reason of all is that no human being is alien to us. An injury to one is an injury to all. Je suis human ergo je suis Kashmiri.