Sustainable activism for Palestine

I have been part of a weekly march for Palestine since Saturday October 14th, 2023 in Cork, Ireland. I remember thinking the current level of death in Gaza was so unsustainable, due to the strength of the global outcry that it surely would be over any week now.

We got to 8 weeks and I thought surely 10, surely 10 weeks is the absolute most amount of time you can commit genocide on a population with absolute impunity, even as we demanded international courts move. 10 passed, then 20, then 60.

Now, at 115 weeks of marching (starting with 1 not 0 for that first Saturday march), what do we have?

• No Occupied Territories Bill passed.
• No end to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
• No end to the illegal occupation and blockade of Palestinian land by Israel.

I found myself burned out, unable to continue attending the weekly march as I once had.

Infinite aims

If the aim of the march is continuous, as in to raise awareness every week, to educate every week, then the weekly Saturday march will not end. Maybe not even in our lifetimes. This realisation started a process within me towards sustainable activism.

Toxic environments in organising

Activism is hard. Activism can also create toxic and bullying environments. I hate to say this because it's everything the left is meant to stand against, but I've seen it happen far too much in our local activist circles. It happens when we're organising for Palestine, it happens when we organise anti-racism + anti-fascism demos and counter-protests.

Activism can suffer from power struggles, a lack of democracy, sectarianism and a host of other things that take a toll on the more involved people attempting to organise within a structured group. I used to try and correct these issues, but it's simply not possible without paying an enormous personal price in energy, and needless stress.

The stress should be coming from the system we are fighting, never directed at each other, and yet many groups, political parties and individuals see activism less as a moral pursuit - and more as a way to exert power over groups of hard-working individuals. I can't stomach it anymore. The levels of disrespect people display towards supposed 'comrades'.

Without urgency, how can street protests escalate?

Without any sense of urgency, the weekly protest, while it has its merits (awareness, education, community) has lost the local press coverage it once had. Now that we have lost the ability to inject that sense of urgency into local demos for Palestine, we have become part of the background hum of the city.

Always there, always marching, with infinite aims and an inability to escalate through street protest means, towards our demands.

Escalations have become 'more' protests. Yet if people have already committed to a protest every week, how likely is it that for an escalation they will attend an extra one, or two, or even three? Especially when a lot of activists are already doing two protests a week, one in the city, and one in their local town or local brigil (bridge vigil for Palestine with flags).

So they are expected to continue doing those protests and add in a third or a fourth as we attempt to escalate? It's just not possible for the majority of people.

Personal goals for my activism for Palestine

So, what's the way forward for me? It's towards sustainable activism, removing myself from close organising groups that get hijacked by controlling people or parties.

I will be in community spaces, I will be in democratic spaces.

I will be still attending the weekly protest on occasion, but I will also be doing other types of organising in spaces that are kind, rejuvenating and supportive.

I will be making sure my instagram account Cork Streets continues to educate on Palestine, and all of the issues we face under this capitalist system. After all, it is all linked. We are part of an anti-war movement that has always existed in some form. And, we are in this for life.