Palestine Direct Action Fund – No Business as Usual: Exercising Direct Action

This is a workshop on imagining defiance. Sparked by the direct action taking place within the Palestinian liberation movement worldwide, this workshop will explore how we can reclaim our power. When the rules imposed by our institutions of power do not make moral sense, how might we live in defiance? Member of the Black Liberation Army, Assata Shakur, said it best: "Nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."

This workshop will be hosted by several people who have engaged in direct action for Palestine and other related causes in Sweden. Some of us have made a ruckus at Parliament. Some of us have organized the student encampments. Some of us have been arrested. All of us strongly decry the genocides taking place, and believe that no business as usual can take place while countless people are being slaughtered.

The organizers of this workshop acknowledge that we live in a time profoundly shaped by the two-headed snake of racism and capitalism, resulting in the oppression of multiple peoples and the destruction of our planet. What more can we do after we have signed all the petitions, marched in all of the demonstrations, and participated in all the boycotts? Anthropologist and anarchist activist, David Graeber, observed: "Protest is like begging the powers that be to dig a well. Direct action is digging the well and daring them to stop you." Join us in the workshop to imagine the new wells we can collectively dig. Free Palestine, free Sudan, free Congo, free Tigray, free Haiti, free Kanaky, free West Papua, free Hawaii. Free all oppressed peoples.