The following report, by Samidoun Toronto, illustrates part of the political education work that has been so important to the development of Samidoun and the development of a strong revolutionary movement in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation, return and self-determination from the river to the sea.
One of the ways we at Samidoun Toronto act in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement is through political education, both internal and external. On 17 July, Samidoun Toronto held an internal educational discussion on Part 1 of the Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine, the foundational document of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Published in 1969, the document outlines the Front’s classic Marxist-Leninist analysis of the Palestinian struggle. The Front identifies the friends and enemies of the struggle– the latter being the Zionist entity known as Israel, the Zionist movement, world imperialism, and reactionary Arab regimes.
The Front also outlines its class analysis of Palestinian society, analyzing the role of the Palestinian bourgeois, petit bourgeois, and working classes in revolutionary action. The Front identifies armed resistance and protracted people’s war as the only way to liberate Palestine. As an organization grounded in the traditions and politics of the Palestinian revolutionary left, we at Samidoun Toronto discussed and reflected upon how we can apply the lessons learned from the Front in 1969 to our own local solidarity organizing.
Recently, Samidoun NY/NJ held a similar study session of Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine, which Zionists met with threats, intimidation, and harassment of Samidoun as well as the Mayday Space in Brooklyn which hosted the event. Zionists have been relentless in their attempts to silence, suppress, and criminalize Samidoun, with big tech corporations like Meta and imperialist states protecting their class interests. Far-right publications and racist organizations including “Israel Now” (formerly the JDL) slandering us and attempting to stifle any and all support for the Palestinian struggle, and, in particular, the steadfast Palestinian Resistance, many of whom are incarcerated in Zionist dungeons including PFLP General-Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and leader Khalida Jarrar, among Palestinian prisoners of all resistance forces and movements.
“Israeli” Security Agency Chief Ronen Bar recently reported to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that 21,000 Palestinians are currently incarcerated in Zionist jails, over 10,000 more than previously reported. We must meet the Zionist entity’s escalated targeting of Palestinian Resistance leaders with our own escalated solidarity, including uncompromising support for resistance by any means necessary. Our support terrifies imperialists from occupied Palestine to NY/NJ to Toronto, the latter where TPS arrested a protester for waving the Front’s flag at a rally. This relentless criminalization demonstrates the urgency of studying the Strategy and learning from the PFLP’s materialist analysis of what it means to be in popular struggle, including in the heart of the imperial core.
Our Network’s mission is to achieve freedom for all Palestinian prisoners in the Palestinian liberation movement. Now more than ever must we politically educate ourselves and raise our consciousness through the study of the texts of those who are subjected to and who struggle against Zionist violence and incarceration.
Despite the onslaught of hatred and censorship from imperialist governments, corporations, and Zionist organizations, Samidoun remains dedicated to the Palestinian struggle, Palestinian prisoners, and the Palestinian Resistance. We will continue to educate in unwavering solidarity and apply the lessons learned to our own revolutionary lesson in the fight for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.
