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Kassioun Editorial 1172: America’s Protests: A Beginning and What’s Coming is Greater!
The history of student movements in Western countries, and also in the world, teaches us that their deepest causes have always been internal, not external. Although their trigger was often related to foreign policies, as in the case of Vietnam, South Africa, and now Palestine, their deep foundation was always linked to internal crises, especially their socioeconomic and political-democratic dimensions.
This statement in no way diminishes the importance and essence of the presence of the Palestinian Cause at the heart of the new student movement in the US. However, it puts things into perspective in an objective sense, and seeks to uncover its actual depths and dimensions. The presence of Palestine at the heart of events is by no means a coincidence. “Israel” is the clearest embodiment of the ugliness of the existing Western-centered international system, and it is the tangible embodiment of the lack of social justice, double standards, and moral and “democratic” hypocrisy. In reality, it is the embodiment of the complete decline and rot of the previous system and its comprehensive transition towards blatant violence that is hostile to all of humanity, including Western peoples themselves.
The history of student movements in the West in the 20th century also teaches us that they operate in a domino effect, and that they will therefore not remain confined to the US, but will soon spread to European universities, and perhaps beyond.
It also teaches us that, even if these protests begin as student protests, most of the time, they extend to broader segments of society, especially the working class, which has every reason to protest and tighten ranks through contemporary organizational forms that are more complex and, at the same time, more flexible than the organizational formulas that prevailed within the old political space, in a manner that contributes significantly to the creation of the new political space.
Past student movement experiences, especially in France 1968, also teach us and the rising movement not to make its mistakes, and not to be distorted and exploited by the same elite against which it rose. That should be within the framework of the increasing objective maturity of the basic revolutionary trilogy: A) Those above are no longer able to continue ruling in the same old ways (this expresses one aspect of the unprecedentedly deep division within the American elite, which is becoming more acute); B) Those below reject the continuation ruling in the same old ways (and the elites globally see those they govern internally as their most dangerous and fundamental enemy, and this applies more clearly in the American case); C) Increased political activity of the masses. In the context of completing and maturing this trilogy, its most important element emerges, which is the subjective factor represented by not only increased, but organized, political activity of those below.
Although the movement is still in its early stages, touching on its depth and essence allows us to say that it is a blatant manifestation of the internal American crisis on the one hand, and more importantly, it is a manifestation of the crisis of the entire global system, not only in its political dimension, but also as a crisis in the socioeconomic model prevailing all over the planet: the capitalist model.
The effects that this movement will have, and its upcoming consequences, would contribute seriously to the ongoing major global transformation process and to accelerating it. If the student movements were circumvented in 1968, they proceeded towards their ultimate goals on many other occasions – not as a single actor, but as an important actor – including ending the apartheid state in South Africa and ending the Vietnam War. It is not far-fetched that, in the end, it will move towards the slogans it raises today regarding Palestine, and perhaps further and deeper than that, the potential slogans that have not yet been raised regarding the American interior itself.
All of this not only confirms that the entire world is experiencing a major transformation, but it also re-illuminates that we in Syria are so far going against history, and that the continuation of narrow, selfish interests in determining our direction must stop immediately, through a comprehensive political solution based on UNSC Resolution 2254, which reunites the people and the country, and moves us from the margins of history and events to being in the middle of it.
