Reflections from St. Patrick's Day Protest, Belfast

I attended the St. Patrick’s Day Palestine march to the US Consulate in Belfast on Saturday. It has been heartening to see weekly rallies taking place in our city, with no signs of dwindling numbers or sense of protest fatigue. For my family, as for many people, these rallies have been the one outlet to demonstrate solidarity and express disgust at our own government’s and – with honourable exceptions - the world’s cowardice and complicity in genocide.

But if Saturday’s rally told me anything it is that this weekly tactic has now reached the limits of its efficacy. It has become a political playground where parties take swipes at each other from the platform and audience members boo speakers. And to be clear, this is not just booing political speakers. A Palestinian man, trying to urge the audience to show respect towards people they have invited on the platform, was heckled and booed as well. It descended into a gratuitous farce.

The subject of disagreement within the movement is, for anyone not paying attention, the issue of boycotting St. Patrick’s Day proceedings at the USA White House. In the interests of transparency, I fully support the boycott and I believe that Sinn Féin, as the largest political party in Ireland, have a particular responsibility and an important role to play. The tactical issue at play was not whether the genocide of the Palestinian people should/would be raised in meetings with the Biden administration – it was what could send the loudest message that the Irish people reject the US government’s support for genocide. Had Sinn Féin chosen to boycott the USA White House, it would have hit the headlines and possibly triggered similar solidarity initiatives. At a time when Muslim leaders in the USA are refusing to meet with the Biden administration for concerns it would “whitewash” genocide, it would also have provided a boost to the domestic pressure Biden is facing on the issue in an election year.

Instead, a tremendous opportunity to make a stand for Palestine was missed and Leo Varadkar was given the space to wash all blame from Biden: “we support your work, and that of your administration to secure a humanitarian ceasefire and create the space for everlasting peace.” Our national holiday was used to greenwash genocide.

Solidarity demands sacrifice; it requires, as Inez McCormack used to say, that you use what access and marginal power you have to open spaces for others in worse need who do not have power. If we are only willing to stand with others within the limits of our own interests and comfort, that is not solidarity: it is opportunism.

Regardless, the tactical maneuverings of Sinn Féin are precisely just that: the decisions of a autonomous political party. To make Sinn Féin’s tactics the pivotal issue in the Palestine solidarity movement and engage in activities which anybody paying attention knows will only divide the movement is opportunism on the same level. The outcome is a fracturing mass movement. Spooks could not scupper it any better.

Perhaps this should be expected. The party political jockeying that goes hand-in-hand with mass mobilising events, as factions attempt to gain ascendancy and hegemony, is an unfortunate and distasteful part of the process. At some point conflicting positions rise to the surface, particularly if there is self-interest at work and political capital to be gained. However if anyone genuinely believes that Saturday’s actions served the interests of Palestine solidarity, they are delusional. But that’s their choice; the role for the movement is to ensure the deluded do not guide strategy.

The genocide in Gaza has triggered an upsurge in vibrant activism. Music, arts, sport and cultural expression have become forms of resistance to the Zionist state and its allies. Schools have replaced Hewlitt Packard IT equipment and supplies produced by companies profiting from the occupation. Union workers have applied pressure within their workplaces to force their employers to boycott Israeli goods. Community pressure helped O’Neill’s sports retailer to boycott Puma and Cliftonville Football Club this week announced that they were changing their sponsors from Puma to O’Neill’s. Belfast’s own KNEECAP led the boycott of SXSW festival in Texas USA, triggering the withdrawal of every Irish act. Unlike strength measured by attendance at rallies, these victories damage the Zionist state in a way no rally ever could.

Of course its not an either/or situation. Rallies can be an important part of any campaign. However we are witnessing what happens when mass rallies become the primary way the broader public experience and express solidarity. We don’t need more platforms for point scoring politicos. Effective support for Palestine requires sustained action that disrupts habitual routines in our families, workplaces and communities so that refusing every association with the Zionist state and its supporters becomes second nature. There can be no room for narrow self-interests – political or economic - in genuine solidarity.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement can provide both excellent resources to help local groups get off the ground and an international network to coordinate with. An independent movement grounded in the community focusing on key industries – identifying products, distributors, outlets and supply chains – is the most potent tool in the strategy to disrupt the economic beneficiaries of apartheid. Exposing, pressurising and recruiting allies at each level from workers and trade unions in transport and retail to small to large businesses who depend on custom from our communities lays the basis for a powerful national boycott – which should be our ultimate strategic aim.

There are people across the island who have been doing this for years, for decades. You won’t know their names because they don’t seek the spotlight. I can only speak for myself when I say that’s where I’ll be spending whatever time I have to contribute to the movement from here on. I cannot stomach another rally involving politicians broadcasting off the backs of Palestinians. I suspect I’m not alone.