It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
The United States said it could impose a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. This was declared on 29 November for a period of 60 days. Just long enough for Biden to say that he had ‘done the job’ and hand over to Trump at the end of January. An inglorious end to the reign of ‘Genocide Joe’, who has spent the entire year supporting, arming and ultimately encouraging Israel’s genocidal escalation.
Since 8 October 2023, Israel has targeted Lebanon, in particular the south, claiming to be attacking Hezbollah ‘terrorists’ but waging the same style of war as that on Gaza. This policy accelerated at the beginning of August 2024 and, following the so-called pager attacks, Israel waged war on the whole of Lebanon: flights at the speed of sound, threats to airspace, widespread bombing in popular and populated neighbourhoods in both the north and the south. The aim was clear: to create the conditions for a civil war in order to bring about a regime change that would be more favourable to Israel.
A fragile ceasefire and no halt in Gaza
The initial conditions of the ceasefire included an end to the offensive in Gaza: these clauses are no longer demanded by Hezbollah, which has agreed to withdraw north of the Litani River. Israel did not really have to withdraw since its offensive never succeeded in establishing a lasting position in southern Lebanon.
The temporary ceasefire offers respite to the Lebanese people who had fled the south because of the bombardments. Several thousand people returned to the south of the country to find their villages and homes devastated. The damage is extremely extensive: dozens of villages almost completely razed to the ground, infrastructures devastated and another 4,000 deaths to be deplored. All this for a temporary and fragile ceasefire, since several violations of the agreement (52 in total, at the time of writing) by Israel have been recorded. For the moment, there has been no escalation, but it is to be feared that this will only be temporary.
Indeed, in operational terms, Netanyahu was somewhat forced into a ceasefire: an army of exhausted reservists, no victory either tactically (on the ground) or politically in Lebanon and an expectation of rearmament.
Nevertheless, the Gaza front was not interrupted at all. The massacres in the north of Gaza continue amid general indifference and blindness. Particularly since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed 192 journalists in Gaza. The death of aid workers from the American charity World Central Kitchen, which caused a scandal in April, has this time gone unnoticed by the media.
Destabilisation of the region
UNRWA has decided to halt all deliveries of humanitarian trucks through the northern entrance to Gaza. The UN organisation accuses Israel of allowing armed gangs to attack the lorries, either by demanding ransoms or by stealing the goods directly. Some of these groups have clashed with Hamas. Hamas accuses the Israeli army of complacency with the thieves. The disastrous consequence is that the whole of northern Gaza is left to fend for itself without any means of subsistence. Even if a Hamas delegation was received in Cairo to resume ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, it is clear that Israel has no intention of stopping the destruction and massacres.
Israel has profoundly destabilised the region. Palestine, Lebanon, but also Syria, with renewed fighting between armed factions in the Aleppo region. For decades, the presence of the colony in Palestine has been the main cause of instability in this region of the Middle East. It is high time for this breathless and increasingly dangerous colonial state to collapse and become a state free of apartheid, occupation and military expansionism.
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Unity Above Else: The Only Road to the Liberation of Palestine
A child runs holding the Palestinian flag as he passes graffiti on the controversial Israeli separation barrier during the Palestine Marathon, Bethlehem, March, 2018. (Photo from Daily Sabah)
A new kind of unity around Palestine is finally finding its way to the Palestine solidarity movement worldwide.
The reason behind this unity is obvious: Gaza.
The world’s first live-streamed genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the growing spontaneous compassion, thus solidarity, with the Palestinian victims, helped recenter priorities from the typical political and ideological conflicts back to where they should have always remained: the plight of the Palestinian people.
In other words, it is the sheer criminality of Israel, the steadfastness, resilience and dignity of the Palestinians, and the genuine love for Palestine by ordinary people that have imposed themselves on the rest of the world.
While many solidarity groups, despite their differences, have always found margins for unity around Palestine, many did not.
Instead of rallying in support of a Palestinian justice-based discourse, mainly focused on ending the Israeli occupation, dismantling apartheid, and obtaining full Palestinian rights, many groups have rallied around their own ideological, political, and often personal priorities.
This led to deep divisions and, ultimately, the unfortunate splintering of what was meant to be a single global movement.
Though many rightly claim that the movement has suffered the dire consequences of the Syrian war and other conflicts linked to the so-called Arab Spring, in truth, the movement has historically been prone to divisions, long before the recent Middle East upheavals.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, starting in 1990, has left permanent scars on all progressive movements across the world, where, in the words of Domenico Losurdo, ‘western Marxists’ retreated to their academic hubs, and ‘eastern Marxists’ were left alone fighting the scourges of the US-led ‘new world order’.
The balkanization of the socialist movement globally, but mainly in western countries, can still be seen in the view of many socialist groups regarding the events underway in Palestine, and of their proscribed ‘solutions’ to the Israeli occupation.
Whether these ‘solutions’ are pertinent or not, it is of very little value to the struggle of the Palestinians on the ground; after all, these magic formulas are often developed in western academic laboratories, with little or no connection, whatsoever, to the events underway in Jenin, Khan Yunis or Jabaliya.
Additionally, there is the problem of transnational solidarity. This type of solidarity is simply conditioned on the expected return of an equal amount of solidarity in the form of political reciprocity.
This notion is a misinformed application of the concept of intersectionality, as in various disaffected groups offering mutual solidarity to amplify their collective voice and advance their interests.
While intersectionality at a global level is hardly functional, let alone tested – interstate relations are usually governed by political strategy, national interests, and geopolitical formations – intersectionality within a national and local framework is very much possible.
For the latter to carry meaning, however, it requires an organic understanding of the struggles of each group, a degree of social immersion, and genuine love and compassion for one another.
In the case of Palestine, however, this noble idea is often conflated with negotiable and transactional solidarity, which might work at the political stage, especially during times of elections, but rarely helps cement long-term bonds between oppressed communities over time.
The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza has certainly helped many groups expand the margins of unity so that they may work together to bring the extermination of Gaza to an end, and to hold Israeli war criminals accountable in any way possible.
This positive sentiment, however, must continue long after the end of the genocide, until the Palestinian people are finally free from the yoke of Israeli settler colonialism.
The point here is that we already have numerous reasons to find and maintain unity around Palestine, without laboring to find ideological, political, or any other kind of common ground.
The settler-colonial Israeli project is but a manifestation of western colonialism and imperialism in their classical definitions. The genocide in Gaza is no different than the genocide of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia at the turn of the 20th century, and US-western interventionism in Palestine is no different than the destructive role played by Western countries in Vietnam and numerous other contested spaces all over the world.
Placing the Israeli occupation of Palestine in a colonial framework has helped many liberate themselves from confused notions about Israel’s ‘inherent’ rights over the Palestinians.
Indeed, there can be no justification for the existence of Israel as an exclusively ‘Jewish State’ in a land that belonged to the native Palestinian people.
By the same token, the much-touted Israeli ‘right to self-defense’, a notion that some ‘progressives’ continue to parrot, does not apply to military occupiers in an active state of aggression or those carrying out genocide.
Keeping the focus on Palestinian priorities also has other benefits, including that of moral clarity. Those who do not find the rights of the Palestinian people compelling enough to develop a united front were never intended to be part of the movement in the first place, thus their ‘solidarity’ is superficial, if at all genuine.
The road for Palestine liberation can only go through Palestine itself and, more specifically, the clarity of purpose of the Palestinian people who, more than any other nation in modern times, have paid and continue to pay the highest price for their freedom.
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Ramzy Baroud is a US-Palestinian journalist, media consultant, an author, internationally-syndicated columnist, Editor of Palestine Chronicle (1999-present), former Managing Editor of London-based Middle East Eye, former Editor-in-Chief of The Brunei Times and former Deputy Managing Editor of Al Jazeera online. Baroud’s work has been published in hundreds of newspapers and journals worldwide, and is the author of six books and a contributor to many others. Baroud is also a regular guest on many television and radio programs including RT, Al Jazeera, CNN International, BBC, ABC Australia, National Public Radio, Press TV, TRT, and many other stations. Baroud was inducted as an Honorary Member into the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society, NU OMEGA Chapter of Oakland University, Feb 18, 2020.
How We’re Rebuilding the Nation’s Largest Student Organization
For over seven decades, the U.S. Student Association represented millions of students, weathered challenges like CIA infiltration, and championed civil rights and free higher education. Learn how this organization was built in the 1940s and why a new generation is rebuilding it today.
A young Kwame Ture attempted to influence the organization but was stifled by the CIA. Credit: Leni Sinclair
Where We Were
For decades, the United States Student Association (USSA) served as the nation’s most powerful student voice. Born in 1978 from the merger of the National Student Association (NSA) and the National Student Lobby (NSL), the USSA was a force for equity and justice in higher education and led many movements to make higher education more affordable, accessible, and inclusive.
The NSA’s roots trace back to the 1946 Prague Convention, where students from 36 nations—including the U.S.—gathered to form the International Union of Students. This global solidarity inspired the NSA’s founding at the University of Wisconsin the following year, where it famously adopted the Student Bill of Rights. The NSA’s history wasn’t without controversy; it faced significant financial challenges in the 1950s and was covertly funded by the CIA (unbeknownst to the vast majority of its membership and leaders) until the partnership dissolved in 1967. This period pushed the organization to refocus its efforts on domestic issues, such as racial inequality and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Tim Jenkins, an early Vice President of NSA, was also a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Credit: SNCC Legacy Project
In 1971, a group of Californians broke off from the NSA to form the National Student Lobby (NSL) as they wanted to focus on more legislative priorities. The NSL lobbied for increased funding for the Higher Education Act of 1972, best known for its creation of Title IX which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in institutions receiving federal funding. They also lobbied to increase minimum wage and for the abolition of the Vietnam War draft. Similarly, the NSA opposed the war and, controversially, their president visited North Vietnam in hopes of finding evidence of the U.S. violating international law. This infamously made the NSA a member of President Nixon’s enemy list, a culmination of his political opponents and enemies.
After this, the NSA became more focused on lobbying and legislation and collaborated with the NSL a few years later, thus forming the United States Student Association as an advocacy coalition of hundreds of thousands of students across the country. The USSA was an integral part in advocating against tuition increases and for allowing students to be eligible for credit cards.
For years, the USSA was the largest student-run, student-led organization in the entire country. The USSA ran for nearly 39 years until its collapse in 2016 when it finally succumbed to the structural and financial hardships it had been facing for the better part of a decade. This fate was not unique to the USSA. Many statewide student associations and other student-led advocacy groups faced similar challenges that drastically reduced their operations or led to their collapse altogether. This has been seen in states such as Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Arizona where the ability to fund statewide student associations using student fees has been severely diminished or completely abolished.
USSA occupied the entrance of a student loan servicer, demanding debt forgiveness in 2012. Credit: Chris Hicks
Although the USSA collapsed in 2016, the organization’s legacy endures through the student leaders it empowered, many of whom continue to champion equity and justice across a wide range of fields. It’s some of these very same student leaders who have been invaluable in the current efforts to reform and revive the United States Student Association.
Where We Are
In April of 2024, a group of student leaders and alumni met in Washington D.C. to discuss the return of the USSA. This initial convening featured representatives from four of the strongest statewide student associations in the country, the Washington Student Association (WSA), the Oregon Student Association (OSA), the University of California Student Association (UCSA), and the Arizona Student Association (ASA).
This initial convening was the first instance of student leaders coming together to amplify the student voice at the national level since the collapse of the USSA. Following this convening, these leaders among others have been holding biweekly student leadership calls in order to bring back the USSA.
Student leaders from Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New York, Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Minnesota met frequently throughout the summer to discuss the revival of the USSA, learn from each others efforts in their respective states, and learn more about federal advocacy and student leadership from USSA alumni who are now leaders in their respective fields. These calls were and continue to be open to students nationwide irrespective of their leadership role on their campus. Our only requirement is that they must be a currently enrolled student in order to be involved with this work.
One notable example of the revival effort’s momentum was an alumni panel hosted during one of these calls, where former USSA leaders shared their insights on advocacy, leadership, and the importance of student mobilization. The panel, which included alumni who held previous leadership roles within the USSA and their respective statewide student associations, provided their perspectives and thoughts on navigating the challenges students face and the strategies that have worked in the past. These alumni emphasized the significance of collective action and the power of students uniting around common goals, offering advice on how current student leaders can organize effectively at both the state and federal levels.
On September 30th 2024, these student leaders voted on a formal plan to officially revive the association entitled Project Restart. This plan, spanning from September of 2024 to May of 2025, marks the steps that students are going to take to finally bring back the USSA. The plan includes building a national student network, training student leaders in advocacy, and culminates in hosting a national convening and student lobby day in Washington, D.C., in spring of 2025, where students will officially vote to reestablish the association by adopting new governing documents and electing new leadership.
As part of Project Restart, the USSA has formed three committees—Policy, Outreach, and Operations—which are charged with specific duties in preparation for the spring convening. These committees are actively seeking additional members and will hold regular meetings over the next several months. This structure ensures that the revival effort remains collaborative, transparent, and action-oriented.
Former USSA President Tiffany Dena Loftin working with current students in D.C.
This effort to revive the USSA, comes at a time when many of these student leaders have recognized that it has likely never been more difficult to be a student. The rising cost of education is only the beginning of the struggle—students are increasingly burdened with skyrocketing tuition, mounting student loan debt, a lack of affordable housing, and access to basic needs. The pressure to succeed academically, while managing these crises, is overwhelming. These issues affect not only the well-being of students but also their ability to succeed in higher education at all.
But it’s not just the external pressures students face that are concerning, it’s also the deliberate erosion of their power to act collectively. Over the past decade or so, student leaders have witnessed an increasing trend of their influence being stripped away, both on campuses and within legislative arenas. From state-level budget cuts that weaken student governance structures to other policies designed to silence dissent and marginalize student voices, it’s clear that there is a concerted effort to suppress student movements. In Washington State, for instance, a broadly written law (RCW 28B.10.281) threatens to revoke financial aid for students who participate in demonstrations that disrupt the educational process at an institution. While there is no record of this law being enforced, it’s especially concerning given recent efforts from pro-Palestinian organizers who have seen their efforts be targeted by university administration, local authorities, and elected officials across the country. The mere existence of a policy such as this one disproportionately impacts low-income and first-generation students, who depend greatly on financial aid and may feel forced to choose between exercising their right to protest and preserving their ability to afford an education.
Across the country, student governments have been targeted with restrictions on their power to advocate for essential services, access to resources, and policy changes that benefit students. In some cases, student groups are being defunded or denied the ability to hold events that are critical for raising awareness and driving change. Legislative attacks on student advocacy groups and higher education funding reflect a broader trend aimed at stifling student-led movements that have historically pushed for systemic reforms and greater equity in education. These efforts are not only an affront to student voices, they are a direct attempt to dismantle the very foundation of student-led advocacy.
At a time when student activism is needed more than ever, the forces that seek to suppress student power only make the work of student leaders that much harder. As mentioned earlier, one of the groups present at the initial convening to discuss the revival of the USSA was the Oregon Student Association (OSA). Tragically, despite its long-standing history of advocacy and wins for students in Oregon, the OSA was forced to shut down in 2024. The organization faced mounting financial pressures and structural challenges that made its continuation unsustainable.
The death of the OSA is a sobering reminder of how fragile student-led organizations can be, even when they have a proven track record of success. It underscores the urgency of reviving a national student-led body that can advocate for policies protecting student organizations and empowering them to fight back against the forces working to suppress their voices. Without such a unified effort, the void left by organizations like the OSA will only grow, leaving students more vulnerable to systemic inequities and silencing.
The revival of the USSA is a response to this intentional marginalization and recent history of organizational decline, a reclaiming of the space that students have historically occupied as advocates for themselves and their peers. The challenges we face are immense, but so is the power we have when we stand united. Now, more than ever, it is critical that we restore the USSA to ensure that students once again have a powerful, coordinated voice in the fight for equity, justice, and a higher education system that serves all.
Where We’re Headed
What began as a conversation among a few student leaders in an NEA conference room has now grown into a national movement. Today, the revival of the USSA involves leaders from ten states and hundreds of campuses across America, collectively representing over four million students.
This effort is grounded in a fundamental truth about organizing and advocacy: those directly impacted by systemic issues must lead the fight for change. Students, as the primary stakeholders in higher education, are uniquely positioned to champion policies that address their needs. Whether it’s fighting for affordable tuition, expanding access to financial aid, or addressing systemic inequities, the lived experiences of these students are critical in shaping effective solutions.
The USSA’s revival is not just about rebuilding an organization, it’s about reigniting a movement. The challenges facing students today, from rising tuition costs to a mental health crisis, demand bold, collective action. By uniting students across the country, the USSA aims to restore higher education as a public good and a pathway to opportunity for all.
As the USSA prepares for its formal relaunch in spring 2025, it invites all students to join this historic effort. The association’s vision is clear: a unified, student-led movement that amplifies the voices of millions and transforms higher education for the better.
The USSA’s legacy reminds us of what is possible when students organize and act collectively. Its revival shows that, even after years of dormancy, the spirit of student advocacy remains alive and well. Now more than ever, students must come together, share their stories, and lead the charge for a brighter future.
Corporate Fearmongering Over Fast Food Wage Hike Aged Like Cold French Fries
Conor Smyth (FAIR.org, 1/19/24): “The history of debates over the minimum wage is filled with claims about the detrimental effect of raising the wage floor that have repeatedly flopped in the face of empirical evidence.”
In September 2023, California passed a law requiring fast food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide to pay workers a minimum of $20 an hour, affecting more than 700,000 people working in the state’s fast food industry.
Readers will be unsurprised to hear that corporate media told us that this would devastate the industry. As Conor Smyth reported for FAIR (1/19/24) before the law went into effect, outlets like USA Today (12/26/23) and CBS (12/27/23) were telling us that, due to efforts to help those darn workers, going to McDonald’s or Chipotle was going to cost you more, and also force joblessness. This past April, Good Morning America (4/29/24) doubled down with a piece about the “stark realities” and “burdens” restaurants would now face due to the law.
Now we have actual data about the impact of California’s law. Assessing the impact, the Shift Project (10/9/24) did “not find evidence that employers turned to understaffing or reduced scheduled work hours to offset the increased labor costs.” Instead, “weekly work hours stayed about the same for California fast food workers, and levels of understaffing appeared to ease.” Further, there was “no evidence that wage increases were accompanied by a reduction in fringe benefits… such as health or dental insurance, paid sick time, or retirement benefits.”
Judd Legum (Popular Information, 12/3/24): “The restaurant industry provided a distorted picture of the impact of the fast food worker wage increase.”
In June 2024, the California Business and Industrial Alliance ran a full-page ad in USA Today claiming that the fast food industry cut about 9,500 jobs as a result of the $20 minimum wage. That’s just false, says Popular Information (12/3/24).
Among other things, the work relied on a report from the Hoover Institution, itself based on a Wall Street Journal article (3/25/24), from a period before the new wage went into effect, and that, oops, was not seasonally adjusted. (There’s an annual decline in employment at fast food restaurants from November through January, when people are traveling or cooking at home—which is why the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers seasonally adjusted data.)
The industry group ad starts with the Rubio’s fish taco chain, which they say was forced to close 48 California locations due to “increasing costs.” It leaves out that the entire company was forced to declare bankruptcy after it was purchased by a private equity firm on January 19, 2024 (LA Times, 6/12/24).
As Smyth reported, there is extensive academic research on the topic of wage floors that shows that minimum wage hikes tend to have little to no effect on employment, but can raise the wages of hundreds of thousands of workers (CBPP, 6/30/15; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 5/2/19). Media’s elevation of anecdotes about what individual companies have done, and say they plan to do, in response to the minimum wage hike overshadows more meaningful information about the net effect across all companies in the industry.
The Wall Street Journal (12/28/23) said last year that “it defies economics and common sense to think that businesses won’t adapt by laying off workers.” Since that hasn’t happened, does the Journal need better economists—or more sense?
And what about agency? The Wall Street Journal (12/28/23) contented that “it defies economics and common sense to think that businesses won’t adapt by laying off workers” in response to the new law. But why? Is there no question lurking in there about corporate priorities? About executive pay? About the fact that consumers and workers are the same people?
The question calls for thoughtfulness—will, for example, fast food companies cut corners by dumping formerly in-house delivery workers off on companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats, which are not subject to the same labor regulations? How will economic data measure that?
That would be a story for news media to engage, if they were interested in improving the lives of struggling workers. They could also broaden the minimum wage discussion to complementary policy changes—as Smyth suggested, “expanded unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, a job guarantee, and universal basic income.”
The narrow focus on whether a Big Mac costs 15 cents more, and if it does, shouldn’t you yell at the people behind the counter, is a distortion, and a tired one, that should have been retired long ago.
