Decolonize Your Mind ... while you still can
"Before" images of the Gaza Solidarity Peace Camp (not its official name) at the University of Victoria, May 2024
One of my favourite things (as an activist journalist, chronicling as much as I could about poverty, environment, social justice issues between around 2000 and 2014) has always been peaceful and creative direct action activism. Tree sits. Protest camps. Teach-ins. Places where people of like mind get together and challenge authority and learn from each other while trying to figure out how to build a better world.
With the Free Gaza protest camps, students around the world have gotten out from behind their computers, they’re outside standing on the earth and embracing the actual living spirit of democracy as they courageously build communities that directly challenge perhaps the most evil and destructive military empire the world has ever seen.
Inside the camps, while they’re establishing new friendships, they’re no doubt struggling with things like how to democratize decision making, consensus building techniques, how to maintain respect for personal rights and freedoms within a communal environment, how to set aside the ego and focus on the common goal. They’re figuring out who to trust, and in which moments.
This is a generation that was raised on computers and games and other technology, and they’re finally outside doing something! Their innovation and creativity ought to be rewarded, applauded, supported. But, of course, as usual, the response from the status quo, privileged, parasitic ruling class is to condemn them, to paint them as the enemy, and to shut them down.
The camp at the University of Victoria was six days old when I visited with my camera, my audio recorder, and an open mind. I didn’t conduct any “streeters,” as I once would have, and I didn’t take any close up photos of the activists. I just recorded my own thoughts and impressions.
What I noticed is that these students are justifiably afraid. They’re super cautious. They’ve seen the goon squads in the USA brutalizing professors and students. Even Jill Stein, a presidential candidate, was pushed to the ground and then charged with assaulting a police officer! So the students are reluctant to speak to media of any kind, and they’re wearing masks in an attempt at anonymity, to protect themselves from being “doxxed.” They realize the enormity of what they’re undertaking. This is history in the making! And their lives will be forever changed because of it.
Please visit a student protest at a College or University near you, while you have the chance, before they are forcibly removed or, preferably, their divestment demands are met and they subsequently disband and go back to their lives. You’ll have something cool to tell someone’s grandkids about someday when they ask “what did you do?”
Visit me at envirovegan on Twitter X if you’re looking to find a variety of informed, truly independent, alternative media sources on this and various other issues. Remember … no single news source is perfect on every issue and ultimately, if you believe (as I do) that our soul’s growth is enabled when we persistently investigate and re-evaluate our worldview, it’s up to you to always and ongoingly do your own research and make up your own mind.
Here’s a little movie I made after a visit to the U of Vic Free Gaza Camp. Peace.