Gaza Freedom Blog
On December 26th General Strike Comics creator, Christopher Hutchinson, will be flying to Cairo, Eygpt to join the 1000 person strong contigent headed to the Rafah border were we will cross into Gaza in a demonstration of international solidarity with the people of Gaza.
We will try our best to update this page with the latest pictures and news from the Gaza Freedom March. While we are in Gaza many solidarity events are taking place around the world we urge everyone to attend or organize an event in their area.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be Free!
in solidarity,
General Strike Comics
12/29/09 HURRYIA LI GAZA
While the government has come down on our international delegation of more than 1300 activists from more than 42 countries for attempting to cross the border of Egypt into Gaza, workers in a local restuarant in Attab Square district of Cairo, say that all they can do is pray for the freedom of Palestians due to the heavy repression they face from police. However, in this statement lies a contradiction as even the riot police showed signs of solidarity by clapping and at times chanting along with protesters, “hurryia li Gaza” (freedom for Gaza).
Organization is nearly impossible as the Egyptian government have revoked permits for mass meetings. However, today two significant actions took place, one at he UN headquarters in the Cairo World Trade Center organized by Code Pink and a second organized by the French delegation. At these actions I had the good fortune to meet the delegation of COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and at the French encampment members of the New Anti-Capitalist Party and Belgian members of the LCR.
Myself and a few friends (two of who are Gazan sisters, this was their first participation in demonstrations) were honored to stand with the French delegates barricaded in between a couple hundred police to our front and the French embassy at our backs. As they enter their third day we will join them as rumors of police repression have been whisphered around the encampment last night. The French activists welcomed us with open arms and in a few hours it was impossible not to leave with a heavy heart and inspiration from the clarity of their actions and their democratic descision making makin process.
The people of Egypt are wonderful and our actions in Cairo can only provide cover for the workers and students to join these protests. Even though at the moment we are not allowed to travel to Gaza, as one Egyptian student stated, “although people (Egyptian) want Gaza free, they are afraid of the government, if these demos had been filled mostly with Arabs and not westerners, the police would have provoked violence and arrested those at the protest”. For all who joined in these actions the feelings of internatonal solidarity were strong and for the few Egyptians and palestinians who braved the heavy hand of the law to join us, it was a chance to express their anger toward both the government of Mubarak and the Policies of the United States.
Long live Gaza!
In solidarity,
General Strike Comics
Clockwise:
1. Gaza Freedom Marc protest at the U.N. headquarters
2. restaurant workers who pray for Gaza to be Free
3. Encampment at the French Embassy
4. 85 year old holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein on a Hunger Strike for Gaza
Yes we took the streets in a clandestine maneuver that had hundreds of international rushing into the streets, banners unfurled, placards raised to the sky, the French international with a bullhorn hoisted on the shoulders of his comrades, chanting in Arabic, “People of Egypt…” to which the crowd would respond in Arabic, “We are with you!”
As the sea foam dusty green buses and battered, black and white Renault taxis came to a stop the people of Cairo waved to us and seemed to say “You are here with us, we want to be out there with you.”
And yes, like an old Renault taxis we were beaten up not by the wild, harrowing traffic of the roads of Cairo but by the police. We linked arms in solidarity and sat in the road until we were kicked, pushed, shoved, punched and finally barricaded in by police on the sidewalk.
Certainly our impact has been felt here in Cairo, everywhere we went people would ask, “Are you here for Gaza?”
But more than the action in the streets and despite communication, tactical, and strategic issues (which should closely examined) it was the international solidarity that made our stay in Cairo so worthwhile.
Everyday a friend and I would travel to the French embassy in solidarity with the French delegation that, in my opinion, had the strongest abilities and ideas when it came to tactics and strategy. There we could meet and hold banners and wave to the lunch time traffic as it congested the Giza street which the French renamed the “Giza Strip”. Each day the camp looked more and more like a structured community with new banners, media board, sharing of resources and the frequent marches and chants that filled the air around the police barricades.
On my way back from dinner I passed an art supply store and purchased a 9m x 2m canvas, brushes and paint and rushed back to the embassy. That night (12/30/09) as we painted the banner for the next day’s march, a fiddle or violin, accordion, maracas, and drums materialized and through the bullhorn traditional Palestinian songs filled the night sky. We danced, we painted, and as we finished the banner and hoisted it along the spiked embassy fence a woman next to me cried tears of joy. Another woman of Palestinian decent who created the Arabic lettering for the banner told me as we painted, “I hate Americans, no I really do but after tonight, my opinion is starting to change.”
It was as though in preparation for the next days march, we had a small sliver of what a society organized by working people could look like, one based on human solidarity instead of greed.
