Brandon Do
Brandon Do
"WHAT IS SOCIALISM?" Teach-ins at UPenn, Drexel, and Temple"
Thursday 4 February 2016, organized by Tina Ngo "WHAT IS SOCIALISM?" Teach-ins at UPenn, Drexel, and Temple".
- DYK? "Socialism" was the most searched word on Merriam-Webster in 2015.
- The student chapters of Philly Socialists would like to invite everyone to join our student-led teach-ins on what socialism means. The teach-ins will consist of three panels: The History of Marxism: Pre-Marxism and Post-Marxism; Race and Socialism; Gender and Socialism.
- Dates, location, and time are still to be determined. Updates coming soon!
People signalling their intention to attend on Wherevent included Stephanie Altimari, Jj Rodriguez , Jon Lange, Melissa Stafford, Brandon Do, Rhiannon Wright, Christopher Hauff, Klyde Breitton, Nhoj Matthews, Constance Lee, John T. Kaye, Akshay Walia, Jake Kinzey, Dan Beccaria, Jr., M. Harlan Hoke, Alan Warsaw, Peirce Law, Michelle Freeman, Adriane Coleman, Maddie Bird, Pearl Joslyn, Brandon Slattery, David Thompson, Samantha Valentino, Isabella Jayme, Maní Martinez, Christopher Hauff, Amani Bey, Tim Horras, Madeline Connor, Kellen O'Connor, Cornelius Moody, Christopher Turner, Alaina Pell, Gabriella Upadhyay, Rina Mascitti, John Lesmeister, Andrew Macaroni, Carlisle Quinn, Charles Sansone, Miranda Krause, Samantha Schwartz, Scott Jenkins, Frankie Bosco, Hoe Chi Minh, Michelle Freeman, Lucas Lipatti, Amanda McIllmurray, Norah Andrea La Torre, Shannon Myers, Alex Sobrinski, Carolyn Esposito, Mara Henao, Jorge Mancilla, Alaina Pell, Cornelius Moody.[1]
"March for Palestine!"
According to Curry Malott of Liberation News, on the afternoon of May 14 2018, as Israeli snipers were killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians participating in the Great March of Return, Philadelphia city officials along with the pro-Israel Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia put on public display their complete and total support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In celebration of Israel’s so-called Independence Day, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and other politicians participated in a ceremonial hoisting of the Israeli flag over City Hall.
A day of action in solidarity with Palestine began when protesters organized a counter-action at the raising of the Israeli flag. Demonstrators called out the names and ages of the Palestinians, many of them children, who were being gunned down as the city of Philadelphia hoisted the Israeli flag.
After the demonstration, Liberation News spoke with May Ye, a Rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College who is also on the Rabbinical Council of Jewish Voice for Peace. Strongly opposing Israeli atrocities, she was out there to say loudly and clearly, “not in my name. Not in my name when Palestinians are being brutally murdered in Gaza during this Great March of Return.”
Later that day, Philadelphia for Palestinian Return — a coalition made up of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Temple University Students for Justice in Palestine, Philly BDS and Jewish Voice for Peace — co-hosted a solidarity rally with the Palestinian Great March of Return. Attended by hundreds of people, the demonstration opened up with PSL member Timour Kamran leading chants and proclamations of solidarity with the Palestinian right of return and denouncing the massacre of Palestinian protesters committed by Israel earlier that day.
The march was endorsed by a wide range of organizations: USA Palestine Mental Health Network, Philly Socialists, Black Alliance for Peace, Existence Is Resistance, Swarthmore SJP, Philadelphia International Marxist Tendency, Workers World Party – Philadelphia, Bucks County Socialists, Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America, Food Not Bombs Solidarity, Philadelphia International Socialist Organization and Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC).
The pre-march rally began with a speech by activist Karima Saab who noted that at exactly the same time Philadelphia was raising the Israeli flag earlier in the day the death toll of Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli sniper fire was rising.
Brandon Do of Temple University Students for Justice for Palestine then took the stage. Expressing his solidarity with the Palestinian people’s ongoing struggle for justice, the speaker condemned the Israeli government’s outrageous insistence that Palestine was a land without a people.
After these inspiring speeches, the demonstration took to the streets, marching around City Center and then to the Kimmel Center, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Philly:Don’t Orchestrate Apartheid was formed to protest the Philadelphia Orchestra accepting an invitation to perform in Israel and meet with government officials.
The people held the street for 10 speeches. The first speaker to take the mic was Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa representing Philly: Don’t Orchestrate Apartheid.
The next speaker, Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, represented the Black Alliance for Peace, taking the stage to affirm her organization’s “unapologetic solidarity with the Palestinian people and their continued, courageous resistance to the brutal, genocidal occupation of Palestine.”
Walter Smolarek from the PSL then spoke, drawing the contrast between working peoples’ vast unmet needs and the U.S. government’s long-standing policy of providing billions of dollars of military aid to Israel every year.
The mic was then passed to Andrew Sejong of Philly Socialists who talked about how the example of Palestinian resistance served as the primary catalyst that propelled him, like so many others, into the movement and become an activist. What the movement has taught the world, Sejong said, is that through ceaseless, unyielding struggle it becomes clear that not only is another world possible, but another world is necessary.[2]