Resource Center

Event Summary

On November 12th, 2024, around 80 people from around the world participated in the second session of the Learning Series on Organizing for Liberation titled United in Resistance: Lessons in Liberation from South Africa, Turtle Island, and Palestine. Together, we learned from Dr. Megan Scribe, an interdisciplinary Indigenous feminist researcher, writer, educator and Assistant Professor of Sociology and Education Director for Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Dr. Salim Vally, a lifelong activist and leading member of the Black Consciousness-aligned South African Students Movement in 1976/1977, and now the DHET-NRF SARChI Chair in Community, Adult and Workers’ Education (CAWE) and Professor at the University of Johannesburg. The session was moderated by Falastine Dwikat, a Palestinian activist and strategist with over 13 years of experience supporting grassroots movements for social justice and human rights.

Questions we explored on liberation and resistance

Colonialism, apartheid, and genocide form a deeply interwoven and interconnected thread that stretches from Turtle Island to South Africa to Palestine. Apartheid South Africa took inspiration from the Indian Act—the apartheid legislation that imposed spatial segregation and movement restriction on all Indigenous people across Turtle Island or Canada. The legacy of this apartheid legislation continued in Israel, as the strong relationship between Jan Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and Chaim Weizmann, the British Zionist leader and later the first President of Israel, led to the Balfour Declaration.

While South Africa depended on the super-exploitation of the Indigenous people, Israel views Indigenous people as disposable and its genocidal intent has been visible since its founding in 1948 to the present day. But what all these settler-colonial states have in common is their reliance on white supremacy and a particular Biblical interpretation to enact its “civilizing mission” in a “promised land” at the expense of Indigenous peoples. The speakers discussed the interconnectedness of the struggles in Palestine, South Africa, and Turtle Island, drawing learnings and exploring common questions on liberation and resistance.

Question 1: What makes a liberation movement resilient?

To build a collective liberation movement, we must talk to each other, dream together, and take responsibility for each other’s liberation.

In Turtle Island in the 19th century, Big Bear, the Cree Chief, refused to sign a treaty with the Canadian government and led his people across geography in armed resistance against the retaliation by the Canadian government. In the years leading up to the armed resistance, Big Bear continued visiting people and telling them about his vision for the world he wanted for his descendants, for his community members—because we can’t just convince thousands of people to take up arms without a strong vision, and we won’t have a strong vision without relationships based on trust. We need to invest in and take care of these relationships.

And while our resistance movements are sometimes directly reactionary to what the oppressors do, which is necessary and important, dreaming continuously and proactively of the vision is essential. We also need to be ahead of things and dream: What is it that we want? What do we want for ourselves and the world we live in? How do we build liberation movements that are not just a reaction to all the injustices we’re going through, but also movements that reflect our visions, our dreams?

Question 2: Where do you see armed resistance as a part of the liberation movements?

Armed resistance has been integral to many liberation movements throughout history by Indigenous people and oppressed people around the world, and is often the last resort for many people whose writing, protesting, debating, and other non-violent strategies and actions have not changed their unbearable life under occupation. As Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer, poet, and professor who was murdered in the genocide last year, said: “I only have my pen, I’ll throw it at the occupation soldiers if they invade, even if that’s the last thing I do.”

Against Canadian settlers, Indigenous people in Turtle Island have taken up arms, the most recent example being the Kanesatake Resistance in 1990. Police and military were called against a small group of mostly Mohawk women and children who were protecting their sacred pines–and all they had was their bodies. Ellen Gabriel, a spokesperson for the Kanesatake Resistance, recalled women and children stood up against the Canadian military, and all they had were their hands in the face of batons, rifles, and shields to say: “These are our sacred grounds, and we’re going to protect them with everything we have.”

Even though according to international law, people who face occupation, apartheid, and genocide, have the right to resist through various means including armed struggle, the dominant narrative is often critical of armed resistance. We know this narrative is inconsistent, as seen in the way the African National Congress (ANC) and Nelson Mandela, who was a commander in the ANC, were considered terrorists during their liberation struggle in South Africa, but were later praised and supported by the Western governments.

Question 3: These are undeniably challenging times. In the face of such darkness, where can we find hope?

Content warning: suicide is mentioned in the paragraph below:

Oftentimes for Indigenous people living in death worlds, their last line of resistance is their bodies, as similarly mentioned in the conversation about armed resistance. Dr. Jeffrey Ansloos, Cree and English scholar, argues that it’s not a matter of addressing and stopping suicide in the conventional sense, but of asking ourselves: How do we make life more livable? How do we make liveable worlds, worlds that we want to live in? Moreover, are we doing that visioning work together? Hope is not a romantic comforter but a rigorous, demanding, and necessary practice of cultivating possibility.

In the darkest period of South African apartheid repression in the 1980, many activists involved in the liberation movement, and those in the torture chambers, never thought they would end apartheid in their lifetimes. However, the apartheid regime did come to an end. In fact, the genocidal regimes are the most dangerous when they are dying. Another source of hope is knowing that oppression cannot be sustained forever and that the determination of Indigenous people to exist is by default a failure of any colonial project. It’s no surprise that many movements took up the slogan of “existence is resistance.”

Voices / questions / reflections from the audience

During the Q&A session, the most pressing question from the audience was on taking action: What can we do that we are not already doing?

To this, Salim answered that coordinated, organized actions that depend on each other’s creativity are key, and that the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement provides some framework on how to put global pressure against Israel’s apartheid regime. Salim gave the example of coordinated action when his comrades in South Africa blocked a vessel called MV Kathrin, which was suspected to be carrying explosives to Israel, from docking in many of the Southern African countries. When the vessel tried to dock at Walvis Bay in Namibia last August, they contacted their comrades in Walvis Bay, and the Namibian Justice Minister, who had attended their conferences against genocide and settler colonialism earlier in May, issued an order so that the vessel was not allowed to dock. When the vessel tried docking in other places, such as Angola, the same thing happened. South Africa is a sympathetic government to Palestine, but people need to push the government through social movements— in civil society, student groups, and trade unions. There are various moves of sanctions against Israel by Malaysia, Spain, etc., but at the end of the day, we have to hold the governments accountable, even sympathetic ones, because it is real actions with tangible consequences that can contribute to stopping the genocide, not just words.

Megan also raised the point that we all need to actually talk to our community members, especially people who don’t already know about Palestine or do not necessarily agree with us. When Israelis are already approaching Indigenous groups and trying to convince them that they are Indigenous to the land they colonized, our stories and relationships are essential in challenging the Zionist propaganda and countering the dominant narrative.

Resources shared from the session

We started the session by sharing a poem, “My Son Throws a Blanket Over My Daughter,” from the Palestinian author Mosab Abu Toha.

Throughout the session, various resources were shared by participants including:

• Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez A. Sayegh
• Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes
• When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel
• One year of Israel’s #GazaGenocide, a statement by Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)

We also created a song playlist from our check-in question, “What music/song or art on liberation speaks to you?”

Recording (available for LCN members)

Recording of the session is available for LCN members here.

If you are interested in becoming a member to watch the recording and access 300+ other resources on organizing—including guides in various languages and case studies from around the world—please let us know at resources@leadingchangenetwork.org.

About the speakers

Falastine Dwikat is a Palestinian activist and strategist with over 13 years of experience supporting grassroots movements for social justice and human rights. She has worked with global organizations like Greenpeace, Avaaz, and the Palestinian BDS movement, contributing to campaigns that challenge power structures and advocate for Palestinian freedom. Her work, rooted in community and collaboration, has helped connect local struggles to global movements, mobilizing people across MENA and beyond. Falastine has played a part in numerous campaigns that have made meaningful impacts, focusing on amplifying voices often unheard. Based in Ramallah, Palestine, Falastine’s work is driven by her personal experiences as an intersectional feminist and Palestinian woman of color. She believes deeply in the collective power of people to create change and remains committed to advancing justice and liberation for all.

Salim Vally is the DHET-NRF SARChI Chair in Community, Adult and Workers’ Education (CAWE) and a Professor at the University of Johannesburg. A lifelong activist, Vally was a leading member of the Black Consciousness-aligned South African Students Movement in 1976/1977, and left the country after its banning by the erstwhile apartheid regime and after severe repression. After returning in 1982, he served as the education officer for CCAWUSA, an independent trade union. His research focuses on education, social justice, and democracy, with an emphasis on critical and liberatory pedagogies. Vally serves on the boards of various local professional and non-governmental organisations and is active in various social movements and solidarity organisations. His recent co-edited books include The University and Social Justice Across the Globe (2020) and Against Racial Capitalism: The Selected Writings of Neville Alexander (2023). Vally continues to merge academic scholarship with activism for social change.

Dr. Megan Scribe (Ininiw iskwew, Norway House Cree Nation) is an interdisciplinary Indigenous feminist researcher, writer, and educator. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Education Director for Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. Scribe’s work focuses on racist and anti-Indigenous gender-based violence targeting Indigenous women, girls, and 2LGBTQQIA+ people, investigating how cis-heteropatriarchy sustains white settler societies. Grounded in Indigenous creative works and interdisciplinary theories, her scholarship interrogates colonial legal narratives and explores intersections of settler colonialism, anti-Blackness, and xenophobia. Scribe is also a long-time Council Member for Aboriginal Legal Services. She is working on her first manuscript.

About the series

The Organizing for Liberation Learning Series delves into the inspiring stories of resistance, exploring how individuals and communities have found hope and power amidst adversity. By examining past liberation struggles and analyzing the ongoing Palestinian organizing efforts, we aim to build a space for collective learning, reflection, and action. The series consists of public events focused on uplifting stories and experiences of those organizing for liberation, as well as action learning circles, a close-knit virtual space focused on continued learning, solidarity, and collective action. You can read more about the series here.