Detroit teach-in sheds light on Middle East

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) held a teach-in on “Faces of Imperialism: The U.S.-Israeli War Against the People of the Middle East” on Sept. 30 at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Joyce Chediac, Abayoumi Azikwe, Jerry Goldberg, LeiLani Dowell, Andrea Hackett, Sandra Cole and David Sole.

The event was chaired by MECAWI leader Abayoumi Azikwe of the Pan Africa News Service, who spoke on the links between the struggles against imperialism in the Middle East and in Africa, as well as detailing the history of Zionist oppression.

The keynote speaker was Joyce Chediac, a Lebanese-American activist and writer for Workers World newspaper from New York. Chediac gave a detailed presentation on the history of the struggle in Lebanon and Palestine, explaining that “the essence is class struggle between oppressor and the oppressed.”

She noted that “Hezbollah represents the best aspirations of Lebanese, Arab and Muslim people in the struggle against imperialism. They are proud of Hezbollah for driving out Israel, and rightly so.”

Hassan Nawash of the Palestine Office of Michigan also contributed an historical analysis of Zionism and put a human face on the events in Palestine by recounting stories from his own and his family’s experiences in their homeland.

Anti-war activist Jerry Goldberg recounted what it was like to grow up in a typical Jewish household in the U.S. and how the struggle against the Vietnam War and imperialism helped him to unlearn the many lies he was taught about Zionism and Israel.

LeiLani Dowell of the youth organization Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) gave a moving account of her recent fact-finding trip to Lebanon. She spoke on the resilience of the people there under Hezbollah’s leadership in rebuilding their country after the U.S.-financed Israeli war in July and August.

MECAWI activist Andrea Hackett spoke on being the mother of a National Guard member sent to Iraq and how she became involved in the anti-war movement because of it.

Kevin Carey, Stop the War Slate candidate for State Board of Education on the Green Party ticket in Michigan, spoke on the 10,000 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, who languish in Israeli jails.