Statism, Anarchism, and Pro-Palestinian Activism

• In Event: 50662 - Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Conflict and Action

Abstract

Despite the paradox of state-based anti-state redress, how conventional proposals to redress the oppression of Palestinians interrogate and/or instantiate the state (through, for example, anarchist critique) remains largely unexamined in academic scholarship. As such, this research explores how institutional proposals (via non-profit organizations, advocacy-activist groups, and governmental agencies) to redress the genocide of Palestinians represent, valuate, conflate and/or distinguish statist versus anarchist socio-political ideology. From here, using the theoretical frames of world-systems theory, non-reformist reform, realpolitik, and settler colonialism, I ask: if the state is inherently and pervasively oppressive (as much radical leftist thought suggests), then does a state-based “solution” reinforce the oppression of Palestinians, reinforce the liberation of Palestinians, reinforce both oppression and liberation, or reinforce neither oppression nor liberation? If both, how do these seemingly contradictory ideologies coexist? If neither, what alternative socio-political ideology is generated in this absence? I collect data using a purposive (critical case) sample of texts and images published by and housed on the websites of non-profit organizations, advocacy-activist groups, and governmental agencies, and recalled via a Google search of “Palestine” and “redress” (as well as related terms generated by an online thesaurus). I determine sample size by saturation (i.e., I analyze 30 cases as a set, then analyze an additional case until no new themes emerge). To analyze data, I use grounded theory coding-qualitative content analysis (i.e., I group predetermined and emergent indicators of statism and anarchism by code, group codes into categories, then lastly connect categories conceptually to produce an explanatory theory about the relationship between statist socio-political ideology and anarchist socio-political ideology presented in institutional proposals to redress the oppression of Palestinians). I find that statist socio-political ideologies far outnumber anarchist socio-political ideologies and pose statist redress as at least quasi-liberationist; however, bereft of anarchist critique, the representation of statism in this discourse evades and/or contradicts the conventional benchmarks that determine non-reformist reform.

Author

• Desmond Goss, George Washington University