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LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
AGITPROP NEWS: 8.9.3
In this issue:
1. Report from Palestine
2. Art Under Occupation
3. Images
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1. Report from Palestine
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the next couple of days, six labor delegates, under the auspices of the
Labor Art and Mural Project, leave the United States for Palestine/Israel as
part of a multi-faceted solidarity exchange with Palestinian unionists and
Israeli working-class and anti-occupation groups. They will be joining the
muralist Mike Alewitz and the film crew of documentarian Sean Geary, who
have been in the region for nearly two weeks.
On the first evening of their arrival, the delegates are traveling to Kfar
Qara, an Arab town in the Galilee, to address a rally of local construction
workers fighting job discrimination and a divisive guest worker program
facilitated by Israeli employers. The will also be on hand to celebrate the
dedication of a labor solidarity mural painted by Mike Alewitz and
volunteers on one of the walls of the municipal stadium. Our delegate will
share the historical experiences of U.S. labor organizations faced with the
challenge of organizing immigrant workers and alert them to the potential of
the upcoming Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride to better the conditions of Arab
immigrants in the U.S.
The mural in Kfar Kara is being created by LaMP, in conjunction with the
Workers Advice Center, a binational group committed to organizing Arab
construction workers in Israel/Palestine. The process began with Alewitz
meeting with the local group of laborers, who came to the meeting directly
from work. Alewitz delivered greetings from the unions and labor councils,
including Teamsters Local 705, that contributed to the costs of the mural
project. The workers were surprised to meet a U.S. unionist who denounced
the U.S. occupation of Iraq and interested to learn that a growing number of
U.S. labor activists also opposed the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
In response, one elderly participant commented, "They steal the land and
they steal our labor. It is all the same." Alewitz agreed and asserted
that it was direct worker to worker exchanges like this one that would lay
the basis for effective solidarity activity among all the victims of the
U.S. and Israeli employers. "Even though we are but a few activists here
today," he said," we are part of an organic process of learning from each
others' struggles." The exchange was captured by Video '48, an Israeli
artists' collective.
On Aug. 4, Alewitz addressed a Tel Aviv meeting of around 50, mostly
artists, sponsored by the newspaper Challenge. Many of the artists were
participants in a February artists' protest of the invasion of Iraq called
Theatre-Veto. Alewitz focussed his talk on the growing labor opposition to
U.S. war moves and the real depth of antiwar sentiment in the United States.
The group responded enthusiastically to his call for artists to use their
creativity and vision to strengthen the working-class opposition to war and
to the brutality of corporate globalization. Five of the artists in
attendance have come north to Kfar Qara to help with the mural there.
The Kfar Qara mural is the second of three murals being executed by Alewitz
in the region. Earlier this week, he completed, with local volunteers, a
mural for the Beit Jibrin Cultural Center-Handala in a refugee camp in
Bethlehem. As the mural was done in conjunction with a cultural center,
Alewitz used the U.S. labor symbolism of "Bread and Roses" as the central
image. In his dedication speech, the muralist explained the history of the
image/slogan and said he it was a reminder of the potential power of women
in the labor movement. The mural also contains an image of Handala, the
feisty refugee camp kid who commented acidly on the behavior of the Israeli
government and Palestinian misleaders in the drawings of one of Palestine's
most important political cartoonists. In the mural, Handala is looking
through a hole in the apartheid wall, a barrier which separates a scene of
olive trees and a tent from one of apple trees and a trailer, drawing
parallels between the situation of Palestinian refugees and immigrant
workers in the U.S. Railroad tracks, a reminder of the few moments in the
mandate period when Arab and Jewish workers attempted to cooperate to
organize the British-built railroads in Palestine, run to the horizon.
Across the top is a banner that reads, "No Walls between Workers!"
Officers of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Bethlehem
stopped by to welcome the muralist. Internationals from Japan, Spain,
Italy, England, and the U.S. made their way to the site as well. A local
Arab daily and local TV covered the dedication rally of around 100 and
Alewitz's dedication speech, in which he reminded the audience that the U.S.
government does not represent the will of the American people. "The people
of Palestine are not alone," he said. "Walls will never separate us."
We will be sending out Reportback #3, which will focus on the initial
meetings of our delegation with Palestinian trade unionists in Ramallah and
our construction and mural painting adventures at the Rachel Corrie peace
center work encampment, in a few days. If you pledged some money for this
project or just motivated to do so, don't imagine that because we are now in
the region that we have covered all the costs. We still need your support.
Also, if any of you want to email greetings to be delivered at the various
union meetings we will attend, send them to <gauvreau@aol.com.>
In Solidarity,
Chris Gauvreau
LaMP Director
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2. Art Under Occupation
Art Under Occupation
By BRITA BRUNDAGE
July 25 2003
The Mideast and the United States have at least one thing in common–the
voice of the working class is
most often left out of the news. The media reports on official
administrative statements, but one is unlikely
to read an eyewitness account from those living inside the Gaza Strip or the
thoughts of activists in Israel
who oppose the occupation.
For Labor Art & Mural Project (LAMP) directors and Central Connecticut State
University professors
Mike Alewitz and Christine Gavreau, those working class voices are the only
ones worth illuminating.
>From July 25 to Aug. 1, LAMP will travel to the Mideast on a mural-painting
mission that gives artistic
expression to the struggles of those living in, and fighting against,
Israeli occupation.
Based on Alewitz' past work throughout the world in oppressed areas in
Nicaragua, Iraq, and U.S.
cities, the content will contain images of working class struggles
incorporated into the cultural images of
the people. LAMP will paint murals at the Beit Jibrin Cultural Center in
occupied Bethlehem, at the
Worker's Advice Center (WAC) in Nazareth, which is organizing workers in the
Israeli construction
industry and at the to-be-constructed Rachel Corrie Peace Center on the site
of a demolished Palestinian
home in East Jerusalem.
Gavreau, who recently returned from a preliminary visit to the Mideast,
noted that the labor struggles
there mirror those in the United States. In Palestine, workers fall under
the Palestinian General Federation
of Trade Unions which relies on funds from the Histadrut, equivalent to the
AFL-CIO in Israel. In Israel,
workers under Histadrut are finding themselves pushed out by an influx of
foreign workers, reducing their
wages as President Ariel Sharon's focus remains on defense spending. Though
the Histadrut has
eschewed taking a stance on resolving the Mideast conflict, with their wages
at risk, they may have to,
much as American labor groups joined activists to protest U.S.-led strikes
against Afghanistan and Iraq.
In a press release, Alewitz writes that LAMP will "show the U.S. and Israeli
governments that they can
never build walls high enough to separate us from the children of Palestine
who continue to inspire us with
their heroic struggle." Corrie, the 23-year-old peace activist repeatedly
run over and killed by an Israeli
bulldozer on March 16 as she tried to prevent the illegal demolition of a
Palestinian home (see
www.rachelcorrie.org) has provided much inspiration to the LAMP project and
to activists from both
Israel and Palestinian attempting to find a resolution to the violence. The
new peace center in her honor
will be built by international volunteers, Palestinian construction workers
and Israeli peace activists. The mural there will act as
an artistic truce between the warring factions. "Art is essential," Alewitz
writes. "It teaches us to be critical thinkers. Art is how
we reach into the hearts and minds of people–it cannot be adjunct, but must
reach into the very fabric of our organizations."
Contact or donate to the Labor Art & Mural Project at Department of Art,
Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley
Street, New Britain, CT, 06050. (860) 832-2359. Email Chris Gauvreau at
gauvreau@aol.com or Mike Alewitz at
alewitzm@ccsu.edu.
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