From Challenge # 63
September - October 2000
WAC's summer camp for the year 2000
"Together We Can Move the Mountain!"
Orit Sudri
"WELCOME TO the WAC summer camp! (Workers Advice Center - Ed.) We come from different places - Jaffa, Majd al-Krum, Nazareth, Ein Mahel, Kabul - but we share a common purpose. We've come to enjoy ourselves and at the same time to learn and create something new. We want to swim in the lake, do sports and art and video, make a daily newspaper, but we also want to explore and re-live some of the changes humanity has undergone at different times. The type of change we're interested in goes by the name 'revolution'. This is a change that radically alters human consciousness. With this in mind we shall turn to the past, to the cultures and histories of peoples that went through such change: the Russians, Cubans, Vietnamese and South Africans." Thus Dani Ben Simhon opened the WAC summer camp for the year 2000.
Twenty-five guide-counselors, all volunteers from the Baqa centers and WAC, joined efforts to offer this camp for a week on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was our first attempt to build an experience on such a scale. We had no idea whether we would manage to convey the meaning of revolution to youngsters for whom the concept was remote or nonexistent. Could we communicate some of the excitement that had gripped the peoples who had united to fight oppression? Until the first day, this was the big unknown. It would not be the usual camp - not the kind, perhaps, that these sixty teenagers had heard and dreamed about - based solely on fun. It would have an additional purpose: to persuade them that human beings can change their circumstances - that they need not accept oppression and poverty as the effects of mysterious and immutable natural laws. We wrote the theme on the camp T-shirt: "Together We Can Move the Mountain."
Most of the campers were children of workers registered with WAC. The
heritage of the working class, however, is not a topic studied in school.
Nor does it come up in a society which, under the influence of mass media,
worships the idols of consumerism. Our trepidation ceased almost at once.
The campers themselves infected the counselors with their youthful spirit,
wanting to learn and to understand. We divided them into four age groups.
In order of youngest to oldest, from the ages of 12 through 15, they became
"South Africans", "Cubans", "Vietnamese" and "Russians". Each group was
to act out the major stages that had led its people to revolution.
From the moment the tents went up, a rhythm took over that no one could
stop. An outsider might have thought that she'd entered some kind of time
tunnel. The place echoed with cries of "Cuba si, Yankee no!" "Amandla!"
"Africa!" Reveille at six was performed by Mercedes Sosa singing "Todo
Cambia." The lakeside blues and greens got mixed with other hues, for each
group spread the colors of its revolutionary flag into every nook and corner.
Posters from the art workshops festooned the beach. The children changed,
for starters, this patch of shore.
Preparations for the camp
Until now WAC and Baqa had done only day camps. A weeklong overnight camp is much more complicated, demanding logistical preparation and careful safety measures. That is why we raised the age threshold from that of previous years. The greatest amount of work, however, went into preparing content. Na'amneh Hitam, WAC activist and guide to the "Vietnamese", put it this way: "Every counselor had to study the revolution that he or she had been assigned to. We had a committee that helped us with the material. We read books, articles and pieces from the Internet. It astonished me, when I studied the Vietnamese revolution, to see that the activists there did exactly what we do all through the year: they devoted an enormous amount of time to study. I felt a deep bond to them, so I did all I could to convey this to the campers and infect them with my enthusiasm." The preparation team also gathered a group of artists, whose job it was to translate the topics into the languages of art. Each group had its artist, who helped the campers make works expressing the culture of each revolution.Day One: Pre-Revolution
The counselors described the conditions obtaining in each country before the people took Fate in their hands. Asma Agbarieh, counselor to the "Cubans", reports that the interest in this phase was high, because the campers know very well what is meant by oppression and discrimination, be it through apartheid or feudalism, dictatorship of imperialism. "We tried to bring the past alive by referring to their own present lives. They undergo a kind of apartheid every day. They know all about the confiscation of family land. They had no difficulty identifying with the sufferings of the people they represented." Thus wrote "Vietnam's" Amana Nasser in the "daily newspaper" - a wall set aside for this purpose - called Echo of the Revolution: "I liked learning about brave Vietnam. She gave us hope that we may succeed one day in freeing ourselves from our enemy, who refuses to give us our rights, just as the imperialists refused to give them to the Vietnamese. I feel bound to that country, which got where it did through the power of its will to freedom."Day of the Leaders
After reviewing the condition of the workers and farmers in each of the lands, the time was ripe for bringing change. The deep kind of change that was needed, however, required leaders of the highest caliber. Says Samya Nasser, guide to the "Russians": "The word 'leader' has taken on, through the years, a distorted meaning. When the youngsters look at the leaders in their community, they see people who attained their positions by trampling on others. Their positions give them status, a nice car and plenty of money. We wanted to change this notion. A true leader, we taught, is a person who gives without taking. As a leader one risks one's life for the sake of the people. A true leader is modest, and does not seek adulation or prestige." In this vein, on the second day, Che Guevara came to life again on paper and in the heart. Fidel Castro sported a beard in the colors of the Cuban flag. Nelson Mandela smiled from a tree trunk, beside a black figure lifting a fist. Ho Chi Minh - Hushi Mineh in the campers' mouths- raised his head against a sky of red amid a crowd of stars.From Idea to Deed
The third day marked the passage from idea to deed. Times are hard. The need for liberation is clear, and people are organizing. (This the children saw, for example, in a sequence from the movie, Biko, showing black demonstrators going up against South Africa's army.) And now to work! The young "Africans" rolled up their sleeves and started preparing posters, as many as possible. Toward noon the "Cubans" seemed to have filled every empty space. They had painted their faces in the colors of their flag. Now they went seeking forces to join their guerilla band. The "Vietnamese" sneaked down to the lake to gather reeds.Day Four: Revolution!
The big moment had arrived. The "Cuban" guerillas, accompanied by "Video 48", moved cautiously out of the camp. The battle with the Batiste forces took place on the ruins of Hirbet Minnim, an Arab palace more than a thousand years old. At last Che Guevara appeared, borrowing the form of a youngster called Ahmad. Che announced that the battle had been a hard one, but the rebels had carried the day. The reporter for Echo of the Revolution, however, had fallen. His comrades bore him back to camp on a stretcher. Here Ahmad Guevara proclaimed: "Our flag flies over the castle!"Image of the New Society
The fifth day has come. We hoist kites to announce a new era of equality. The parents are due to arrive tonight for the closing ceremony. Excitement and anticipation.The evening breeze wafts the parents in. After hugs and kisses, the campers go back to preparing the ceremony. Some work on the costumes and stage set, others rehearse the roles they will play in the show. The parents mill about, reading Echo of the Revolution. They visit the tents, the kitchen and the storage room. Everything is decked out to overflowing. To one side, under a tree, sits the "peoples' council", elected from each group. They are writing a new socialist covenant for humanity. Here is Article Seven: "We oppose every form of foreign domination, direct or indirect. We shall never agree to a situation in which a tiny number of wealthy nations such as the United States, Russia, Britain, Australia, France and Israel dictate to poorer and weaker peoples the way of life they are to follow and who is to control their natural resources, while fomenting destruction and war. The right of the oppressed peoples to self-determination is a vital part of our socialist program. It is impossible to realize that right unless the workers of the wealthy Western nations mobilize. They are the cannon fodder of their imperialistic countries, and it is their task to oppose their bourgeois rulers and support their brothers and sisters, members of the oppressed peoples, in the struggle for liberation."
The ceremony starts after sunset. The guests sit on the grass. Each group presents its show and talks about its experiences. Some raise their fists and shout their slogans. The high point is the film. The members of Video '48 have followed the groups all week, covering their work for "Baqa Television". Now all can watch the battle of the "Cubans" and how the valiant "fighters of July 26" won the day; how the Vietnamese showed everyone that a little people could beat a big one; they see Mandela insisting that only a revolution can bring real change - and the Russian Soviet deciding to support the socialist program. The parents seem rather astonished. They don't quite understand the new language their children speak. Yet they're encouraged by how they look. Their children seem more serious, they say, as if they've grown up all of a sudden. As members of WAC and the Baqa centers, the parents know that all the counselors, artists, photographers, chefs, dishwashers, organizers, lifeguards and medics have worked on a voluntary basis, giving each camper attention and respect.
On Friday we took the camp apart. Dani Ben Simhon made the farewell speech: "We hope you will remember this camp not only because of the fun we had, but especially because of the things you learned here about the revolutions of the various peoples. We hope all this will lead you each to an inner journey and that during this journey you will think about your lives and the possibility of changing things. We hope you'll leave this place strengthened in spirit, and that you'll want to take part in building the society you live in. If you do, then this camp will continue in you."
A refugee visits.
On the second evening, an old man in traditional dress showed up at the camp. His name was Awni Sbeit. He told the story of Ikrit and Bar'am, two villages near the Lebanese border. In 1948 Israel's army forced the villagers to leave, promising them that that they could come back in a week or two. This week or two has gone on for 52 years. Despite the Supreme Court decision of 1951, recognizing the villagers' right to return, Israel blew up the houses there. Many Israeli governments have taken up the question of Ikrit and Bar'am from time to time, but the villagers and their descendants have never been allowed to return. "In 1948 I was a youngster like you," said Sbeit, looking directly into the eyes of the campers one after another. "From then till now, I insist on my right to return to my land. The right of return is sacred, and it is your responsibility to continue my struggle until the goal is achieved." |