Socialist activist Ayisha Zaki urged Tufts students to join a movement to push for the interests of the working class in the Middle East, blaming corporate interests for social plight in countries like her native Lebanon.
Zaki, a member of the Community for Workers International, told an audience of about 40 Tufts students that the only way to solve the current crisis in the Middle East is to have the region's governments become socialist.
"There is no other way to solve the problems other than to change the system to a socialist alternative," Zaki said.
Zaki told the audience that some Middle Eastern governments forfeit representation of the working class to advance the interests of the United States and multinational corporations.
"We are getting impoverished and exploited by multinationals, by big corporations, by big companies — and we're also facing war and invasions," Zaki said.
She turned to the Iraq war and derided the Iraqi government's acquiescence to privatization.
"We hear that businesses can go and invest their money in Iraq. There are contracts being signed — contracts of up to 20 to 25 years of private companies going in and taking over the industries," Zaki said.
Zaki went on to describe the war's effects on Iraq.
"It is occupied and has no electricity or water. It is suffering because of the looting of the resources and the mess and the chaos that [have] been created by the U.S. administration," Zaki said.
Freshman Francis Perricone said Zaki's lecture was interesting but did not sway him. "It's rare to hear from such a different perspective," Perricone said. "But I'm still not a socialist."
Perricone said Zaki's speech failed to include enough feasible solutions. "She did not elaborate on any policy. It's easy to say we are going to do this, but how exactly?" he said.
Senior James Clark was impressed by Zaki's lecture and hopes that Tufts will bring more radical speakers to campus.
"I felt like [the speech] was very impassioned, even though I don't agree with socialist ideas," he said. "We need more speakers like these at Tufts."
Socialist Alternative, a national organization advocating for workers' rights, brought Zaki across the Atlantic to speak at Tufts and other universities. Socialist Alternative member Joshua Koritz (LA '05), a main organizer of the event, wanted the discussion to offer Tufts students an eye-opening viewpoint.
"It was an honor to bring someone from another country and to hear [her] perspective," Koritz said.
Koritz also said he wanted to connect Tufts students to the Socialist Alternative community.
"I wanted to reach out to students and break down the division between them and the community. This conversation on socialism should be shared," he said.
