Lois Clifton

As a Jewish lesbian academic growing up in New York, Sarah Schulman faced a skewed picture of Israel from both her family and the American media. But after experiencing extreme homophobia from her family she realised that they were "wrong about a lot of things. Why not this?" (Israel).

After declining an invitation to speak at the LGBT studies conference at Tel Aviv University she decided to join the Palestinian movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

The revolutions that have swept across the Middle East have forced the question of reform or revolution back onto the political agenda.

As Western elites scrambled to regain political leverage in the region, a contradiction became clear - revolution is fine in Egypt, but elsewhere workers should only fight for gradual reforms.

Workers are brought up to believe that capitalism is normal. Society tells us that anyone who believes the status quo can be changed is simply extremist, utopian or unrealistic.