Today the world-wide movement against genocide continues. Many supporters of Palestine wave Palestinian flags proclaiming “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.” But nowhere have national liberation movements achieved anything beyond instituting capitalist states, even if painful apartheid measures have been abolished. Let us instead identify ourselves across borders with banners that demand an end to genocide, racism, exploitation. Proclaim that: “From all the rivers to all the seas, the working class must be free.” “Working People have NO Nation. Smash Borders & Deportations”
No flag but the red one!
We always have a problem when we go to a protest in the U.S. against war, injustice or workplace abuses and see some demonstrators waving the American flag. Those who hold it up, even while protesting, are declaring that their country is fundamentally sound and just needs a little correction; a tweak to fix whatever is the temporary problem. And the Israeli flag? Forget it. Whether fluttering down 5th Ave at the Israel Day parade or plastered on Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem “legally” seized by Jewish settlers, we know it represents the Zionist state apparatus.
Not one thread stands for the rights of Arab citizens of Israel or an end to military occupation/genocide. But often, at protests against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the uncountable injustices & genocide that that result, the Palestinian flag is carried high by both Palestinians & their Jewish and other allies.
So is there a difference when the members of a colonized or oppressed people wave their flag? The implication is that all members of the nation stand together and have the same interest in opposing the oppressor power. Sometimes it’s called the “nationalism of the oppressed”, which is supposed to be justified, as opposed to the nationalism of the oppressor. The strategy that flows from this analysis is that first there will be a struggle for national liberation and internal problems will be dealt with later.
Israeli, Palestinian capitalism both dead ends
A Little History: “I, a PLP member, will never forget the initial moment of my first visit to the West Bank in 2005. Previously, I had only seen media images of death and rubble wrought by Israeli soldiers and bulldozers. But there I was in Ramallah, confronted by fancy commercial billboards, restaurants patronized by well-dressed customers, and elegant government buildings. Palestine, too, was a class society, albeit one under a military occupation. Traveling from the city center to the outskirts to villages, it was clear that a similar chasm between rich and poor existed as in my own New York City, albeit with many particular differences.” Not only is Palestine a capitalist society with an especially great divide between rich and poor, but the rich are intimately tied to Israeli and international capital. As Ali Abunimah documents in The Battle for Justice in Palestine, “a small Palestinian elite has continued to enrich itself by deepening its political, economic and military ties with Israel, the U.S., often explicitly undermining efforts by Palestinian civil society to resist”... Israel, too, is a capitalist and highly unequal society. Eighteen ruling families have incomes equal to 77 percent of the national budget in 2006 and take in 32 percent of the profits from the 500 largest companies.
The three largest banks preside over 80 percent of the market and take 70 percent of the profits. The income gaps between the 90th and the 50th percentiles, and between the 50th and the 10th are the highest in the world. Since most job growth is in the high-tech sector, inequality in education and lack of social mobility, especially for the Arab minority, ensure the growth of these differences. Since 2001, tax cuts have benefited the wealthy, industry has privatized and unions have lost their clout. So dire is the situation that 80 percent of the population supported the massive 2011 protests against unemployment and unaffordable housing.
Workers are the only solution
What is the alternative to waving the nationalist flag, the banner of the ruling class of whatever nation? Let us raise the red flag and banners of worker, student, sibling solidarity across borders, for the demands for which we fight. Let us not falsely depend on or unite with our so-called state leaders who, universally in the world today, have more in common with each other than they do with us. Let us not be bamboozled by patriotic or nationalist rhetoric; let Arab and Jewish and American workers fight together for what we need. Let us be part of an international movement for an antiracist, anti-sexist, non-capitalist world where migration is not a crime. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) learns from the history of national liberation struggles. We strive to build a movement for share and share alike, communism.
