(Part I — CHALLENGE, 3/3 — detailed Israel’s attacks on Gaza, its apartheid conditions enforced on Palestine, the racism towards Arabs and Muslims and relations between Israeli and U.S. rulers.)

In Palestine there were mass uprisings against Israeli rule in 1987 and 2000, but today there is very little resistance. Since 1990, the governing Fatah party has negotiated with Israel, with the U.S. as mediator, and has become the administrator of much of the West Bank, without ever achieving independence. Most Palestinians view Fatah as corrupt and incompetent. It has now even taken over many internal policing duties from the Israelis.

To protest Fatah, in 2006, the majority (even Christians and secularists) voted for Hamas, which offers only regressive Islamic fundamentalism. Most Palestinians are completely disengaged from either party, but a vacuum exists in the middle. Even the small groups that do continue activism focus on single issues, like the Israeli-built Wall or the fascist judicial system. All are nationalist-oriented, calling for an independent Palestinian state, without examining the nature of the current society or what they need to build.

Palestine and Fatah are dominated by a small number of relatively wealthy families. The masses are poor workers and farmers. These relations will not change in an independent Palestine, leaving poverty and inequality intact. History has repeatedly demonstrated that the fight for the working class’ control of society cannot be postponed, since local ruling classes, and the rich imperialists who control them, continue to run society in the same old way in the “liberated” state.

A nationalist outlook also cuts off the possibility of alliances with workers in Israel, some of whom are also oppressed, especially recent and darker-skinned immigrants and the super-exploited temporary workers Israel imports for its lowest-paid jobs.

In Israel, there is also some limited opposition to government policy. About 5% of young people resist mandatory military service, and are imprisoned. A small group of veterans has spoken out about the atrocities they’ve seen in Gaza and other places in the occupied territories. Some Israelis object to the depths of degradation of, and cruelty to, the Palestinians. However, their demands are usually for “peace” and an end to the military occupation, without considering the role Israel plays for Western imperialism or the class relations in their own society.

Many in Israel and Palestine hoped that Obama would actually represent a new U.S. policy and bring change to the area. They didn’t realize that Obama represents only the interests of the U.S. ruling class, which do not change no matter who is President. In fact, a position paper prepared for Obama before he took office only reiterated the old U.S. call for “two states,” dominated by Israel economically and militarily. Before his inauguration, Obama was silent as Gazans were being slaughtered.

Before our trip to this area we prepared a document which reviews its imperialist history, indicating the weakness of nationalism and calling for an egalitarian communist society. We were fortunate to meet some young Israelis who agree with this position and will begin working with us. Throughout our travels in Israel and the West Bank, we distributed 50 CHALLENGES and as many position papers to activists we met along the way. As we continue to follow up with these friends, we will attempt to stimulate a multi-ethnic communist movement so badly needed in Israel/Palestine. J

Correction: Part I (CHALLENGE, 3/3/10), has a typo. It says that Israel began “building up Hamas in the 1950s as a counterweight to the secular nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).”

The years are incorrect; the PLO was not formed
until 1964, and Hamas didn’t form until 1987.

It becomes clearer by the day that the U.S. invasion and blockade of Haiti has imperialist and racist, rather than charitable, goals. Besides maintaining a grossly underpaid or unemployed, U.S.-dominated, almost entirely black cheap labor pool there, the top U.S. priority is seizing political and military control of this strategically-located country. It stands at the geo-political crossroads of Caribbean trade routes, the Panama Canal, Cuba and Guantanamo Bay, Venezuela and potential off-shore oil reserves.

This follows a century of imperialist exploitation of Haiti, making it the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, leaving it completely vulnerable to such an earthquake.

General Douglas Fraser, head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, which runs the inadequate “aid” effort, said 13,000 of the 20,000 U.S. troops sent to Haiti would remain indefinitely. He told Agence France Presse (2/14/10), of “a transition of immediate relief capability to an enduring capacity here in Haiti.” The 7,000 departing troops, including the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are now on their way to more pressing tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One month into Obama’s “humanitarian” occupation of Haiti, its devastated working class continues to suffer severe shortages of every basic necessity. Fraser’s forces did woefully little to help Haitians:

• “As many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance.” (Huffington Post, 2/4/10)

• The January 12 earthquake left 1.2 million Haitians homeless and afflicted more than 3,000,000. “Only a quarter of those in need have plastic or a tent over their heads. And a lack of latrines looms as a major problem.” (Miami Herald, 2/14/10)

• The U.S. Navy News (2/9/10) boasted that, “Medical and dental personnel from the 24th MEU treated more than 100 Haitians [!] on the island of Gonave.”

• The USS Normandy delivered “more than 1,000 gallons of water” in its 21 days of Haiti service, an amount the ship uses every day to flush its toilets, and equal to the water in an average backyard swimming pool.

• The $450 million in U.S. aid sounds like a lot, but it amounts to just $150 per stricken Haitian. Compare that with the $1 million Obama is shelling out for each soldier in his ongoing civilian-slaughtering Afghan surge.

Bill Clinton For President — Of Haiti?

As U.S. soldiers patrol Haiti’s streets, Obama & Co. are cooking up a scheme to make Bill Clinton the country’s virtual colonial governor. The Miami Herald reported (2/10/10):

“The Obama administration is quietly advocating a plan to reconstruct Haiti that could involve a central role for former President Bill Clinton. The plan, designed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff and presented to top Haitian officials in recent days, calls for the creation of an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission to oversee the ‘urgent early recovery’ over the next 18 months. The commission’s top priority: create a Haitian Development Authority to plan and coordinate billions in foreign assistance for at least 10 years.

“The plan...states that the commission could be co-chaired by the Haitian prime minister and ‘a distinguished senior international figure engaged in the recovery effort.’ Haiti observers believe the job description describes [Bill] Clinton although he’s not named in the document. The United Nations has already named him to coordinate its reconstruction efforts.”

U.S. Bosses See Opportunity in
Haitian Workers’ Misery

U.S. capitalists hope such direct political control will enable them to expand sweatshop operations in Haiti. One U.S. think-tank, the Center for Global Development (CGD), bankrolled by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, actually sees Haiti’s $3-a-day garment factory pay as key to recovery, provided bosses don’t beat workers too much: “Apparel assembly pays relatively low wages wherever it is done in the world.... The United States should... facilitate Haiti’s apparel exports and create [these $3-a-day] jobs...” (CGD, 1/25/10)

Before the quake Bill Clinton used his UN post mainly to campaign for more U.S. sweatshops in Haiti. Last October he led a trade mission — financed by billionaire George Soros — of U.S. investors that explored “manufacturing opportunities” in Port-au-Prince. If Obama’s plan goes through, Clinton could soon become Haiti’s garment boss-in-chief.

Kerry Kin Wants Relief Militarized for U.S. Wars, Present and Future

CHALLENGE has noted that U.S. rulers are using the Haitian disaster to divert people’s genuine compassion into serving U.S. imperialism. We revealed that the directors of Doctors Without Borders in fact represent Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and other interests profiting from U.S.-led wars. Now John Kerry’s daughter, Vanessa Kerry, MD, has called for an open militarization of medical relief under Pentagon command.

A resident at Harvard-run Massachusetts General Hospital, Kerry wrote in a NY Times op-ed piece (2/13/10), “The United States should create a service corps of doctors, nurses and medical technicians to deploy to humanitarian disasters like the one that struck Haiti last month.” In other words, well-meaning rank-and-file supporters of Doctors Without Borders should don the uniform of the U.S. war machine.

‘Healers in Uniform’ — A ‘Force
Multiplier’ Enhancing U.S. Military

Dr. Kerry insists that giving modest medical care can help the U.S. ruling class (to which she belongs by birth) win the wars it now wages and must soon wage to preserve its threatened worldwide empire. She proclaims, “Our generals in Iraq and Afghanistan have long recognized that providing basic services to populations there is central to the success of their mission.” In a paradox only a capitalist could appreciate, Kerry said that more healers in uniform could actually enhance the Pentagon’s killing power: “In military terminology, improved health care should be seen as a force multiplier.” This is a technical term the U.S. military reserves for especially lethal weapons systems. Kerry’s plea looks like a backdoor attempt to revive the “national service” program (that is, a restored draft) her father couldn’t sell in his failed 2004 White House bid but one which was part of Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Catastrophes like Haiti prompt outpourings of sympathy and real attempts to help from the working class and its allies. Capitalists see disasters as chances to increase both their own profits and workers’ misery. Communists view them as opportunities to serve the working class, spreading our ideas to prevent disasters, with workers organizing our class to help all workers in a profit-free society.

Ridding the earth of the parasite class of billionaires through communist revolution is our Party’s long-term goal. 

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, at the center of bosses' NYC show-trial controversyThe furor over where and how to try the 9/11 attack ringleaders stems from both Obama-vs.-Bush partisan fighting and Obama’s concern for preserving his liberal cover. The Obama regime wants to maintain the fiction of “the rule of law” in place of the reality of capitalists ruling workers. Ideally, Obama would like an open civil show trial in media-capital Manhattan. But it’s not just the openly fascist Bush-Cheney camp’s demands for secret military proceedings that hinder Obama.

The liberal, imperialist wing of U.S. capitalists, exemplified by the Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), worries that a public trial may blow the lid off Obama’s continuing “anti-terrorist” torture and murder, making it more obvious. Warning against open court in New York, the CFR writes (2/5/10) that 9/11 mastermind’s Khalid Sheik “Mohammed’s lawyers have significant legal grounds to challenge the evidence against him and its means of extraction.”

Obama’s current “justice” for U.S. foes keeps the Guantanamo hellhole open while favoring assassinations by Special Forces and unmanned Drones that tend to wipe out innocent Afghans. On February 14, in a Valentine’s Day Massacre, one of Obama’s “anti-Taliban” rockets incinerated 12 Afghan civilians. Liberals like NYC Mayor Bloomberg and NY Senator Schumer protesting that NYC trials would “disrupt commerce” are, in fact, following the CFR’s line against spotlighting liberal-sponsored U.S. terror.

NEWARK, NJ, February 3 — Today, over 20 students, teachers and local workers protested the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Signs such as “Haiti: this is what capitalism looks like” and “200,000 deaths is not natural, It’s Capitalism!” attracted many commuters walking by. Some joined the demonstration, while drivers honked in support. A high school student group called the rally.

Within three days after the earthquake, the group immediately raised $1,500 for aid relief. Then, when one of their teachers read CHALLENGE and other international newspapers with the students, they realized the problem was much bigger than lack of aid to Haiti.

The newspapers reported the U.S. was barring aid because of its military build-up there. However, only CHALLENGE helped the students to understand the real reason for the build-up: the U.S. needed to put on this “humanitarian face” to mask the establishment of bases for future imperialist wars.

We also noted how the racist media portrayed Haiti’s working class as “looters.” One student said, “That’s f#*@d up; this is the same thing they did to New Orleans.” Students’ anger rose when reading CHALLENGE’s timeline detailing imperialist interventions since the 1791 slave revolt against the French.

Then the conversation turned to solutions to these problems. Some student  CHALLENGE readers jumped in, saying, “It’s obviously capitalism, so we need a revolution.” Another added, “A communist revolution.” Others, however, still think capitalism can be reformed, that only through participating in the government, challenging the politicians and bosses who don’t care about workers, can we establish a fair society. While one said “communism will just be worse,” everyone agreed that imperialism is bad, and that led to discussing an action.

The teacher reviewed past protests with former students against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. One student yelled, “We need to have a protest to let people know what’s going on. I didn’t realize this was happening in Haiti until I read these articles.” Others quickly agreed and began distributing flyers to students in other schools.

Later that week, at a NYC event with over 15 other NJ and NY schools, the students excitedly distributed flyers promoting the protest. On that day five  students marched down the neighborhood’s main street carrying posters, chanting loudly and winning other students to join them. By the time they reached their destination a dozen more had joined.

At the protest, some local workers spoke to us about the situation in Haiti. Many were unclear about what we were protesting but soon they seemed to agree that what’s happening in Haiti was wrong.

One black worker said, “Say what you want, but I don’t vote. I don’t think voting will ever get us what we need. There should be jobs, good education and good health care for everyone. We don’t have that now and it doesn’t look like Obama’s going to give it to us anytime soon.”

Another college student walked by, saying, “I was wondering why there’s so much military there. I’m glad all these high school students are out here. My college friends and I have been discussing protesting too.” She then gave us her contact info and told us to call her when something else is happening.

Then a teacher explained how the conditions created by capitalism and imperialism led to over 200,000 deaths in Haiti. Another worker declared how capitalism will never end imperialist wars, although we’ve been told that World War 1 was “the war to end all wars.” A young black student said the way the media portrayed many of Haiti’s workers was to justify a U.S. military build-up, saying we needed to organize other students and expose the racism created under capitalism.

The next day after school we discussed what we’d done. Students were mainly positive about the event, saying it felt good to stand up for something. Some were disappointed that other high school students and anti-war organizations hadn’t participated. We realized there are many liberal groups that believe the U.S. can use the military for “ humanitarian”  purposes, like in Haiti, and that it should only be opposed when used for imperialist purposes like in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finally, we need to be persistent in our organizing. Even though many people may not agree with us now, as the situation in Haiti unfolds, just like with Katrina, people will increasingly see that capitalism is the main cause of the problems. The students agreed, adding that a year ago they didn’t even know what capitalism was. Now they’re
organizing to get rid of it! J