In the night, when the nazi Israeli military viciously bombed Gaza’s largest hospital-turned-shelter, they forced 60,000 displaced workers and children to flee. This is just one atrocity in what can only be described as a genocide of the working class in occupied Gaza.

Since declaring war on Hamas, the Palestinian nationalist bosses who massacred more than a thousand Jewish and Arab workers, the Israeli capitalist rulers have killed a child every ten minutes in Gaza (Reuters, 11/10). In an area smaller than the city of Detroit, Israel has rained 25,000 tons of bombs, 1.5 times the force of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in World War II (Anadolu Agency, 1/11). Israel redoubled its murderous efforts by cutting off water, food, fuel, and electricity to 2.3 million people.

Genocide is the natural outgrowth of a system of vicious competition for profits. The global crisis of capitalism is driving the carnage of workers in Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, and Armenia, as well as in the Gaza Strip. The bosses solve their contradictions with small wars that inevitably lead to world war. Progressive Labor Party calls for no war but class war! Let’s build an international movement from East to West, North to South, for communist revolution—our only solution.

U.S.’s entanglements amid decay
The instability in the world today reflects a dramatic shift in imperialist competition, with the U.S. in sharp decline and Chinese finance capital rapidly ascending to challenge for worldwide supremacy. The genocide now underway in Gaza was spurred by a move by Saudi Arabia and Israel to “normalize” their relations, a deal that threatened to further isolate Iran and Hamas (Egmont Institute, 10/11). It also reflects the fight to control Middle East oil and the U.S. “pivot” to Asia, a desperate attempt to contain China. This left traditional U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia feeling abandoned and the Middle East open for business with U.S. rivals—again, mainly China.

The U.S. may soon face a three-front war it can’t win: in the Middle East, against a Russia-backed Iran; in Eastern Europe via the Ukraine-Russia war; and in the South China Sea and Taiwan in a battle over shipping routes, naval dominance, and semiconductors. Tensions are growing between the U.S. and its NATO allies and the BRICS alliance of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, India, and South Africa as well as China and Russia.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has played a big role as a junior partner of U.S. imperialism—first as a counterweight to Russian influence in the region, then to counter Iran. In return, the U.S. has armed the brutal Israeli bosses to the teeth and financed their fascist occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Now, as children in Gaza are dismembered and premature babies in incubators die for lack of electricity, the U.S. is sending an additional $320 million in weapons to the Israeli killing machine (New York Times, 11/6).
Meanwhile, once-solid alliances seem more fragile by the day. Regional rulers make lukewarm calls for a cease-fire. Turkey and Colombia, formerly staunch U.S. allies, have pulled their ambassadors from Israel. Iran, the chief U.S. rival in the region, has exploited this volatility to its advantage. The chief funder of Hamas, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen (Vox, 10/14),  Iran has encouraged their attacks on U.S. installations. Iranian-backed militias recently attacked two U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria.

As a deterrent, the U.S. has shifted additional warships, missile systems, and 2,000 Marines to the Middle East (Reuters, 10/21). But now they’re worried they’ll be spread too thin to prepare for the coming war with China and Russia (NY Times, 11/9).

Despite the beginning of a global transition to renewable energy, oil will remain the lifeblood of capitalism for the foreseeable future. China gets half of its oil from the Middle East. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, it has gained a foothold in port cities that link the Persian Gulf to the Arabian, Red, and Mediterranean Seas. China’s real agenda is “increasing military cooperation and exporting…surveillance technologies to countries under BRI” (Arab Center DC, 1/13/21).

Between the Abraham Accords,  a 2020 peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the proposed Saudi-Israeli peace agreement, Iran was confronted with the prospect of “U.S.-centered” alliances controlling “the maritime choke points of the Straits of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, and the Straits of Bab Al Mandab” ((Egmont Institute, 10/11). That was an existential threat to the Iranian bosses. To disrupt the deal between Israel and the Saudi bosses, Iran is widely speculated to have pushed Hamas to conduct its October 7 slaughter.

It’s important to note that workers shouldn’t be fooled by peace deals and promises of “normalization.” At best, these agreements only delay the eventual inter-imperialist war to determine which capitalists will reign supreme. Workers have only two choices: to accept war and fascism, or to build a revolutionary communist party.

Nationalism is deadly
Hamas, like all junior capitalists, is driven by profit, not the needs of workers and children of Gaza. The group’s nationalism undermines the essential unity of Arab and Jewish workers. To paraphrase a PLP document, “Nationalism Hurts the Palestinian Struggle” (1974), the task is not to determine who is the rightful owner of the land of Palestine/Israel. Rather, it is to fight for communism—for the collective ownership of all means of production by the working class.

No matter how militant they may seem, nationalist movements are counter-revolutionary. Consider Haiti, the world’s first “free” Black republic. Enslaved by debt to French bankers, occupied mercilessly by U.S. and UN forces, it has become a workers’ hell run by local capitalist gangsters. Or consider South Africa, where a courageous struggle wound up replacing white bosses with Black rulers who happily worked with the same white bosses—as long as they could steal their share of the spoils. Today South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with the wealth gap between white and Black workers unchanged since apartheid (Time Magazine, 8/5/21).

These national liberation movements, and too many more, show what happens when fights against imperialism fail to fight for international communist liberation. We must reject both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, both anti-Muslim racism and anti-Jewish racism. The workers united will never be defeated!

Workers charge bosses with genocide
We can’t fall into the trap of backing any bosses–not the ruthless gangsters of Hamas, not the genocidal state terrorists of Israel. We must win workers, youth, and soldiers to the idea that an attack on one is an attack on all. When the capitalist system resorts to violence, to remain silent is to fall in line with the bosses’ war agenda.

What we choose to do matters. We need to look no further than the anti-Vietnam War movement started by Progressive Labor Party in the 1960s. Though it was later co-opted by the liberal bosses, the movement inspired millions of workers worldwide to fight back against U.S. imperialist genocide and support the heroic workers in Vietnam—who later were themselves betrayed by their own nationalist rulers.

Today, wherever we look, we see sparks of working-class rage against the Israeli bosses’ genocide. From Britain and Barcelona, Spain to Tacoma, Washington, and Oakland, California, antiracist dockworkers and protesters are blocking shipments of arms and Israel-bound warships.

No ruling class of the world can stop the international working class. If you agree, let’s make these small victories last by building an international communist party. We need to arm millions upon millions with the most powerful weapon in the world: communist ideas. Only then can the working class smash the capitalists’ borders and end their terror for all time. Join us!

ATLANTA, GA, November 12—“Ho Ho, Hey Hey, Biden, how many kids have you killed today?” yelled the masked public health students as they descended, forty strong, on the Emory School of Public Health Dean’s Alumni Reception.  The protesting students were all wearing clear latex gloves painted red to represent the blood everyone has on their hands by staying silent while the imperialist U.S. government continued to send billions to fund the fascist Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians.   

The gathering of public health alumni at the Rollins School of Public Health was being held Sunday evening to celebrate the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting taking place in Atlanta.  While attendees of the reception drank wine and ate cheese as a live band played, the contrast between the masked, militant students with signs calling out genocide and chanting into bullhorns in the middle of this reception was stark.  

The students are furious at the silence of the School of Public Health administration regarding the ongoing genocide of Palestinian workers in Gaza.  The protest was multiracial; most of the protesters were Arab and Black students, but there were also Asian and white students present. They were united in their anger at the school’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire. After marching through the reception and disrupting it, they went outside and stood at the windows with ongoing chanting. Two women from the reception left and came out to join the protest. They told demonstrators, “We couldn’t stay in there after you all came in, we would be on the wrong side.”  

Private universities often have ties to Israel, as does Emory. Emory’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel is one way that they fund students and faculty to participate in this ongoing imperialist project. Just this year, Emory boasted about strengthening their ties with Tel Aviv University (8/11). On October 11th, following Hamas’ attack on Israel, Emory University President Fenves declared support for Israel while acknowledging his Jewish heritage, but remained silent about the loss of Palestinian life and discrimination that Muslim students were facing on campus (10/11). It’s not surprising considering their financial ties – and personal ones with Emory Alum serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) (10/10). President Fenves encouraged respectful disagreement; the focus on “respect” and “professionalism” that liberal universities resort to in instances like these shows their true nature. Professionalism has no place during ethnic cleansing.

Public health “professionals” often tout the line that evidence-based strategies are the most important for healthy populations. However, it was clear here that evidence crumbles when there are financial incentives. One Emory student got on the bullhorn and said, “I learned in this very building that war and violence have detrimental effects on health.” They continued by explaining we know that a ceasefire is the answer for the health of the Palestinian people, but Emory doesn’t care because of their financial ties to Israel. Other students echoed this call: they learned at the School of Public Health that racism is a social determinant of health, yet the University is showing its true racist nature.

As Progressive Labor Party (PLP)members who had heard of this action from a friend and made the 5-mile trip out to the reception site from the APHA conference to participate in solidarity with the students, we were impressed by their multiracial, well-organized militancy.  The students were very serious in their organizing and security—they had planned the rally in secret and when we arrived at the reception, it was clear that no one knew the protest was coming. They had sent in advance scouts into the reception and communicated via secure text messages to coordinate. Almost every single person was wearing an N95 or KN95 mask and others took additional measures to conceal their identity, wearing sunglasses and head scarves. Many of the students were dressed almost completely in black.   

Once we were outside, there were speeches and we were invited to speak on the mic too.  Making connections between racism here and imperialism abroad was a point that was well-received by the students.  This point was made even clearer when a person from Emory University’s “Open Expression Committee” came to tell us that we were in violation of the school’s free speech policies! She said we had to either move the rally or stop using the bullhorn.  If we didn’t, we would be at risk of arrest by the Atlanta Police Department (APD).  The students called out the racism of siccing the police on Black and Brown students protesting racist genocide.  
The concept of “free speech” under capitalism is laughable. It is a liberal performance, tricking working-class people into thinking they have “freedom” in this system. It’s clear that the APD had no interest in supporting protestors’ freedoms of any kind. The students saw right through this. The rally ended safely and those of us in PLP were inspired by the internationalism, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and sharp, confrontational nature of this action. Power to the working class!

Washington DC, November 4—As the fascist state of Israel continues bombing civilians and advancing into Gaza, millions of workers around the world are holding massive protest demonstrations against the genocide of Palestinians.

Mass protest in D.C.
In Washington, DC, 100,000 or more marchers converged on the White House and the surrounding streets to demand that Israel halt the genocide of Palestinians. “Joe Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” rang throughout the march, recognizing the role of the U.S. ruling class in this war against the workers of Palestine. Marching side-by-side with thousands of angry workers, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) held up the banner for the only strategy that can guarantee liberation-- multi-racial, communist revolution! No nations, no borders, no capitalists!

Chants of Shut It Down! were directed to the capitalists of the U.S. and Israel, while linking the mass movement against Israeli fascism to the racist murders by police in the U.S.--many of whom have been trained by the Israeli army!

PLP workers from Maryland,  Virginia, DC, and New York City organized a bullhorn rally by the so-called Freedom Plaza to address marchers with speeches calling for communist revolution and banners declaring NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR and WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE. Our ongoing rally called out capitalism, racism, imperialism, and genocide, reaching thousands of protesters with over 500 CHALLENGE newspapers and a similar number of flyers calling for Arab-Jewish unity for communism.

With our literature table as a base of operations, we engaged 100s of protestors in conversations about the need to crush capitalism, the root of genocidal evil, and to build a revolutionary party to fight for communist revolution.  We met many old friends and made new ones with whom we will work in the coming months to build the PLP.

An independent mass movement Is growing
This rally was different from many large rallies in D.C. such as the women’s march in 2017 after Trump’s election or the gun control rally called after the Florida Parkland student massacre in 2018. Those rallies were supported and organized by the Democratic Party to bolster their electoral base. Today’s massive rally and march was much more like the anti-war protests against the Iraq and Vietnam wars. It attacked the role of the U.S. in its consistent support for the Zionist regime. It led the mass movement away from slavish adherence to the Democratic Party, the organization that kills off working-class movements. No doubt the Democrats will attempt to mislead workers into the election trap, but for now, workers are not buying it!

Despite this positive development, the main strategies advocated by the organizations calling the rally are dead ends. These strategies are for a ceasefire now and the creation of a single or two-state solution. But what kind of state? Nationalism in the region or elsewhere has been shown historically to fail to liberate workers, as capitalists of various nationalities continue to exploit workers even after the overthrow of colonialism.

A Palestinian state with Hamas or a new formation approved by Israel would still be a capitalist enterprise resulting in continued oppression of workers. The continuation of a Zionist state that has oppressed Palestinians and its own working class is also not a solution. Class war against the misleaders in Tel Aviv and Gaza is the only solution to achieve liberation. Seeds of this possibility can be seen in the organizing being done by both Palestinian and Jewish organizations in the U.S. and, in smaller ways, in Israel. Jewish Voice for Peace and Not In Our Name are Jewish organizations that are calling for a ceasefire and protesting side by side with the Palestinian Youth Movement and other Palestinian organizations. In the past month, the almost daily rallies in D.C. have included thousands of these multi-ethnic local residents on the Mall, at the Capitol, and at the White House.

Israel: A vital ally of U.S. imperialism
Israel serves as an enforcer for U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. Its importance to the economic and military goals of the U.S. ruling class is huge. Biden admitted that the $3 billion given to Israel every year is a great defense investment because otherwise, the U.S. would have to establish military bases and troops throughout the region to ensure U.S. power over pipelines, trade routes, and oil. The $14 billion now going to Israel is a further investment for the U.S. financial oligarchs. Of course, Israeli fascism may not be enough to ensure U.S. power in the region. China is strengthening ties with U.S. archenemy Iran and is building strong diplomatic and economic ties with Saudi Arabia.

A single communist state is needed
For workers to build this unity, we communists must stress to other organizers that the reason for wars, displacement, and genocide of multitudes of our brother and sister workers around the globe is capitalism’s drive for maximum profits by seizing markets, resources, and labor. Anti-colonial struggles throughout the 20th century focused on national liberation from settler colonialism and imperialism. This strategy failed to end capitalism and exploitation. PLP has watched and participated in many of these struggles only to see the reversal of whatever gains were made in these battles. Some revolutionaries, like Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, Mohammed Babu in Zanzibar and Tanzania, and Walter Rodney in Guyana, aimed at a classless society within national liberation struggles but were not able to get past the new capitalists. We must not lose again! A communist strategy can achieve and preserve workers’ power!