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100 Days of Genocide: TO STOP GENOCIDE, SMASH CAPITALISM
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- 21 January 2024 1185 hits
January 13,Washington, DC—Marking 100 days after Israel’s fascist attack on working class in Gaza, at least tens of thousands rallied and marched here to condemn Israel’s genocidal attacks, calling for the liberation of Palestine “from the river to the sea.” Progressive Labor Party brought the message that the liberation of the working class, from Palestine to the U.S. and China, will come with communist revolution and global working-class unity. This message resonated with marchers, as they eagerly took 500 Challenge newspapers and hundred-plus communist leaflets from PL’ers, with some making donations to build the PLP.
The PLP rallied within the broader rally behind a banner calling for communist revolution. A leader of the local transit union declared that ATU Local 689, based on the initiative of PLPers in the union, voted overwhelmingly to demand a ceasefire in Palestine and an end to U.S. supply of weapons and money to Israel. But, he added, it was time for the labor movement to move beyond resolutions and take job actions and solidarity strikes to force the U.S. bosses to stop supporting Israel’s military devastation of Gaza, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
“Not another penny, not another dime, No more support for Israel’s crimes!”
Another PLP member, suspended from her job teaching middle school for Facebook posts opposing Israel’s murders of children, called on the crowd to never back down. She said that, when asked by “investigators” from the school board whether she was scared by the charges of antisemitism against her, she replied, “Scared of who? Look, I was in Charlottesville fighting real Nazis, you and the Zionists don’t scare me!” Dozens of contacts were made with marchers interested in the fight for communism, boding well for the long-term struggle.
A group of 150 trade unionists in D.C. rallied and marched to join the larger protest, a glimmer of what engaging the labor movement with communist leadership could mean to intensifying this struggle against genocide.
The rally in DC and other US cities was part of a global day of struggle, with millions worldwide marching to condemn Israel’s attacks, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and condemning the U.S. and Genocide Joe Biden for arming Israel to the teeth as part of its imperialist project. Many of these rallies globally were held at U.S. embassies and consulates, exposing the truth that the U.S. imperialists provide military and financial backing to Israel to enable it to serve U.S. economic and political interests in the Middle East. Control over energy resources and trade routes are vital to U.S. imperialism.
Don’t be lulled into complacency by countries opposing Israel
South Africa made a powerful, chilling case against Israel at the United Nation’s International Court of Justice for murdering 23,000 Palestinians including thousands of children. Israel’s president Isaac Herzog arrogantly dismissed the charges as “preposterous” and a “blood libel”. The majority of the UN General Assembly has supported Palestine, but the U.S. has vetoed any Security Council resolution calling for a “ceasefire” or “cessation of hostilities”. The U.S. finally agreed to abstain on a meaningless resolution to improve humanitarian assistance in Gaza. But none of the countries that have lined up to support Palestine diplomatically or judicially will stop Israel. Only armed struggle can change the situation on the ground, which is exactly why the US imperialists have placed two aircraft carrier groups in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and 12 battleships in the Red Sea area to intimidate and kill any armed resistance to Israel’s genocide.
A wider war looms
Inter-imperialist rivalry is intensifying globally. The genocide in Palestine is one particularly brutal instance of this. The U.S. side is weakening and shrinking, but it will not cede power, money, and influence without a fight. Already engaged in two wars (Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine), depleted of much of its weaponry and with vastly understaffed armed forces, the U.S. imperialists are increasingly vulnerable as other imperialists sharpen their knives. The UN vote reflects the decline of US power. In the Middle East, several armed groups (Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, Islamic groups in Iraq and Syria) have already engaged in a limited way militarily against the U.S. and Israel. Many at today’s rally understood the danger of a wider war, holding signs saying “Hands off Yemen”! Meanwhile, China’s Belt and Road extends into the Middle East, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the African continent, implicitly challenging U.S. hegemony.
For those seeking solutions to this sharpening conflict, rebuilding the communist movement on an internationalist and revolutionary basis is the first order of business. Intensifying the class struggle goes hand in hand with this approach. Let’s be clear-eyed about the devastation that imperialism is creating in Palestine and the rest of the world as well, and move urgently to boldly advance into the battle against racism and genocide and for communism!
We want to make it clear that we can win to a [communist] perspective 99 percent of the forces who hold nationalist ideas.
NEW YORK, January 14—Over the long weekend, 25 members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) participated in a cadre school that exposed nationalism and advanced the need for an internationalist communist movement organized by the PLP. Our collective discussions will help us better understand the world, steel ourselves to fight back and grow PLP to liberate our class from capitalism. Our conclusion: we need communism to do so.
Participants included recent college graduates, a high school student, and workers with several different occupations (teachers, fitness trainers, a paraprofessional, a construction worker, a journalist, a lash tech, a social worker, a stay-at-home dad, and a retired doctor, just to name a few). The cadre school was multi-racial and multi-gendered, with leadership provided by younger members, several of whom are Black workers.
1. Where we are at
In the first workshop of the weekend, we discussed the state of the world. We read how 2023 was chock full of tragedies and capitalist horrors for the international working class, yet it was also brimming with fightback and brought with it more opportunities to build PLP and a working-class movement to smash this genocidal system.
We discussed how hard it can be to combat the cynicism and apathy that many workers and youth feel with the capitalist world as it is. Still, to not fight back is to resign ourselves to defeat. By building a communist movement with a long-term outlook, we know that one day we will turn these tragedies into their opposite. One worker shared how despite being one of the few Latino workers on his job, he is committed to fighting racist ideas and ignorance around him. This commitment to fighting back is exactly the sort of resistance with a long-term outlook the cadre school aimed to foster.
2. What we need to fight
In our second workshop, we discussed the dangers of all forms of nationalism, even so-called revolutionary nationalism. We read about specific case studies in Ukraine, Palestine, the Horn of Africa, and Israel to see how nationalism hurts workers in those regions of the world. We broke into smaller groups to focus on these case studies and then shared what we learned with one another.
As the Israeli ruling class carries out a genocide against workers in Palestine, Palestinian bosses have nothing to offer our class siblings but profiteering and pipedreams. The Palestinian ruling class, which only consists of a handful of rich families, has historically fled to neighboring nations to invest in new commercial ventures and rebuild their businesses.
In the Horn of Africa, imperialists and their lackeys have driven workers to famine through ongoing wars and power struggles. In Ukraine, the construction of a national identity and state has done nothing but give workers the option to die allying themselves with bloodsoaked US imperialists over bloodsoaked Russian imperialists.
One youth expressed his desire to join the army to defend workers in Ukraine against Russian imperialism. This prompted one of the most lively discussions of the weekend. While some friends thought it important to warn of the dangers of war, several PL’ers chimed in to explain that no imperialist war would benefit workers. If we are enlisting in the military, it must be to help turn soldiers’ guns around. The only war the working class needs is class war!
3. Where we are going
To finish out the weekend, our final workshop discussed the need for communism and critiqued the rise of identity politics. We discussed the ways that Black capitalists, women capitalists, and queer capitalists have only continued the racism and exploitation of workers around the world. We highlighted PLP’s line that we can and must move directly from capitalism to communism and asked the group whether such dramatic change is indeed possible.
In response, one PL’er shared her family’s history of fighting in wars in Eritrea. Although the struggle was ultimately nationalist despite having some Marxist-Leninist elements, her point was about how much can change in 30 years. If we fight for communism, rather than a nationalist revolution, and build our Party, imagine the amount of real change workers can achieve in even a short time!
Confidence in the working class
The cadre school showed glimmers of what is possible with communist leadership and the type of society we hope to build after a revolution. All of us took turns cooking and cleaning up after meals, and participants took turns with childcare. One member pointed out how exhausting capitalism can be and raised the need to “give one another grace” as we fight to learn and learn to fight.
One veteran comrade called this “the most united cadre school” he has been a part of. It was an example of how we can win millions to a communist understanding of the world through study and struggle. As one participant said, “ordinary people can do extraordinary things.” We have a better world to win. Join us.
U.N. calls Palestinian conditions “horrific”
New York Times, 1/13–The twin specters of a widening regional war and intensified suffering of civilians loomed over the Middle East on Saturday as the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen threatened to respond to American airstrikes, and a senior U.N. official warned of a “horrific” humanitarian crisis in Gaza that he said was hurtling toward famine…In northern Gaza, corpses are left in the road and starving people stop aid trucks “in search of anything they can get to survive,” Martin Griffiths, the top U.N. aid official, told the United Nations Security Council on Friday. With the risk of famine in Gaza “growing by the day,” he repeated earlier criticisms of Israel, which he said was delaying or denying permission to humanitarian convoys bringing urgently needed aid to northern Gaza…Israeli attacks have killed at least 23,000 people in Gaza since, according to the Gaza health authorities. At least 1.9 million people, or 85 percent of the population, have been forced from their homes, Mr. Griffiths said.
Gaza war spreads into a wider conflict
Al Jazeera, 1/12–For months, top United States officials have repeatedly said that President Joe Biden does not want to see Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip escalate into a wider conflict in the Middle East…later, the US confirmed it had collaborated with the United Kingdom to launch “strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels'', in coordination with a handful of other countries…“It does run contrary to what the administration has been saying, but it was also inevitable, “Everybody watching this situation knew that it was a matter of time before the war in Gaza spilled out across the region…The Iran-aligned Houthis control large swaths of Yemen including the western coast overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads to the Red Sea. The group began firing missiles at Israel and attacking commercial ships shortly after the war on Gaza began in October.
Is inter imperialist struggle accelerating?
The Guardian, 1/13–The first of what may be many US-led air strikes on Iranian-backed Houthi Shia militants in Yemen… reflects…another unwelcome fact. The dominant power in the Middle East is no longer the US, western-aligned Egypt, Saudi Arabia or even Israel. It is the Houthis’ main ally, Iran…China has created spheres of geopolitical and economic influence to rival and, if possible, supplant those of the US… In 2021, the two countries [China and Iran] signed a 25-year strategic investment and energy pact. Under Chinese sponsorship, Iran has joined the Brics group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation…Iran sells millions of barrels of discounted crude to China each month, transported there by “dark fleet” oil tankers…With Russia…Iran supplies armed drones that Moscow uses to kill Ukrainians. US intelligence reportedly believes Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah with a medium-range air defense system…Iran…may soon take delivery of advanced Russian Sukhoi SU-35 fighter-bombers…nuclear weapons-related enrichment programme is reportedly advancing rapidly…an Iranian bomb, may be closer than ever.
War in Asia would be much worse
Bloomberg, 1/8–War over Taiwan would have a cost in blood and treasure so vast that even those unhappiest with the status quo have reason not to risk it. Bloomberg Economics estimate the price tag at around $10 trillion, equal to about 10% of global GDP — dwarfing the blow from the war in Ukraine, Covid pandemic and Global Financial Crisis.
China’s rising economic and military heft, Taiwan’s burgeoning sense of national identity, and fractious relations between Beijing and Washington mean the conditions for a crisis are in place…Everyone from Wall Street investors to military planners and the swathe of businesses that rely on Taiwan’s semiconductors are already moving to hedge against the risk. National security experts in the Pentagon, think tanks in the US and Japan, and global consulting firms are gaming out scenarios from a Chinese maritime “quarantine” of Taiwan, to the seizure of Taiwan’s outlying islands, and a full-scale Chinese invasion.
22,313 people murdered:
9,100 of whom are children
57,296 injured
7,000 missing
2.3 million displaced
Countless diseases due
to lack of clean water and sanitation
58,000 tonnes of high explosives used (equivalent to two nuclear bombs)
355,000 housing units
370 schools and universities
203 houses of worship
23 out of 36 hospitals taken out of service
53 other health centers
104 Ambulances
Israeli-U.S. bombs destroy majority of Gazan homes
Al Jazeera, 12/31/23–Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza for nearly three months has destroyed 70 percent of the homes in the besieged Palestinian enclave, according to the Government Media Office. About 300,000 out of 439,000 homes have been destroyed in Israeli attacks, a Wall Street Journal report said…“The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden [Germany] and other famous cities that have been bombed,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago… In nearly two months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol, or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II… “Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” said Pape.
DR Congo demands UN remove troops
France24, 12/19/23–Despite a volatile domestic situation, the Congolese government has for months been calling for an "accelerated" withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, from the end of 2023 rather than the end of 2024. It considers the UN force to be ineffective in protecting civilians from the armed groups and militias that have plagued the eastern DRC for three decades. The accusation is similar to that made by other African countries, notably Mali, which has demanded the emergency departure of the UN Minusma mission. In recent months, several Council members, notably the United States, have expressed doubts as to whether Congolese forces are ready to replace Monusco to ensure the security of the population. However, as UN missions cannot operate without the authorization of host countries, the DRC wants to force the Security Council's hand -- though its messaging has been less forceful than Mali's. Even as it complies with the DR Congo's demands, the Council is expected to underline its "concern over the escalation of violence" in the east and "tensions between Rwanda and the DRC,"…The first phase includes the withdrawal of peacekeepers from South Kivu province by the end of April 2024, beginning "before the end of 2023."
U.S.-China imperialists planning for war
Foreign Affairs, 12/12/23–Over the past decade, the prospect of Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific has moved from the realm of the hypothetical to the war rooms of U.S. defense planners…With Taiwan as the assumed flash point, U.S. strategists have offered several theories about how such an attack might play out…First is a…conquest of Taiwan by China…A second path envisions a U.S.-led coalition beating back China’s initial assault on the island…many strategists are concerned about a third, more catastrophic outcome…a direct war between the two great powers leading to uncontrolled escalation…nuclear weapons, thereby triggering Armageddon…Yet there is also a very different possibility, one that is not merely plausible but perhaps likely: a protracted conventional war between China and a U.S.-led coalition. Although such a conflict would be less devastating than nuclear war, it could exact enormous costs on both sides.
Oil war brewing in South America
Associated Press, 12/31/23–A British warship arrived in Guyana on Friday afternoon amid rising tensions from a border dispute between the former British colony and Venezuela…The HMS Trent’s visit led Venezuela to begin military exercises a day earlier in the eastern Caribbean near its border with Guyana as the Venezuelan government presses its claim to a huge swath of its smaller neighbor…The dispute is over Essequibo, a sparsely populated region that is the size of Florida and rich in oil and minerals. Venezuela has long claimed it was cheated out of the territory when Europeans and the U.S. set the border…Venezuela on Thursday began military exercises involving 5,000 troops in the eastern Caribbean, citing the visit by the British patrol ship…Guyana has controlled Essequibo for decades, but Venezuela revived its historical claim to the region earlier this month through a referendum in which voters were asked whether the territory should be turned into a Venezuelan state…Venezuela says it was the victim of a land theft conspiracy in 1899 when Guyana was a British colony and arbitrators from Britain, Russia, and the United States decided the boundary.
