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What Next for the Movement?
The moment news broke on December 27th of the Israeli attack on Gaza, activists around the world
began planning emergency demonstrations, and protests have occurred
every day since then.
In New York, for instance, as activists
woke up Saturday morning to news of the aggression, furious phoning and
emailing began to plan a rally for the very next day. That rally set a
pattern for the next week’s events in the city and elsewhere. About
3,000 angry but inspired and determined people turned out, mostly young
Palestinians, with large numbers also of Palestinian families,
including toddlers and babies, as well as long-time Arab community
activists. Only a small minority were non-Arab activists from antiwar
or other movements.
Another protest of two to three hundred was held the following day,
Monday, followed by one of five to seven hundred on Tuesday. The week’s
protests culminated in a march of 10 to 15 thousand on Saturday,
January 3rd. At that march countless clumps of young Palestinians kept
coming up with their own chants, organizing themselves to stay together
and spirited. Soon after the rally began, news spread through the crowd
that the ground invasion had begun, leading to discussions of how to
continue organizing more protests in the days ahead.
A sense of the breadth of protests in the US can be gotten from the
website of the US Campaign to End the Occupation, which has been
posting announcements of any protest sent to it, regardless of sponsor.
Figures drawn from that site show that in the US, just for the period
Sunday, 12/28, to Saturday, 1/3, there were 125 protests in 82 cities
in 38 states and DC. These include 10 on December 28th – the day after
the attack began – 15 on 12/29, 46 on 12/30, 11 on 12/31, 6 on Thursday,
22 on Friday, and 15 on Saturday. The states of Texas, New York, California and Ohio each had 10 or more
protests. The cities of Houston, St. Louis, New York City, and Washington, DC, each had at least 5. By
January 5th, the Campaign was reporting there had been 200 protests in
40 states in 100 cities.
The rapidity and frequency of the protests give a feel for the
movement’s potential, and raise the question of national coordination,
both for mobilization as long as the massacres continue, and for building
an ongoing movement against the genocidal siege (and ultimately
self-determination) when it stops (which will only be temporary, in any
case).
The massive, immediate response has also benefited from a unity among
most forces organizing the protests which parallels a newfound unity in
the antiwar movement – but, as is the case in the latter, this unity is
hampered by the refusal so far of the liberal wing of the movement to
join in a serious way.
Antiwar activists are linking the US war on Iraq and Afghanistan with Israel's war on the Palestinians.
ANSWER ands TONC, working with Al-Awda
chapters and Palestinian and Muslim community and civil rights groups,
initiated many of the protests. The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and
Occupations issued a strong statement against the Israeli aggression,
and its affiliates have joined or helped form local coalitions
organizing protests.
Below we present some highlights of the demonstrations in the US and around the world,
followed by an analysis of where the movement stands and what we need
to do next.
U.S. Protests
December 28th: Beside the New York protest, there was one of 2,000 in Dearborn, Michigan, which has one of the
country’s biggest Arab-American populations, and 1,000 in Anaheim. Protests were held in Washington, DC at the Obama
transition office, as well as outside his home in Hawaii.
(Obama stayed silent for over a week, finally
issuing a statement which only shed crocodile tears for civilian
casualties on both sides. One of his senior advisors, David Axelrod, told CBS's Face the Nation the day after
the attacks: "The president-elect was in Sderot
last July, and he said that when bombs are raining down on your
citizens, there is an urge to respond and act and try and put an end to
that.”)
December 29th: Hundreds took over a downtown intersection for two hours
in San Francisco. 500 people protested in
freezing temperature in Chicago.
December 30th: Almost 50 cities took part in a national day of action
called by ANSWER, the Muslim American Society, the National Council of
Arab Americans, the Free Palestine Alliance, Al-Awda
and others. Some of the biggest were rallies of 2,000 in San Francisco, 3,000 in DC, 500 each in Portland and San Diego, 300 in Toledo, 200 in Boston, and 1,000 in one location
in Los Angeles and 300 in another. Dozens
or hundreds rallied in Albany, Seattle, Atlanta, Ithaca, Burlington, Baltimore , Sacramento, Houston, and elsewhere.
January 2nd: After days of protests in the hundreds, 5,000 from all
over the Chicago area met downtown. In Rochester, over 200 rallied in a
blizzard. In Boston, 800 marched.
Hundreds
marched in San Diego, continuing a pattern of
almost daily protests beginning December 28th. A contingent at this
march from Union del Barrio held a banner reading "La Raza con Gaza."
January 3rd: The protest mentioned above was the biggest
pro-Palestinian protest in New York in anyone’s memory. The
large turnout led organizers to conclude that the post-9/11 fear of
demonstrating among Arabs being victimized by US government repression had
significantly abated.
January 7th: Hundreds gathered at New York’s City Hall to throw shoes
at a blown up photo of Mayor Bloomberg in protest of his trip to Israel to support the massacres,
and to draw the link between the suffering of working people under his
budget cuts and US funding for Israel’s war machine.
Some 300 people protested in Puerto Rico at a demonstration called
by the Movement of Socialist Workers.
January 10th: As part of a call for national actions on Gaza, thousands marched in Washington, DC and San Francisco, many coming in buses
organized by Arab and Muslim organizations in small, faraway towns.
January 11th: Organizers of the previous big New York City marches hold another one of
several thousand. Two days later, at least four events on Gaza are to take place: two Town
Hall meetings, a relief fundraiser, and a peace vigil organized by
UFPJ, Code Pink and Peace Action.
Outside the U.S.
Meanwhile similarly frequent and large protests were occurring daily
outside the US. To give a feel for the
mobilization in Europe we’ll cite only the turnout on Saturday,
January 3rd, when marches in the thousands each occurred in Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and elsewhere on the
continent. The Paris march was estimated by
police at 20,000, and organizers of the London protest said 60,000 had
turned out. In both England and France there were dozens of
protests in smaller cities as well.
In many cities people waved or threw shoes. The US pattern of majority-Palestinia n demos with a small minority of nonArab activists was replicated in some of the
European demonstrations.
In Scotland hundreds of people have
been on the streets every day, in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and elsewhere, building
for a national demonstration scheduled for January 10th in Edinburgh.
Greek youth, already in the middle of a revolt against exploitation and
repression by their own ruling class, marched in the thousands for Gaza.
Australia has also had multiple
rallies of hundreds or thousands.
In Canada, protests have been held in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver,
Montreal and Toronto. In a rally of 10,000 in Toronto on January 3rd, several
speakers, including the president of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees-Ontario, Sid Ryan, urged the crowd to support the campaign of
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid
initiated by NGOs, unions and community groups in Palestine. Other rally sponsors from
the labor movement beside CUPE were the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers, Steel Workers–Toronto Area Council, and Educators for Peace
and Justice.
On January 10th, the same day as the call for national actions in the US, tens of thousands march in
several European cities.
The Arab World
Massive, frequent protests have occurred in Arab nations and in
predominantly Muslim countries. A universal target of ire at these
rallies has been the Egyptian regime for its collaboration with the
Israeli blockade and attacks. The regime has repeatedly fired on Gazans trying to escape the massacres.
A rally of 50,000 in Alexandria, Egypt was only the biggest of
many large rallies which were held in the country despite constant (and
often successful) efforts by the regime to prevent protests, and
repeated arrests of protest organizers.
Over 1,000 marched January 3rd in Kuwait, which followed big
protests in many Arab countries the day before after Friday prayers.
The same day several thousand demonstrated in Ankara, which followed rallies the
day before there and in Istanbul.
In Beirut, hundreds of thousands
protested in pouring rain on December 29th at a demonstration called by
Hezbollah. Its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, called for an urgent Arab summit, for
massive protests in Egypt, and for a third Intifada. He also praised Venezuelan president Hugo
Chavez for expelling Israel's ambassador to Caracas and called on all countries
to follow his lead.
In Aden, Yemen, demonstrators from a crowd
of thousands broke into the Egyptian consulate and hoisted the
Palestinian flag over it. Yemeni security forces could not stop them,
despite using teargas.
In Tehran, a crowd of protesters
stretched for a half-mile.
In Algeria, 30,000 marched in defiance
of a standing government ban on protests after Friday prayers.
Police in Amman fired tear gas to disperse
more than 2,000 people who demanded that the Israeli Embassy be closed.
Many held pictures of Hugo Chavez.
15,000 rallied in the Qatari capital of Doha.
The Islamic Mission Party (Da'wa) of Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
called on all Muslim countries to cut off relations with Israel in response to the air
strikes on Gaza. (On the other hand, a
suicide bomber attacked a pro-Gaza rally by the Iraqi Islamic Party,
also part of Maliki’s government, the
ostensible reason being the hypocrisy of Maliki
for denouncing Israel yet working with its US sponsor.)
Iraqi cleric Muqtada Sadr
called January 7th for "revenge operations" against US forces
to protest Israel's Gaza offensive. He also urged
that Palestinian flags be raised on every building in Iraq and that all countries shut
down Israeli embassies.
Protests also occurred in Sidon, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria; and Khartoum, Sudan.
Thousands have also marched in countries with large Muslim populations,
such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia and Mauritania.
Labor solidarity with Gaza
Numerous labor unions and federations around the world have issued
statements or taken action – with the predictable and criminal
exception of those in the US.
A first planeload of humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza touched down in Egypt January 8th as part of a
trade union relief operation by the International Transport Workers’
Federation. The plane contained ambulances, medical supplies, rice and
wheat, and bottled water and milk for babies. The supplies will be
distributed in Gaza by the Red Crescent.
Loading was handled by members of Jordanian affiliates of the
Federation.
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said “We
hope this will be the first of several mercy flights carrying
humanitarian supplies. Vital though these medical supplies are, they do
not lessen in any way the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”
Calls for more such relief aid missions have been issued by the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC, which represents 168
million workers in 311 affiliated national organizations from 155
countries), and the various industrial or service sector federations
which are a part of it, in coordination with the Palestinian and
Jordanian trade union congresses (Palestinian General Fedreation of Trade Unions-PGFTU and General
Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions-GFJTU).
One group participating in the ITF effort, the Trades Union Congress of
England, also wrote its government to demand an immediate cease-fire
and humanitarian assistance for Gaza. The TUC denounced the
imminent upgrading of EU-Israel relations, and called for immediate
lifting of the blockade.
UNISON, England’s biggest public sector, asked
“all members and branches to take part in protests and vigils against
the violence. There will be demonstrations this Saturday in London,
Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and other cities. A number of other
vigils and protests will be held throughout this week in all regions.”
The CP-led union federation in Greece, PAME, organized a strike
and demonstrations in Greece on January 7th. PAME also
donated medicine and medical supplies. Its Federation of Construction
Workers had a 24-hour strike, and federations of workers in the health,
accountancy, food and beverage, textile and retirees’ sectors struck
for five hours, culminating in a march on the US and Israeli embassies.
Pro-Gaza strikes also occurred in Norway. Building on demonstrations
held in at least 28 cities, on January 7th all trains throughout the
country, including streetcars and subways in Oslo, stood still for two
minutes in a political strike organized by the Norwegian Locomotive
Union and the Oslo Tram Workers Union. A coalition including the six
biggest national unions has endorsed a new campaign for the withdrawal
of all State investments in Israel.
The
Union of Trade and Office Workers, Norway’s biggest retail sector
union, called on members to ask their employers to remove Israeli
products from stores. And the confederation of Norwegian Trade Unions
(LO), which represents about a fifth of the country’s entire
population, condemned the attacks and called for demonstrations.
The politics of the statements of most international labor bodies have
reflected their social-democratic orientation, calling for a two-state
solution through international diplomatic efforts, and condemning Hamas for rockets without even mentioning Gazans’ right to resist occupation under
international law, much less their right to fight the 60-year old
expulsion and dispossession of the majority of Palestinians and the
discrimination against those remaining.
On the other hand, the ITUC, Public Services International and others
have directly challenged the Israeli regime’s claim that there is no
humanitarian crisis in Gaza, demanding an immediate
cease fire and exposing the horrific conditions which the blockade and
attacks have caused.
US Labor Against War (USLAW) issued a statement condemning the attacks
and calling for a ceasefire. Although its language mirrored the tone of
the social democratic international labor bodies cited above, its
condemnation of Israel’s attack represents an extremely significant
step for this body, whose affiliates operate in unions with leaderships
as stridently pro-Zionist (and vengeful against opposition) as AIPAC.
USLAW may find that the barbarity of Israel’s attack provide it more
unexpected openings. Despite a universal howl of politicians for more
Palestinian blood, and coverage uniformly slanted toward Israeli
propaganda, a December 31 Rasmussen poll showed that Americans were
split almost evenly on the question of whether Israel should attack
Gaza – 44% in favor and 41% against.
Several humanitarian aid projects have been launched by Australian and New Zealand unions, including some
targeting the healthcare sector.
The Workers Advice Center, an independent union in Israel, issued a statement calling
upon trade unions and the international labor movement to pressure their
governments to stop Israel’s war on Gaza.” It said that a
Palestinian construction worker killed by a Hamas
rocket on December 29th “fell victim to Israel’s war on Gaza. Israel claims it is defending its
citizens in the South. But these people are working-class, and the
government has shown by its policies that the lives and security of
workers mean nothing to it: its priorities are with the rich.” It noted
the superexploitation and discrimination
suffered by such workers, and the rising unemployment and destruction
of the country’s social security net. “After the war ends, we know,
hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border will remain poor and
unemployed. Palestinian workers are shut jobless behind the separation
wall, while their families languish in poverty and hunger. Israeli
workers, for their part, are starting to feel the pinch of the global
financial crisis, with higher levels of unemployment and further
attacks on earlier social gains.”
Hassan Juma'a Awad, President of the Federation of Oil Unions in Southern Iraq, issued a statement
condemning the attacks. Juma'a also condemned
“the world's silence, including the silence of Arab governments.” Juma'a asked the world’s governments to “take a
united stand against this ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of
Palestinians,” and asked unions everywhere to demand a stop “to the
military incursion against civilians and take necessary steps to
pressure Israel to compensate the effected
families.”
The Federation of Oil Unions represents more than 25,000 employees of
the Iraqi state-owned Southern Oil Co., headquartered in Basra, Iraq, and has worked closely
with USLAW.
Numerous other national and crossnational
Arab union and labor federations have issued statements. But
unfortunately they have done very little to mobilize their members.
During this crisis, several Palestinian union bodies have reraised the call for BDS. The Palestinian
Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, after the
bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza, urged an intensification
of the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It detailed the
various ways in which these bodies (like those in every imperialist
country) are complicit with military research, recruiting, and
propaganda.
The Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees went further,
calling for a ban on individual Israeli academicians “doing speaking,
teaching or research work at Ontario universities" if they do not
explicitly condemn Israel's actions in Gaza.
Leaders of the union, which represents 570,000 workers in the service
sector, said the proposal was in response to Israel's attack on the Islamic
University in Gaza.
"Attacking an institution of learning is just beyond the
pale," said the union's Ontario president, Sid Ryan.
"They deliberately targeted an institution of learning. That's
what the Nazis did."
The union's Ontario arm had passed a resolution
in 2006 supporting boycotts of Israeli goods, sparking a firestorm of
debate. CUPE nationally had voted down a similar resolution at its
convention. Nonetheless, after the attack CUPE’s
national officers sent a letter to Canada’s Prime Minister “to demand
that the government condemn the military assault on the people of
Gaza.” They quoted Professor Richard Falk, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, who characterized the
Israeli offensive as containing "severe and massive violations of
international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions,
both in regards to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the
requirements of the laws of war."
On January 7th, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers demanded that the
Canadian government condemn the Israeli attacks and that it “also call
for a cessation of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza, which has resulted in the
collective punishment of the entire Gaza population.
“Canada must also address the root
cause of the violence: Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israel's current actions are totally out of proportion with any notion
of self-defense. Israel's actions are resulting in
the massacre of people in Gaza.”
Noting the long record of Israel’s violation of international law, the
statement continued: “Therefore, as a longer term strategy, the CUPW is
asking your government to adopt a program of boycott, divestment and
sanctions until Israel recognizes the right of the Palestinian people
to self-determination and complies with international law, including
the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as stipulated
in UN resolution 194.”
Another BDS call by a labor body, one which should be particularly
useful for US activists, is the one issued by the PGFTU, which called
for supporters to organize to stop US aid to Israel, and to do so as part of
“building coalitions with unions, faith groups, antiwar movements and
all social justice organizations.” The task of ending US aid “becomes
not only necessary but also a duty of international solidarity among
labor unions around the world. It is the US government aid that
provides Israel with the weapons of
oppression and US government support that
enables them to use those weapons against our people.”
The union reminded its readers: "WE ARE ALL GAZA – this war is
against all poor workers and families of the world. These are not just
crimes against the people of Palestine. They are crimes against
humanity.”
Protests in pre-1967 Israel and the West Bank
Ten thousand peace activists, both Jews and Palestinians, rallied in
Tel Aviv in an action called by groups such as Gush Shalom, Hadash: Democratic Front for Peace and Equality
(Communist Party of Israel), the Coalition of Women for Peace,
Anarchists Against the Wall, the Alternative Information Center and New Profile. The
demonstration called not only for an immediate cease-fire but also an
end to the blockade of Gaza.
Organizers successfully resisted police demands to ban Palestinian
flags from the rally. A thousand Palestinians came to the Tel Aviv
rally on buses straight from a huge protest in Sakhnin.
Gush Shalom leader Uri Avnery noted that the
turnout was “much quicker and much bigger” than during the 2006 attack
on Lebanon. Referring to upcoming
Israeli elections, Avnery added: "It is
a cynical war, for political reasons and people are very much aware of
that."
Hundreds of right-wingers staged a counterprotest,
and at the end of the rally chased and physically attacked antiwar
activists, even besieging some in a building until police (at their
typical leisurely pace) showed up.
During the week after the attack began, 471 Palestinians and Jews,
including 149 minors, were arrested in Israel for protesting.
One of the most politically significant protests came from residents of
Sderot and nearby towns, which the Zionists
cynically claim the war is designed to defend against Hamas rockets. A group called "The Other
Voice" has published a petition calling for the government to
prevent escalation and restore calm to the area. The petition, written
in November and gaining more publicity now, states "We prefer a
cold war in which not a single rocket is fired to a hot war with tens
of innocent victims and casualties from both sides." So far more
than 2,300 Israelis have signed it, including more than 500 from Sderot. What makes this even more striking is the
fact that Sderot is made up overwhelmingly of
Mizrahim Jews (i.e. immigrants from Arab
countries), long abused and exploited by the Ashkenazi ruling class,
and used opportunistically by its politicians in a role akin to the US
South’s “poor whites” under Jim Crow.
Inside pre-1967 Israel, 100 to 150 thousand
Palestinians marched on January 3rd in Sakhnin.
The event was attended by several Arab Knesset members including
members of Hadash.
Repeated protests have been held in majority-Palestinia
n towns in pre-1967 Israel, as well as throughout the West Bank, many featuring stone
throwing at Israeli soldiers or Palestinian Authority security forces.
A march of several hundred students from Birzeit University outside Ramallah
toward a nearby Israeli checkpoint was broken up by the PA. In Ramallah itself, hundreds marched to the
headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the largest demonstration
held there in several years.
Palestinian youth have clashed with soldiers at checkpoints across the West Bank, including in Ni'lin, the site of months-long protests against
the expansion of the separation wall through the village's farm land
(protests which, though peaceful, were nonetheless routinely and
brutally attacked by the IDF).
The demonstrations in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah,
Nablus and other West Bank towns have called for
unified resistance to Israel.
The Authority has broken up marches of thousands in Hebron and Ramallah
and elsewhere with clubs and tear gas, arrested Hamas
supporters, confiscated Hamas flags and
ripping up placards with pro-Hamas slogans.
One protester told the New York Times: “The Palestinian Authority
shares the view of Israel and the United States that Hamas
should be crushed. 80 percent of the people are in total solidarity
with Gaza and against the repression
of the Palestinian Authority.”
The headline of a story in Ha’aretz by
independent journalist Jesse Rosenfeld, describing pro-Gaza sentiment
and actions in the West Bank, posed a question increasingly asked in
recent days: “An Intifada in its infancy?”
Rosenfeld described a three-day general strike and a demonstration of
schoolgirls in East Jerusalem, and reported that “The PA
has been doing everything in its power to stand in the way of
Palestinian community action. But there is a general will to resist and
there is popular sentiment that Abbas is a
collaborator with Israel who has achieved little for
them.” The flip side of this sentiment is Washington’s awareness that the neoliberal economic project Abbas
has headed for it in the West Bank is also at risk of collapse.
A colleague of Rosenfeld from Ni'lin told him
"We have no problem confronting the fourth largest army in the
world – you think we're really that concerned about the PA?"
What Next for the Movement in Solidarity with Gaza?
The typical composition of most protests in the imperialist countries,
while demonstrating an inspiring unity and determination among
Palestinians, shows the abdication so far of the antiwar and other
social justice movements to take up their responsibility to oppose
their own ruling class. As mentioned above, this has been particularly
noticeable on the part of the liberal wing of the movement. Emergency
conference calls on Gaza organized by United For Peace and Justice, and
its affiliate, the US Campaign to End the Occupation, have each
involved over a 100 listeners, way more than the typical attendance on
such calls. Yet on neither was a call for action issued, either on
their own or in coalition with other groups. To their credit, both
groups have informed members of protests in which they could take
place. But that can hardly be said to fulfill the leadership
responsibility of groups claiming to be the most important bodies in
their field of action.
It should be noted however that the US Campaign has issued extremely
useful fact sheets detailing the amount and form of US military aid, information
which will be valuable ammunition for the kind of unified mobilizations
advocated by the PGFTU against US aid.
One area of work which can be a fruitful adjunct to continued mass
protests is support for the Free Gaza Movement, which has sent several
boats to Gaza with humanitarian aid in
defiance of the blockade. The latest trip, occurring after the bombing
had commenced, included former Congressperson Cynthia McKinney, whose
boat was rammed repeatedly by an Israeli naval gunboat. Another
politically- significant relief effort is that of Physicians for Human
Rights-Israel, which is trying to provide supplies for hospitals
already devastated by the blockade and now forced to care for tens of
thousands of wounded without such basics as antibiotics, gauze,
surgical gloves, etc.
As
we go to press the Israeli invasion shows no sign of abating, and in
fact may be headed toward even more murderous attacks. The unity
achieved so far in the movement for Gaza must be intensified and
extended, including in decisions on calls for more
nationally-coordinated actions.
A similar unity and heightened activity is needed inside Israel. One of the most important
tasks there is to support the movement of IDF soldiers refusing
enlistment or, once enlisted, participation in the war. Author Shraga Elam noted that such resistance
can even be effective on a mass scale given the high-tech nature of Israel’s war machine: “Even very
few ‘select’ people like computer experts can prevent war crimes on a
large scale. Due to reliance on computer systems, there has never been
so much power concentrated in so few hands. Such experts can now prevent
and stop war crimes. They can access computers, communication systems,
electricity or supplies and thus prevent a war crime.” Elam provided the text of a call
being distributed to Israeli soldiers encouraging such refusal.
In the Arab world, the sentiment of the masses for action in support of
their sisters and brothers in Gaza has been impressively
manifested. Mainstream media and politicians recognize this, and are
terrified of the possible impact of such protests on “moderate,” pro-US
Arab regimes. These fears are usually expressed as worry about the
ability of such regimes to continue their subservience in the realm of
diplomacy. An occasional, more in-depth analysis, mentions a
deeper-going fear: that the insertion of pro-US regimes, from Abbas in the West Bank, to Mubarak
in Egypt, Maliki
in Iraq, etc., in Washington’s new “free trade regime,”
could be jeopardized by the masses’ furor over their complicity in Israel’s US-financed genocide.
For these fears to be realized, however, action by the Arab working
class is essential. Many supporters of Gaza in the region, indeed
throughout the world, look longingly toward Hezbollah and other radical
populist forces in the hopes that additional military fronts against
the IDF will be opened. One can’t help but sympathize with such
desires. But even more powerful would be strikes by Arab workers.
Egyptian textile workers have in the last two years launched several
strikes of tens of thousands of workers, but this militancy has yet to
result in a political force challenging their own regime even on
domestic policy, much less on its subservience to Tel Aviv and
Washington. In fact during the Gaza crisis Egyptian workers
were engaged in strikes and sit-ins at textile factories, including
over privatization threats dictated by the free trade restructuring
referred to above.
Imagine the power of a one-day general strike throughout the region,
uniting Egyptian textile workers, Iraqi oil workers, Jordanian garment
workers, etc. A successful strike would in turn inspire mass
discussions of even bolder steps (including in the military sphere).
In both a moral and political sense, of course, the working classes of
the US and Israel bear the greatest
responsibility to stop this genocidal war. Any action by them on a mass
scale is nowhere in the offing, especially as both working classes have
so far even failed to respond in any substantial way to the impact on
themselves of the global economic crisis.
Yet revolutionaries can use that very crisis to make clear the intimate
connections between the global imperialist economic system and the
barbarous colonial policies of regimes like Israel – and to explain why
only a working class movement linking these issues can stop the
murders, and in turn let us take our first steps toward liberation from
a system which lets such atrocities occur.
For more information and to help, see:
www.electronicintifada.net
www.freegaza.org
www.pgftu.org
www.phr.org.il/phr
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