ISG co-sponsored “Not Another Bomb” protest in Boston, MA. This national day of action organized by the Vote Uncommitted movement demanded an arms embargo from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) starting the following day.
by Jacob Bielski
Springfield, MA
This article was published before the most recent wave of protests and strike action in Israel. Read more about those developments here: https://www.socialistworld.net/2024/09/03/israel-palestine-general-strike-against-netanyahu-government/
As the Israeli state’s genocidal invasion of the Gaza Strip nears its one-year mark, growing unpopularity forced incumbent Joe Biden to step down from the 2024 Democratic ticket, partly fueled by his administration’s support for the onslaught against Gaza. Despite replacing Biden with current Vice President Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate, the Democratic Party refuses to change its position supporting the Israeli state as US imperialism’s foothold in the Middle East.
The confirmed death toll is more than 40,000 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians. One-fifth of the population faces starvation in the coming months, 59% of buildings in the territory are damaged or destroyed, and 85% of the local population remains displaced from their homes. A July article in The Lancet medical journal estimated the potential death toll in the Gaza Strip at 186,000 people, even if the war ended at the time of publication.
Ceasefire Negotiations Fail, Wider War Looms
Amid fears of a wider war, as Iran and Hezbollah threaten retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders by Israeli forces, the United States, Qatar, and Egypt opened a new series of peace talks between Hamas, its allies, and Israel. The US military is sending a second aircraft carrier and a missile-armed submarine to strengthen its presence in the Middle East in preparation for Iranian missile launches if peace talks fail.
Peace talks have stalled. The Israeli military has continued its assault on Gaza to the point that the UN halted humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians. Furthermore, the Israeli state launched wide-scale raids in the occupied West Bank on August 28th, stoking fears the Israeli state will expand the war and expel Palestinians in the West Bank.
The US, Israel, Iran, and other capitalist powers in the region do not seek a resolution to the conflict that benefits the working class but instead wish to end it in hopes of stabilizing their own regimes and interests in the region amid growing economic and political uncertainties. To win a real, lasting peace, the international working class must unite to oppose the war and the corrupt governments waging it. Further, we must organize for a socialist alternative to capitalism and imperialism, which drive conflicts like the ones in Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, and Sudan.
What can US workers do?
Workers and youth in the United States can play a significant role in bringing an end to the carnage in the Gaza Strip. Protests diminished after universities broke for summer and Biden resigned from the Democratic presidential ticket but they could flare up again this fall.
Despite the lull, the movement achieved some victories this summer. For example, regular protests in Cambridge, MA, reportedly spurred a US subsidiary of Israeli military contractor, Elbit Systems, to begin leaving the city.
We cannot rely on the protests in the streets alone, US workers and youth must also contest imperialist interests in the elections, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobby playing an influential role in supporting pro-war candidates in elections across the United States. In the recent Democratic primaries, AIPAC spent a combined $25 million to defeat representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush after both candidates made moderate criticisms of Israeli policy. Despite being ostensibly non-partisan, AIPAC routinely backs centrist and conservative candidates to defeat “progressives” in primaries and elections.
AIPAC is not a unique influence on US politics but one of many corporate, pro-imperialist lobbies and think tanks using the wealth of the capitalist class to maintain their interests in the US and abroad. It is not a conspiratorial foreign interest opposed to a hypothetical US “national interest,” but rather an enthusiastic auxiliary of US imperialism.
The best way to oppose AIPAC and similar interest groups like the Heritage Foundation, which published the pro-imperialism, anti-worker, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ+ “Project 2025” document, is to break from the Democratic and Republican Parties they fund and build an independent working-class party. The main capitalist parties have continuously voted to send Israel weapons used to murder Palestinian civilians, most recently a $20 billion weapons package in August, and given Netanyahu’s right-wing regime free rein to carry out its genocidal plans in Gaza.
There is a strong basis for an independent party. The Vote Uncommitted campaigns in many state primaries demonstrated how quickly activists can raise funds and hundreds of thousands of votes in opposition to the war. This support could be channeled into running local, independent candidates with a real chance to win, building a base to run candidates for national office. More than 45% of Arab and Muslim Americans are taking this first step in breaking with the Democratic Party and planning to vote for Jill Stein in protest of the Biden-Harris administration’s support for the Israeli state’s crimes.
Likewise, a majority of unions supports a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and unimpeded humanitarian aid for Palestinians, uniting around the National Labor Network for Ceasefire. Unfortunately, these same unions poured $1.8 billion into electing corporate politicians in 2020 whose policies encourage war abroad and attack workers’ rights at home.
The energy and resources of these unions, the Vote Uncommitted campaigns, and anti-war activists combined could come together to coordinate protests, block weapons shipments at the point of production, demand a withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East, and ultimately run independent, anti-war candidates to help build a new party for working-class people. Building the movement in the US could help pressure the Israeli state to agree to a ceasefire. With a pause in the fighting, workers in Palestine and Israel could build their own independent alternatives to the capitalist and religious parties, in common struggle for Palestinian statehood and a socialist federation of the Middle East.
Independent Socialist Group 