Arab, Jewish, Black, Brown, white: To smash genocide, we must unite!

BRONX, NY, November 18- Amidst hundreds of other anti-genocide protests across the nation and the world during the past several weeks, 150 protesters rallied outside of a Starbucks in the Bronx and later took over the streets to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and expose U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat’s snake-like support for U.S. funding of Israel’s genocide. Millions of workers are exposing the role of these murderous politicians in Israel’s fascist slaughter. Although the main demand of the march was a ceasefire, our signs said ceasefire is “not enough!” “Smashing the Israeli state” is “not enough!” Workers need to smash capitalism and its racist borders worldwide! Many workers voiced agreement with the need to go further than reform demands. When one worker read the headline of the 11/29 CHALLENGE “From the rivers to the seas, communism will set us free!” she said, “NOW we are talking!!”

The rally and march were organized by a local multiracial pro-Palestine group that is only a little over a month old. Comrades in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are taking leadership in the struggle, and friends of the Party have become energized and feel compelled to get more involved. Among other chants, we chanted, “Not another nickel, not another dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes!” We handed out more than  75 papers and made several contacts. Immediately after the march, we held a packed study group with several base members, including a comrade’s former student and the college-aged son of a longtime friend of the Party who wanted to join the struggle. During the study group, we read the latest CHALLENGE editorial and discussed the meanings of words such as Zionism, capitalism, imperialism, fascism, and communism, and we made plans for future study.

This working-class neighborhood, with many Latin and Arab workers, came out in support of our rally and march. People were beeping their horns, raising their fists, and cheering our cause. One driver opened his window to yell, “Stop the genocide!” Workers are seeing through the bosses’ lies about this war and siding with the working class in Palestine. We in PLP are not surprised: in fact, we put our confidence in the development and strength of workers and youth in these neighborhoods, part of the international working class that will one day seize power from the capitalist bosses.

No justice in a capitalist system
In solidarity with workers in Palestine, many workers in the United States are boycotting Starbucks and other companies that support Israeli apartheid and genocide. The lists of company after company circulating on social media serve as indictments of U.S. capitalism and evidence that the very rotten core of this profit system is genocidal. Even if one genocidal company were to go bankrupt, the bloody wheels of imperialist war would continue to turn. The whole damn system has got to go!

Identity politics is a dead-end
In an attempt to build nationalism for a multicultural United States, while distracting workers from the fundamentally racist fabric of capitalism, the liberal fascists have succeeded in convincing many workers to vote for a multiracial array of misleaders who are very quickly exposing themselves to be managers of genocide. Adriano Espaillat, who is praised for being the first Dominican and formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in the U.S. Congress, is using the phony language of “friendship and love” to push multicultural nationalism for both Israel and the United States and justify Israel’s incessant bombing of workers and children in Gaza. On October 31, he spoke at a fascist Israel solidarity event at Yeshiva University, where the Israeli-flag-waving audience responded to his introduction with a standing ovation. At this same event, which a pro-Israel news outlet celebrated as “a visible demonstration of the bedrock connection between the Latino and Jewish communities in Washington Heights,” participants sang both the Israeli and American national anthems. Not a single word was spoken about thousands of Palestinian women and children murdered by Israeli bombs, exposing a hallmark of fascism: racist disregard for workers’ lives.

Workers must reject electoral politics
Espaillat is far from alone in this multiracial contingent of bloodthirsty misleaders. In the Bronx, for example, U.S. Representative Richie Torres, the first gay Afro-Latin in Congress, received almost $300,000 from pro-Israel PACs in 2022 alone. As election season approaches, there is no doubt that the U.S. ruling class will use all tools available in an attempt to funnel the working class’ righteous rage at genocide into campaigning that we vote for the “lesser of two evils.” Just as Jim Crow Joe Biden and Kkkamala Harris misused the passion and energy of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 to garner support for their racist administration, they will try to do the same again. We must not let them! While the liberal fascists work overtime to convince workers in the United States to side with the Israeli ruling class, the truth is that workers in New York City have way more in common with workers in Palestine than with any capitalist ruler. No politician, from president to council member, will provide the answer to genocide. Don’t vote, revolt! We need an international communist movement led by millions of workers to smash all borders and end racist genocide once and for all. Join the Progressive Labor Party and fight with us for communism.