NEW YORK CITY, May 31 — A few thousand New Yorkers marched on Memorial Day, with only a few hours notice, to protest the violent Israeli attack on the international flotilla bringing aid to Gaza. Much larger demonstrations were held in Turkey, London, Paris, Palestine and all over the Muslim world.

Israel has occupied Gaza and the West Bank since 1967; and in 2007 total siege was laid to Gaza, a tiny strip of land housing 1.5 million Palestinians (one of the most crowded places in the world). They are surrounded by a militarized wall, deprived of adequate food, water, housing, and medical care. Unemployment is about 80%. No one can enter or leave without Israeli permission, which is usually denied, even in cases of serious medical illness.

In December, 2008 and January 2009, Israel attacked the imprisoned population with overwhelming force, killing 1,440, wounding 5,000, and leaving 50,000 homeless. Since then almost no supplies have been allowed in; some are smuggled in through tunnels under the border from Egypt, which are regularly bombed.

Last week an international convoy of vessels carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid set sail for Gaza, attempting also to break the naval blockade and highlight the conditions in Gaza. Although they expected to be stopped by the Israelis, no one expected to be raided in international waters. The Israelis dropped from helicopters at night and killed at least nine activists and wounded many more. The rest were either detained or deported.

The Israeli ruling class figured they could get away with this fascist attack because no serious opposition was mounted to their 2008-2009 invasions or the wave of demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem since then. The U.S., whom Israel is dependent on for survival, has not held back one penny from Israel. It gives more aid to Israel than to any other country in the world. Even the bulk of Palestinians, who live in the West Bank protested little because their leadership, the Fatah party, is committed to accommodating Israel, and suppressed all demonstrations.

The U.S. desperately wants a two-state solution, which would quiet the pro-Palestinian furor that inflames many Muslims and others against the U.S. Many Israelis oppose this idea because they want Israel to control all the land that is now the occupied territories, and for the Palestinians to disappear. This ideology is fed by the virulent racism taught to all Israelis, that Palestinians are subhuman, violent creatures who must be eradicated.

Many Palestinian activists call for Palestinian independence as their only goal. Neither a two-state nor a one-secular-state solution will improve life for the Palestinian working class. Their economy is under the domination of a small group of wealthy families, who would continue to control the country in cahoots with Israel and international capitalists. Politically, they are ruled in the West Bank by Fatah and in Gaza by Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group with ties to Iran. So horrific are they as rulers that last week they demolished Gazan houses for “building without a permit,” just like the Israelis do.

The majority of Palestinian workers and farmers would be no better off under the heel of these parties, except for increased freedom of movement. Israeli activists against the occupation also do not consider the structure of their own society, its ties to U.S. imperialism, and the need to build a worker-run, anti-racist, multi-ethnic society for the sake of its own workers and students.

Members of the PLP work with Palestinian, Israeli and U.S. activists to point out the need to fight for a communist society for all workers, not just for national independence or an end to the occupation. National liberation struggles have been waged around the world since the rise of imperialism. From South Africa to El Salvador, from Congo to Algeria, national liberation has not led to a better life for workers, who continue to be exploited by local bosses in partnership with international capitalists. Join us to build an international struggle for communism. Down with capitalism. Down with nationalism. J

PARIS, June 6 — While union misleaders are scheduling new mass demonstrations for June 24 — the F.O. confederation is calling for a national strike on June 15 — they and their politician allies have no real strategy to fight the Sarkozy government’s plans to cut 50 billion euros from the budget by 2013; to raise the legal retirement age; and to make workers work longer for a full retirement pension. Instead, they’re offering a repeat of last year’s losing strategy of a succession of symbolic 24-hour strikes and demonstrations.

This will follow actions on March 23 (800,000 marched in 180 cities); 350,000 on May Day; and perhaps a million on May 27, none of which mobilized the working class to launch an open-ended general strike of millions. Meanwhile, unemployment is rising to nearly 4,000,000 (including part-timers who can’t find full-time jobs), 14% of the labor force of 28 million.

The union confederations reveal an underlying weakness in that they must meet still again on June 14 to “decide” whether to call a national 24-hour strike on June 24, in their demands for “dialogue” with the government and for “a new policy.”

It is clear that these labor misleaders and the various political parties (Socialist, Left, “Communist” and New Anti-Capitalist Party) see no alternative to capitalism and only want to organize enough resistance to limit the damage and protect their bureaucratic positions. As CHALLENGE predicted on June 18, 2009, “Only communist leadership, dedicated not to negotiating with the government to ‘improve’ capitalism, but to overthrowing the government and the capitalist system, offers a way forward for the working class here.” That is coming true as this year turns into a bad remake of last year.

It is only through organizing to deliver a knock-out blow — communist revolution — that effective resistance to the Sarkozy government’s “reforms” can be forged. J

PARIS, June 6 — Striking undocumented workers, most of African origin, battled riot cops as they continued occupying Bastille Square to pressure the government to reopen negotiations on the “legalization” of all undocumented workers. Talks have been at a standstill since May 20.

On May 27, the strikers — at times as many as 2,000 — began occupying the stairway to the Opera building in Bastille Square. Riot police refused to allow supporters to bring in food and water. After sleeping on the steps, the strikers would fold their sleeping bags and help municipal workers to clean the area.

At 7 a.m. on June 3, a horde of riot police massed at the foot of the stairs; then more gendarmes arrived from the top of the stairs and began tear-gassing the strikers. A violent fight broke out; a dozen strikers were injured and over 40 were arrested.

At 8 a.m., over 500 strikers, driven from the stairs, regrouped on the other side of the Square, where the police encircled them. However, when a growing number of Parisians arrived to support the strikers, the police withdrew three hours later, except for a line blocking access to the stairway. The undocumented strikers spent the night in Bastille Square.

Yesterday, Fofana Mo, a Senegalese, declared “There are French people in Africa, so why can’t we come here? Is there gold in France? Are there diamonds? Is there oil? They come to take our wealth and we don’t have the right to live here!”

NICE, FRANCE, May 31 — Nearly 1,000 undocumented workers demonstrated yesterday at the opening of the France-Africa summit to condemn the participation of the neo-colonial rulers of Africa in their exploitation here in France. The 100 undocumented workers who marched from Paris to Nice were among the protesters. (See CHALLENGE, May 26.) A second demonstration of 600 undocumented workers was held today.

In a statement, the marchers said: “The warmth of the welcome accorded by the inhabitants of the towns and villages along the march contrasted favorably with the nauseating debate on ‘national identity’ launched by the French government. The majority of people thus demonstrated that they have not fallen into the trap of racism and xenophobia.” J