In Gaza, Palestine, as workers and children fight desperately to survive, our class siblings around the world fight for an end to Israeli and U.S. imperialist genocide. U.S. aid to Israel paid for much of the 12,000 tons of bombs that have hit a densely populated strip of land about the size of Philadelphia (MEMO, 10/25/23). As of October 29, the death toll from this criminal and indiscriminate bombardment stood at more than eight thousand people, nearly half of them children (apnews.com, 10/29). Hundreds more are dying by the day.

Workers’ anger has filled the streets from Cape Town to Dublin, from Caracas to New York City, from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur. Their rage is driven by the atrocities committed by Israel’s military, which has turned an open-air prison into a death camp. While Palestine-Israel is plagued by misleaders, from Netanyahu to Hamas, the workers of the world, and especially those in Gaza, show the revolutionary potential that we need to build an internationalist communist future led by Progressive Labor Party (PLP).

In imperialist wars, workers die and only bosses win. We need one international working class, one world, and one Party to smash the bosses who are the root cause of these conflicts, from Palestine/Israel to Ukraine and Yemen.  It is the task of every CHALLENGE reader to build PLP to advance class consciousness, and to put an end to imperialist war with internationalist, communist revolution. Fighting for communism means abolishing nationalism and racism because they lead workers to the same deadly path laid out by Israel and Hamas. While Israel’s capitalist leaders have far more blood on their hands, both sets of rulers use religion and nationalism to mislead workers to their doom. The idea of separate and warring nations, races, and ethnicities comes from the sick minds of the billionaire bosses. They will be abolished when workers of the world unite to smash the blood-soaked profit system once and for all.

Workers save workers
Essential workers in Gaza are showing our class in real time what communism can look like, even under siege. Rescue workers and volunteers are collectively rescuing children and families from under the rubble of Israel’s bombs. Others continue to labor in grocery stores and bakeries as buildings around them fall and crush their neighbors.

Health care workers in Palestine have gone days without sleep as they struggle to care for our class siblings. On October 21, medical workers at Al-Shifa hospital were  treating 3,000 injured people in a facility with beds for 700 (Doctors Without Borders, DWB). Medical workers are performing operations in hallways, in front of family members, with little or no sedation or painkillers. (Doctors Without Borders, 10/24).

Reformist bandaids and capitalist bandits
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was opposed by masses of Israeli workers until shortly before the October 7 massacre by Hamas, uses anti-Arab racism and toxic identity politics to divide Jewish from Arab and Muslim workers. (More than two million Arab workers live in Israel.)The Israeli ruling-class ideology of Zionism rests on the racist idea of Jewish supremacy to justify a “Jewish state”—no matter how many Palestinian workers must be oppressed, exploited, or butchered to sustain it.

The key to resolving this conflict lies in multiracial unity and working-class solidarity. In the U.S., hundreds of Arab, Jewish, Asian, Latin, Black and white workers staged sit-ins at the Capitol in Washington to demand a ceasefire and an end to the slaughter. But members of the U.S. Congress, including fake-left Democrats like Bernie Sander and Aleandria Ocasio-Cortez, have goose-stepped in line behind Imperialist-in-Chief Joe Biden to support even more funds for  the Israeli genocide. When asked about Israel’s relentless collective punishment of Gaza’s population, Biden callously acknowledged that “innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war” (Reuters, 10/25).

In the face of such deadly misleadership, workers must call out the racist Zionist bosses in talks with coworkers at their jobs. Teachers must struggle with their students to reject anti-Muslim racism–and anti-Jewish racism, as well. We must all take to the streets to share our internationalist, anti-imperialist, communist ideas–and to refuse to let these nationalist murderers–Democrats and Republicans alike–off the hook. That is how we will forge a brighter future.

Only bosses win when workers feud  
Even before the latest Israeli invasion of Gaza, the U.S. was funneling $3 billion a year into Israel’s military. The U.S. Defense Department also has $2 billion worth of weapons and bombs at Israel’s disposal for times of crisis. Israel’s killing machine went into overdrive after the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians–including dozens of Arab Bedouins (NYT, 10/8/).
Hamas and other Palestinian nationalist bosses offer only death and destruction to the workers of Gaza. But as bad as Hamas may be, let us be clear: The blood on the rubble of Gaza is primarily the fault of Israeli bosses and their U.S. imperialist patrons.

The roots of genocide
The origin of Israel’s occupation of the land previously called Palestine (by British and French imperialists) goes back to the early 1900s. The development of distinct national identities among both Arab and Jewish workers, coupled with the rise of the nationalist movement of Zionism, laid the foundation for the state of Israel. But the country founded in 1948 would never have been established without the U.S. imperialists’ desire for a reliable watchdog to counter Soviet influence in the oil-rich region.

Once the U.S. bosses threw their weight behind a “Jewish state,” the stage was set for the mass genocidal displacement of Palestinian workers. Three wars – the Arab-Israeli War (1947-1949), the Six Day War (1967), and the Yom Kippur War (1973)—killed thousands of workers and fueled racist movements led by bosses on both sides. Today, without a communist alternative, workers in Gaza have no place to turn but the dead end of nationalism and the ruthless clutches of the likes of Hamas.

Nationalism is a dead end;fight for communism!
Bordering Palestine is Egypt, a country led by a group of notoriously corrupt junior capitalists. Though they once allied with Palestinian nationalists, Egypt’s bosses are now starving workers in Palestine out and blocking them from escaping the Israeli bombardment (Foreign Affairs, 10/25). Egypt is stalling until they can make a self-serving deal with Israel. This is nothing less than cold-blooded murder. Workers’ lives can’t wait!
To be in a position to end these imperialist bloodbaths, Progressive Labor Party must grow.Members and friends must build internationalist fightback with urgency. As the U.S., China, and Russia move toward open fascism and world war, today’s violence in Gaza and Ukraine could be tomorrow’s worldwide conflagration. Anywhere imperialism reigns is a potential flashpoint for war. It’s time to turn the bosses’ war into class war. We have a communist world to win!

The following, written by co-workers of PL members, was set to be given at the celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution in New York City. The event was cancelled in order to participate on the national “Cease Fire” demonstration against Israel’s crimes of genocide of Palestinian families. The speech has been modified into an article for publication so that all readers of CHALLENGE can take inspiration from our communist predecessors.
November 6 should be a celebratory occasion for the international working class, but this year PLP will spend the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in D.C. to protest genocide in Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine.

This is not only an issue of moral urgency, but should be deeply important to us as communists and as the working class.

Lenin has said
 “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”
From Gaza to climate catastrophe to labor strikes to migrant crises, these feel like weeks where decades can potentially happen.

It was on this day in 1917 that the Bolshevik party led workers to establish the first ever communist state-freeing thousands from the violence of capitalism and laying the blueprint for revolutionary movements worldwide. Communist workers went on to spread education and healthcare to millions, almost single handedly defeat Nazis, and aided decolonial struggles around the world.

So let's consider Russia in 1917.
Underdeveloped, un-industrialized, and subject to western imperialism, few would have expected Russia to be the place of the first successful communist revolution in history. The Bolshevik party too was small and fringe-it was not expected to lead the first communist revolution in history.

Similarly, it can be hard to imagine a successful revolutionary movement happening for us now, but like the Bolsheviks we have a party, like the Bolsheviks we believe in internationalism, and like the Bolsheviks we want to seize state power too!

Revolutions don’t happen spontaneously, but they also don’t occur without the right circumstances and without the right strategy.

Women workers helped to bring the October Revolution when they marched into Petrograd demanding bread and demanding an end to WWI. But this alone didn’t lead to the success of the October Revolution. They were marching to fix the specific conditions that they found themselves in at that particular moment that became impossible to survive in. Bread and peace were important, but that alone is not communism.

What can we learn from this? The Bolsheviks and used this to educate people and build their base. They recognized revolutionary potential in peasants and in the working class and gave them a political project to work towards. They did not just want bread or an end to the war. They did not want reform. They wanted revolution!

It is our job too, to see revolutionary potential in mass movements. There is revolutionary potential in protests to free Palestine. There is revolutionary potential in movements against racist police. It’s the job of communists to recognize this revolutionary potential and make sure that it is matched with principled political ideology.

The history of zionism rooted in anti-communism
In analyzing the current humanitarian crisis befaling Palestinian workers and kids, we must ask ourselves how we got here and why powerful Imperialist nations like the United States and Great Britain have such vested interest in supporting the ongoing acts of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocidal terror. Much of the conversation comes back to the age-old fear of communist revolution. The same anti-semitism that provoked the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany also spurred support for the zionist cause and establishment of the often mentioned but less contextualized Balfour Declaration of 1922. A large portion of the antisemitism that pervaded Europe during the early 20th century was a manifestation of an association European white nationalists were drawing between Jews and Communist movements of the time. This may sound familiar in the current era when we hear conspiracies about the likes of George Soros orchestrating BLM protests in 2020 or pushing critical race theory in schools. A continuation of this association that has morphed into a dog whistle for anti semitism.  

Winston Churchill puts this association very clearly in his 1920 article Zionism Versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People. In reference to the October Revolution he is very explicit in his antisemitism and association of Jewish people with Communism. “There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews.”

His solution, and the solution that many imperial powers propose even to this day was Zionism.
As with the Bolshevik Revolution, we must remember this time period and understand that the actions that followed are crucial to comprehending why the United States and other imperialist nations continue to fund Israel’s atrocities. Furthermore this historical context explains why revolution is the only path forward lest we sacrifice a true liberation of Palestinian workers and workers everywhere.

No war but class war for communism
We don’t want a ceasefire–we want international communism. We don’t want a reformed police force—we want communism. We know that without a fight for communism, all of these struggles are impossible, but in all of these struggles there is the potential for revolution.

The Russian Revolution most famously happened in response to World War I. And in a time when workers around the world are again suffering from the threat of imperial war, this is more relevant than ever.

From Palestine to Brooklyn capitalism harms us all.
At a time when many supposed leftists are revealing themselves to be ideologically aligned with the imperatives of the state, we must remember it was the Bolsheviks who stood firm in their support of the working class while the Mensheviks found themselves willing to support the inhumane clash of Imperial powers known as World War I.

We will continue to say no to imperial war, even when it is unpopular to do so.
But as communist we look to the past to set a path to a brighter future. This path is often mired in darkness and requires us to light a dialectical torch illuminating the footsteps of our comrades and the fundamental contradictions at play between the interests of the ruling class and the working class.

Before heading to work, a group of PLers marched to the courthouse in Newark to stand in solidarity with the Rodwell Spivey brothers for their early morning hearing. A group of antiracist fighters coming out en masse for over a year has produced more worker wins than these bosses ever have and ever could. Justin Rodwell was released after a #FreeJustin campaign led by the Rodwell Spivey family, college students, educators, nurses, and PL called the Rodwell Spivey Defense Team. Because of this work, the word spread like wildfire that Justin and his brothers and neighbors came to each other's defense when one brother was stopped and frisked by undercover police in front of their home. Although the news spreading on X, formerly known as Twitter, helped drive the campaign, we still pushed and recognized the importance of building the struggle in our local neighborhoods and workplaces. The struggle even expanded to Kingsborough Community College campus in New York, where comrades and students recognized and cited the same police terror threatening the working class in Newark and also being alive and well in the Bronx.

Building mass fightback led to a waged war against the Newark courts to drop the charges against the Rodwell Spivey brothers from 40+ years to lower-level municipal court charges. Now that the mass fightback has simmered down and the capitalist bosses did not win their usual opportunity to lock these young Black men up for profit, the judges and prosecutors are shelving the case and brushing off the family. As a result, the most recent court hearing was canceled, and family members were notified only after losing a day of work to get there. One family member of a PLer who attended spoke outside of the courthouse about how Black workers, particularly men, are set up to fail under this system, and it prevents them from working and being dedicated family members. One of the brothers affirmed that he applied for Amazon and UPS, and the potential charges were cited in his rejection letter. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Another fallacy under a system that keeps the bosses’ hands clean and shoves workers with the muck.

Two comrades spoke out against a neighborhood vigilante who went viral after recording himself stepping to Mayor Baraka at a local basketball game for selling out workers in Newark who are being left homeless and vulnerable to corporate buyouts. The mom of the brothers stated, “Still, the Mayor wishing death upon him isn’t right, and if it wasn’t for him no one would know about our case.” We adamantly noted that raising the politician’s attacks against this vigilante over the politics of the situation will dangerously win workers to fight more broadly on social media and for him or against Baraka alone, which is a weakened approach to fightback.

It’s much harder for bosses to get away with attacks against the working class where ideas are being transmitted through fightback that concretely reveal evidence to workers of how racist profiteering is being made primary over our housing needs. Therefore, it’s not just Baraka, it’s Capitalism! This is a hard lesson we experienced when a comrade got fired for teaching their students to fight racism outside their school and was known to challenge the Principal rather than build a long-term base with teachers and students. This is also a challenge we must face inpunleashing the massive potential of the Rodwell-Spivey fightback. Although the family and PL thank this person for bringing attention to the Rodwell-Spivey case, we still recognized and pointed out that the cult of personality around him is dangerous and he is not above criticism.

Furthermore, we need masses of workers with the same anger and militancy to fight for an internationalist communist revolution with unity en masse and long-term strategy to build on the jobs in our neighborhoods. That is what PLP brings to the struggle. We aim to continue to build on our relationship with the family and broaden the struggle to fight to smash police and imperialist terror throughout the state and internationally.