U.S. fuels Palestine holocaust

David Finkel

Posted September 6, 2024

BEFORE LAST OCTOBER 7, we were discussing in this webzine the “degenerative spiral” in the Occupied Palestine Territories and how it would feed straight back into Israel’s political crisis. Following the Hamas attack on that day, the Israeli response pointed immediately toward a full-fledged “death spiral.” ( Death Spiral Delusions: Behind the New Israel/Palestine Disaster )

After eleven months, the genocide that continues with no end in sight has been absolutely shattering, even for those of us who thought we had no remaining illusions about where the “hundred-year war on Palestine”(the title of Rashid Khalidi’s essential book) could lead. Such a scenario, to be sure, was not beyond imagination — we did understand what could happen under catastrophic circumstances — but the full extent of the exterminationist destruction of Gaza, and now the massive expansion of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, was certainly beyond realistic expectation.

At the risk of stating the obvious, two observations are necessary. First, contrary to prime minister Netanyahu’s promise, Israel will never militarily “destroy” Hamas, a point now being made even by defense minister Yoav Gallant — who notoriously declared at the outset of the war that “we are dealing with human animals and we will act accordingly,” clearly signaling genocidal intent.

Second, the politics and strategy of Hamas will never liberate anything or anyone, let alone the Palestinian people. Although profoundly asymmetrical forces, Hamas and the Israeli state are symbiotic and mutually enabling actors in the death spiral. It will be for the Palestinian people, of course, to make the judgments on their leadership when they’re free to do so without occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

Deadly U.S. Aid

But most important, the continuation of the massacre is entirely dependent, militarily and even more politically, on the enabling policy of the “Genocide Joe” Biden…

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Webzine

Joe Sacco: Comics for Palestine

Hank Kennedy

Posted September 6, 2024

AFTER ISRAEL’s RECENT assault on Gaza began, Joe Sacco (a “moral draughtsman” in the words of Christopher Hitchens) was compelled to speak out against Israel’s war. At the Comics Journal, Sacco contributed The War on Gaza from January to July. Sacco’s bravery should serve as an example for other cartoonists to follow. Introducing the series, Comics Journal publisher Gary Groth said “It is surely….

The Struggle Over the Power Vacuum Continues in Bangladesh

Badrul Alam

Posted August 14, 2024

ON AUGUST 5, AT 2:30 pm, Sheikh Hasina resigned from her post as prime minister and fled with some of her Special Security Forces by helicopter to India. She is now in Delhi, and some reports indicate that she wants to go to London for political asylum, but Britain is refusing her entry because of her human rights violations….

The Beginning of the End of China’s Rise?

Federico Fuentes interviews Au Loong-Yu

Posted August 10, 2024

An Interview with Au Loong-Yu, Part II

AU LOONG-YU IS A long-time Hong Kong labour rights and political activist. Author of China’s Rise: Strength and Fragility and Hong Kong in Revolt: The Protest Movement and the Future of China, Au now lives in exile. Speaking with Federico Fuentes for LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Au discusses the factors that fueled China’s phenomenal economic rise, how they have begun to exhaust themselves, and the significance…

Recalling the ITU: A Militant & Democratic Union

Linda Kerth

Posted August 8, 2024

IN 1962, AS a young and rather aimless woman, I was hired by the Oakland Tribune to learn typesetting on the TTS — TeleTypeSetting machine — which attached a misbegotten contraption to a keyboard that punched holes into a sturdy ribbon. The ribbon was later fed into a similar misbegotten contraption on a Linotype, where it was set into actual type. That poor baby did not live long.

I thought it would be “exciting” to work in a newspaper. And indeed it was. I don’t…

Solidarity & Unity Vs. Far-Right Violence

Posted August 6, 2024

Anti*Capitalist Resistance statement on far-right violence sweeping Britain and Northern Ireland in August 2024

1. The tragic murder of three young children by a 17-year old in Southport in July 2024 has been manipulated by opportunistic fascist forces to organise a series of riots across England. They have kick started a response from across the organised workers’ movement and threatened Muslim communities….

Slouching Toward November

The Editors

Posted August 1, 2024

FACING THE HIDEOUS specter of a second Trump presidency, the operational leadership of the Democratic Party — that is, the party mega-donors — ultimately took the reins and pushed aside its all-too-visibly declining incumbent standard-bearer. From the voting base on July 21 came the instant response: “Free at last, free at last  thank God Almighty (and Covid), we’re free of Biden at last!”…

Advancing Our Own Politics in 2024: For Socialist Support of the Green Party

Howie Hawkins

Posted August 1, 2024

AS SOCIALISTS, HOW should we approach the 2024 presidential election? The two major parties, ideologically capitalist to their cores, present us with a choice between a neoliberal corporate militarist and a neofascist criminal maniac.

As I write this (July 7), Democratic leaders and donors are fighting over whether to stick with Biden or replace him after his shockingly bad debate performance on June 27. Even if the physically and mentally declining Joe Biden is replaced by a younger, more vigorous…

Trumpism with a touch of Re-Vance-ism

Harvey J. Graff

Posted August 1, 2024

CAN THERE BE a Trump Agenda or America First without Donald J. Trump? The question will outlive either outcome of the 2024 election.

At the surface level, The Agenda is rooted in a cult of personality that cannot be cloned or closely imitated. It is based in near-total obedience, unquestioned fealty, even defacement and humiliation to one charismatic figure who brooks no dissent. Rep. Liz Cheney is only the most prominent of many victims whose conservative credentials failed to compensate for her…

New Wave of “Stop the killing” Protests

Malik Miah

Posted July 31, 2024

POLICE ONCE AGAIN show their true colors: shooting in the face and killing a 36-year-old Black mother, Sonya Massey, in her own home in Springfield, Illinois.

She called 911 for fear of an intruder, and became the victim. She leaves two teenage children.

It happened on July 6, but the reason and savage nature of the killing was not revealed immediately. Typically, an internal police review occurs first, and the police officer is put on paid leave. Not this time.

A police videocam (released to the family…

Judicial Harassment Vs. Toomaj Salehi Continues

Posted July 24, 2024

ALTHOUGH THIS JUNE the Iranian Supreme Court overturned the death sentence for dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi (33), rather than freeing him they sent his case back to a lower court.

Sentenced to death on April 24 for his participation in the “Woman Life Freedom” demonstrations, he has been severely tortured. Suffering from fractures in his hands and legs as well as an eye injury, Salehi is in solitary….

All Webzine articles

Events

Reading group: Race, gender, and the fight against fascism

September 26 to December 19, 2024

For more information

Against the Current

The Sept/Oct 2024 AGAINST THE CURRENT (#232) features:
  • Slouching Toward November—The Editors
  • November Election & Socialist Strategies—Three Views
  • Greenwashing India’s Occupation of Kashmir—Mohammad Ebad Athar & Mona Bhan
  • 100 Years of Amilcar Cabral—B. Skanthakumar

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Pamphlets from Solidarity

THE “SOCIALISM-FROM- BELOW” tradition views the working class as the central agent of overthrowing a system based on the market and the exploitation, alienation and unequal society it perpetuates.
Steve Downs’ writings, first in Hell on Wheels (2008) and in Socialist Strategies in Unions, a working paper (2022), outline how a variety of socialists active in the NYC transit system over two decades worked to build a rank-and-file caucus with a class struggle perspective.
Unable to resolve how to be accountable once members won office, their project ultimately failed. The pamphlet and working paper offer rich lessons for today’s socialists. You can read and download the working paper, Socialist Strategies in Unions, here.
Socialism, What It Is, Why We Need It outline capitalism‘s exploitation of both workers and the environment and sketches an alternative. You can order copies of Hell on Wheels, the working paper Socialist Strategies in Unions, and Socialism, What It is, Why We Need It here.