For Working Class Action Against the U.S. & Australian Rulers
BACKING Israel’s Genocidal Terror
Support the Palestinian Struggle for Self-Determination!
Defend Syrian Self-Determination Against NATO’s Proxy armies!

16 July 2014 – A child, his brother and an elderly woman – murdered by the latest Israeli strike on the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The incessant Israeli air strikes over the last eight days have devastated Gaza and many of the Palestinian people who have been killed are children. There must be mass mobilisations of the international working class, leftists and all opponents of racist oppression to demand: Down with the genocidal Israeli onslaught on Gaza! Lift the blockade of Gaza – Open all border crossings! Israeli troops and settlers out of all the Occupied Territories!

Hamas has responded to the siege of Gaza with rocket attacks on Israel: desperate attempts at self-defence by the vastly outgunned people of Gaza. Only one Israeli has been killed since July 8 – a person hit by mortar fire while handing out food to the murdering Israeli troops. In contrast, the Israeli onslaught has already killed 208 Gazans, mostly civilians. This is not war but a one-sided slaughter of the subjugated Palestinian people by the bloodthirsty Israeli rulers. Yet, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the leaders of other imperialist countries including Australia, Middle East “peace envoy” Tony Blair (that despicable former Labour British PM) and the mainstream media have all cynically sought to blame Hamas for the carnage: political support that, alongside the massive U.S. military and economic aid, has enabled the bloodshed and subjugation to continue.

Why do the Western capitalist rulers so resolutely back Israel’s rulers? Whacko, right wing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories claim that “Jews control America.” But the truth is if anything the other way around. Israel has since its inception been a deputy sheriff for the U.S. and other imperialists in the Middle East. A crucial anti-communist ally of the imperial powers during their Cold War against the then USSR, Israel today continues to be an attack dog for U.S.-led imperialism. Thus, several times over the last two years Israel has unleashed attacks against Syrian government forces to assist the “rebel” “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) and the religious extremist proxies of Western Imperialism. Only yesterday, Israeli warplanes again attacked Syria killing up to 12 people at a Syrian military base and in the town of Baath City.

However, within the imperialist countries, large demonstrations have erupted against Israel’s onslaught against Gaza. Last Sunday, up to 6,000 people from diverse origins stretching from Latin America to China gathered at short notice in Sydney to march against Israel’s bloodbath. For this global movement to make a difference it must be directed onto a perspective of building working class opposition to the imperialist rulers that back Israel. Already the International Transport Workers Federation – of which the Maritime Union of Australia is a member – has denounced the Israeli onslaught. Such opposition must be turned into union industrial action against the U.S., British and Australian imperialist rulers in opposition to their backing for Israeli tyranny – action that, if sufficiently strong, could force the imperialists to pull back from providing the support that holds up the Zionist terror machine. At the same time, the international workers movement must firmly defend all military struggle by the subjugated Palestinian people against the murdering Israeli military while opposing attacks on Israeli civilians which only play into the Zionist hands. Arms to the Palestinian resistance! In particular, military supplies should go to the secular, left-leaning resistance groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

DOWN WITH AUSTRALIAN IMPERIALISM AND ITS BACKING OF ISRAELI TERROR!

At last Sunday’s Sydney rally, among protesters’ chants was “Down, Down USA!” This represents understandable hatred of the regime that is both Israel’s main backer and the globe’s greatest oppressor. However, following the lead of their U.S. ally, the capitalist rulers here also always resolutely back Israel: under this Liberal regime, the previous Labor and Labor/Greens governments and all the rest as well. Last month, the Australian government changed its description of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem making it the only government other than Israel itself that does not recognise that area as being occupied. For their part the ALP, through a statement issued two days ago by shadow foreign affairs minister Tanya Plibersek, heinously downplayed Israel’s terror by placing responsibility “on both sides” for the suffering caused by the Israeli onslaught.

Australia’s rulers follow Washington’s agenda not because Australia is under the thumb of America. The Australian ruling class are themselves aggressive imperialists that subjugate the South Pacific masses. Last December, demonstrators in East Timor chanting “Australia is a thief of world oil” stoned the Australian embassy after it was revealed that Australia had bugged Timorese officials in 2004 during “negotiations” in which the Australian government arm twisted the Timorese to accept its theft of their oil. Australia’s capitalist rulers support Israeli tyranny because they want to defend the U.S.-dominated world “order” that protects their own imperialist marauding in this region. Furthermore, the racist Australian ruling class has much in common with the Zionist rulers. Thus, while Israel wages genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people, the Australian rulers have already committed near genocide of its first peoples and continue to brutally oppress Aboriginal people. Israel’s brutality against Palestinians is matched by the cruelty of the Australian imperialist forces which while occupying Afghanistan threw grenades into houses with children, participated in the horrific invasion of Iraq and in the late 1980s orchestrated a genocidal war and blockade of the people of PNG-controlled Bougainville Island that killed 20,000 people. The notion that the present Australian ruling class could be made to speak out for Palestinian rights is ludicrous. The Greens – who in contrast to the Liberals and ALP have at least had the decency to oppose the Israeli onslaught – in particular promote this notion. However, this is worse than futile. For if supporters of the Palestinian struggle are convinced that the Australian rulers could become their allies then it will deter them from taking mass action against these same rulers. On the other hand, when the Palestine solidarity movement reaches the level of political clarity that motivates demonstrators to chant something like, “Down, Down, Aussie ruling class!” then it will open the road to the type of working class action that has the potential to actually force the imperialists to withdraw the support that holds up Israel’s terror. Such action would resonate worldwide and would encourage the U.S. working class to follow suit against its own rulers.

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MEANS FIGHTING FOR A CLASS STRUGGLE, ANTI-IMPERIALIST PERSPECTIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
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Israel’s ability to crush the Palestinian people has been strengthened by the imperialists’ violent interventions to crush any Middle Eastern country that refuses to fully accept the U.S.-Israeli-Saudi dictated “order.” In 2003, the U.S, Britain, Australia and other

U.S. allies invaded Iraq. Now, after having backed the ISIS religious fanatics, the U.S. is cynically using the pretext of stopping ISIS to again intervene in Iraq. Meanwhile, in 2011, NATO countries killed tens of thousands of Libyans in airstrikes to depose the Gaddafi government that was one of only two Arab governments still outside the NATO fold. Now, the last remaining Arab country outside NATO control, Syria, has been devastated by an imperialist war on it waged through “rebel” proxies. From massively funding and arming these “rebel” forces – directly and through its Turkish, Saudi and Qatari allies – to sending its special forces to assist them, the U.S. and its allies have done everything to weaken Syria. Needless to say this has emboldened Israel. For although the capitalist rulers of Syria have been far from consistent supporters of the Palestinian struggle, they have been the Arab government that has most backed the Palestinians and given support to several Palestinian resistance factions. Yet, many nominally pro-Palestinian groups here from the Greens to left groups like Solidarity, Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance have shamefully supported the imperialist- subordinated Syrian “rebels.” We in Trotskyist Platform are, unfortunately, the only Australian left group to take an active stand for the defence of Syria against NATO’s “rebel” proxies. We say to all supporters of Palestinian rights: defending the Palestinian people against the Israeli proxies of Western imperialism also means defending Syria against Western imperialism’s FSA/fundamentalist proxies. We must also demand: U.S. and all other imperialist forces get out of Iraq and all of the Middle East!

Currently, the Israeli terror machine may seem invincible. However, not only is there the potential for mass opposition to Western support for Israel within the imperialist countries but within Israel itself hundreds have bravely defied Nazi-like media propaganda and violent attacks from fascist thugs to protest against the onslaught on Gaza. Furthermore, contrary to the myth promoted especially by “liberal” Zionist groups that Israel is a harmonious, egalitarian society for all Jews, Israel not only murderously represses the Palestinian people but harshly oppresses many of its own citizens. African migrants are violently attacked by fascist forces, Israeli Arabs who make up 20% of the population face systematic discrimination and there is a widening gap between rich and poor that has led to Israel having one of the highest rates of poverty amongst developed countries. All this oppression has sparked mass protests. Most notably the second half of 2011 saw hundreds of thousands of Israelis participate in huge protests against high rents, privatisation and neo-liberal policies. The protests started to be backed by workers’ strikes and also involved thousands of people erecting tent cities that dwarfed the Occupy Sydney actions. A communist party must be built that can lever a component of the Jewish-background workers angry at the effects of capitalism up to a perspective of uniting with the Palestinian people around a program of opposing the Zionist state that both enforces capitalism and subjugates the Palestinian people. Such a party would be irreconcilably opposed to Zionism – it would firmly defend the Palestinian military resistance and would stand for the right of return of all Palestinians. It would also clearly delineate itself from bankrupt Palestinian nationalism whose most prominent representative today, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, is a servile apologist for imperialism who cannot even bring himself to unequivocally blame Israel for the latest carnage in Gaza. The revolutionary workers party that must be built would also oppose the ideology of politically religious forces like Hamas who, whilst many members of its military wing have often courageously resisted the Zionist butchers, have an anti-secular, anti-women’s rights ideology that is counterposed to liberation and thus obstructs the struggle to unite the working class.

The intense racism of Israeli society makes the perspective of uniting Jewish-background workers and the Palestinian masses difficult. Just as the relatively higher standard of living of workers in imperialist Australia relative to those in neighbouring countries generates an arrogant, racist strain within the Australian workers movement, the higher standard of living of workers of Jewish background in Israel – thanks to massive imperialist aid – relative to their Arab neighbours reinforces the exclusivist, racist ideology that the Israeli rulers promote. On the other hand, the Palestinian masses have suffered so cruelly under the horrific Zionist occupation that it is hard for Palestinians to break from nationalism and trust any Israelis. But eventually the deepening crisis of capitalism, which is already causing rising discontent within Israel itself, will bring opportunities to break some section of the Jewish working class from Zionism and win them to championing the Palestinian struggle as an indispensable part of their own fight for liberation from capitalist decay and poverty. The impetus for this will likely come from the eruption of revolutionary class struggle in the surrounding Middle Eastern countries. The Middle East uprisings over the last few years showed the level of mass discontent with the corrupt, poverty-stricken, high unemployment status quo. However, in the case of Libya and Syria, opposition forces were quickly subordinated to the predatory interests of the Western imperialist powers and became totally reactionary. In other cases, as in Egypt and Tunisia, the uprisings led at best to steps sidewards from one form of imperialist-dominated capitalism to another. What was missing in those cases was a strong political force that could split the energised toilers away from pro-capitalist opposition forces and direct the movements onto a clearly pro-working class, anti-imperialist and pro-women’s rights agenda. When the working class people in Jordan, Egypt and Turkey take power in a revolutionary wave, this will bring the class question to the fore in Palestine-Israel and spur the development of a united communist party of Palestinian toilers and workers of Jewish background. The revolutionary smashing of the Zionist state would finally liberate the long suffering Palestinian people and create a necessarily secular and anti-racist workers state – one where people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds who accept socialist rule and an anti-racist society would be protected and respected.

For pro-Palestinian activists living in Australia and other imperialist countries, the main and most urgent task right now is to unite the opposition movement against the local capitalist rulers’ backing for Israel with mass opposition to their own exploitation of workers and oppression of the poor. What makes it possible to motivate such struggle in Australia is the reality that many working class people are angry at the capitalist bosses for slashing their jobs after making fortunes from their workers’ toil. They are seething too because the governments that serve these exploiters are attempting to make people pay for doctor visits and to deny unemployed people under 30 access to the dole for six months a year. All this makes workers question everything the capitalist rulers do – including their foreign policy, a policy which includes fervent support for Israel. Let’s also unite opposition to the Australian ruling class’ backing for Israel’s racist war against Palestinian people with the struggles against the Australian ruling class’ own racist wars against Aboriginal people and refugees, along with its racist treatment of non-white “ethnic” and Muslim minorities. Mobilise mass opposition to the U.S., British and Australian rulers that back Israel’s tyranny! Shake the imperialist branches that hold up the Zionists’ nest so that it falls and the branches themselves weaken! Down with Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza!