From Gaza to Ferguson: the Working Class is Fighting Back!
In this issue we are featuring articles that reveal the growing resistance of the working class from Gaza, Ferguson, U.S. prisons, and all who are suffering the war against working people being carried out by the U.S. commanders of capital.
No matter what spin the commanders of capital put on the growing resistance to oppression across the globe—whether blaming “terrorists, militants, insurgents, religious fanatics or gangs”—what’s really happening is that workers are starting to empathize, organize, and build resistance to economic and social injustice.
This resistance is taking many different and contradictory forms, but the standard of living of workers all over the world is being eroded and attacked at an alarming rate; and the capitalist class is resorting more and more to brute force—the full force of it’s military and police—in its futile attempt to stop the growth and expansion of this new, working class resistance. They are trying to “nip it in the bud.” And, indeed, it is budding!
The resistance demands the
killing must stop
From just the beginning of the 21st Century, the U.S. government has been responsible for the deaths of tens-of-thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and Palestinians. The U.S. is also responsible for the deaths and suffering of people from the ghettos of the U.S., to Africa, South America; to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. U.S. troops and advisors and military funding are continuing to kill people and occupy nations in defense of the profits of the wealthy elite—of the commanders of capital.
This year alone, by funding the Israeli military, they are responsible for the deaths of over 2,100 Palestinians living in Gaza. And for the misery of tens-of-thousands more being bombed, shot at and occupied by U.S.-financed Israel on an ongoing basis since 1948.
The commanders of U.S. capital are also to blame for their own military casualties. If they were not at war across the globe against working people, their troops would not become cannon fodder.
This will not end well for the commanders of capital because those who are beginning to resist vastly outnumber them. That is why the U.S. attacks are so violent and massive against any resistance. And that’s why they are relying more on drones and aerial bombardment and the militarization of the police forces. They don’t stand a chance hand-to-hand against the growing, massive, global resistance.
The chickens come home to roost
In Ferguson, Missouri, August 18, 2014, Governor Nixon called out the National Guard because the people are fighting back. They’re not giving up! They are continuing their resistance—not only against the police brutality and violence that caused the death of Michael Brown, another unarmed Black teen, at the hands of the police—but against racism and economic injustice!
Missouri Governor Nixon called out the National Guard because they are cowards and have no real power of their own and are terrified of the defiant and growing mass resistance.
The one-percent and their governments—local, state or national—can neither quell the rebellion that sprung up as the result of the “last straw” murder of Michael Brown, nor solve the economic injustice their system has created. That’s because the mass economic exploitation and oppression of the working class by the commanders of capital is rooted in the system of capitalism itself. Economic equality, democracy and justice for all are impossible under capitalist rule.
New world solidarity
We live in a different age now. We not only have instant news from across the globe, we have instant communication. The resisters in Gaza have been watching the resisters in Ferguson and vice versa and have come to the conclusion that they have a lot in common. They have tweeted, texted, Facebooked and Instagramed each other.
Here are a few tweets1 from Gaza to Ferguson:
“I remember when I used to get tear-gassed. I used to remind myself this pain will pass and to not collapse. It helps! …And of course DON’T wash your eyes with water.”
“Always make sure to run against the wind/to keep calm when you’re tear-gassed, the pain will pass, don’t rub your eyes!”
“Solidarity with #Ferguson. Remember to not touch your face when tear-gassed or put water on it. Instead use milk or coke!”
In a video in the New York Times2, a man in Ferguson is showing a reporter a police tear-gas canister that had been thrown at him. He said he felt he was living in the Third World. And in an August 14, 2014 article in the New York Times titled, “Advice for Ferguson’s Protesters From the Middle East, 3” by Robert Mackey,
“Matt Pearce, a Los Angeles Times reporter, recorded Instagram video on Tuesday night of a man shouting at officers, “You gonna shoot us? You gonna shoot us? Is this the Gaza Strip?”
Massive resistance is spreading
On August 9, 150,000 people marched in London in solidarity with the people of Gaza.4 And beginning on the weekend of August 16th and 17th thousands of Gaza solidarity protestors blocked an Israeli ship and prevented it from unloading its cargo at the Port of Oakland, California. And protesters at the Port of Oakland carried signs in support of the resisters in Ferguson. The protest continued to block the ship for five days!5
The connection is obvious.
The best thing we can do is to continue to express our solidarity, share information and experience our commonality with one another and organize mass resistance against oppression and injustice everywhere.
They can’t keep ruling if we are united!
1 http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/15/the-shortest-distance-between-palestine-and-ferguson/
4 See “Solidarity with the People of Gaza,” by Graham Durham in this issue of Socialist Viewpoint
5 See “Bay Area Activists Declare Victory, Israeli cargo ship blocked for five days,” in this issue of Socialist Viewpoint