For a Proletarian, Class Struggle

Prises de position - Prese di posizione - Toma de posición - Statements

On Saturday evening January 3, after one week of air raids which left more than 450 dead and more than 2000 wounded, the Israeli army began its land offensive into Gaza. Its military officials declare that the operation will be «long». The odious Israeli propaganda, broadcast by the majority of the international media, presents this bloody attack as a «response» to the salvos of the «terrorists»of Hamas in power in Gaza.

It «forgets» to mention that for nineteen months Israel has imposed a blockade (which has been total for a year) on the million and-a-half inhabitants of Gaza, which has plunged most of the population into misery (some profiteers enrich themselves by smuggling, while 80% of the population has sunk below the poverty line), causing massive unemployment (nearly 65% of the active population) and hunger (60% of the children are malnourished).

When it was Hamas, and not more collaborationist currents as they had wished, who won the elections in Gaza in January 2006, the democratic governments of Israel and America declared that they were going «to strangle» this government; the democratic European governments lent their support by withdrawing all «humanitarian aid» to Gaza (except that earmarked to pay the police!), and the slightly less democratic Arab governments of the area followed. This political military and economic pressure continued until the imposition of the blockade of the territory with the aid of Egypt (which controls one of the exit points from Gaza), when the partisans of Fatah (armed by Israel) were militarily beaten by those of Hamas.

Reactionary, religious and anti-worker, the Hamas party won the elections because of the anger of the population against the waste, corruption and naked pursuit of self-enrichment by the leaders of Fatah; it also presents itself as an irreconcilable adversary to Israeli domination. However, since its election, it proferred numerous gestures of openness in Israel's direction. But for the Israeli government as for its imperialist godfathers, that was not at all sufficient: what they desire in Gaza is authorities entirely under their boot, obedient slave-drivers who only concern themselves with controlling the population as is the case of the «Palestinian Authority» of Mamoud Abbas in the West Bank! «Democracy» must serve the interests of the colonialist and the imperialists, if not it is worthless...Israel broke the truce discreetly negotiated with the «terrorists» of Hamas in June, by killing 14 Palestinians in Gaza in November and 8 others in December (4 Palestinian had already been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in October): the inevitable response of Hamas, with the launching of its crudely-made rockets, gave the pretext necessary for the attacks. According to the Israeli press (cf Haaretz, 31/12/08), this military operation actually commenced preparations 6 months ago, at the same time as the negotiations for the truce, the Israeli army needing sufficient time to collect intelligence information on the positions of Hamas and the «militant groups»existing in Gaza!

DIRECT COMPLICITY OF THE UNITED STATES, THE EUROPEAN STATES AND THE ARAB STATES

The United States officially approved the Israeli attacks . But an operation of this breadth could not receive their green light, beforehand; this is demonstrated elsewhere by the fact that in September the American Congress authorized the delivery to Israel of loathsome bombs fabricated out of depleted uranium (which had already been used to ravage Yugoslavia and Iraq); the first deliveries took place at the beginning of December so that these bombs could be rained on Gaza from the beginning of the bombardments. For their part all the European governments took great care not to condemn the Israeli attacks (when they did not give outright approval, like the current Czech president of the European Union); at best they hypocritically appealed for a «humanitarian cease-fire» to give each other a clear conscience with their respective public opinion. Actions are more illuminating than hollow speeches: under French impulse, on December 8, after the European rump-Parliament decided to postpone the signature of this agreement because of the situation in Palestine (so much the worse for the rare simpletons who still believe in the European elections!), the Foreign Ministers of the 27 European countries decided with unanimity to accelerate the process of «re-elevating» relations with Israel, in order to confer the status of quasi-member State to it. It was necessary to move quickly, such a decision being a little more difficult to justify in full-out war… As for Russia, member of the «Quartet» ("...for peace in the Middle East") supposedly being responsible for the progress of the so-called «the peace negotiations», it is far too interested in the development of its economic relations with Israel (principally arms material) to think of causing it any problems.

Lastly, before starting its attack, the Israeli government went on to inform the Egyptian government which, apparently, did not express any dissension (cf Haaretz, ibid): this says all that needs to be said on the sincerity of Egypt's «condemnation», after several days, of the Israeli bombardments… Just as at the time of the war in Lebanon, the majority of the Arab States desire the victory of the Israeli armies to put an end to the potential danger to the stability of the bourgeois order which the Palestinian masses represent: even in the extraordinary case of Israel acceeding, it would be impossible to grant them the right of self-determination; that is, the right to form a true State, without upsetting regional balances and, especially, without giving encouragement to the social struggle of all the oppressed in the region. In the 15 years since the alleged «historic peace agreements» in Camp David were signed; under the aegis of the United States and with the blessing of the «international community», the nationalist organizations which then accepted giving up the struggle in order to devote themselves to making money, were integrated into the Palestinian bourgeoisie of the Palestinian Territories; but the situation of the proletarians and the Palestinian masses never ceased worsening, colonization never ceased extending itself and Israel never ceased reinforcing itself. The religious organizations, Hamas in the lead, which have taken over the failed nationalist formations, cannot constitute a real alternative for the oppressed and exploited masses of Palestine, because, in addition to the fact that they already proved their anti-proletarian nature by breaking strikes, they only seek, as good bourgeois organizations, to find a place in the regional imperialist order..

However, it is this imperialist order, of which Israel is the most solid pillar and the bloodiest henchman, but not its author, which is ultimately responsible for the oppression of the Palestinians. Without the political, but more especially economic, financial and military support of the United States, and also of the European States, the jewish State would not have the force to maintain one the strongest armies of the world and to carry out its perpetual wars; on the internal level it would not have the force to obtain this solid «union sacrée» between classes which is the true secret of its military power. Everyone knows that this «international community», that is the great and not-so-great bourgeois States which dominate the world, never did anything to concretely oblige the Israeli state to respect the innumerable resolutions voted in the UN, or the innumerable peace resolutions signed with great fanfare. In international policy as in the relationship between social classes, it is the interests of most powerful which take precedence and it is force which rules.

However the Palestinian masses are not eternally condemned to be crushed under the Israeli and imperialist iron heel, in the same way that the proletarians of all the countries are not eternally condemned to be exploited and to be used as cannon fodder. The revolutionary struggle of the proletarians, those who have nothing to lose but their chains, is able to put an end to the world imperialist order and of all bourgeois States, because it is their exploitation which makes the capitalism of every country function; they themselves thus have hold of a superior force than that of the bourgeois States, the force to overthrow capitalism, provided they find the means of struggle and the class organization, revolutionary and international by nature.

The proletarians of the imperialist countries have a very particular responsibility, because the Israeli state has a vital need of assistance from «their» States, «their» imperialisms, to continue its crimes in Palestine. In again taking up the anticapitalist class struggle , they would bring decisive aid to the Palestinian masses by the weakening of this assistance; especially they would indicate to the Palestinian proletarians (and those of the world) the only way of effectively fighting oppression, while contributing to the rupture of the Jewish proletariat of Israel from its bourgeoisie. This prospect is not easy nor immediate, but it is infinitely more realist than the calls to make the «International community» or the UNO respect the «right», or the wishes for the «peace negotiations to begin again» which for decades have only succeeded in bringing about repeated wars and massacres.

The only solidarity with the Palestinian masses which is not a vain word, takes place through the resumption of the proletarian struggle right here, against capitalism and all the bourgeois states. Today there is no more urgent a task than to work to prepare recovery, to work towards the rupture of the working-class away from the class collaborationist organizations which paralyse them, and to reconstitute the future organ essential to the proletarian struggle: the class party, internationalist and international which will have as its task the unification of the struggle of the proletarians and oppressed of the world to achieve the triumph of the international communist revolution necessary to overthrow world capitalism.