Antisemitism is part of bourgeois ideology

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In the last two months, there has been a wave of accusations of antisemitism levelled at anyone who has risen to support the cry of the slaughtered Palestinian people (we note, for example, that among the more than 10,000 victims there are more than 4,000 children, all of whom we strongly doubt could be the infamous terrorists). Our party, in the historical continuity and coherence that characterizes it, is compelled to emphasize the essentially bourgeois nature of these ideological attacks, and then to point out how the real movement of history has unfolded in practice regardless of these accusations. In fact, our position on Palestine is well known and was reiterated in the last issue of Il Comunista in the article « Alcuni punti fermi sulla ‘questione palestinese’ » (A few cornerstones on the « Palestine question »): the rejection of the bourgeois compromise of a « national Palestinian state » (moreover, nationalist, democratic, capitalist, etc., etc.) and the call, historically raised as early as 1848 by our masters towards the proletarians, to unite throughout the world in struggle on the classist basis above all. No form of antisemitism can be inferred from these attitudes, nor any other form of racism.

The accusation of anti-Semitism has, in fact, its roots in the past. Ever since the publication of the party’s text « Auschwitz ou le grand alibi » (Auschwitz, or the Great Alibi), the ideologues of the bourgeoisie and those of Stalinism, falsely espousing the interests of the proletariat, have accused us of denying the direct responsibility of Nazi fascism for the Holocaust. We have always repeatedly stressed the following: « Refusing to see in capitalism itself the cause of the crises and social catastrophes which periodically convulse the world, bourgeois and reformist ideologues have always insisted on explaining them by the wickedness of this or that. » (1) Even in this case, with Hamas reactionaries, backed by Hezbollah and Iran, launching rockets and the Zionist army dropping bombs indiscriminately on hospitals, schools and homes, democrats of all nations want to see only the wickedness of this or that group, whether ethnic or political, but not the responsibility of capitalism as a social system, as a mode of production. The failure of democratic ideology to recognise real responsibility in this case also demonstrates how the accusation of antisemitism can be used as an expedient weapon against positions that challenge the established order. Just as democratic ideology (which we abhor) invokes the mystical weapon of anti-fascism at every turn to create the illusion that the solution to society's problems lies in defeating equally bourgeois fascism, it equally shields itself with grief over the extermination of the Jews (while it seems to matter little that the « democratic world » itself did nothing during the Second World War, even though it knew full well what was happening) to prevent the manifestation of classist positions around the Palestinian question.

We have direct evidence of how the empty anti-fascism of public opinion can be used as a weapon of repression. In fact, in Il Manifesto, we read that the German Federal Government, in the face of massive demonstrations supporting the Palestinian people, has responded, firstly, with batons and, secondly, by banning not only all gatherings, but also the wearing of the traditional keffiyeh (or shemagh) in schools. The Bild press group has reportedly begun publishing, among other things, lists of alleged friends of Hamas (2). Any expression of dissent against the systematic massacre of civilians, such as is taking place in Gaza, is prevented precisely under the pretext of anti-fascism: this leads to a fatal mental short-circuit for the democrats. In the name of democracy, they find themselves forced to suppress dissent. All this can only seem to be contradicted by the belief that democracy is fundamentally different from fascism in its class nature, which we resolutely deny. As we have said elsewhere, « 6. We deny that ‘democracy’ and ‘fascism’ correspond to different types of society, linked to different modes of life and social activity. We affirm that they are merely two different forms of the bourgeois state, each ensuring, like the other, the domination of capital and its functioning, but under different social conditions. » (3) For what is important for the bourgeoisie is the maintenance of class domination, not rights and freedoms.

But these accusations of anti-Semitism against those who, like us, are horrified by the massacre are completely misplaced. The facts prove that, far more than words. If all the demonstrators who chose to mobilise against the massacre of Palestinians (often with bourgeois nationalist positions, but sometimes with a partial understanding of the social problem of imperialism as a whole) were indeed motivated by some mysterious, secret form of anti-Semitism, how could what happened in Washington have happened? In response to the situation in Palestine, thousands of Jews mobilised to express their opposition to the criminal actions of Zionism, occupied Congress, and three hundred were arrested (4). For bourgeois democratic ideology, these must have been « anti-Semitic Jews ». The absurdity of the anti-fascist claims is once again shown, and in their own reality – even more so than in our sayings, which we have been repeating for decades. One of the representatives of the demonstration even declared, « we will not let ourselves be manipulated by the fear of anti-Semitism », thus decisively framing the way in which the bourgeoisie wages its campaigns against political dissent, i.e. not only by arrests, persecutions and premeditated murders, but also by resorting to bourgeois ideological cover as part of a general attempt to manipulate public opinion.

The bourgeoisie can continue to wave its accursed banners (democracy, anti-fascism, legality, class collaborationism) and delude those who, at this stage in history, have not yet decisively understood how things stand. We, as the International Communist Party, i.e., anti-nationalist, anti-democratic, classist and proletarian, will continue our work of unmasking the bourgeois nature of the lies that the bosses' class tries to ram down the proletariat's heads today, as it did fifty years ago. And the proletariat, oppressed by two and a half centuries of bourgeois domination and a hundred years of class collaborationism, has not yet realised today how the libellous slanders of the propagandists of capitalism are uttered only to increase its distrust in its own strength, in the only struggle that will lead it to emancipation, the class struggle. And when the class struggle is resumed on a general scale, the proletariat will prove its valour not in the empty sophisms of democratic discussions, but in concrete revolutionary action, in the general insurrection, in the certainty of its historical objectives.

For this to happen, the role of the party, of class dictatorship, of revolutionary Marxism, which has provided and continues to provide the working class with timeless lessons precisely for the conquest of its power, remains essential. This will also wreck all the scheming that the bourgeoisie has composed to prevent its overthrow.

(1) « Auschwitz ou le grand alibi » (Auschwitz, or the Great Alibi), published in No. 11, 1960 of our theoretical journal Programme communiste.

(2) « A Berlino tira una brutta aria », Il Manifesto, p. 4, October 20, 2023.

(3) « Ciò che noi neghiamo e ciò che noi affermiamo » (What we deny and what we affirm), Il comunista, No. 52, November 1996.

(4) « USA, ebrei pacifisti invadono il Congresso, arrestati in 300 », Il Manifesto, p. 5, 20 October 2023.

International Communist Party

Il comunista - le prolétaire - el proletario - proletarian - programme communiste - el programa comunista - Communist Program