From the International Workers’ League (Fourth International)
The working class faces major challenges around the world. Imperialist wars, unemployment and hunger, neoliberal attacks on workers’ rights, health, and education, sexist, racist, LGBTphobic and xenophobic oppression, and environmental destruction.
We call attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. In addition to the thousands of Palestinians killed or injured in Gaza (mostly women and children) and the destruction of homes, schools, and hospitals, there are pogroms being carried out by the Israeli army and Zionist settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, with hundreds killed and thousands imprisoned.
This genocide is being carried out by the state of Israel with the political and military support of U.S. and European imperialism. Russian imperialism has maintained agreements with Israel, including one that allows it to attack Syrian territory every week without any opposition from Russian military bases in the country.
Chinese imperialism is maintaining all trade and diplomatic agreements with Israel and continues to press for an end to the blockade of maritime traffic in the Red Sea by the Yemeni Houthis, who are the only Arab force showing effective solidarity with the Palestinians.
In the region, the regimes of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are collaborating directly with U.S. imperialism, just as the Palestinian National Authority under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas has maintained its security cooperation with the state of Israel.
The main forces of the so-called axis of resistance, the Iranian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah, have declared their support for the Palestinians, but their leaders, Ayatollah Khamenei and Hassan Nasrallah, have declared that they will not promote effective military attacks against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. They will only respond if their countries, Iran and/or Lebanon, are attacked by Israel, as has already happened. It is necessary to demand that Iran, Lebanon, and the other Arab countries immediately declare war on Israel.
The struggle to end the genocide In Gaza and for a free Palestine from the river to the sea necessarily requires the end of the state of Israel. The so-called two-state solution, i.e. a Palestinian mini-state alongside Israel, will legitimize the policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people and perpetuate its racist and colonialist policies. We defend a secular and democratic Palestine, from the river to the sea, where the Palestinian people will be able to live in freedom with all those who accept to live in peace with the Palestinians.
The liberation of Palestine will be achieved through a new intifada in all its territories, through a new wave of Arab revolutions to overthrow their dictatorial regimes, and through the international solidarity of the working class and youth all over the world, including the important participation of anti-Zionist Jews.
We want to express our support for the youth demonstrations in the U.S., which have opened the possibility of reviving the great mobilizations against the Vietnam War in the past, which helped defeat U.S. imperialism. Youth mobilizations are already taking place in France, Spain, Canada, and Australia. It is an encouragement for the youth all over the world to play a similar role on the side of the Palestinian resistance.
In this sense, we are calling on the working class and youth of the Arab countries in particular to organize themselves independently of their regimes to promote solidarity with the Palestinians, as is the case in Jordan through large mobilizations in front of the Israeli embassy.
Russian imperialism has criticized the role of U.S. imperialism in the Israeli genocide in Palestine. But in addition to maintaining its agreements with Israel, it has invaded Ukraine to impose its economic and political interests. We want to express our support to the Ukrainian workers’ resistance in the national liberation war against the invasion and occupation of Russian imperialism.
We encourage the fight against Russian imperialism without implying any support to the neo-liberal Zelensky government or to NATO or hypocritical Western imperialism.
The gigantic mobilization of the students and teachers in Argentina against the far-right government of Milei shows a way forward for mass confrontations against the far-right governments all over the world that apply harsh plans against workers and youth. It is important to remember that the governments of class conciliation, such as those of Lula, Boric, and Petro, are also applying neoliberal plans against the masses. At the moment, federal public employees are on strike against Lula’s fiscal adjustment.
It is essential to unite workers’ struggles with all struggles against oppression against women, black people, LGBTQ people, and indigenous people. There are signs of growing barbarity in oppressions around the world, but resistance to them is also growing significantly.
Capitalism threatens humanity by destroying not only the living conditions of workers and youth, but also the environment. Global warming exceeded 1.5 degrees earlier this year, the highest in history, surpassing the limits announced by the environmental defense institutes. This shows the hypocrisy of the imperialist governments around the world in “global agreements” that change nothing and only try to show a way out for the environment from within capitalism. This will not happen. Only a socialist revolution can save the workers from hunger and misery. Only a socialist revolution can save the planet from ecological barbarism.
We are sure that every victory of the Palestinian and Ukrainian resistance and of the workers’ and democratic struggles around the world will open the way to the end of capitalism and to the construction of socialist countries based on workers’ democracy, without any resemblance to the capitalist dictatorships that exist in Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Long live May Day!
Victory to the Palestinian and Ukrainian Resistance!
Workers of all countries, unite!
