Gaza Genocide: Need Revolutions, Not Resolutions here ♦ 1804 Haitian Revolution Still Inspires Masses here ♦
From Gaza to the USA: Let’s Fight for Communist workers’ Power, Not Make “Demands” on Politicians
PASADENA (USA), March 25— “This US-funded genocide in Gaza must stop!” Two hundred adults and children spoke passionately for their allotted one minute each, for a City Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East. They begged. They reasoned. They demanded. Five hundred protesters briefly disrupted the City Council meeting with chants of “Ceasefire now!” And when a resolution was passed, most celebrated the “victory.”
But what was this victory? The final “proclamation” catered to a few dozen Zionist speakers who said they no longer “felt safe” in Pasadena. It urged the US government to continue to “seek peace in the Middle East” while ignoring that US-supplied weapons make the devastation possible. It didn’t acknowledge that masses in Gaza have been suppressed and repressed by the Israeli government for decades and are by far the ones suffering the most now.
“Passing a ‘resolution’ resolves nothing,” comrade L commented. “It lets the masses feel that they have power when in reality the US government will keep sending arms and hypocritically, a little food too.”
“The massive win is that we pushed a reluctant governing body into taking a stand for ceasefire,” said an organizer. “It’s a great foundation for doing other things like Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions work.”
“I think the big victory was many hundreds of us finding our voices together in solidarity,” said comrade E. Seventy protesters took our communist pamphlet on Palestine, and many more had already gotten it earlier.
The organizer’s opinion reflects the reformist view, expressed by some speakers, that governmental bodies are “our voice” and should “represent their constituents.” But City Council, like all government bodies, is part of the capitalist state. It exists to serve the interests of the ruling class—not the masses.
Comrade E’s opinion reflects a potentially revolutionary view that the masses have our own powerful “voice.” We should be making decisions that serve the interests of the international working class. In communism, we won’t be begging or demanding things. We will be debating, deciding, and carrying out policies and plans ourselves.
But the solidarity we experienced will only be a victory if it moves more activists toward this communist goal. “I should have said this directly,” comrade E reflected. Dozens read Red Flag regularly and some are starting to work with us. Many more are trying to push the movement towards anti-imperialism (instead of pacifism) and welcome our ideas.
The Pasadena City Council “ceasefire” proclamation echoes the line now pushed by Democratic Party politicians like Sen. Schumer and Gov. Newsom and by US officials at the UN. The US rulers are eager to regain the active support of young people who are appalled by “Genocide Joe” Biden. They are desperate to overcome their increasing isolation internationally. Resolutions like the Pasadena one help provide them with cover.
But they are still unwilling or unable to stop sending arms to Israel to safeguard US energy interests in the Middle East. Or to defy the Israeli government by continuing to fund UNRWA, the UN relief organization that has kept Gazans alive. This leaves activists both baffled and outraged at the hypocrisy of politicians like Reps. Judy Chu and Adam Schiff. Already there have been sit-ins at their offices.
Some activists are changing their “ask” from signing onto a ceasefire resolution to “Stop sending military funding to Israel.” But any “ask,” and any “demand,” perpetuates the illusion that we can peacefully de-fang the imperialist beast. That capitalism, in any form, can bring world “peace” or economic “justice.”
Marchers in the streets of US cities chant, “The only solution: Intifada, Revolution!” We think that’s as true in Pasadena and everywhere as it is in Gaza. That it must be armed revolution for international communism. For ending all nations and borders. For ending money and private property, the root of wage slavery and imperialism and all the oppression masses face today. That’s what Red Flag tries to explain. Read it, write for it, and share it as widely as you can!
1804 Haitian Revolution Still Inspires Masses
I get very positive responses from students about this history. Black students in particular like to learn about the successes of the Haitian Revolution, but not about the bloody exploitation since. The example of the revolution is empowering.
Imperialists never stop sucking workers’ blood. We hear about “progress” and the division of the world between “developing” and “developed” nations. But history shows that imperialism, particularly its white-supremacist US and European brands, “develops” only profits for the ruling class and death, destruction, and misery for the rest of us.
In 1804, the armies of formerly enslaved peoples in the French colony of Saint-Domingue declared independence. They had defeated the most powerful colonial military forces of the day. They declared the world’s first Black-run Republic, calling it Haiti (the island’s indigenous Taino name). And the US, France, and other colonial powers never forgave them.
The imperialists immediately conspired to isolate and starve Haiti. They embargoed trade, demanding payment to France for “loss of property.” What property? Enslaved people. France, the US, and Britain forced the formerly enslaved people of Saint-Domingue to buy the freedom they had won through armed struggle. They forced the young nation to take on a huge debt. It took Haiti from 1915 to 1947 to pay it off.
The US invasion and occupation of Haiti in 1915 was precisely to force Haiti to pay off this debt, which had been transferred to the United States. The exploitation and bloodletting of Haiti has continued ever since.
The US rulers, especially before the Civil War, were horrified by the example of a successful slave revolution and a society run by Black masses in its backyard. They have worked tirelessly to undermine any kind of popular control in Haiti and to protect wealth, trade routes, and cheap labor for US and French capital.
The imperialist narrative always describes “chaos,” a racialized story of “gangs running wild.” It calls for a “responsible” international community to save the Haitians from themselves. In truth, US imperialism has worked to manipulate and control Haiti for the past century.
In the 1990s, the United States dumped government-subsidized rice from farms in southern states into the Haitian economy. This drove indigenous farmers out of business and caused more hunger and poverty there. In 2004, the democratically elected President Aristide was kidnapped and taken to the Central African Republic.
Between military invasion and economic strangleholds, the US and French imperialists have steadily drawn every drop of blood they could since the establishment of plantations of enslaved Africans on the graves of millions of indigenous Taino people.
The Haitian people have had enough. Unrest continues to grow. It doesn’t seem that the same program of an imperialist-backed puppet will work this time. It is unclear how the current crisis will play out. But what is certain is that the United States and France couldn’t care less about the lives of the Haitian people. They will try to do whatever they can to maintain the status quo of instability for Haitian workers and stability for French and US capital.
Will they be able to do so in the face of armed resistance from Haitian people at the end of their rope and powered by the fighting spirit of their ancestors who defeated Napoleon at the height of his reign?
—High School Teacher, Seattle (USA)
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