In Gaza, United as Communists here ♦ Israeli Friend: Real Power with Workers and Soldiers here ♦ Israel-Iran: Start of WWIII here ♦
Letter from Gaza: “United as Communists”
Dear Comrades,
I am still alive. But many around me are not. We escaped from Khan Yunis several weeks ago under relentless attack. We arrived in Rafah.
While in Rafah, my cellphone gets recharged once a week. I have to use it sparsely. But thanks to you, I still have the internet and I get to read Red Flag.
It gives me and my comrades the utmost joy to read RF. I help them translate. They read every word of it. You won’t believe it: this is the biggest source of news for us.
I was also able to communicate with a comrade in Israel through you. It is heartening to know we are all communists. The comrade wrote to me recently: “We are with you. You may never realize, but the atrocities of the Israeli Zionist ruling class are making us all powerful to destroy them. Your pain is our pain. Be strong, as you are. We will be united as communists.”
I want to tell all our readers the story of a five-year-old girl. Leila was found buried under rubble. Her apartment building collapsed, killing many. In Gaza, the masses rush to save people after such attacks. They have learned these rescue skills from decades of Israeli bombardments.
After two nights, people heard faint noises from the collapsed building. They realized a girl was trapped. It took hours before Leila was extricated. She was dizzy, disoriented, and dehydrated. There was a deep shrapnel wound on her leg.
In Rafah, we get one meal every other day. And a liter of water that lasts several days. When Leila was found alive, kids and adults lined up to donate water to wash her. People skipped their portion of meals so she would not go hungry or thirsty. Somebody treated her injured leg. Leila was smiling with the nurturing love of humanity.
Leila became an orphan. She lost 26 family members in the airstrike. The community adopted her. This is the story of thousands like Leila.
Many children like Leila will grow up. They have survived by the collective strength of the masses. Nobody made a profit by giving them food or water or healing their injury. Society organized to eliminate profit and capitalism is the only system that can survive.
These are the lessons I am learning from people around me. Red Flag helps to organize these hungry masses by giving them the political power of communism. In more than one way, we are working in collectives talking about our next step.
An Israeli comrade reminded me he was going to a May Day march in Tel Aviv with a few copies of RF. We will also think of this May Day as a fight for communism that cannot be crushed. It will grow into a mighty international working class. Forward comrades, we have not forgotten! Communism is the future.
—Hamza, in solidarity (April 14, 2024)
Israeli Friend: “Real Power Is in Hands of Workers and Soldiers”
I am preparing for a May Day demonstration. I plan to take a few copies of Red Flag. This May Day, there will be a massive rally in Israel. More workers are fed up with brutal fascism that is killing our brothers and sisters across the border.
When we got the news of a possible drone and missile attack from Iran, we were put on high alert. We went underground to prepare for possible retaliation.
I called several friends during this time. Many people were very scared. I explained that this is the result of the intensifying contradiction of capitalism. This May Day, we should organize to support our working class in Gaza.
Many of my friends thought that there might be a nuclear attack in the coming months or years by the fascists in Iran.
This may be true, but the real power is in the hands of the international workers and soldiers. The rulers will try to scare us, but they are ‘paper tigers.’ The real power comes from the soldiers supported by the working class.
Israeli workers have the potential to turn the fascist massacres in Gaza into a fight for a communist revolution. We will carry this message to the masses this May Day.
—A communist sympathizer in Israel.
Police suppress a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Haifa, (Israel) December 15, 2023
Israel-Iran Skirmishes: Opening Shots in World War III
April 16— As workers worldwide prepare to march on May Day, imperialists worldwide are preparing for massive war that will affect everyone, everywhere.
The Israeli rulers’ murderous attack on Iranian diplomats in Syria tested the waters for wider war in the Middle East. The Iranian rulers responded this time with a swarm of cheaply produced missiles and armed drones. It cost the Israeli government and its US imperialist backers more than a billion dollars to answer the attack.
US President Biden told Israel’s Netanyahu to stop it there. But Netanyahu has responded to Biden’s every recent request for restraint by escalating attacks. As we go to press, it’s not clear what will happen next.
But we do know that today’s situation is qualitatively different from ten years ago. Then, the US rulers could work with the Russian and Chinese imperialists to slow Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Today, those Russian and Chinese rulers are closely allied with Iran against the increasingly isolated Israeli and US rulers. Today, US imperialism’s European allies are less willing than ever to do its bidding.
The Iranian ruling class may not want full-scale war right now, as it prepares for a major leadership transition. Netanyahu might want it as he seeks to prevent his grip on Israeli politics from slipping away. But what any imperialist faction “wants” is less important than what it needs.
The Chinese and Russian imperialists, like all imperialists, need to expand their global reach for labor, resources, and markets to maximize profits. The US imperialists have an even more desperate need to slow their inevitable decline. War is the only thing that will resolve the conflict between these competing needs.
From the Middle East to Ukraine to the South China Sea, that war is starting to explode. It is increasingly claiming the lives and livelihoods of our international working class. When the blindfolds of nationalism, patriotism, and racism fall from our eyes, we see clearly that the only war workers must support is the class war for communism that will end capitalist exploitation and mass murder.
So we march this May Day to prepare for armed revolution. To turn imperialist wars for profit into the communist class war that will end them. To mobilize masses to build a new communist world on the ashes of the old!
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