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Under Siege: why socialists must fight for Palestine and BDS

The struggle for Palestinian liberation from Israel’s U.S.-backed settler-colonial regime has become a cornerstone of most radical and progressive political platforms. Especially since Palestinian Civil Society launched the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign (BDS) in 2004, modeled closely on the South African campaign to end Apartheid; the broad U.S. and global Left have made the struggle to end Israel’s occupation part of a wider critique of U.S. imperialism.

Yet recent events have challenged the unity and momentum of both the struggle for Palestinian liberation on the Left, and its primary global weapon, the BDS campaign. One of those challenges has come from the reformist wing of the Left, the Democratic Socialists of America. Another, even more potentially threatening to Palestinian liberation unity, has come from within the ranks of the U.S. Arab political class and its institutions.

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The Aftermath of the Rittenhouse Acquittal: Report from Wisconsin

After the murder of George Floyd May 25, 2020, millions of people protested—most for the first time in their lives—to say that “Black Lives Matter”. Thousands demonstrated dozens of times across the urban centers of Wisconsin. in Madison, the protests were called by large not-for-profits as well as new, young groups of African- American activists. Hundreds of national guard members were called up by Democratic Party Governor Tony Evers—and supported by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway—to teargas and arrest Black and white protesters on the street. Much of State Street experienced fires and graffiti as peoples’ rightful rage against overwhelming police and National guard violence erupted.

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Base building meets cadre development: the alternative to socialist opportunism

The subterranean forces of capitalist development have begun to produce ruptures. The economic growth of the neoliberal period stalled as early as 2007-08, leading to the Occupy movement and the nascent class politics of the 99%. The phony post-racialism of the early Obama period has been exposed as a fraud again and again, most significantly by the Ferguson riots and the national uprising following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Covid-19 exposed the inability of our capitalistic health infrastructure to even keep the economy running, let alone care for people’s basic needs. As both the ecological and economic situation continue to deteriorate, these crises will only compound. Without an organizational framework that can capture the inevitable rage of the exploited and oppressed and bind it to a vision for revolutionary transformation, the potential power of the working class – the only class which can overthrow capitalism – will not be realized. It will remain a “class-in-itself” but not a “class-for-itself.”

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Serious about Systemic Change: an interview with Marco Amaral

Marco Amaral is a progressive candidate running as an Independent for the position of California Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2022. He is Chicano educator and long-time activist who teaches high school Special Education in a low-income area. Amaral lives and works in a community near the US-Mexico border in San Diego, a largely working-class Mexican community and is currently a Board of Trustees member at the South Bay Union School District. He spoke to Puntorojo about activism, education, politics and his campaign.

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Consultas Populares en México: lo que dicen sobre el gobierno de AMLO

En las notas que escribió Marx que después se convirtieron en el Volumen III de El Capital, hay una frase que dice que “toda ciencia sería superflua si la forma de manifestación y la esencia de las cosas coincidieran directamente”. Parte de los grandes méritos que ha tenido el gobierno de López Obrador en México ha sido gracias a que su esencia se mantiene muchas veces oculta, ya que ha empleado métodos sumamente novedosos para disfrazar políticas pro-empresariales y pro-imperialistas y hacerlas pasar por políticas populares, así como de ceder diversas concesiones a las clases explotadas, al mismo tiempo que divide y debilita a sus organizaciones. Uno de estos métodos han sido las famosas “consultas populares”.

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Agitating for the “General Strike”: a shortcut to nowhere

If you’re plugged in to progressive social media pages, you might have heard the buzz around the date October 15. Apparently, there is going to be a general strike! According to the strike organizers’ website (https://octoberstrike.com/), workers will be refusing to show up indefinitely as they demand a 25% corporate tax rate, free healthcare, 12 weeks paid paternity and maternity leave, a $20 minimum wage, a 4 day work week, and “stricter environmental regulations on corporations”.
In spite of these lofty goals, the “organization” of this would-be strike does not inspire a great deal of confidence. So far, it consists of little more than the website referenced above and a change.org petition. Other than a simple call to action and the list of demands, the website contains some basic information on the right to strike and links to various associated social media pages which post essentially the same information. The activists or organizations

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The Path to Socialism Requires Border Abolition

Although the Biden administration has attempted to differentiate its immigration policies from those of Donald Trump, the end result has been the same: deportations, abuse and negligence of children jailed in detention centers and refugees turned away at the border. What’s more, Biden’s refusal to allow in the refugees at the border has contributed to horrific human rights abuses. As Reuters reported, nearly 3,300 migrants stranded in Mexico have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted since Joe Biden took office on January 20.

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Zionists Weep Crocodile Tears

As Israel bombs Palestinian civilians in Gaza, ethnically cleanses Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and deliberately unleashes right wing mobs to terrorize Palestinians everywhere, the whole U.S. congressional establishment has united to condemn Israel’s critics.

The entire Democratic leadership joined with the most rabidly racist sections of the Republican Party to slander congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s statements comparing Israel’s and the United States’ crimes with those of Hamas and the Taliban as antisemitic. The statement they issued on June 11th reads, in part: “Drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the US and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all.”

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The U.S. Far-Right: poised to extend its reach and scale of violence

The January 6th storming of the U.S. Capitol by elements of the far-right—amateurish and pursued by a coalition of activists that grossly overestimated the extent of their power and support—constituted a breakthrough by far-right political forces. As conceived, it was destined to be easily repelled from the outset, and contrary to corporate and social media hyperbole, it fell profoundly short of constituting a viable coup attempt. Yet, it is in the reverberations of its political symbolism that it amounts to a victory for the far-right, for it constitutes a “proof of concept.”

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The QAnon Coup: hysteria and conspiracy at the end of the world

In the halls of Congress, Democrats are attempting (or at least feigning an attempt) to force an investigation into the January 6th riot, in which Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol building. Many on the left correctly view this step as a piece of political theater designed to simultaneously appease their base and generate a rationale for further expansion of the national security state. Despite the ridiculous charade of the capitalist parties, however, there is nothing frivolous about the riot or the horde of fanatical “QAnon” conspiracy theorists that spawned it. The events of January 6 portend the emergence of a new, radicalized Right which the Left must be prepared to combat.

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