US imperialism

January 21, 2024

No Justice in Imperialist Courts

The ICJ, like the International Criminal Court (ICC), was born as a response to the Nazi Holocaust in an attempt to stop it from ever happening again. This doesn’t mean international law is going to come to anyone’s rescue, but Netanyahu’s genocidal hypocrisy becomes especially apparent when one compares him to the late Ben Ferencz.

Ferencz, who was also Jewish, had been the last living Nuremberg Trial prosecutor until his death in April 2023 at the age of 103. Ferencz was among those who led the charge for the ICJ and was responsible for the creation of the ICC too, believing it to be necessary in the fight for global justice. Unfortunately, even in the scores of obituaries after his death, only one mentioned his opposition to the crimes against humanity committed by the USA.

In a 2019 documentary called “Prosecuting Evil,” Ferencz pointed out that he and Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara co-authored an article in the New York Times mid-December 2000 urging that then President Bill Clinton have the United States join the ICC. McNamara knew full well that in the US becoming a signatory, he could be tried for crimes against humanity because of his role in the US anti-communist war in Vietnam. Clinton signed on, but then George W. Bush quickly withdrew in 2001.

January 18, 2024

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Israel is Guilty of Genocide but the Law Won’t Save Us

South Africa’s presentation of a case for genocide against the state of Israel before the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands last week shed a crucial spotlight on the horrific conditions Palestinians continue to endure. Since Israel began its war against Gaza in October, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 50,000 injured, and 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes. More than 9,000 Palestinian children have been killed. Gaza is on the brink of famine. Disease in Gaza runs rampant.

December 15, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Rise Up for Palestine

The Israeli military has now killed more than 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza, at least half of them women and children. The mass murder is relentless, with accounts of mass executions now emerging, and other types of barbarism. Over 1.9 million of the 2.2 million people of Gaza have been displaced. These terms of death and displacement surpass the 1947-1948 Nakba, when Zionist militias fighting for the creation of the state of Israel murdered thousands of Palestinians, and sent more than 750,000 permanently out of their historic homeland.

This second Palestinian Nakba, and ongoing genocide, continues to be bankrolled by the United States. Early in November both parties voted to send 14 billion dollars in military aid to Israel. Just days ago, 412 members of both parties voted yes to a right wing Republican resolution which equates antizionism—criticism of racist Israel settler-colonial ideology and state policy—with antisemitism.

November 21, 2023

by Kim Gasper-Rabuck

El Genocidio Israelí de Palestinos: Hecho en Estados Unidos

Durante décadas, la lucha por la liberación de la clase obrera Estadounidense se ha visto obstaculizada por la dependencia y el apoyo al Partido Demócrata dentro del sistema capitalista bipartidista. La creencia en la capacidad de convertir lentamente la democracia burguesa en una democracia socialista sigue siendo considerada “realista” por muchos en la izquierda. Desgraciadamente, eso ignora la realidad de que la clase trabajadora no tiene voz dentro del sistema político capitalista ni poder dentro de los partidos capitalistas.

November 15, 2023

by Kim Gasper-Rabuck

The Israeli Genocide of Palestinians: Made in the USA

For decades the fight for liberation of the US working class has been hamstrung by dependence on and support for the Democratic Party within the two-party capitalist system. The belief in the ability to slowly turn bourgeois democracy into democratic socialism is still considered “realistic” by many on the left. Unfortunately, that ignores the reality that working class people have some control over the capitalist political system or the capitalist parties.

November 2, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Por qué necesitamos teoría

El asalto de Israel a los Palestinos en estos momentos es la ofensiva más extrema que Israel
ha lanzado en décadas. Cientos de miles de personas están tomando las calles de todo el
mundo para protestar contra el bloqueo Israelí de Gaza. Las manifestaciones generalizadas en
todo Medio Oriente han amenazado la inestabilidad y han desempeñado un papel en el llamado de Biden a Israel para que frene el genocidio.

October 27, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Why We Need Theory

Israel’s assault on Palestinians right now is the most extreme offensive Israel has launched in decades. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets around the world to protest Israel’s siege of Gaza. The widespread demonstrations across the Middle East have threatened instability and have played a role in Biden calling on Israel to slowdown the genocide.

October 21, 2023

by Josué Ammerman

¡De Palestina a México, que se derriben los muros!

“¡Del río al mar, Palestina será libre!” es más que un eslogan, es el llamamiento de un movimiento de liberación. La lucha palestina por la liberación es internacional y la lucha por el socialismo comienza cuando nos unimos para luchar contra el imperialismo, el colonialismo y el capitalismo. La antología Palestina: Una introducción socialista, publicada por Haymarket Books, nos ofrece una visión general de las posibilidades de un mundo mejor, empezando por la liberación palestina. Los editores Sumaya Awad y brian bean nos ofrecen un sucinto trasfondo histórico de la liberación palestina y un marco internacionalista del socialismo desde abajo a través del cual podemos contemplar esta lucha.

October 19, 2023

by Zack Frailey Escobar

What does “peace” mean in occupied Palestine?

Since the events of October 7, when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shattered the illusion of Zionist invincibility, the Western media has unleashed a deluge of bile against anyone who speaks out in defense of Palestinian or Arab lives. This has created an environment in which it is possible for Bernie Sanders, a Jewish man and a descendant of Holocaust victims, to be boycotted as an antisemite by the leader of the German (!) Social Democratic Party for having the audacity to condemn Israel and Hamas equally for targeting civilians.

The libels against Sanders and others serve a dual function. They attempt to define the parameters of the pro-Israel position as constituting only those who support the present invasion and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. At the same time, they label as anti-Israel (or “pro-Hamas” or “antisemitic”) any view that calls for military restraint on the part of the Zionist occupiers.

October 18, 2023

by Amy Lerner

En la cuestión de la violencia revolucionaria

“La violencia que ha dominado el ordenamiento del mundo colonial, que ha marcado sin cesar el ritmo de la destrucción de las formas sociales autóctonas y ha roto sin reservas los sistemas de referencia de la economía, las costumbres del vestir y la vida exterior, esa misma violencia será reivindicada y asumida por el autóctono en el momento en que, decidiendo encarnar la historia en su propia persona, irrumpa en los barrios prohibidos.” -Frantz Fanon, Desgraciados de la Tierra