By Richard Mellor in California
Frederick Engels said that, “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”. This doesn’t mean theory is not important. But we learn so much through the struggle on the ground, in the workplace, the university, the community; through action.
That’s what we are witnessing at this moment, as students protesting the Zionists’ genocide in Gaza are being brutally assaulted by the US security apparatus and without doubt drawing conclusions from it. They are standing firm and they are on the right side of history.
The gang that occupies the US Congress and the class they represent are very concerned that the growing student movement could spread beyond the universities in to the community colleges and the working class communities of America, and particularly the ranks of organised labour. And so they should be.
Biden’s loyalty to Zionism—he is a Zionist and friend of the fascist Netanyahu, this stupid bourgeois announces to the world—has nothing to do with fondness for Jews or their safety. The US ruling class is rife with antisemites, but there is a genuine concern that this European settler colony, US Imperialism’s only reliable ally in the region, has made a major blunder that threatens US Imperialism’s interests in the region.
The heroic Palestinian resistance in Gaza to the Zionist genocide, against occupation and a decades-old attempt to drive them and their culture into oblivion, is the basis for the student rebellion which is spreading throughout the world.
Blaming everything on ‘antisemitism’
The US ruling class and its western allies are having a hard time blaming everything on antisemitism, which has lost much of its meaning since US efforts to link it to criticism of Israel and Zionism. Efforts to make the genocide a war against a political organisation the US denotes as a “terrorist” have also lost traction.
The movement in support of Palestinians and their right to a state and the objection to hundreds of thousands of foreigners taking their land and homes on a religious basis is solid. It is somewhat comical to listen to the mainstream US media, the BBC included, whine about antisemitism in this movement when so many young Jews are leading it and are openly anti-Zionist.
The situation has laid bare the class nature of society even further. In contrast to the Jewish students who are in the forefront of the opposition to genocide, some Jewish billionaires are having to be more open about their support for the Zionists. Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, was one of the first to withdraw financial support from Columbia University. Now there is a more concerted effort to head off the storm.
More 2,000lb bombs
Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban, worth $3 bn, and a major Democratic donor, is angry at Biden and wants him to send more 2000-pound bombs.Real-estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht (worth $4.6 bn) has started a campaign to counter world opinion and raise billions to, “define Hamas to the American people as a terrorist organization.
According to Semafor.com, “Bill Ackman and Apollo CEO Marc Rowan criticized universities for their handling of pro-Palestinian student demonstrations, and Michael Bloomberg donated $44 million to Israel’s nonprofit emergency medical service.”
In the UK, anti-Zionist Jews have been expelled from the UK Labour Party for antisemitism. They declare themselves as “The wrong Kind of Jew.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called Jewish Voice For Peace a “hate group”
Here are some of the others that the campaign is appealing to and their net worth, according to Forbes: Bill Ackman worth $4.3 bn; Barry Sternlicht $4.6 bn; Eric schmidt $24.4 bn; Michael Dell $95.8 bn. Miriam Adelson, worth $42 bn, is one of the 42 Israelis on Forbes 400 list in 2024. Such a small country has so many because many of them, like her, are US citizens or citizens of other countries.
So antsemitism, which is very real, and must be called out whenever it raises it’s ugly head, is simply being used in order to protect the investments of Jewish and non-Jewish capitalists who profit from the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the settling of European colonists.
We are in the midst of a shift in class relations globally. We should not fool ourselves, the response from the global elite will be ruthless and violent. They will attempt to divide us on racial, religious and gender lines. We must combat these divisions that undermine working class unity. Working people have the power to change the course of events. We have the numbers. If we don’t work, society doesn’t function.
I thank the Palestinian resistance for their heroic struggles and sacrifice that have changed the world in more ways than one.
From the US socialist website, Facts for Working People. The original can be found here.
