Solidarity Actions for the Palestinian People Spread Across the World

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, massacre of thousands of Palestinians, and the intensification of its attacks following Hamas’ rocket attacks are being protested in many countries with demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the bans ordered by the governments that support Israel, 300 thousand people attended the rally organized in London on October 21, calling for an end to the war and a helping hand to the Palestinian people. This was the largest anti-war rally since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. On October 22, 15 thousand people came together in Paris with the same demands. Tens of thousands of people gathered and marched in many cities in the USA in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Large rallies attended by hundreds of thousands were held in Western countries such as Germany, Canada and Spain, as well as in countries such as Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco and Jordan. While Israeli brutality is being protested with various actions in Turkey, thousands of Israeli workers are taking to the streets in Israel itself, demanding that this war be stopped and Netanyahu resign.

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) issued an urgent call to protest the crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In the “Call to Action” dated October 16, which came from 19 institutions consisting of trade unions and professional organizations from all sectors, including PGTFU, Palestinian unions called on their counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes – most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research:

“This urgent, genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine and that can restrain the Israeli war machine. We need you to take immediate action – wherever you are in the world – to prevent the arming of the Israeli state and the companies involved in the infrastructure of the blockade. We take inspiration from previous mobilisations by trade unions in Italy, South Africa and the United States, and similar international mobilisations against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the fascist dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and elsewhere where global solidarity limited the extent of colonial brutality.

We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries:

1. To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
2. To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
3. To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
4. To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
5. Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.

We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.”

As our Palestinian class brothers said, unions and labour organizations have a historical responsibility in this period when the flames of imperialist war burn another region every day. There are millions of workers filling the streets around the world and asking their governments not to support this war. However, for this movement to be long-lasting and effective, it must be organized with an internationalist perspective.

It is essential for the combative class unionism to build muscle so that “unions can raise their voices and take action against injustice as they did in the past.” This kind of unionism has weakened extremely since the 1990s, when the idea of socialism suffered a heavy blow and neo-liberal ideology became dominant. However, as all the devastating consequences of the historical crisis of capitalism have been exposed, new quests and efforts in this direction have emerged in many countries. The buildup of militant class unionism is extremely important for the resurgence of the struggle of the working class against capitalism. As internationalist communists in Turkey, who have been defending this conception for years and striving to realise it in Turkey, it is great to see that the efforts in this line are increasing in various countries, from Japan to Italy, to build up this struggle in all countries with a proletarian internationalist perspective aiming to ensure the international unity of the working class.

It is also important in this regard that the struggle against the imperialist war, which spread from the Middle East to Ukraine and tended to spread towards the Pacific, being waged in the same manner by the unions such as Doro Chiba, the militant railway workers’ union in Japan, and SI-Cobas, the combative logistics workers’ union in Italy, where immigrant workers from many countries predominate. These efforts, which will grow with the support of internationalist revolutionary class organizations and militant unions, are extremely valuable against the imperialist war as well as against capitalist attacks.

The importance of this struggle was once again revealed in this devastating war that the Palestinian people were exposed to. Unfortunately, taking to the streets against imperialist and unjust wars is not enough on its own. Neither the multiple destruction caused by capitalism nor the wars can be eliminated or stopped by protests. But this does not mean that workers and labourers cannot do anything about this issue. On the contrary, the working class has a great power in its hands: The power that comes from production! This power, which showed itself in the past in the examples reminded by our Palestinian class brothers, should also be mobilized today. Only the working class can ensure that the production and transportation of weapons, ammunition and all kinds of materials destined for the Israeli army is stopped, regardless of the country. Only mass strikes by the working class can ensure the cancellation of military agreements.

Thus, it is notable that the actions organised on October 20 and 21, by the class revolutionaries and SI-Cobas union in Italy. They point to the right way of action and methods and to spread such actions depends on the efforts of all class revolutionaries. They called for a one-day strike on October 20 “against war, high prices of living, precariousness, to stop the Meloni government”, and on October 21 they made a march against the war and the war economy, with a call for closure of all military bases and withdrawal of Italian troops abroad. It is significant that this action took place in Ghedi which is the historic attack base of the Italian Air Force and the depot of dozens of NATO-US atomic bombs to be mounted on Italian aircraft. The action was participated by combative unions, some communist groups, refugees’ organisations and so on. Around 5000 workers joined the action, where internationalist slogans stood out, the imperialist war in Ukraine and Israel’s massacre of Gazan people were protested. Calling out “our first and main enemy is here”, the workers took aim at Italian imperialism and Meloni government. With the message, “proletarians of all countries, let’s unite: this is still and always the path to liberation from exploitation and war”, they extended their hands to the workers of the world. Messages were from workers and communists from Japan, Britain, the USA, South Africa, Argentina and Germany were sent to the action. Marksist Tutum supported the action as well and sent the following solidarity message:

Comrades,

As internationalist communists from Turkey, we salute the struggle you are waging in a proletarian-internationalist perspective against the imperialist war and capitalist offensive towards the working class. We wholeheartedly embrace and welcome your revolutionary Marxist attitude expressed in the phrase, “against both imperialist fronts, for an international proletarian united front”, and your efforts to back this struggle with strikes. Although we are unable for this time to attend your meeting in person, our revolutionary feelings and excitement are there together with you. We hope initiatives such as the one you started will get stronger.

The imperialist wars that have taken place since the turn of the millennium have set fire to the world with ever growing flames, and resulted in millions of people losing their lives, tens of millions being dragged into the ordeal of migration in the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine and so on. These wars, in our view, are not sporadic, isolated wars, but are linked and constitute a continuity, a totality which we call a world war in a peculiar form. And now we are witnessing Palestine being ravaged as part of this war. The main responsible for the bloodshed that has been going on in the Middle East for years is the imperialist powers fighting for hegemony in the region, especially the USA, which unreservedly supports the Israeli state. There is no doubt that the policies pursued by the imperialist powers such as the USA, the EU, Russia and China and the regional powers throw the peoples of the region into the hell of war.

The global imperialist powers, the regional powers, other capitalist powers and structures are presenting this new flare-up of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a one-sided and distorted way, which suits their interests. The working class and class revolutionaries, on the other hand, do not approach the issue from the point of view of the interests of this or that imperialist power, this or that bourgeois power, nor do we address it in religious, sectarian, national perspectives. We approach the issue with a revolutionary class perspective that transcends all these. The revolutionary working class has stood against the step-by-step usurpation of the homeland of the oppressed Palestinian people and their gradual dispossession, and has stood by the just national liberation cause of the Palestinian people from the very beginning. But now even the success of the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people depends largely on the success of the struggle of the world working class against imperialist and capitalist rulers, among them particularly the labourers in Israel and the region. Palestinian, Israeli, Ukrainian, Syrian, Iraqi, Turk, Kurd or Italian… the world working class must fly the flag of united struggle against capitalism and imperialism in a revolutionary internationalist perspective, totally independent from the bourgeoisie. A peaceful and free world without classes and borders will be possible only through such a struggle.

Long live the international unity of the working class against capitalism and imperialist wars!