September 30, 2024

Statement by WIVL of South Africa:

Let's defend the masses of Lebanon!
Let's defeat US imperialism!

Unite to defeat the imperialist in their murderous attacks on the masses of Lebanon and Gaza/West Bank!

Over the past year US imperialism has killed and maimed about 200 000 of the Palestinians in Gaza and many others in the West Bank. This slaughter of 10% of the population in Gaza by US imperialism has been assisted by French, UK, German and Japanese imperialism. This mass slaughter US imperialism wants to extend to the masses in Lebanon. We have to examine the reasons why US imperialism is on this path so that we can strategize how to defeat them.

In 1916, during imperialist world war 1, the Sykes-Picot agreement divided up the Middle East largely between French and British imperialism. However, by the 1930s already, US imperialism was the major imperialist power in the world. As the entire globe had been divided up among the imperialist powers by then, the only way each imperialist power could expand was through overpowering other imperialists. It was this inter-imperialist rivalry that led to world war 2. US imperialism triumphed and defeated German and Japanese imperialism. British and French imperialism were weakened. Even today both Germany and Japan are occupied by over 100 000 US troops. Today, through coups and war, US imperialism controls the regimes of Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, the entire Saudi Arabian peninsula, except for most of Yemen. Lebanon is being disputed by US and French imperialism. US imperialism was defeated in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. Libya was under Italian imperialist control but is now under US imperialist control.

The US is the largest exporter of crude oil, having double the level that Saudi Arabia has. Through military and political control of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Canada, the US imperialists control over 50% of crude oil exports in the world. The entire world capitalist economy needs oil. Thus imperialism created Israel, as its terror apparatus in the Middle East. Without US imperialist support there would be no Israel. Every major military act of Israel is determined by US imperialism. The other smaller imperialist powers also support Israel as they benefit from its terror apparatus that is used to intimidate and execute the leaders of the resistance movements in the region. Since 1948 many of the best intellectual and Socialist leaders of the masses in the Middle East were murdered by imperialism, using their violent proxy force, the Israeli state. Over the past year the hatred of the masses in the Middle East for the Israeli regime has massively increased. Billions of the masses around the world have been educated on and revulsed by the violence that imperialism uses via its proxy force, the Zionist state. In the eyes of billions of the masses around the world, Israel is a genocidal state.

Imperialism has to hide its true genocidal nature from the masses on home soil. This is because it bases itself on the myth of standing for democracy and freedom. So, US imperialism uses the Israeli state as its inhuman shield. The Israeli regime carries out all the most terrible attacks on the masses for imperialism, while US imperialism hides behind phrases such as ‘we are working for a ceasefire’. As a commentator from Al Jazeera aptly puts it: The US regime wants the Palestinians (and now the Lebanese) to cease while Israel fires. These claims for now working with France for a ceasefire in Lebanon are a cover for the real aims for war in the Middle East. Theses claims are only for the masses on their home soil, to disguise their role as the main genocidaires in Gaza and now in Lebanon. If there was any real antagonism between Israel and the US , the US would long ago have stopped arms shipments. The same applies to the hollow statements by EU representatives, who claim to want a ceasefire while at the same time sending weapons of mass destruction to Israel. The fact is that the mass murder of 10% of the Palestinians in Gaza, the flattening of Gaza, and now the indiscriminate bombing of the masses in Lebanon is being done with US weapons, with the full support and complicity of EU imperialism. The US imperialists are directing the slaughter and hiding behind their inhuman shield, the Israeli regime. Just as was done in several of the genocides over the past century, the imperialists together with their media and education institutions, have waged a multi-decades long campaign to dehumanise the Palestinians and the Arab masses while privileging the Zionist masses. The groundwork for the 1994 Rwanda genocide was laid through decades of conscious splitting of the masses into Hutu and Tutsi by the Belgian colonisers. Similarly the ground for the current genocides was laid through decades of indoctrination by imperialism since 1948.

Since the Iraq invasion of 2003 and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, US imperialism has been unable to launch any mass invasion using their troops mainly due to a major split in their armed forces and realisation among major sections of the working class in the US that their army is tied to the military industrial complex and banks. Today over 200 000 companies in the USA are linked to the arms industry. In other words, the US economy needs war in order to grow. The 2003 invasion of Iraq even through Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction shows the new depths that current imperialist capitalist relations have sunk to. They created a war out of nothing, a lie, that led to a $3trillion benefit for imperialism. There are over 55 military conflicts in the world right now. One of the elements underlying the war on the Palestinian and Lebanese masses is that imperialism needs war in order to continue to grow. The Palestinians, Lebanese and even the Israel soldiers are expendable cannon fodder for the imperialist war machine. Of course this is not the only factor but it is an integral part of it. A year ago the Institute for the Study of war, an imperialist thinktank, already posted the Palestinian resistance under the heading of ‘Iran update’. In other words, the plan of imperialism was to build up to a war with Iran. They are creating the basis for a war against Iran. This is one of the current central objectives of US imperialism. US imperialism is willing to carry out any dastardly act, assassinations of leading figures to force a war against Iran.

On the 7th October 2023 a ragtag group of Palestinian resistance fighters broke out of the Gaza prison camp and with a few hand weapons overpowered 11 Israeli military bases. They also took over 200 captives in order to free the thousands of Palestinians already held in the Zionist gulags for years. The imperialist media tried to cover up this defeat of the 4th most powerful army in the world by a tiny ragtag group through the most vicious rumours and lies. The IDF killed many Israelis through their Hannibal option (shooting their own citizens to pre-empt them being taken captive). However, no amount of rumours and lies can hide the fact that the aura of invincibility of the IDF and US imperialism has been shattered forever. In the response of imperialism to try and rebuild its reputation as a force to be feared, they committed and are still committing genocide against the Palestinians and now they are trying the same deeds against the Lebanese. Every day that a killing or bombing takes place it is more proof to the billions of masses around the globe of the real genocidal nature of Israel and of imperialism, especially US imperialism. Thus finally, more protest movements among the youth and the broader working class in the imperialist centres are developing. The growth of UAW Labour for Palestine is a historic development. Most of the youth and a majority of the masses in the USA oppose the genocide in Gaza and now support Palestine. Almost unheard of before 7th October 2023.

The Egyptian regime, through its blockade of Gaza and the use of its ports to keep Israel well supplied, has shown that it is a tool of US imperialism; the Jordanian regime, through the use of its airspace and land for the defence of Israel and to help maintain supplies for the Zionist regime, shows that the monarchy is a puppet of imperialism; The Turkish regime, through its $10bn trade with Israel and keeping oil flowing from Azerbaijan via its land to the Zionist regime, shows that it too is a puppet of imperialism. Many other states, including the South African regime, despite the case lodged with the ICC, maintain a juicy trade with Israel. Most diamonds from South Africa are exported to Israel and contribute to the weapons that are used to kill Palestinians; coal is still exported from South Africa and Columbia to Israel, keeping their lights on while Gaza is in darkness. Despite its parliament deciding that the Israeli embassy should be closed, it is still open, with the full blessing of the ANC government. This is rewarding Israel for their genocide and encourages them to continue perpetrating it.  The reality is that US imperialism should also be charged with genocide. The focus only on Israel diverts from the main perpetrators, imperialism. As we warned previously, the centre of the case at the ICJ made by SA is that it repeats the same lies of the imperialist machinery that Hamas and the Palestinian resistance perpetrated crimes on Oct 7th. All the lies of Oct 7th have long been debunked but the SA regime gave it central legitimacy and opened the door for the mass murder of the flower of the Palestinian resistance by imperialism. Indirectly this has opened the door for the imperialist to murder the cream of the Lebanese resistance too. The ICC has not even charged any US or UK leader nor any of the right-wing leaders in Israel. This shows that the ICC and ICJ are complicit in genocide. That the UN welcomed genocidaires Netanyahu and Biden at the recent UN General Assembly shows that it is fundamentally a tool of imperialism and an instrument of violence against the masses of the world. To date the UN has done nothing to hold US imperialism and Israel to account for the blatant murders of over 200 UN aid workers. The UN is an instrument of war not peace.

After world war 2 the imperialist powers had to make democratic concessions to the working class on home soil. Democratic rights and a high standard of living was the trade-off for the masses accepting the rule of the capitalist imperialist class after over 100 million of the masses were killed off in the war. Stalinism played an important role in persuading the masses to give up their arms and accept parliamentary rule in the West. Struggles of the masses were isolated by Stalinism and reduced to nationalism. Cold war rhetoric was used to divide the masses and to hide the total capitulation of the Stalinist forces to imperialism. The high standard of living in the imperialist centres was built on super-exploitation and slave relations in the colonies and semi-colonies. Democracy in the imperialist centres was built on the backs of brutal military dictatorships in the so-called third world. The UN played a key role in dividing the working class, creating East and West Germany; Palestine was cut up to create Israel and Palestinian bantustans; Korea was cut up into North and South. The UN laid the basis for the Nakba of 1948 by declaring that Palestinians give up their land to create Israel. Israel has murdered over 200 UN workers; has murdered over 170 journalists, they have murdered countless revolutionaries, yet Israel has never ever been held to account. In other words, imperialism can kill and maim with impunity. Even the latest horrors of the exploding pagers and walkie talkies and the widespread use of bunker-busters in civilian areas are all being normalised by the UN. Mass maiming through electronics of any of the opponents of imperialism has become part of modern capitalist rule. It may legitimately to be asked if we are already at the start of World War 3? [What we mean by this is a war by US imperialism against the working class and broader masses around the world].

The latest so-called UN proposal for a ‘ceasefire’ is just a call for the Lebanese resistance to be disarmed and provides a cover for the US and French imperialists for the propaganda purposes of fooling their masses on home soil. The continuing daily massacres of Palestinians and now Lebanese is done with US arms- that is what shows the truth, every day. The so-called Ceasefire proposal for Lebanon is an attempt by imperialism to divide the Lebanese masses; to make them turn against the resistance; the imperialists want to promote a civil war of their forces against the resistance. US imperialism, through its proxy force has murdered many of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance top leaders, with impunity. The UN Security Council is not neutral but an active supporter of genocide. The sooner we realise that the better. The so-called ceasefire proposal is to prepare the way for a ground invasion by the imperialist forces. US imperialism wants to overturn its defeat of 2006.

The policy of imperialism in Gaza and the West Bank is for the mass starvation and expulsion of Palestinians. This is the imperialist policy. This is what their deeds show us. We cannot be fooled by their words. Their words are just to hide from their masses that they support genocide. The US election is about which genocidal party will rule for the military industrial complex and the major banks.
The veto in the UN Security Council should immediately be scrapped and a simple majority in the UN General Assembly should be implemented based on an international council of workers delegates subject to instant recall and not earning more than the wage of a skilled worker. All the regimes who have the right of veto at Security Council level are anti-working class, without exception.
The Chinese initiative to unite Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is to bring the Palestinian resistance under imperialist capitalist control. The UNGA and ICC/ICJ initiatives for a 2-state solution are nothing but a veiled attempt to save Israel, ie to save a genocidal state.

The exposure by USAID and the Refugee Centre that Israel deliberately cut off aid and food from the masses in Gaza and that Blinken lied about it thereby breaking the US law, are signs that a section of imperialism feels that the genocide in Gaza has now achieved its aims and that the longer it goes on will damage the image of imperialism further. This implies they see the danger of huge working-class revolt and want to now curb it from happening.

The way forward

We need to continue to find ways to politically educate the masses in the imperialist centres about the leading role of their regimes in the slaughter of the Palestinians and now the Lebanese (as well as many other acts of violence against the masses of the world). The overthrowal of the US imperialist regime and the establishment of a new regime based on direct democracy through workers’ councils subject to instant recall and limiting the salaries of representatives to the salary of a skilled worker, would free the world. At the same time the overthrowal of any of the puppet regimes of imperialism, through mass action methods, would be a direct means of solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese masses.

It would be a mistake to think that all Israeli masses support the wars on the Palestinians and Lebanese. Since the pager attacks hundreds more Israeli soldiers are refusing to do any more service in the IDF. This is in addition to those who have already refused due to conscience or religious reasons. Let us support and encourage the Anisiravti (We refused) movement. Let us support the mass protests against the war. More than 20 000 Israeli soldiers have been maimed in the process of being used by US imperialism to slaughter Palestinians. More than 100 have committed suicide. Hundreds have needlessly died. Will the flower of the youth in the region again have to be sacrificed for the sake of the masters of war, for imperialism? Palestinians, who are mostly unarmed in any case, have the right to defend themselves against the slaughter and daily massacres by imperialism.  Palestinians, Lebanese and Israeli masses have a common enemy in the Israeli regime and US imperialism.

For an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon. LIft the siege of Gaza , the West Bank and Lebanon. Immediate emergency aid to all these areas. Away with the Israeli regime  and for the disbanding of the bantustan PA. For a Constituent Assembly in historic Palestine which includes the refugees, the refuseniks and all who oppose the war and should be based on grassroots councils. For the immediate release of all captives on both sides. For an immediate end to the system of administrative detention. 
For a new workers party to be formed in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan. For a new workers party in Palestine, in Lebanon and each of the countries in the Middle East. For new workers parties in every country. For a new international that combats the genocide in the DRC, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, etc. For antiwar committees in every country, every workplace, every area, school, university.  It is an irony of history that Hezbollah, Russia and US imperialism collaborated with the Assad regime to demolish the independent Syrian revolutionaries after 2011. These revolutionaries would have been in the forefront of the fight against the Zionist regime and imperialism. The working class needs to reflect and learn from this experience.

For a federation of workers states in the Middle East based on expelling all imperialist forces and expropriating all imperialist assets and banks and placing them under workers’ control. For a Soviet USA, France, Germany, Britain, Japan that expropriates all imperialist companies and banks and places them under workers’ control.
The genocide that is being perpetrated against the Palestinians and Lebanese is done in the name of maintaining imperialist control over oil and plastics industries. These industries are choking the planet and in the space of 200 years have brought our world ecosystem to the point of extinction, of collapse. This is another reason why we need to break the stranglehold of imperialism over the Middle East. The planet needs to move beyond oil and plastic, to renewable energy.

We criticise the Uncommitted Movement for rejecting any support for any election candidate from a third party and for their call for a critical vote for the Democratic Party in the US November elections. To achieve any democratic rights for Palestinians we must oppose the parties of genocide in the USA. This means rejecting both the Republicans and Democrats. Independent mass action against the White House should be the centre while at least, in the absence of a new workers party in the US, to consider giving critical support to the anti-genocide parties such as the Green Party. Another alternative could have been for a boycott and/or spoilt ballot, combined with a program of mass protests. The UAW should review its support for the Democratic Party, in the light of the exclusion of a Palestinian speaker from the platform of the DNC and due to the continued support of Harris and the Democrats for the mass murder of Palestinians and Lebanese masses, for their support of mass maiming through electronic devices.

We live in a period where the many of the masses have moved to the left, beyond parliamentarianism. The imperialists have interpreted the loss of the parliamentary support by the reformist left as a rise in the right-wing. The masses are not moving to the right. Amid falling numbers of the those who support parliament the weight of the right wing appears to increase. But overall, we will see the rise of revolutionary mass actions against the capitalist system. This is the meaning of the mass uprisings in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In these moments the building of a new revolutionary workers International is central.
Let us defend the Palestinian and Lebanese masses (and those in Sudan and the DRC). The Palestinian Trade Union movement has called for an international general strike. We support this call. The Lebanese endured long periods of imperialist occupation, including from 1982 to 2000. They need all the support. Their struggle is our struggle.

Issued by Workers International Vanguard League
30 September 2024