No. 72, January-May 2024  Table of Contents Selected articles linked Click on image to left for pdf version of complete issue.

All Out in Solidarity with the Palestinian People! May Day 2024: For International Workers Action Against the Genocidal U.S./Israel War on Gaza! With the barbaric war on Gaza now in its sixth month, it is utterly clear that this is an actual genocide, targeting the entire Palestinian Arab population of what has been termed the world’s largest open-air prison. It is also clear that this is a joint U.S./Israeli war. What’s desperately needed is the mobilization of power that can bring the slaughter to a halt, the power of the working class, in the United States and around the world. So far, calls for labor solidarity have been mainly on paper, and what port shutdowns there have been were mostly called by community groups rather than the unions. This coming May 1, the workers day, should become a day of militant international workers action – including strikes and labor-led mass mobilization – to stop the genocidal U.S./Israel war on Gaza. Recently, the Palestinian General Federation of Labor, Gaza has issued an appeal to unions in the United States to do just that. Class-struggle militants should act now to organize turn this into reality. May Day 2024: For International Workers Action Against the Genocidal War on Gaza! (26 March 2024)

Defend the Palestinians! Defeat the McCarthyite Witch Hunts! Gaza Solidarity Encampments and Cop Repression Spread Across U.S. Democrat Biden, Republicans Smear Protests as “Anti-Semitic” Cops/Security Guards Off Campus! Labor: Defend Student Protesters! As the U.S./Israel war on the Palestinian population of Gaza reached its 200th day, with over 40,000 killed, the horror of the genocidal slaughter mounts relentlessly. While the Democratic administration of U.S. president Joe Biden continues to supply Israel with arms to carry out the butchery, on the home front Democrats and Republicans lyingly label anti-Zionist protests “anti-Semitic.” When the president of Columbia University, Nemat Shafik, groveled before the witch-hunting Congressional inquisitors, vowing to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters, a Gaza solidarity encampment was erected on the New York City campus. After New York City police cleared the camp, arresting over 100, outrage swept across the country. Solidarity camps proliferated, as did police repression, often brutal. Facing the full weight of the capitalist state, a virulent slander campaign right up to the White House and bipartisan support in Washington for the war on Gaza, liberal pressure politics won't work. The student protesters must look to the power of the workers movement to defend the Palestinians and defeat the imperialist and Zionist warmongers. Gaza Solidarity Encampments and Cop Repression Spread Across U.S. (30 April 2024)

From the ICL-LFI Debate In Defense of the Trotskyist Program On January 13, a debate on the subject of “The Fight for the Fourth International Today” was held in New York City between the League for the Fourth International and the International Communist League. (The LFI’s U.S. section is the Internationalist Group; the ICL’s is the Spartacist League.)  The background to the debate was the ICL’s sweeping renunciation of the historic program and revolutionary continuity of the Spartacist tendency, which the “new” SL/ICL now dismisses as “Deformed at Birth.” The new management has declared that the 1996 expulsions that gave rise to the IG and LFI were unprincipled, that the smearing of the Brazilian comrades was despicable, that what the ICL wrote about us for 28 years was a lie, that the ICL betrayed over and over, and much more. But it has no real explanation of what drove them to it, and despite this record of betrayal, it purports to be a revolutionary leadership. The debate underscored that the historic program of the Spartacist tendency belongs to the LFI, the ICL has denounced it and thrown it into the garbage. In fighting in defense of the revolutionary program of Trotskyism that was upheld by the Spartacist tendency for three decades beginning with its inception in the early 1960s, the League for the Fourth International fights for new October revolutions to open a socialist future for the workers and oppressed throughout the world. Read here the presentations, rebuttal and summaries by speakers for the LFI. In Defense of the Trotskyist Program (January 2024)  Debate Between the International Communist League (ICL) and the League for the Fourth International (LFI) New York City, 13 January 2024 Video of full debate After upholding the Trotskyist program for three decades, a deep-going political and organizational crisis of the Spartacist tendency, touched off by the counterrevolutionary destruction of the Soviet Union, led to the expulsion in 1996 of longtime cadres who went on to form the IG and then to join with comrades in Brazil, France and Mexico to found the LFI in 1998. The January 13 debate – chaired by labor historian Bryan Palmer, biographer of U.S. Trotskyism’s founder James P. Cannon – consisted of a first part, “The Fight for the Fourth International Today,” and a second part, “Permanent Revolution.” Each part was followed by a discussion period in which supporters of both organizations and from other groups took part. Debate Between the ICL and LFI (video) (July 2024) Revolutionary Internationalist Youth at SL Forum “Just asking…” At the debate between the International Communist League and the League for the Fourth International, held in New York City on January 13, a leaflet was distributed reprinting remarks by activists of the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth (youth section of the Internationalist Group, U.S. section of the LFI) at earlier forums by the Spartacist League (U.S. section of the ICL). The RIY supporters asked pointed questions about the recent line changes by the ICL, which include admissions of “unprincipled” actions against supporters of the LFI. The ICL still has not explained how and why they occurred. The text of the Revolution leaflet is printed here. “Just asking…” (13 January 2024)

A Weaponized Smear for Witch-Hunting, Police Repression and Thug Attacks Genocide Defenders Slander Anti-Zionists as “Antisemitic” At a Holocaust Memorial ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, Democratic president Biden denounces a fictitious “ferocious surge of antisemitism” on campuses around the U.S. In witch-hunting hearings, Congressional Republicans demand that professors and teachers be fired for expressing solidarity with Gaza and opposition to the genocidal war. In New York, the mayor has sent police to brutally break up pro-Palestinian protests while the governor has appointed inquisitors to investigate schools and universities. What we are witnessing here is a cynical, orchestrated, bipartisan hysteria to justify U.S./Israeli genocide by smearing opposition to it as “antisemitic.”  And the purpose of this vile slander is to bring down capitalist state repression to silence critics of the mass murder being carried out by the Zionists and imperialists. Yet while slandering the pro-Palestinian protests and encampments as “antisemitic,” the Zionists are in fact making common cause with antisemitic white supremacists, fascistic elements and outright fascists. Meanwhile, the portrayal of Israel as an “apartheid state,” is altogether too generous and misleading. The logic of Zionism is not superexploitation of Palestinian labor by denial of rights, as under South African apartheid, but “ethnic cleansing” by forced population transfer leading to what we are now seeing before our eyes: genocide. The League for the Fourth International calls for an Arab/Hebrew Palestinian workers state in a socialist federation of the Middle East. Genocide Defenders Slander Anti-Zionists as “Antisemitic” (14 May 2024)

Mobilize Workers Power to Halt the Genocidal War! Bay Area ILWU Local 10 Calls for Labor Boycott of Arms to Israel Meeting on May 1, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 in the San Francisco Bay Area unanimously passed an important resolution denouncing “the genocidal war on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” and stressing that “all the heavy bombs being dropped on Gaza are supplied by the United States, as are all the warplanes from which they dropped.” Recalling that the “ILWU has a long history of defending the rights of the Palestinian people,” the resolution for the union’s upcoming convention declares “the ILWU will refuse to handle military cargo to Israel” and “will honor picket lines protesting the war on Gaza.” It also recalled the union’s actions refusal to load bombs to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and munitions to the death squad junta in El Salvador, as well as the ILWU’s May Day 2008 West Coast port shutdown against the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. Palestinian unions in Gaza, under the bombing and murderous attacks by vengeful Israeli occupation troops, had appealed to unions in the United States in particular, to “be our voice” and undertake action against the slaughter. The call went out from workers in Gaza, and ILWU Local 10 answered, loud and clear. The resolution, by a key local of a powerful union with a track record of fighting on behalf of the oppressed, could help spur workers around the world to concrete action against the Zionist and imperialist war. Bay Area ILWU Local 10 Calls for Labor Boycott of Arms to Israel (14 May 2024)

Germany: For Workers Mobilization Against the War Drive and Police-State Measures! Against Social Democracy (SPD, Die Linke and Satellites) and All Brands of Reformism – Build a Revolutionary Multi-Ethnic Workers Party! Amid the vicious genocide by the United States and Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza – for which Germany, as Israel’s second largest arms supplier, is co-responsible – obligatory support for Zionism has officially been declared “Staatsräson” (in diplomatic jargon raison d’état, or a matter of state overriding any other considerations). The severity of the repressive measures against any and all defense of the Palestinians stands in stark contrast to the dwindling support of the population for this monstrous war crime. The list of demonstrations and assemblies that have been banned or attacked in Germany since October 7 is long. The most recent are the brutal dispersal of the April 20 Berlin demonstration against arms deliveries to Israel and, a week earlier, the protest against the storming of the Palestine Congress. Meanwhile, the ruling class has thrown down the gauntlet: it’s “pensions or rearmament.” Against the war hysteria, the Internationalistische Gruppe calls for workers mobilization against repression and to stop the transport of war material to Ukraine and Israel. Germany: For Workers Mobilization Against the War Drive and Police-State Measures! (1 May 2024)

Defend Michael Pröbsting (RCIT) and Der Funke (IMT) Stop Austria’s Repression of Pro-Palestinian Protest On May 2, the trial of leftist pro-Palestine activist Michael Pröbsting in Austria for a video statement expressing solidarity with the Palestinian resistance ended with a “guilty” verdict and a conditional prison sentence of six months. The prosecution cited a leaflet of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency from last October opposing the Zionist state of Israel. Also under attack are two Austrian socialist youth leaders, Sonja and Alex, affiliated with the International Marxist Tendency. This targeted repression against leftists goes together with the banning of Gaza solidarity protests, including one in Vienna on 11 October 2023, at which criminal complaints were filed against more than 300 demonstrators for violating the ban. We reprint here a statement by the League for the Fourth International read at demonstrations in New York and Los Angeles calling for the charges to be dropped. Stop Austria’s Repression of Pro-Palestinian Protest (26 April 2024)

Dock Workers: Block Military Cargo to Israel Against the Genocidal War on Palestinians in Gaza! By Jack Heyman The massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is escalating as the Israeli military continues its carnage. The United States is co-responsible for this genocidal war, having supplied the bombs, and the planes from which they are launched. Answering an appeal by the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions for union action to stop arms to Israel, many unions around the world have issued declarations of solidarity with the embattled Palestinians. In Italy militant "rank-and-file" unions have struck and stopped loading of Israeli ships. But the leadership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), representing U.S. West Coast dock workers, refused to pass a resolution merely calling for a ceasefire n Gaza. The ILWU was long considered a beacon of labor solidarity, having stopped arms to Pinochet in Chile and the military junta in El Salvador, and initiating a 1984 boycott of a ship from apartheid South Africa. Now, although several ILWU locals have passed resolutions and many individual members have participated in protests against the war on Gaza, the leadership has put the kibosh on opposition to the war as it seeks a “seat at the table” in Democrat Joe Biden’s White House. The ILWU tops' increasingly open embrace of class collaboration is likewise reflected in its working for a year without a contract and finally agreeing to a contract with no protection against automation on the docks. What’s urgently needed is a class-struggle leadership . Dock Workers: Block Military Cargo to Israel (15 February 2023)

Against the Anti-Picketing “Protocol” and Milei’s Anti-Worker Mega-Decree, Argentina: Smash the “Chainsaw” Assault on Labor and the Unemployed – Fight for a Workers Government! On January 24, Argentina experienced the first national strike since 2019, as trade unions, the left and community organizations mobilized against the avalanche of anti-worker laws of ultrarightist president Javier Milei, who took office in early December. In the strike up to 200,000 demonstrators marched in the capital, Buenos Aires, plus another 150,000 in all the main cities in the country. The impact was limited by the decision of the unions to keep public transportation running until 7 p.m., and above all by the policy of the Peronist union leaders who sought to pressure the deputies and senators with a nationalist appeal. After the relatively small protest of the left on December 20, this time there were tens of thousands in the streets, enough to break the “anti-picketing protocol” of security minister Patricia Bullrich. However, the electoral left and allied piquetero groups limited themselves to asking the Peronist union bosses for a “plan of struggle” instead of organizing a powerful class-struggle mobilization against all the capitalist governments, and to break the imperialist yoke by fighting for a revolutionary workers government. Argentina: Smash the “Chainsaw” Assault on Labor and the Unemployed (23 January 2024)

Port of Oakland Shut Down! All Out to Defend the Palestinian People! On January 13, several thousand protesters came out in the early morning hours to the Port of Oakland, California to stop the loading of a U.S. military ship. As a result of their mass picket in solidarity with the Palestinian people being massacred with U.S.-supplied munitions, workers were not dispatched from the hiring hall of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10. The Internationalist Group issued a leaflet and solidarity statement calling on unions everywhere to take action to stop the supply of arms to Israel, which was distributed to the Bay Area protesters. Port of Oakland Shut Down! All Out to Defend the Palestinian People! (13 January 2024)

Portland-Area Unions Call for Workers Action Against U.S./Israel War on Gaza As the massive killing of the Palestinian Arab population of Gaza by the Israeli military continues unabated, in December two construction worker unions in the Portland, Oregon area passed resolutions calling for workers action against the war. The resolutions, by Ironworkers Local 29 and Painters Local 10, stress that this is a U.S./Israel war, and call to support and encourage actions by labor to refuse to handle arms shipments to Israel, as appealed for by the Palestinian trade unions. The resolutions are reproduced on the website of Class Struggle Workers – Portland, which has been urging area unions to adopt such calls for action. Portland-Area Unions Call for Workers Action Against U.S./Israel War on Gaza (December 2023)

Hunter College Speak-Out Defies Intimidation Campaign Defend Gaza – We Will Not Be Silenced! On November 7, more than 100 students and faculty held a speak-out and marched around the campus of Hunter College campus of the City University of New York to protest attempts the silence protest against the U.S./Israel war on Gaza and to regiment universities and colleges. The protest was initiated by the CUNY Internationalists, who declared that the drive for McCarthyite is coming straight from the federal, state and local governments, the media and Wall Street investors, in tandem with professional pro-Israel witch hunters.  Hunter College Speak-Out Defies Intimidation Campaign  (12 November 2023)