Re: [Marxism] War crimes and empty rhetoric

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think much of the WSWS. And their slogan posed in such an
abstract way isn't worth much. But if (and I don't have time to read
their original to find out) it's spelled out concretely using examples
like the following then it's justifiable (and in fact essential):
* The Other Voice petition, signed by hundreds of residents of Sderot
and other towns being shelled by Hamas; Sderot is majority Mizrahim
working class;
* The refuseniks movement against the IDF;
* The growing economic hardship facing all workers in Israel.
In the meantime, those of us in the US need to hit hard on stopping
military aid, including especially WP and DIME, and to work to get the
antiwar movement off its ass. The demos are STILL 80% (at least)
Palestinian. Kudos to them, but shame on us!
Andy

On 1/11/09, sobuadhaigh@xxxxxxxxxxxx <sobuadhaigh@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From the World Socialist Web Site (1-10-09):
> >The events in Gaza urgently raise the
> >necessity of uniting the Jewish and Arab
> >working class in the struggle for a
> >Socialist Federation of the Middle East.
>
> Is it just me, or does this strike anyone else as
> being utterly irrelevant to anything? The slogan
> above comes from the leaflet of the SEP distributed
> at the weekend demonstrations denouncing those
> mobilizations. To me this doesn't seem to come from
> left field, rather it seems to come from outer space.
>
> Palestinian political life is complex and incorporates
> secular nationalist, revolutionary socialist, and
> Islamacist organizations. The choice for Palestinians
> now is whether to support the united resistance to the
> Israeli invasion or to stand aside, as the bulk of
> Fatah and the PA has done.
>
> Our choice is, should there be an internationalist
> front of political struggle  aimed at the enablers
> of this slaughter? If the answer to that is yes,
> than what should be confronted? Three blatant
> examples jump to mind immediately
> but there are many more:
>
> *The Israeli Army is committing war crimes on
> a mass scale by using white phosphorus as an
> antipersonnel weapon and by using this
> weapon against civilian areas. These shells are
> coming from the United States as shown in a
> photograph appearing this weekend in the Times
> (of Britain).
>
> *American citizens are fighting as members of
> the IDF as they do in every war waged by Israel.
> (Anybody want to guess what would happen to any
> American citizen caught fighting for the
> Palestinians?)
>
> *The political culture of the federal government
> is a rancid, pro-Israeli Mobius strip as mocked
> by Jon Stewart.
>
> There is a great deal to discuss as to how
> activists can cut that Mobius strip and any number
> of possible strategies/campaigns to do it. If that
> rancid culture makes a total arms embargo unlikely
> I believe there is enough traction to so after war
> crimes and allowing Americans to fight in a
> foreign military.
>
> Given the enormous amount of work that has to be done,
> I just don't see the point the WSWS is trying to make
> or the ability of their slogan to do anything other
> than to function as an excuse to do nothing.
>
> --
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>
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