Z. Kosmodemianskaya | Iniciativa Comunista (Spain)
In memory of all the martyrs who gave their lives for freedom.
1. New episode in the Palestinian struggle and the West’s reaction
On 7 October 2023, the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam brigades kicked off Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Hours later, the rest of the Palestinian armed organisations answered the call. The attack bypassed the Israeli defences, shattering the myth of the invulnerability of the walls of the Zionist colonial fortress. As Marxists, we cannot isolate the military and media milestone of the Palestinian Resistance from its offensive on the political plane. Especially since the counter-attack of the Western leaders is not exclusively military either, as we can observe by analysing the latest moves of Pedro Sanchez and the Spanish executive.
In the first hours of the Al-Aqsa Flood, videos were shared of Al-Qassam fighters entering Zionist military bases, catching Israeli soldiers literally in their underwear. This image is a good metaphor, as it was not only the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) that were caught completely unprepared. The Palestinian Resistance surprised the entire Western world, decisively setting the political agenda, altering everyone’s plans.
The initial reactions of politicians and the media were slow and clumsy. So was the military response of Zionism. They were unprepared and had to improvise. They resorted to old tactics, tried and tested on a few other occasions, hoping that they would work again. They had no time to analyse the new situation and act accordingly. As a result, the old tactics proved useless in the new context.
On the 7th we woke up to videos of Al-Qassam fighters, mounted on paragliders, entering occupied territories. We also saw bulldozers breaking through the fence surrounding the Gaza Strip, allowing civilians to step onto land that was taken from them decades ago. The images were so powerful in the media that to come out and condemn them was ridiculous and politically counterproductive. But senior US and EU officials have very square heads and do not know how to get out of their old patterns: “any attack on Israel must be condemned”. Lack of arguments is not a problem when you have a gigantic propaganda machine greased with banknotes.
1.1. Two hoaxes
In the aftermath of 7 October, the pro-Zionist media put all their efforts into spreading mainly two stories that later turned out to be false and manipulated. The first was the rave music festival, held a few kilometres from the Strip, and the second was the story of 40 beheaded babies. Two hoaxes tailor-made for the Western public. A public that, for whatever reason, empathises much more with white ravers than with the Palestinian population; that is much more horrified by the idea of a decapitated baby in an Israeli hospital than by hundreds of babies killed in indiscriminate bombings or for lack of medical care in Gaza, if not directly by conscious abandonment as happened in the Al Nasr children’s hospital.
There are two clear objectives behind these propaganda hoaxes. One is the interest of news agencies, the media and people in general to harvest interactions and visualisations for the joy of their wallets and egos. The second objective was to demonise and dehumanise the Palestinian Resistance. With these two stories, the Zionist propagandists had enough arguments to be able to ask everyone and at all times the same question: “Do you condemn Hamas?” This is how these two hoaxes not only damaged the image of the Palestinian Resistance, but also automatically delegitimised any person or organisation that dared not to condemn the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas, by its Arabic acronym). The message to the Palestinian sympathetic population was clear: if you want someone listen what you say, you must condemn Hamas. At this point one should ask rhetorical questions: what good have these condemnations by human rights advocates done? What good has it done to distinguish between “bad” (pro-Hamas) and “good” Palestinians? How many lives has the “not all of Gaza is Hamas” discourse saved?
Anyone who embraced the pro-Zionist discourse, whether out of ignorance or interest, became an accomplice to the war crimes perpetrated by Zionism. Demonising the main Resistance organisation in the Gaza Strip only served to pave the way for the war crimes perpetrated by IOF. For the umpteenth time the excuse of the “fight against terrorism” is being used not only to crush the legitimate resistance of a people against colonisation, but also for the ethnic cleansing of a territory with more than two million inhabitants.
1.2. International popular support
However, in response, and in clear antagonism to the above, a spontaneous movement of support for Palestine arose around the globe. It was clear that there would be demonstrations of solidarity, but no one imagined the scale that this decentralised movement could reach. This was another victory for the Resistance. It was not enough for their cause to be just; they also needed a good line of communication to connect with the masses around the world. And they succeeded. An organisation locked up in the largest open-air prison in the world managed to beat the entire Western Zionist propaganda, bringing millions and millions of people to their side. The Al-Aqsa Flood unleashed a global popular storm.
It should also be stressed that support for the Palestinian cause is not exclusively spontaneous and is not limited to large demonstrations in cities around the world. There are also organisations that promote active boycott actions. But, above all, it must be stressed that there are higher organisational forms that have entered directly into armed confrontation against the genocidal Zionist entity. We are talking above all about the Houthis in Yemen and Hizbullah in Lebanon. So far these have been the two clearest and most direct international supporters. Governments, as the saying goes, are no match for their people. If only the situation were different and the Palestinian Resistance did not feel so alone. However, at the risk of sounding cynical, this juncture―which is bad for the brigades―has the positive aspect of highlighting the gap between states and their peoples. The mobilised people realise that their governments, including those of the Arab countries, are not capable of fulfilling their demands and that other means and other forms of organisation are needed to achieve what we demand.
The Resistance has forced the whole world to take a stand for their cause and has promoted the largest cleavage of camps in recent times. This is yet another important contribution of the Palestinian people to the cause of liberation of all humanity, making our debt to them ever greater.
Of course, these last few months have not been without the most abhorrent displays of opportunism. One of the clearest examples is the attitude of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose crisis-worn government did not hesitate to try to spearhead the popular support shown by Turks for the Palestinian cause. But the same president does not rush to break off all relations with Israel, thus contributing to the survival of the Zionist entity. This contradiction between what is said and what is done, this blatant hypocrisy, should help the communists of the world to help the masses learn to recognise the real interests behind every political statement. Erdogan speaks out in favour of Palestine not because he defends its liberation, but in order to strengthen the legs of his presidential chair, which have been eaten away by the crisis and corruption. In the same way, Ione Belarra spoke out against Netanyahu only for the political convenience of the moment, to show herself as the radical option against the PSOE and, above all, against Sumar.
We must not lose sight of the fact that at this time any show of support for the Palestinian people can have a positive character for the Resistance. But the hypocrisy of our rulers will never be viewed positively from the perspective of the liberation of all humanity. We have to be aware that we communists cannot prevent these situations from happening. However, what we can and must prevent is that the hypocrisy and deceit of our rulers manipulate the consciences of the population. In other words, we must know how to unmask the particular interests of this or that politician behind any statement or action in favour of Palestine. This is a basic pedagogical exercise in political education.
1.3. The interests defended by Pedro Sánchez
What, then, are the interests behind Pedro Sánche’s visit to occupied Jerusalem and the subsequent diplomatic crisis with the Zionist entity? Having secured his government, the PSOE leader had nothing to lose. That is why he was able to act on the fringes of social democracy, showing himself to be much more forceful and relevant than his apparently more radical partners. The Spanish president did not even have to take any political decisions. Mere lip service to war crimes was enough to satisfy and silence the most critical voices within the Podemos-Sumar space. No break in relations with Israel, no embargo. Just a couple of sentences about the obvious and undeniable reality of Zionism’s crimes and the “progressive” press could sell Sánchez as the champion of human rights and the Palestinian people.
However, it is more interesting to analyse these statements by the leader of the Spanish government from an international perspective. The Zionist government’s lack of any attempt to conceal the genocide it has set in motion damages the image of international institutions. The worldwide popular outburst in defence of Palestine is a threat to imperialist governments because it can be exploited by opposition forces in any Western country. Moreover, it encourages extra-parliamentary forces to carry out actions that damage the economy (boycott, blockades, sabotage, strikes, etc.). In this situation, the political and financial powers are desperately seeking to restore stability. Pedro Sánchez’s actions are part of these plans. It was untenable to continue ignoring civilian casualties and the West had to back down. The cornered power looked weak and Sánchez went out to project the opposite image. An image of a European leader who “puts in his place” a genocidal rampage and threatens to take action by means of a peace conference subject to the control of what is called “the international community”, i.e. finance capital.
The Israeli military failure added to the action of internationalist organisations are working in favour of the Palestinian Resistance, putting it in an advantageous position. If it continues in this way, the Zionist entity may be forced to make important concessions, which will result in a weakening of the positions of the imperialist powers in the Middle East. A heavy blow which, added to the spectre of defeat in Ukraine, will be seized upon by the subjugated countries. Without exaggeration, the future of the world system is at stake in the Palestinian lands. That is why Israel’s defeat is unacceptable, but the current Zionist government seems incapable of reaping victory and thus becomes a hindrance to the West. At the same time, Israeli elites are fully aware that they cannot survive without foreign support. The future of the genocidal Netanyahu, unpopular among his own people, threatened both from within and without, looks increasingly bleak.
The goal for the West is not to save Netanyahu, but to save Israel. The actions of the Spanish government are contributing to just that. Pedro Sanchez has, with one hand, put on a theatrical performance of reprimand and with the other, condemned the actions of the Resistance, reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, and has given wings to the failed “two-state solution”. This is the real position of the Western rulers today. Netanyahu may fall if he is unable to defend the objective of the financial oligarchy, which is none other than the perpetuation of occupation and colonisation. Pedro Sánchez is not a defender of Palestine, but of the existence of the “state” of Israel and has come to its rescue in its low hours.
We must focus our attention on the fact that the return of the discourse on the recognition of the Palestinian state is not a benevolent gesture, but a concession that is being wrested by the Resistance with its offensive that began on 7 October. European and US politicians are trying to calm the situation before it is too late. They are aware that things are out of their control. A hypothetical “peace conference”, under the tutelage of the financial oligarchy, would have as its main objective to save the day. It would in no way put an end to the continuing massacres of the Palestinian people, the apartheid state and colonial domination.
Valid interlocutors are needed for such a conference to be possible. It is unclear whether Netanyahu would be a good candidate on the Israeli side. In any case, this is not a big problem, as he could be replaced at any time by someone with less blood on his hands. Perhaps even someone who could be painted as “progressive” by the international press. The question is who the West might accept on the Palestinian side. At this point the situation becomes complicated.
The Palestinian National Authority has no support from its population and, more importantly, does not even control the militias in the West Bank. Let alone those in the Strip. The Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam brigades, the core of the Resistance in Gaza, will not obey any agreement taken outside them. This situation suggests that an interlocutor would have to be sought from within the ranks of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation under European and US law. This might seem an unlikely scenario, but it should be borne in mind that the last truce was the result of negotiations between the Zionist entity and representatives of the Islamic Resistance Movement, so nothing is impossible. But in that case, how would Western leaders explain negotiating with “terrorists” to their population? It would be a rather uncomfortable scenario in which, perhaps, the media would have to take it upon themselves to prepare public opinion and “decriminalise” Hamas and the entire Palestinian Resistance. In this way, the fighters could add one political victory more to their list.
It is not worth speculating on how Operation Al-Aqsa Flood will end, as everything is still in the hands of the Resistance, which has already won a series of important victories in both the purely military and political arenas, providing valuable lessons for liberation movements around the world. What seems to be clear is that the survival of Netanyahu and his government can only be guaranteed by a military victory, which they promised to achieve in a few days and which now seems impossible due to the heroic and highly intelligent performance of the Resistance brigades. If the Palestinians do not succumb on the battlefield, the West has no choice but to sit down and negotiate, looking for the most appropriate moment to do so, in order to freeze the conflict and save the Zionist project. In order to achieve this goal, the genocidal Netanyahu would probably have to be dispensed with. In order to carry out this process it would be necessary to look for “friendly” and “humanist” faces, both within Israel and among Western representatives. And who better for this task of safeguarding the interests of imperialism than social democracy, always prompt to come to the rescue of capitalism in times of crisis and of rise of revolutionary movements?
2. Outlines for a communist analysis of the situation
The first thing that must be clear for we communists is that we cannot resemble our “brave” and absolutely not hypocritical European left, which in the early days of the Flood was quick to put its hands up so as not to stain them with the blood spilled by Al-Qassam. Today we know that this was not a gesture of political neatness, but the umpteenth surrender to the interests of Western imperialism. Following in the footsteps of the media, hastened to condemn the Resistance not for humanist reasons, but to save their armchairs. However, while the whole bunch of grateful “left-wing” stomachs remained surrendered, with their hands raised to the whole world, the blood of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip began to trickle down to their chins, threatening to drown them in the sea of sympathetic people who came out to defend the Palestinian cause. This path of equidistance turned out to be too short and the whole radical social democracy quickly ran out of room for manoeuvre, crushed by professional social democracy on the one hand and international mass action on the other. Let them enjoy their bankruptcy and irrelevance and not say we didn’t warn them!
2.1. The Palestinian proletariat
Communism must know how to find his way in this situation, and analysis must begin with the correct characterisation of the Zionist entity and Palestine. Israel is an artificial state created for the purpose of being a politico-military base to control the Middle East. This fact has a decisive influence on the social configuration of the Zionist spawn. It is a markedly imperialist “state”, similar to any EU country, but more militarised and religious. Its existence is parasitic and it lives off the rents extracted from the super-exploitation of the oppressed countries supplied to it, mainly through the USA. Moreover, the welfare of its population is based directly on the colonial exploitation of the Palestinian people and land.
At the same time, the Palestinian people are deprived of the basic democratic right to a state of their own. This puts them one step below even the most imperialistically oppressed countries. It is a population that is not only highly proletarianized, but also colonised. We cannot therefore speak of a clash between two states or two bourgeoisies, but of a conflict between the Western Israeli oligarchy and a colonised people, deprived of basic bourgeois-democratic rights. As far as the social composition is concerned, on the one hand we have a typically imperialist society. In Israel, the determining role in the economy is played by the financial oligarchy, which is politically supported by the Hebrew labour aristocracy. The Israeli working class and proletariat are trained in compulsory military service and strongly indoctrinated through education, religion, professional politicians with a profile typical of an imperialist country, the media and a petty-bourgeois life based on the exploitation of the Palestinian proletariat. The latter, in turn, suffer more acute oppression and exploitation compared to the Israeli proletariat, precisely because of the fact that it is a colonised nation. In the legal field, the dozens of apartheid laws testify to and perpetuate this situation. Despite the geographical proximity, the Palestinian and Israeli proletariat occupy distant and qualitatively different positions in relation to the imperialist value chains.
2.2. Politics and the armed struggle in Palestine
Palestine has its own bourgeoisie which, hypothetically, could reach agreements with the Israeli oligarchy. The infamous Oslo Accords (1993) are a historical proof of this. However, it is this historical precedent that makes the possibility of a new negotiation less likely because some political forces have learned their lesson. The rise of Hamas has much to do with its opposition to those agreements. The creation of the Palestinian National Authority quickly disillusioned those who sought a state of their own, certain freedoms or peace. It revealed itself as an apparatus for managing Israeli oppression, but now in outsourcing mode. Israel obtained a more obedient and peaceful submission, but not for long. The Palestinian bourgeoisie, in turn, got a share of the labour stolen from the Palestinian proletariat and―very importantly―all kinds of aid from the international community that accentuated the inequality between the people and their political leaders. This situation led irremediably to the point where we are now, when the course of the struggle is being led by an armed people, organised in different brigades of the Resistance with the unquestionable hegemony of Al-Qassam, a militia attached to the Islamic Resistance Movement.
The question of armed struggle in Palestine is a question of survival, a first order task. The popularity of Al-Qassam in Gaza, and consequently of Hamas, lies in the fact that it has been the best prepared organisation for resistance and that has fought most notably against Fatah’s betrayal. Its determination, the fact that it has achieved by military means what for so long could not be achieved by political means, that it has restored dignity to an oppressed people, is what is causing its popularity to grow in the West Bank of the Jordan River as well. In addition, this has been accompanied by an intelligent and generous policy towards other Resistance brigades. The creation of the Palestinian Joint Operations Room (2006), an initiative of Al-Qassam and Saraya Al-Quds (Islamic Jihad militia in Palestine), laid the groundwork for unity and coordinated action among all armed factions. Including the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa brigade (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) whose members have on occasion served as spokesmen for the Chamber. There were also political precedents for such unity. One example is Hamas’s support for Janette Khoury, a Christian woman who was a candidate on the PFLP’s list for the Ramallah (the interim capital of the West Bank) City Council in 2005, in which she emerged victorious. On the other hand, the last municipal elections in the West Bank (2021-2022) were boycotted by Hamas. However, members of the Al-Qassam Movement and militiamen formed independent lists alongside the PFLP in 25 localities, winning significant victories. In those elections, the independent lists, which included members of the Resistance, won 70 per cent of the vote.
Palestine is an occupied territory, which makes it extremely difficult to lead a “normal” political life. We can observe that the Resistance enjoys great popularity among the population, but at the same time any political expression of the Resistance is persecuted by the Zionist entity. This is why it makes no sense to imagine Palestinian political parties and movements as homogenous and centralised entities. Quite the contrary. Decentralisation is a predominant factor both in the Resistance―whose organisations often operate in the form of independent cells―and in the political parties, many of whose leaders are in prison or in exile. Needless to say, the occupation hampers communications among the militancy. Thus the relationship between the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas is paradigmatic. There is an ideological nexus, but al-Qassam is a military wing with its own leadership, which makes its own decisions, does not take direct orders from Hamas and does not always report to it on its operations, as official members of the Islamic Resistance Movement have pointed out on occasion. In this sense, the brigades are more akin to what we understand as a mass front.
2.3. The essential character of the Palestinian and Hebrew proletarian movement
It is a mistake to try to apply the same schemas to an oppressed country as to an imperialist one when analysing its political reality. The political expressions of the Palestinian proletariat and its Resistance are really diverse, but this does not change their essential character. All forms of struggle of the Palestinian people are part of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle, even if they are not hegemonized by communist currents. It’s necessary to get rid of our European prejudices in order to understand that a religion, in this case Sunni Islam, can act as the ideological motor of a struggle for national liberation, acquiring a progressive character. Failure to recognise this reality is nothing more than a deviation of Western leftists who seek a pure revolution, without sin conceived. We must be able to see that we have much more in common with a believing Palestinian militiaman than with a Western atheist reformist. The socialists of Abu Ali Mustafa understand this and act accordingly, we cannot do less.
On the other pole is the reality of the Israeli proletariat. In the labour movement of the Zionist entity there are, albeit very few, internationalist examples. But this does not change the essentially opportunist and colonial character of the movement as a whole. Imperialism plays a decisive role and builds an impassable wall between Hebrew and Arab workers. This wall can only fall with the end of colonisation, i.e. with the establishment of a Palestinian state from the river to the sea. Until this happens, the objective conditions necessary for unity across ethnic and religious lines will not be in place. In other words, it is no coincidence that there is no organisation in Israel, nor any minimally significant movement fighting against its own Zionist “state”. Colonisation is the premise that makes the emergence of such a movement impossible. The protests against the Netanyahu government are not protests against the “state” of Israel. They are a manifestation of the fear and discontent of a population spoiled by imperialism. People terrified of the still remote prospect of the Resistance taking the rap for its crimes. They are convinced that the problem is their corrupt and useless government and that the solution is to change it for another―perhaps even a “left” one―that will end terror in one way or another. Israelis are unwilling and unable to recognise that the problem is what they call “their state”, which is really an occupying colonial regime. Therefore, the sine qua non condition for the end of terror is the defeat of “Israel” understood as the dismantling of all the apparatuses of the Zionist regime. Ergo, the victory of the Palestinian Resistance. The latter is the universal programmatic point or the universal slogan that must be defended by all communists in the world. And it is not because it is a more plausible scenario than a hypothetical union between the Israeli and Palestinian proletariat against the Zionist entity, but because it is the only real one, given the present objective conditions.
2.4. Inter-imperialist conflict?
These days there have been communists who have seen the conflict as a struggle between imperialist blocs. The error of this position stems from a reversal of factors, not knowing how to detect the main contradiction. Does the conflict of interests between the USA and Iran or China have an influence on what happens in the Middle East? Undoubtedly. But it is only one of the many factors that mediate the Palestinian war against the Zionist entity. To take only this factor into account is to adopt a one-sided attitude, taking the part for the whole, to see the trees and not the forest. “That way it is impossible to kind the method for resolving a contradiction, it is impossible to accomplish the tasks of the revolution, to carry out assignments well or to develop inner-Party ideological struggle correctly” (“On Contradiction”, Mao). To think that what pushed the Resistance to launch the October 7 offensive was the defence of the interests of Chinese capital against US capital is naive and sounds more like conspiracy than an analysis of the concrete situation. The Al-Aqsa Flood is, in the first instance, a response against colonisation, a new episode in the Palestinian struggle against the Zionist regime. This is the main contradiction that defines the character of the phenomenon. To say this is not to exclude other factors from the equation, but to put them in order, not to confuse causes with consequences. To put it clearly: resistance to colonisation is the cause and any attempt to instrumentalise this struggle would be the consequence. It is colonisation, not the US-PRCh struggle, that unleashes the Flood. Therefore, no matter how much some reactionaries―like Erdogan, for example―pay lip service to Palestine, this does not make the struggle of the Resistance reactionary, nor does it make the Flood less just.
2.5. What we must be. What we must learn.
The Al-Aqsa Flood has unleashed an international political crisis and popular response unprecedented in recent years. Even the war in Ukraine pales in comparison. Moreover, its character is intuited as qualitatively different because it was provoked by the action of the proletarian masses and not by the action of oligarchic governments. For better or for worse, it has also shown like no other recent crisis the irrelevance of Western communism, incapable of responding to the historical demands of the moment.
It is not only the inability to decisively influence the politics of the imperialist pole, what we are part of. Fortunately, this time the European masses have responded in an acceptable way, even if they were not guided by Marxist theory. The large mobilisations and actions against the Zionist genocide have undoubtedly influenced the recent political decisions of the European elites. They should not be overestimated, as they have not been a determining factor, but they have played their role and this is undeniable. The main incapacity of the Western communist movement lies in not knowing how to take advantage of this imperialist crisis and the spontaneous outburst of the masses to push forward the process of the reconstitution of the Party of Revolution.
The abandonment of Leninism has always led to the betrayal of proletarian internationalism. “Leninism” must be understood here as one of its main contributions: the concrete analysis of the concrete situation. One can only refer the reader to “The Foundations of Leninism” (I.V. Stalin) and especially to the section “The National Problem”. Of the many passages that could be quoted here, I will retain that “The revolutionary character of a national movement under the conditions of imperialist oppression does not necessarily presuppose the existence of proletarian elements in the movement, the existence of a revolutionary or a republican programme of the movement, the existence of a democratic basis of the movement”. From the coordinates of Leninism, if one recognises the Palestinian liberation movement, embodied in the Resistance brigades, as a proletarian movement which questions and puts into crisis the whole present system of imperialist domination, one must unreservedly support this movement. And not because there are organisations in it that carry red flags, but because of the essential character of the cause. That is to say, the concrete analysis of the situation must lead us to rid ourselves of prejudices built up by Western propaganda and recognise the progressive role played by the brigades of Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam, as the spearhead of the movement. This is the real exercise of Leninism that the communist vanguard in the West must undertake.
The reason for implementing this exercise should not be done on the grounds that it will make things easier for the brigades. We must stop navel-gazing and recognise our very limited capacity to influence the international chessboard. This exercise must be done in pursuit of the reconstitution of the revolutionary theory that can guide the process of transforming our weak movement into the Party of the New Type that will then be able to build the bases of support for the World Proletarian Revolution and the processes of national liberation. As the Bolsheviks did in the past. Until then we must arm ourselves with humility and learn, learn and learn from proletarian processes far more advanced and powerful than our movement.
Some of the lessons that the Palestinian Resistance and its current main armed force are offering us deserve to be mentioned here. Firstly, the inability of the political projects of the labour aristocracy of an imperialist country to rid themselves of their social-chauvinism and to oppose the general interests of the world financial oligarchy. This translates into the inability of these projects to take up arms against the state, which only a proletarian organisation is capable of doing.
Secondly, that an organisation of proletarian essence is capable of organising armed struggle against imperialism even without the guidance of Marxism and this is good news at the time of the temporary defeat of communism. Since any crisis of imperialism is a good catalyst for the process of reconstitution.
In third place, placing the anti-imperialist struggle as the main contradiction does not mean leaving aside the capital-labour contradiction. On the contrary, it is a question of understanding what concrete manifestation this central contradiction of capitalism acquires at a particular historical moment. The historical struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie is omnipresent, but it takes on very diverse forms. To think that the only valid form of this struggle is that of the workers against the bosses is to fall into economistic reductionism, however much this is allegedly done for the sake of preserving the purity of revolutionary theory.
Fourth, that “external causes act through internal causes” (“On Contradiction”, Mao). In other words, the positions taken by Western communism with regard to the offensive of the Palestinian Resistance have much more to do with the internal state of our movement than with the objective characterisation of the conflict. Broadly speaking, some of the analyses we have been able to read in recent days have not been the result of a detailed study of the question, but were predetermined by the fact that we have not yet rid ourselves of the influence of the labour aristocracy and its social-chauvinism. This has manifested itself mainly in leftist deviations which have aligned themselves with the factual condemnation, in one way or another, of the Resistance in general or of its main faction in particular.
And fifth, that political demands of a proletarian character―and these can range from the release of prisoners to the recovery of occupied lands―must ultimately be wrested by force. And the proletariat has no other decisive force in its confrontation with the bourgeoisie than the force of an organised armed people. Likewise, that this force will always be attacked and slandered by the imperialist elites and their mouthpieces. Forming the masses in the spirit of revolutionary struggle also means legitimising the armed road and presenting it as the only possible way to fulfil the democratic aspirations of the proletariat on its road to emancipation.
This article is intended to help the communist vanguard, situated in the imperialist centre, to clarify its tasks in the present historical moment. The masses all over the world have risen up in support of the legitimate cause of the Palestinian people. Let us be the brains and the heart of these masses. Let us endow the movement with proletarian slogans and action. Let us scientifically explain the present situation. Let us win our right to be worthy members of the world revolutionary army that is rising up to fight against the imperialist beast. Let us advance in the process of the reconstitution of the Communist Party.
Those who die for life cannot be called dead.