Solidarity with Palestine!
The Louisville Workers Brigade
7/4/2024
The great political theorist, Michael Parenti, once said, “Foreign aid (in the West) is when the poor people of a rich country give money to the rich people of a poor country.”
In a similar vein, war is when the working people of multiple countries are sent to kill each other for the interests of the rich people of those same countries. This is what we call imperialism.
Here at home, working people see the value of their labor pillaged by the bosses through the extraction of profit, only to then have their paychecks again plundered by the government through regressive, anti-worker taxes; this government, since the conception of the United States, has been designed by and for the owning class, enshrining private (corporate) property with an unquestioned reverence that buries the needs of the most desperate and vulnerable in our society. So, whether through direct exploitation or through theft by unjust taxes imposed by a state orchestrated to tend to the minority ruling class, the stolen wealth of working people all goes into the service of the owning class.
As has been customary for over a century, the empire of the owning class in this country has its tentacles across the globe in an effort to secure new markets, new resources, and new labor. It does so off of the backs of working people, subsidized by their labor and conquered with their blood. It has viewed and used American working people as cannon fodder in its imperialist wars and conquests, leaving other countries devastated, their working people enslaved, maimed, and massacred. It has amassed trillions of dollars in wealth through this inhumane process of carnage.
For this reason, The Louisville Workers Brigade opposes all imperialist wars which serve only to enrich the owning class at the expense of working people here at home and abroad. The only conflicts we support are those liberatory struggles for national independence against colonial and imperialist powers and, of course, the class struggle of the working class against the owning class; in these struggles, our support, solidarity, and love lies forever with those seeking to overthrow the yoke of exploitation and oppression.
For nearly every day of the lives of almost anyone living today, the U.S. empire has been involved in the armed oppression of peoples here and overseas. Through the use of badge-toting thugs within our borders, the owning class has crushed any semblance of struggle from organized workers, Queer people, people of color, women, indigenous people, or political dissidents. Overseas, through the use of the empire’s military, the owning class has murdered millions of innocents, destroyed entire towns and cities, stolen resources, overthrown democratically elected officials, and established permanent footholds for the extraction of profit. Replacing Republicans for Democrats, and vice versa, has done nothing to stop, slow, or meaningfully change this evil practice; instead, we witness an unwavering unanimity from both major political parties in enthusiastically pillaging working people, both economically and physically, to feed the military industrial complex and the owning class that it enriches.
Today, under the anti-worker and genocidal regime of Joe Biden, the U.S. empire continues its destructive march across the globe at the behest of the owning class. One conflict, in particular, matches the historic modus operandi of U.S. imperialism: that of the genocide occurring in Gaza.
As Palestinians suffer within an open-air prison, manufactured and maintained by the settler-colonial state of Israel, the owning class of this country grows richer day-by-day as the U.S. supplies weapons of war to our “ally” in the region for the clear purpose of genocide. Unsurprisingly, the corporate media, owned by a handful of owning class monopolists, propagandizes for the empire, spouting the boldface lies the Israeli regime concocts and ignoring the desperate plight of the Palestinian people. The ruling class’s political stools, represented both by the Republicans and Democrats, are in a race to outdo one another in their full-throated support of the genocide. Even the vast majority of supposedly “progressive” politicians remain silent.
The Louisville Workers Brigade and our publication, The Class Struggle Chronicle, however, will not remain silent.
The evidence of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, funded by the U.S. empire, is appalling for anyone with a heart. The maiming and murder of women and children, the callous disregard for life, the intentional and relentless push for genocidal annihilation of Palestinians makes clear Israel’s intentions.
Here at home, the horrific oppression of those protesting this U.S.-funded genocide is sickening, though unsurprising given the long history of our government repressing any and all movements for liberation. We salute and commend those actively taking a firm stance against the genocide and join our voices with theirs in demanding the following:
1) That an immediate ceasefire be reached.
2) That all funds and “diplomatic” ties to Israel cease immediately.
3) That immediate aid be sent to the besieged Palestinian people.
4) That all colonial forces and institutions be swiftly expelled from the region.
5) That Western and Israeli forces be thoroughly and immediately investigated and then swiftly prosecuted for their war crimes.
6) The immediate dropping of all charges against students and protestors and the release of all political prisoners.
The Louisville Workers Brigade stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Gaza and supports their righteous and noble struggle for sovereignty, independence, and liberation. We do not condemn the ways and means through which they seek liberation in the face of such overpowering forces of violence being brought to bear against them, but instead support their armed struggle against the decades old oppression against them.
In an age where owning class hegemony and power is so unified and spread globally, it is vital that working people the world over unite against the forces of imperialism, exploitation, and oppression. The struggle of the Palestinian people is intricately connected with the struggle of American workers:
As American workers, the same class of leaches exploiting us here are also becoming wealthy off of the murder of children overseas.
As American workers, the money our government steals from us is going to bombing hospitals and aid centers.
As American workers, we have far more in common with the Palestinian people than we do with the owning class that is directly responsible for these atrocities.
As workers, as human beings with hearts, we declare now and forever:
No War but the Class War!
Power, Liberation, and Peace to Palestine and All Working and Oppressed People!