It is in the interests of workers everywhere to speak out unequivocally against Tehran-backed Hamas’ pogrom in Israel and against Jew-hatred wherever it raises its head. This is vital in defending our unions and advancing the class-against-class battles the working class faces, as we fight to defend our wages, conditions and constitutional rights from attack. This is the lesson of history.
The origins of virulent antisemitism lie in the impact of deepening capitalist crises on despairing layers of a crushed middle class. They become open to the anti-capitalist rhetoric of fascist forces that scapegoat Jews for the devastation wrought by the workings of capitalist exploitation. Growing sections of the rulers turn to fascist gangs to try to crush workers and the unions. They will do so in every capitalist country as the class struggle deepens in years to come.
The decisive question is building a revolutionary leadership capable of leading the working class to end capitalist oppression, take political power and make a socialist revolution. It was the refusal of the class-collaborationist Stalinist parties in the 1930s to follow this course that opened the door to the rise of Hitler, the second imperialist world war and the Holocaust.
Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel, and rising antisemitic attacks elsewhere, show that neither Israel, the U.S. nor any capitalist democracy is a safe haven for Jews. Under crisis-ridden capitalism there can be none.
Only the working class and its unions, acting decisively with class-conscious leadership, can rally to its side broader layers of the oppressed to take on and defeat the forces of reaction.
That was shown in practice in the 1917 Russian Revolution. V.I. Lenin and the Bolsheviks led workers to fight czarist pogroms, and built a party that led millions to conquer power and take the country’s factories, banks and land into their own hands. They established a workers state and advanced the fight against Jew-hatred, for self-determination of oppressed nations like Ukraine and for women’s emancipation.
Forging that kind of party is the road forward everywhere.
Washington and other imperialist powers are ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli government to stop short of taking decisive action to prevent Hamas from carrying out ever-more rounds of pogroms. Hamas and its backers in Tehran openly proclaim their goal is to destroy Israel, killing as many Jews as possible.
While the Militant offers no political support to the Israeli capitalist class, its parties or government, we say efforts to destroy Hamas’ ability to carry out future massacres are an inevitable result of what has transpired. Without decisive blows being dealt to Hamas, rightist forces everywhere will be emboldened.
The banner of the working class everywhere must include an uncompromising fight against Jew-hatred and the defense of Israel’s right to exist.