The statement below was sent by the SWP campaign in Minneapolis to the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas Sept. 1.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas, backed by the counterrevolutionary regime in Tehran, carried out the deadliest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust in World War II.
Hamas death squads indiscriminately killed, and took hostage, men, women, children and infants, also workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania for being “Zionist collaborators.” “From the river to the sea …” means: Kill and drive out the Jews and destroy Israel. That remains their aim.
The Socialist Workers Party candidates Kevin Dwire for Minneapolis mayor and Edwin Fruit for City Council Ward 1 defend Israel’s fight against another Holocaust, its right to exist as a refuge for Jews and oppose Jew-hatred and violence against Jews. We are for the defeat of Hamas as key to preventing another Holocaust. This fight, along with the fight to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, is a front line in the working-class struggle against increasing attacks on the toilers by the U.S. and other capitalist ruling classes.
The international rivalries of the U.S. and other capitalist powers deepen as they compete for markets and resources and build up their armaments to defend that. Trade wars lead to shooting wars as the violent conflicts of this imperialist epoch grow. The rulers are marching humanity toward fascism, a third world war, the threat of use of nuclear weapons — barbarism.
Capitalism is the source of the economic, social and moral crises faced by working people worldwide, including in Minneapolis. In times of capitalist crisis, Jew-hatred is used by ruling classes to scapegoat Jews as cover for the real cause of the calamities facing working people — the decaying system of capitalist production and exploitation.
While defending Israel as a refuge for Jews, we explain there can never be a permanent refuge for Jews under imperialism, or in a capitalist Israel and that neither the U.S. nor any other capitalist government will defend Jews from another Holocaust or end Jew-hatred.
Jew-hatred is not eternal. The SWP candidates say only a united working class — the only social class that has no interest in exploitation — can stop imperialism’s march toward war and end Jew-hatred and all forms of national oppression. We are for building revolutionary proletarian parties in every country that can lead working people to take state power out of the hands of the capitalist class and begin to build a society based on solidarity, not exploitation.
The defeat of Hamas and its poisonous Jew-hatred can be taken by workers who are Arab, Jewish, Druze, Persian, Kurdish and all others in the region to fight together for their common class interests. Calls for a “two-state solution” in fact guarantee Hamas’ regroupment and ability to carry out more October 7ths as they have promised to do, and Hamas’ continued repression of the Palestinians.
In his August 21 commentary, Steve Hunegs of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, referred to a 1939 incident when anti-Semitic leaflets were distributed in Minneapolis.
A year earlier, in 1938, the bosses in Minneapolis, unable to turn back the tide of union organizing led by Teamsters General Drivers Local 544, brought in a fascist outfit called the Silver Shirts to attack unionists, Jews and others. Rabbi Albert Gordon sounded the alarm that the head of the local capitalists’ organization, Associated Industries, had attended the first Silver Shirts meeting. Leaders of Local 544, many of whom were members of the SWP, acted fast and initiated the formation of a union defense guard to defend union halls and picket lines. In no time, the bosses’ scheme fell apart and the Silver Shirts left town, without a fight.
Hunegs explains that members of [mayoral candidate] Omar Fateh’s campaign staff had expressed support for the October 7 pogrom. He wrote, “Supporting terrorism is not progressive.” But to be clear — these staff members expressed support for Jew-hatred and pogroms, not just “terrorism.” Refusal to condemn Jew-hatred and pogroms is the framework of the DSA’s pledge to boycott Jewish organizations and to support “boycott, divest, and sanction” initiatives.
Working people cannot put any confidence in either capitalist party — Democrat or Republican or any wing of them. Vote for the Socialist Workers Party and join us.
Kevin Dwire, SWP candidate for mayor
Edwin Fruit, SWP candidate for City Council