‘Fight for women’s equality is part of battle on world scale to settle which class will rule’ – The Militant

‘Fight for women’s equality is part of battle on world scale to settle which class will rule’ – The Militant

[….] the unimaginable is not yet the inevitable.

That depends on which class rules. The international working class is today far larger and potentially more powerful than in the years that preceded the two interimperialist slaughters of the 20th century. And the large increase in the percentage of women in the workforce worldwide is one of the reasons for this.

What’s missing is growing working-class consciousness, confidence and revolutionary leadership. Communist leadership that can — and will — develop only in the course of class battles.

The kind of leadership provided by V.I. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party he forged in the czarist empire. Leadership of the kind exemplified by Fidel Castro and the cadres of the July 26 Movement and Rebel Army in Cuba, who led the way to Cuba’s socialist revolution.

Leadership of the exploited producers of all skin colors and nationalities the world over, like that demonstrated by Malcolm X, a leadership with moral courage and integrity. And, I will add, of the Socialist Workers Party leadership who shared that course.

Those kinds of leadership, too, can only be forged — and will continue to be forged — in the heat of class battles.

* * *

With this new edition, Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women has begun a new stage of its life — and not a moment too soon.

This is a book to read and enjoy. Even more important, it is a book that helps to arm us for the only battle that can open the door to women’s equality — and a future for humanity — the battle to settle on a world scale which class will rule.

IDF report shows its political bias allowed Hamas pogrom – The Militant

[….]According to the Times of Israel, the report states that military leaders’ “flawed culture” and “deep systematic problems” led them to ignore years of signs of Hamas’ plans to attack.

In 2018, for example, the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate obtained a Hamas document outlining its plans to destroy Israeli army posts near Gaza, attack kibbutzim “in order to take hostages,” and to “livestream” the pogrom. In May of 2022, the directorate got hold of another Hamas document, “Jericho’s Walls,” with even more details. These and other signs were all kept hidden from Netanyahu....

The IDF report claims that high-ranking officials were “duped” by Hamas into believing it had become more “pragmatic.” They believed that a high-tech border fence was enough to deter attacks.

Starting at 9 p.m. Oct. 6, 2023, and into Oct. 7, Shin Bet and IDF high officials ignored at least five clear signs Hamas was getting ready to launch its pogrom.

Not only did they not send additional troops to the border, they made the decision not to wake Netanyahu or then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They feared Netanyahu would order an attack on Hamas they considered would be provocative....

IDF report shows its political bias allowed Hamas pogrom – The Militant

Goodreads review of Rodinson's ISRAEL, A COLONIAL SETTLER STATE?

A friend reviews Israel: A Colonial Settler State

Maxime Rodinson, a Jewish specialist on the history of the Mideast, argues that Israel was at its founding a colonial-settler state. But as he points out, such a state doesn't stay that forever, otherwise the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other states would still be colonial-settler states. And not all the Jews who moved to Palestine were Zionists (for the role of Zionism in Europe, see 'The Jewish Question' by Abram Leon) they went because both during and after the war there was no other place they could go.

Members of the party I support, The Socialist Workers Party, demanded that the US "Open the doors to victims of Hitler's Nazi terror," but Roosevelt had cut the quotas for Jewish refugees, and even these quotas weren't filled. The bourgeois leadership of the Jews didn't protest. (See 'The Founding of the Socialist Workers Party').

I have read I.F. Stone's writings on the formation of Israel and have a different opinion now than when I first read Rodinson. One can perhaps describe Zionism (a form of Jewish nationalism) as having a settler-colonial character--although there were people who called themselves Zionist--like I.F. Stone and Albert Einstein--who rejected the idea of a Jewish, as opposed to a binational state.

Zionism played a big role in the formation of modern Israel, but Israel came into being because almost no one cared what happened to the Holocaust survivors--they had to find a way on their own.

If revolutionary Marxists had been in the leadership of the Soviet Union (see Trotsky's 'Struggle Against Fascism in Germany') Hitler would never have come to power! While more and more people during the war discovered and publicized the "final solution," it had nothing to do with allied war aims. They refused to bomb the train tracks leading to the death camps. When US GIs opened the camps as Nazis fled, they viewed themselves as liberators. But death camp residents continued dying. There was no plan for what would happen to survivors. Their homes had other people living in them, and all their property and money had been confiscated. People didn't by magic stop hating Jews. The United States, the richest country in the world, took in even fewer Jews than the few their quota system in theory allowed. The Balfour Declaration gave Jews a semi-legal opening to go to Palestine, although Britain, facing colonial revolt in much of the world, tried to prevent it. That is why Israel exists. Anyone who says "it has no right to exist" is calling for continuing the final solution.

At one time anyone with the slightest criticism of Israel was called an anti-Semite or a self-hater. Those days are over. And the hatred for Arabs in the Israeli capitalist state is on the decline, not rising. More Arabs, who have no obligation to, are joining the IDF, including as officers. Israel has never met the Leninist definition of an imperialist country, but for some years it was an expansionist country. There are still hostile settlers moving to Arab areas, but the US has a president talking about seizing foreign territory by force.

Trump is crude, but he's not a fascist. Anyone familiar with Cold War history knows that the US dominated much of the world. Those countries were not bourgeois democracies--they were countries "willing" to be dominated by the US. If they weren't, the US attempted coups and/or invasions.

Today the Democratic Socialists of America call Roosevelt a democratic socialist. A man who did nothing to save the lives of Jews, and who soon after arranged to have the Socialist Workers Party leadership indicted under the Smith Act for refusing to support the US imperialism in the war. (Some liberals will assume that we resisted the draft, but that's not the proletarian approach to war--We go with the working class into the army, although we preferred getting our members into war industry and the maritime unions). (See 'Teamster Bureaucracy' and 'Socialism on Trial'). For Roosevelt's real record, see 'While Six Million Died.'

The PLO played an important part for some years, since at first, both Israel and the US refused to admit there was such a thing as a Palestinian! But the PLO had the chance to form a Palestinian state and failed to do so. The Palestine Authority is a bureaucratic organization that engages in Jew-baiting and refuses to negotiate. Hamas has even less to do with a national liberation movement--they are fascist-like pogromists! People who support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions are not necessarily aware of the role of Hamas in it, but after a while it becomes clear that it is an organization of Jew-haters, some from the "left" and some from the "right."

If one has conspiracy theories involving Jews, what difference does it make which of these one calls oneself? They're all from the self-titled "enlightened meritocracy" and are on a road that may well move them toward fascism (see 'Are they Rich Because they're Smart?' 'Fascism and Big Business' and 'The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany' by Leon Trotsky).

There is nothing unique about Israel; most nation states are formed by the conquest of one group by another, usually involving "ethnic Cleansing." The US could not have been formed without genocide against the Indians. Today those Palestinians who live in Israel have better lives than most people in the neighboring countries. Is there racism against them and against Ethiopian Jews? Yes, just as there's still racism in the US, but no one says, "the United States has no right to exist." Why? The fight against racism begins at home, and there's still Indian land being stolen.

I realize that I haven't said much about the book, but I wrote about what is important NOW. It goes without saying that if someone is "Woke" and views history with "Presentism," they will disagree with me on this, and pretty much everything, including the nature of reality.

Jews in Brooklyn outmobilize pro-Hamas thugs – The Militant

[....] The assault by Hamas supporters “won’t be the last and sounds an early alarm,” said Paul Mailhot, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York, in a statement distributed in Borough Park and elsewhere. “Working people and our unions should stand with the Jewish community in Borough Park and say no to Jew-hatred.”

Jews in Brooklyn outmobilize pro-Hamas thugs – The Militant

‘End Moscow’s war, back Ukraine sovereignty!’ – The Militant

[....] SWP campaigners explained Donald Trump’s push to take control over Ukraine’s valuable supplies of mineral deposits, at the same time his administration pushes for a quick settlement, underscores the fact Washington’s intervention serves the interests of the U.S. rulers, not those of working people in Ukraine, Russia or anywhere else.

SWP members also called for the freeing of all Russian political prisoners.

Protests: ‘End Moscow’s war, back Ukraine sovereignty!’ – The Militant

What does Trump’s war against ‘big government’ mean for working people? – The Militant

[....] DEI programs were a source of perks and class advancement for the middle-class layers who ran them, and used them to deepen racial and class divisions. They are the opposite of the affirmative action programs set up in the 1970s that opened the door to the hiring of Black and women workers into jobs they’d been excluded from, gains that grew out of the Black-led movement that overthrew Jim Crow segregation.

To shrink the bloated size of the government bureaucracy, the administration offered a buyout package to some 2 million government employees. They were offered their full salary and benefits for eight months if they left their jobs.

The five most senior FBI bosses were fired Jan. 31. The Justice Department is considering getting rid of the 2,400 spies who carried out the FBI’s Jan. 6 inquiry, along with thousands of recently hired snoops.

This isn’t a plan to cut back the FBI, rather the target is those agents who took responsibility for the Democrats’ assault on constitutional protections in their partisan drive to go after Trump and his allies. The capitalist state will retain its number one spy agency....

[....] The size and scope of today’s modern capitalist state, replete with invasive welfare corps, spy agencies and huge military forces, has its roots in the rise of monopolies at the dawn of the imperialist epoch in the early 1900s.

The world’s dominant ruling classes needed a larger state apparatus to pursue their conflicts over the redivision of the world’s markets and resources, conflicts that would eventually lead to two imperialist world wars. An expanding capitalist state was also required to suppress rising revolts against colonial domination and, above all, to shield the rulers from revolutionary struggles by workers and their allies.

No capitalist government — Democratic or Republican — will break up what the imperialist rulers have put in place.

As part of this expansion, there has been a proliferation of bloated federal agencies, with growing powers to monitor, interfere with and administer the lives of working people. Trump wants to trim some of these agencies, especially those used by Biden, Obama, Bill Clinton and others, as well as those used to target him and his supporters. For good measure, Trump also cut off the federal government’s $8.2 million worth of subscriptions to liberal mouthpiece Politico.

What Trump and Musk project as “smaller government” is nothing new under capitalism. Their view is that trimming away at the government bureaucracy will leave the regulation of society to the workings of the capitalist system. But this won’t help working people either.

Karl Marx, the founder of the modern communist movement, explained that only when the working class holds power can social relations be transformed and millions among the exploited and oppressed begin placing their stamp on the priorities of society.

Marx spelled this out in response to the establishment of the world’s first working-class government, the Paris Commune, in 1871.

“The Commune,” he wrote, “made the catchword of bourgeois revolutions, cheap government, a reality by destroying the two greatest sources of expenditure — the standing army and State functionarism.”

They were replaced by the organization of the millions of working people themselves. The fight for workers power in the U.S., the only road to make that possible, is what the Socialist Workers Party exists to promote.

What does Trump’s war against ‘big government’ mean for working people? – The Militant

James Earl Carter RIP

Page 5 of http://themilitant.com/1976/4041/MIL4041.pdf

Israel’s fight to prevent a new Holocaust is at a new stage – The Militant

[....] the simple fact is every hostage should be released immediately, ceasefire or no ceasefire.

Israel’s fight to prevent a new Holocaust is at a new stage – The Militant

UK officials cover up years of gang rapes of working-class girls – The Militant

[....] refusal to investigate complaints about the abuse was often done under the guise that responding would be “Islamophobic.”

Full:

UK officials cover up years of gang rapes of working-class girls – The Militant

SWP campaign: All politics is class politics – The Militant

[....] Washington, the weakening but still dominant imperialist power, uses both free trade and protection to advance the U.S. rulers’ efforts to outsell their rivals. Karl Marx, the founder of modern communism, explained that whichever trade policy capitalist governments pursue, workers “go to the wall” either way....

Full:

SWP campaign: All politics is class politics – The Militant

USAID: Shedding Tears for Killers

Woke liberals are keening over poor USAID. How can anybody be against international development!

But USAID has worked hand in glove for decades with the most violent antilabor organizations on earth, first of all the CIA. Together they have smashed unions, overthrown elected governments, created and trained death squads, and instructed police forces worldwide in hideous methods of rape, torture, and murder.

Development? USAID has consistently undermined any development that didn’t sufficiently advance the interests of its US corporate masters. Consequently, people starved.

Trump’s budget cuts are child’s play. One day laboring humanity will level all the institutions of imperialist repression and salt the earth where they stood.

Tip to USAID thugs: Today you’re worried about layoffs, but those might be a godsend. Eventually those who remain will be worrying about their trials.

Above, 1966: CIA & AID officers tried to defeat the Vietnamese revolution. They helped kill 3 million people, but the Vietnamese won the war.

Israel, the Holocaust and Oct. 7 pogrom – The Militant

I stand by this editorial, in the current issue of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 - February 10, 2025 - 100%. Read it and share it widely!⁣

⁣

"...𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐰-𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Jew-hatred and pogroms are an integral part of the permanent social convulsions and wars of the imperialist epoch. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐚𝐳𝐢-𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐉𝐞𝐰-𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 [my emphasis]. This is the lesson of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.⁣

⁣

"...Today that fight is centered in Israel, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐉𝐞𝐰-𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐬, 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝. This deserves the wholehearted support of the working class and the unions.⁣

⁣

"Israel’s defense is weakened by the fact that it is a capitalist country and it relies on backing from U.S. imperialism. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 '𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜' 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 in their overriding drive to advance their economic, political and military interests.⁣

⁣

"𝐀 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭. The current ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is inherently unstable as long as the conflict between Israel and Tehran’s 'axis of resistance' remains unsettled. 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐈𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐍𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐬, 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚."⁣

⁣

Full:

Israel, the Holocaust and Oct. 7 pogrom – The Militant

Why the Holocaust made the creation of Israel inevitable – The Militant

[....] That betrayal, along with the Nazi murder machine, the refusal of the imperialist powers to open their doors to the Jews, and the refusal of millions of Jews to accept those devastating consequences without a fight made the creation of Israel as a refuge for Jews inevitable. And today, in a world where there are Nazi-like forces that are trying to inflict a new Holocaust, that refuge must be defended.

But Israel’s existence is not a permanent solution. A road forward requires building the kind of revolutionary working-class parties that can put an end to Jew-hatred forever. Read The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class by V.I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Farrell Dobbs, James P. Cannon, Jack Barnes and Dave Prince, available from Pathfinder Press.

Full:

Why the Holocaust made the creation of Israel inevitable – The Militant

Why the Socialist Workers Party is defying the far left on Israel

https://jweekly.com/2025/01/21/local-members-of-socialist-workers-party-defy-the-far-left-on-israel/ 

Why Trump wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal – The Militant

Growing capitalist rivalry in Arctic

Since its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has reopened dozens of Soviet military bases in the Arctic and increased submarine patrols and exercises there.

Beijing has acquired mining operations in Greenland. Chinese capitalists seek control over shipping lanes in the Arctic, which offer shorter export routes than some they now use. Under Trump’s first presidency, the Pentagon successfully pressed the Danish government to block Beijing from financing three airports in Greenland.

U.S. and rival capitalists also covet Greenland’s profitable deposits of oil, natural gas, graphite and other rare-earth elements that are used in manufacturing many high-tech goods.

“Our future and fight for independence is our own business,” Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, said in response to Trump’s remarks, before adding he looks forward to talks with Trump.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she wants to keep hold of Greenland, but would welcome an increase in the U.S. military presence there. The rival governments of France and Germany both condemned Trump’s comments....

Why Trump wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal – The Militant

‘US capital rules through its twin parties. It supports both.’ – The Militant

[....] There are differences in the Republican and Democratic parties, in my opinion, though not in the sense that J.M. takes as his point of departure — that the Republicans are more “reactionary” than the Democrats. This is an illusion entertained by many workers and fostered by the bulk of the labor bureaucracy, the Social-Democrats, and the Stalinists. The Militant does well to center its fire on this illusion; this is the main point, and should be the burden of our agitation. Big capital rules through the mechanism of the two parties as far as fundamental issues are concerned, but not always directly in response to their unanimous commands.

There are deep conflicts of interest as well as differences of opinion in the ranks of the capitalists. The two parties, which are in reality two big factions of a unique two-party system united on fundamentals, and the numerous factions and cross-currents within them, reflect these conflicts and differences. The big capitalists on the whole are more class conscious than the workers, but they are by no means omniscient in judging their own political interests. They don’t always know what is best for them; and as The Militant correctly observes, they are not notably grateful to politicians who have served them best in a given situation....

‘US capital rules through its twin parties. It supports both.’ – The Militant

California officials can lie with impunity, secure in the knowledge that no one will make them pay for their crimes.

A comrade notes:

California officials can lie with impunity, secure in the knowledge that no one will make them pay for their crimes. Michael Shellehnberger reports:

"As a new wave of fire and high winds threaten Los Angeles, the media is reporting that California’s elected leaders are not to blame and that right-wing influencers and Donald Trump are spreading misinformation and politicizing a tragedy. Racial and gender quotas through DEI aren’t to blame. No, Mayor Karen Bass didn’t cut the Fire Department’s budget. No, Gavin Newsom didn’t cut CalFire’s wildfire prevention budget. And no, there wasn’t any way to prevent these fires or the fire hydrant water from running out. Climate change made the disaster inevitable due to “whiplashing” rain levels."

They’re all lies.

--https://www.public.news/p/theyre-gaslighting-us?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=o9ew2&triedRedirect=true

What will Trump as the president mean for working people in the US? – The Militant

[....] Most of the Democrats’ attempts to use the capitalist “justice” system to cripple Trump and his 2024 campaign are now coming apart. But New York City Judge Juan Merchan set Jan. 10 — 10 days before the inauguration — for a hearing to pass sentence on the incoming president. Merchan presided over the biased prosecution of Trump on charges he recorded a hush money payment to a porn star as a legal cost.

While Merchan admits it would be wrong to imprison or even put Trump on probation, he says passing sentence will brand Trump as a felon.

Partisan commentators in the liberal media delight in the fact Trump will be the only president to ever take office as a “convicted felon.”

But even this isn’t enough for Washington Post commentator Jennifer Rubin. She says Trump should be thrown in jail. The fact this isn’t going to happen, she says, “is largely the fault of voters. They knew he was a felon. They still voted him into office,” she wrote Jan. 6. Rubin echoes the visceral contempt that the upper-middle-class meritocrats who lead the Democratic Party have toward working people.

What will Trump as the president mean for working people in the US? – The Militant