Shuvu Bhattarai urges all socialists to endorse the People’s Conference for Palestine and help build a Mass Socialist Party.
Protestors at the January 13 March on Washington for Gaza (2024) – from Metro DC DSA
The ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people by Israel has inspired hundreds of millions of people around the world to come out in full solidarity, expressing their desire in innumerable forms for the Palestinian people to live freely and in peace. Within the United States, the belly of the beast, the center of global imperialism and the primary backer of Israel, hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people have been mobilizing and organizing for an end to the genocide. organizations and groups that one would hardly think could work together before October 7th are doing exactly that now.
The March on Washington For Gaza on January 13th, 2024 is a clear example of this fact. The main organizers were the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine and the ANSWER Coalition, with over 500 co-sponsoring organizations. Numerous socialist organizations which normally steer far away from each other like the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the Green Party were united in the coalition. Over 400 thousand people were mobilized that day. United among them were three third-party candidates for President: Jill Stein of the Green Party, Claudia De la Cruz & Karina Garcia of the PSL, and Cornel West of the newly forming Justice for All Party, all of whom were advancing a platform that aligns with the material interests of the working class. They were all united that day alongside the numerous DSA members and countless other socialists who had helped mobilize for the rally.
The protests have not just had a symbolic function. They have served to bring together masses of people and motivate them to push forward anti-imperialist actions in all areas of civic life. Over 100 US cities, towns, and villages, representing millions of people, have passed ceasefire resolutions. Hundreds of labor unions and union locals have also passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire, including the UAW, which signals a break from decades of labor union’s unconditional support to the state of Israel. The militant and clear-eyed rank and file within the US labor movement are now pushing to take their organizing to the next level, by going beyond mere words and statements, and towards divestment and the stoppage of production as outlined by the call of the Palestinan General Federation of Trade Unions to the workers of the world.
As we debate socialists’ role in the 2024 Presidential Election, the fact that this unity on January 13th was possible is of incredible importance. At this moment various progressive organizations, including the DSA, are involved in a national effort to boost the uncommitted campaigns taking place in states around the country, which has now resulted in over half a million votes against Biden.
Genocide Joe
Even before Joe Biden and the Democratic Party leadership’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, a clear majority of people in the country were expressing their desire to break from both parties and support a third option. The genocide has escalated this further, to a point where huge chunks of Democratic Party voters are expressing their disgust with Biden by voting uncommitted. However, Biden has already won the Party nomination, and the threat of removing him is non-existent.
Do we really expect that the administration funding the genocide and pouring billions of dollars of weapons into Israel will be one that will end the war? VP Kamala Harris’ call for a six-week ceasefire aligns completely with Israel’s own demands, which are to move forward with an invasion of Rafah and fully occupy the remnants of Palestinian land. In fact, an annual threat assessment by the Office of Director National Intelligence states that it believes the conflict in Gaza will likely escalate and be an ongoing issue for years:
The HAMAS attack against Israel in October 2023 and Israel’s responding military campaign in Gaza has increased tensions throughout the region as Iranian proxies and partners conduct anti-U.S. and anti-Israel attacks, both in support of HAMAS and to pressure the United States. Media coverage of the destruction and loss of life are being amplified by active social media campaigns on all sides, roiling public reactions among neighboring countries and around the world. Israel will face mounting international pressure because of the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and Iranian-backed attacks will jeopardize stability in Lebanon, Iraq, the Gulf, and the Red Sea. The risk of escalation into direct interstate conflict, intended or otherwise, remains high…
In regard to Gaza, Jerusalem remains focused on destroying HAMAS, which its population broadly supports. Moreover, Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from HAMAS for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize HAMAS’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces. The governance and security structures in Gaza and the West Bank as well as the resolution of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and rebuilding will be key components of the long-term Israeli/Palestinian relationship…
Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultra-orthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.
In the context of this US military-intelligence threat assessment, the softening of rhetoric by Biden, calls for a one-sided ceasefire, and criticism of Netanyahu by the Democratic Party leadership all begin to make sense. The US ruling class is committed to “destroying Hamas” but is well aware of the unpopularity and ineffectiveness of Netanyahu – they are seriously considering replacing his leadership while continuing the overall project of ethnic cleansing and occupation of Palestine and tightening its grip on the Middle East. In fact, despite Israel’s deliberate blocking of food and health supplies to Gaza, which has directly created famine for over 1.1 million people, US Congress has overwhelmingly passed $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel and has halted funds for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Since Yemen’s Houthi forces came in defense of the Palestinian people by blocking Israeli-linked ships, the US announced the formation of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a coalition of 20+ nations defending imperialist interests in the Red Sea. 10 to 15 percent of global shipping flows through the Red Sea, and under this operation, there will be a highway patrol in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to, in the words of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, “respond to and assist as necessary commercial vehicles that are transiting this vital international waterway.”
Source: Google Maps
Undeterred, the Houthi forces have continued their attacks and recently announced that they will expand their operations to the Indian Ocean. Notably, the Houthi rebels are an independent armed force that are allied with Iran in its “Axis of Resistance.” The genocide in Gaza has led to Iran developing further links with China and Russia, recently engaging in joint naval exercises that China calls the “Maritime Security Belt 2024” on the Gulf of Oman.
Israel, with the backing of the US, has recently killed Abou Mahdi Zahedi, a top Iranian general by bombing an Iranian consulate in Damascus. The US is also set to approve $18 billion in military sales to Israel. A broader, regional war is already taking place, which means that World War III is staring us in the face.
The genocide in Gaza is part of a great power conflict between a declining US Imperialism and those it sees as its rivals. As the 2024 US DOI annual threat assessment states:
During the next year, the United States faces an increasingly fragile global order strained by accelerating strategic competition among major powers, more intense and unpredictable transnational challenges, and multiple regional conflicts with far-reaching implications. An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as U.S. primacy within it…
One need only look at the Gaza crisis—triggered by a highly capable non-state terrorist group in HAMAS, fueled in part by a regionally ambitious Iran, and exacerbated by narratives encouraged by China and Russia to undermine the United States on the global stage—to see how a regional crisis can have widespread spillover effects and complicate international cooperation on other pressing issues.
The Biden Administration will not end the occupation. Instead, it will follow the dictates of US military-intelligence to broaden the conflict and the suffering of innocent people much further. Trump will do the same. They will do this despite the fact that over two-thirds of US adults want a permanent ceasefire, the majority of US adults support cutting Pentagon funding and engaging in diplomatic dialogue with China, and almost 70 percent want talks to end the war in Ukraine. The majority also want higher taxes on the rich, universal healthcare, investment in infrastructure, more labor unions, free and universal college education, ending homelessness and having affordable housing, and a whole host of other socially progressive demands. What the masses want is clear: End the War, Empower the People!
The imperialist death plans of the ruling class run counter to the will of the masses of working people in the country who simply desire peace and a good life, and who are by and large under great suffering. To bring the movement for a Free Palestine to the next phase, it must connect with the will of the masses in the belly of the imperialist beast itself. This necessarily means a broad peace and liberation movement, a socialist movement that taps into the will of the masses and brings it towards mass organization. Just as the ruling class is preparing for years of escalating bloodshed and horror, we must be preparing for years of class war, and at this stage, our most critical task is politically organizing the working class.
Beyond Uncommitted: Building the Third Party of the Working Class
At this moment, a new development has taken place. The horrors of the genocide have prompted protests and opposition within a great portion of the Democratic Party itself through the Vote Uncommitted Campaign. The Vote Uncommitted movement was initially sparked by Arab and Muslim activists organizing as “Listen to Michigan.” State Representative, Democrat Abraham Aiyash, expressed the hopes of the leading elements of the uncommitted movement: “we are hoping that this Uncommitted movement will allow this administration to course correct and shift their policymaking and shift their strategy on the conflict in Gaza to hopefully save more lives… This is why we are voting Uncommitted. To save lives.” The uncommitted campaign has gone national and is pushing for the demands of: Immediate and Permanent Ceasefire, No More Military Funding to Israel, An End to the Siege on Gaza, and Reinstating Humanitarian and UNRWA funding.
The movement has yielded incredible results in a short time, with the following vote counts in some of the states:
- Michigan: 101,623 votes for uncommitted, about 13% of total votes
- Minnesota: 45,914 votes for uncommitted, nearly 19% of total votes
- Hawaii: 455 votes for uncommitted, about 29% of total votes
- Washington: 89,753 votes for uncommitted delegates, nearly 10% of the total vote
According to blogger and political writer Josh Cohen on his Substack, as of March 29th, 10 more states can vote uncommitted and win delegates, two more states have write-ins and can win delegates, and two more states have a “leave it blank” option where votes will be tallied but delegates will not be awarded. The Uncommitted movement has won 25+ delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which will take place this August in Chicago. The movement can feasibly win several hundred thousand more voters and win dozens of new delegates. However, the total number of delegates to the Democratic National Convention is 4,672. At best, the Uncommitted campaign can win dozens of more delegates to serve a protest function. But even then, the campaign is working with leading Democratic Party officials to vet and select delegates to the convention.
It is clear, then, that the Uncommitted campaign is already very close to reaching its limit as a means of protest. Recalling the analysis of the Gaza genocide by the Office of Director of National Intelligence and US Imperialism’s need for a strong Israeli military-state, it is clear that uncommitted will not accomplish its demand to sever US aid to Israel. What the movement shows, however, is that there is a section of the Democratic Party that is desperately seeking an alternative to the two-party system.
The dissatisfaction with Biden and the ruling class must grow beyond protesting Biden in the Democratic primary, towards a complete break with the Democratic Party and towards building a genuine third party of the working class which will in turn undercut the working class segments of the Democrats and the Republicans. The 63 percent of people who are willing to support a third party surely has grown since the poll was taken in October. This sentiment was expressed by PSL’s Claudia and Karina, who wrote in a statement:
Our campaign and the PSL call on those who are voting in the Democratic primary to not vote for Biden: vote uncommitted, “none of the above,” or, where that is not possible, leave the top of the ticket blank.
The strength of this vote serves as a register of the deep anger that exists among people who typically vote for Democrats. It is part of a broader movement in solidarity with Palestine that has had a remarkable effect on public opinion. Massive marches have taken place in major cities across the country. Politicians are disrupted wherever they go. Opposition to the Israeli regime’s crimes is appearing everywhere in society, creating major fault lines in every institution. Each tactic builds towards the same ultimate end, and the electoral movement is another arena to show our power.
We encourage all those who have had enough with the Democratic Party’s empty promises, genocidal war-mongering, and anti-people agenda — and who know that the Republicans offer no alternative — to take the next step and abandon the Democratic Party altogether.
Beyond the Uncommitted campaign, in the general election, voters will be confronted with the choice of voting either Republican, Democrat, or an Independent/Third Party option. It is the latter that offers us the opportunity to tap into the discontent with the two-party system and build mass organization. As we speak, the Green Party’s Jill Stein is on the ballot in 20 states, actively petitioning in 21 other states, and aiming to be on the ballot in all 50 states. The PSL’s Claudia and Karina are on the ballot in 5 states with an aim of ballot access in 20+ states and Cornel West is on the ballot in 4 states and aiming for access in all 50. It must be stressed again that all of these candidates are running on a platform of anti-imperialism, anti-racism & anti-xenophobia, expansion of democracy, dismantling of the police state, ecological justice, and domestic programs that benefit the working class: in short, platforms which can connect the struggle for a Free Palestine to the struggle for socialism.
Of these candidates, Jill Stein and Claudia & Karina have developed the most solidarity, regularly appearing in stages together, with Stein even congratulating Claudia & Karina for winning ballot access in California, writing “Solidarity with all candidates who support an end to endless war and genocide, an economy that works for working people, and a livable future for our children.” In this, Stein is expressing that a vote for them is not just a vote against Biden, but a vote for a vision of a positive future in which the working people are the ones in control of their destinies. Every person who, come election day, goes to vote for these candidates is a person ready to be organized for class war.
The working class in the United States does not yet have a mass party with robust internal democracy that can spearhead their political interests. After all, the Democratic and Republican parties are cartel parties that are tightly controlled by capital in a top-down fashion. In the very act of defying the two-party system through a movement supporting third-party candidates, knocking on every door, and signing up people who are looking for a break from the two-party system, we are engaging in the act of identifying and mobilizing a base from which a mass socialist party can emerge.
The essence of my argument is this: as the march on January 13th showed us, it is possible to have unity of the vast progressive forces in the country. What is needed now is organizational unity and a fusion of the protest, union, and electoral movement that has currently coalesced for a Free Palestine in the form of a movement to build the party of the working class.
It is certainly a tall order, but there are many reasons to believe that such a movement is possible: and not only possible, but currently being built. Unlike the previous great protest movements in the US, such as Occupy Wall Street and the George Floyd Protests, not only has the movement for a free Palestine been sustained for almost half a year, but is growing. This is not due to chance or luck, but consistent organization and mobilization driven by activists who have assimilated the failures of previous movements and are blazing a new path forward.
Putting Organizational Unity into Practice
Source: @peoplesforumNYC on Instagram
In NYC, I have been active over the past few weeks with the Shut it Down for Palestine Coalition, the largest and most organized group for a Free Palestine in the US. Every week, we have a volunteer meeting that draws hundreds of people. We ground ourselves with a political summary of the week’s events, then split up into sections based on our neighborhoods and plan actions to draw attention to the issue of Palestine. It is this consistent work that allows us to overcome the corporate media blackout and reach out directly to the masses, engaging small businesses, postering and flyering around the neighborhood, disrupting town halls of Zionist politicians, and deploying a variety of other tactics. Countless people with no organizing experience have been drawn in and transformed. Despite an increase in police repression, the movement keeps growing with no signs of slowing down.
The organizations behind the Shut it Down for Palestine Coalition are the following:
PALESTINIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT
NATIONAL STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE
ANSWER COALITION
THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
INTERNATIONAL PEOPLES’ ASSEMBLY
AL-AWDA – NY
PALESTINIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CENTER (PACC) – NJ
These groups have now taken their United Front approach to a new level, joining with the US Palestinian Community Network, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network, Writers Against the War on Gaza, Healthcare Workers for Palestine, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Palestine Popular University, and the Palestinian American Women’s Association to launch The People’s Conference for Palestine.
It will be a massive conference, held in Detroit on May 24th-26th, and it echoes the United Front spirit of the January 13th rally. The conference website has this introductory statement:
We are in an unprecedented moment in history. As we bear witness to the ongoing and brutal genocide against the Palestinian people, we are also part of building a mass movement that is committed to struggling for Palestinian national liberation. The demands for an end to the genocide, lifting of the siege of Gaza, an end to all US aid for Israel, and a free Palestine echo in the streets, in classrooms and universities, disrupting the halls of government and the daily lives of all genocide-profiteers. All backers of Zionism, Israel, and US imperialism have been put on notice. The perpetrators of genocide and occupation have names and faces, and the masses of people around the world stand against them in the millions. The movement for Palestine has never been stronger: but with this strength comes a monumental responsibility.
This moment calls on us to strengthen our relationships, our strategies, our tactics, and our unity for the struggle ahead. We must build a shared assessment of the moment, and chart out the next phase of our struggle. The Palestinian people have been fighting for liberation for over 100 years and are committed to continuing this fight generation after generation, until victory. Join us as organizations, collectives, movement leaders, community members, students and intellectuals, artists and cultural workers, and activists for a three-day convening to reflect, exchange, and strengthen ourselves and our fight for a free Palestine.
It will be a conference for the progressive forces of the United States to plot the next phase of this struggle. According to the program of the conference, on day 3, the conference will discuss: Uncommitted Votes & the Fracturing of the Two-Party System & Entering the Era of Liberation. This will be the place where we can seriously discuss breaking with the two-party system, with the forces that can actually make it happen.
The Shut it Down for Palestine Coalition meetings taking place weekly in cities and towns around the country can give us a sense of what the organization of this break can look like. Imagine if attendees to the People’s Conference (which could include the third-party candidates for President, labor unions, tenant unions, other worker organizations, socialist organizations like DSA and PSL, and the leading organizations of the ongoing protest movement) were to come together and agree to some form of unity. All of these organizations could sign on to a political platform that represents their interests and the interests of the oppressed of this country (likely a version of the platforms of Jill Stein, Claudia and Karina, and Cornel West). The platform would be the basis of organizing a mass socialist party, with the third-party candidates choosing to either rally behind one candidate or tally the votes and volunteers that they gain into a broader whole.
Out of this would come the next phase of struggle. Every week volunteers would congregate in meeting spaces like what Shut it Down for Palestine is doing now to discuss the political moment and the need to build a socialist party. They would separate off into neighborhood groups and work together to do outreach into communities about the developing movement for a socialist party, presenting the platform, encouraging people to vote socialist, spreading the message within their workplaces and communities, and gaining more signups and more volunteers.
Volunteers would be brought into meeting spaces where they can be grounded and trained in outreach. As the movement grows and draws in more and more people, cells of this campaign would emerge in neighborhoods, towns, and cities, around the country, all connected around the campaign, which would by November 2024 create the ground-up structure from which a true mass socialist party can emerge. To reiterate, the foundations of this sort of work are already taking place. As the weekly meetings at the People’s Forum in NYC show, it is now a matter of expanding it to build a mass socialist party.
The United Front to Build the Mass Socialist Party
It is common knowledge amongst US socialists that our movement is splintered, with a variety of Marxist-Leninist parties, the Green Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, and numerous unorganized socialists scattered throughout the country. With this in mind, some comrades may say, why not build DSA / PSL / my organization instead of a new mass socialist party?
The Marxist-Leninist Parties, such as PSL, operate under a democratic centralist cadre model, which means that there is a months-long training and vetting process for entry alongside standards of revolutionary discipline. This makes rapid organization of the masses into a cadre party like PSL impossible. However, with the escalation of US imperialist aggression and a bi-partisan shift of the ruling class towards authoritarian forms of rule, dismantling of bourgeois democracy, and rising xenophobia/anti-immigrant sentiment, it is a matter of life and death to rapidly organize and politicize the masses.
At this stage, the masses of people must go through a sharp period of political education and action to develop the capacity for revolution. They must learn to be organizers and leaders in their communities, their workplaces and residences, and all areas of public life; thus there is a need for a political party with a low barrier of entry based merely on acceptance of the political platform and with robust internal democracy, that would serve as a school of the oppressed, where the masses can learn and organize within their circles of influence, and debate/develop their conceptions of how to win liberation. Of course, already organized revolutionaries must and will be part of these debates, and through ideological conflict, we will sharpen our own ideas and climb the mountain of revolution.
It may be the case that the Green Party or the Democratic Socialists of America is the vehicle to build a mass socialist party due to their low barrier of entry, but both have significant problems. The Green Party has a very small core of activists in comparison to some other prominent socialist organizations and has a federated structure, with undemocratic and deeply entrenched bureaucratic cliques in certain state chapters. This means that the party may not be equipped to handle a rapid influx of new members, and it certainly lacks the national cohesion to be an adequate vehicle for a mass socialist party to emerge.
The Democratic Socialists of America, while the largest socialist organization, has a ban on democratic centralism, with Article I Section III of its bylaws stating: “Members may be expelled if they are found to be in substantial disagreement with the principles or policies of the organization or if they consistently engage in undemocratic, disruptive behavior or if they are under the discipline of any self-defined democratic-centralist organization.” This section has recently been used to expel members of the Spartacist League in the DSA-LA chapter. The League is low-hanging fruit due to their opposition to age of consent laws, alongside their often-times disruptive conduct in DSA meetings. However, the use of the democratic centralist clause for expulsion should concern all those on DSA’s left wing who are pushing for a break from the Democratic Party and accountability towards DSA elected officials, like Nithya Raman, who have explicitly supported Zionism and the US war budget. At present, the DSA is deadlocked between a right-wing that is explicitly tied to the Democratic Party and a left that is trying to build an independent mass socialist party. Currently, the two sides are at war over how the DSA should manage its budget and staff as the organization rapidly loses members and dues. This has resulted in a proposal by the DSA left to lay off its staff and instead develop leaders from the general membership. DSA staff have acted as an unaccountable arm of the organization, with access to membership lists and other crucial resources. They tend to be drawn from Democrat and NGO spaces, which is one reason the DSA right wants to preserve them, as staff are more aligned with their politics and hold great power in the organization. In their war against the DSA left, there is a great risk that the DSA right will use Article I Section III to purge their opposition, such as DSA left factions like the Marxist Unity Group and Red Star. Further, there is no indication that the DSA left or even the DSA rank-and-file will approve of calls to expel Democrat electeds like Raman or AOC (who alongside “the Squad” voted for $40 Billion of military aid to Ukraine). Despite their repeated violation of DSA’s anti-imperialist political principles, both of these electeds were re-endorsed with the support of the DSA rank and file in their respective chapters. There is no indication at this moment that the DSA is ready to sever its material links to US Imperialism and the Democratic Party.
Since DSA is explicitly against Marxist-Leninist organizations, and a great portion of the organization is thoroughly tied to the Democratic Party, there are incredible institutional hurdles that must be overcome for the organization to serve as a vehicle to unite the socialist movement. If the Green Party, the DSA, and the Marxist-Leninist cadre parties prove to be unviable vehicles, then the option is for us to work together, start from scratch, and build a mass socialist party immediately based on a clean break from the two-party system.
Regardless of what path we take, the simple fact of the matter is that we need a Mass Socialist Party, and that we can and must build it now. US Imperialism is pushing the whole world to catastrophe and it must be stopped now. The Palestinian people’s fight for freedom is one to destroy this crazed beast, and they are doing it with profound heroism, with their lives on the line every single moment. It is because we want the Palestinians to be free, and in extension because we want to be free from this imperialist death cult, that masses of people are out in the streets, united.
We must push this unity even further, by bringing together the entire socialist movement, the entire class-independent labor and tenant movement, and the ongoing protest movement to discuss amongst ourselves how to harness this moment into a unifying party-building project that organizes millions of working people and transforms them into revolutionaries. We have an opportunity to combine all of the skills that we have sharpened through the previous years of class struggle – winning local elections, building tenant power, organizing our workplaces and politicizing our unions, taking over the streets, and countless other means of resistance – to build an organization that is greater than the sum of its parts, so that the millions of toiling people in the heart of empire learn the art and discipline of class struggle, so that we stand ready to confront and smash fascism and the US Imperial State. Thus, this is an appeal to all to endorse and attend the People’s Conference where we can finally have this discussion, where we can finally build connections with the forces of liberation, where we can unite, to take the necessary steps to build a mass socialist party and open the doors for the beginning of a new and higher stage of the class war.
