The first step to creating a movement is taking action. Acting as a pioneer in said action, serving as a vanguard will incline the peoples to struggle, not only actively but also organized. What we must not do is let the day pass by in frustration over limited actions. We must link our struggle to the global Palestinian intifada movement, embracing the spirit and argor of the Palestinian people. Palestine is the common cause of the oppressed. Palestine is ours.
The just cause and resistance of the Palestinian nation once again surrounds the world at the political level. As we enter the 76th year of the Nakba, the rising wave of anti-Zionist and anti-fascist struggle in the US, led by students and academics, has embodied the political alignment of the world’s oppressed around the Palestinian cause.
Since the revolutionary move of October 7, Zionism and imperialism have been mobilizing all their power to suppress this resistance and make it surrender. However, the resistance of the Palestinian nation continues and the specter of resistance is channeled and spread in form of the intifada. The resistance of the oppressed in the homeland of imperialism is sprouting and growing. Today, the anti-Zionist struggle, which is making waves in the States, is also taking place by explicitly and implicitly involving the oppressed and the established state order of the imperialist rulers in many different conflict issues.
The US-led imperialist bloc has been unconditionally supporting Zionist Israel with all its might since the beginning. The UK, the US and Germany are propagating the ideological and political legitimization of the Zionist occupation and genocide policies. The most useful tool of imperialist tyrants in such reckless legitimation of Zionism is anti-Semitism. The US and several EU-states have banned demonstrations in solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people on the grounds of alleged anti-Semitism. It is necessary to evaluate these bans as a practice of neo-fascist movements that restrict political freedom within the imperialist states, as well as freedom of thought, expression, action and organization. In this context, Zionism functions as a basis on which the imperialist rulers and the global fascist tendency organize themselves.
It is possible to summarize the situation as follows. The US and European imperialist states, which are backing Israel, model their own fascist regimes in the image of the zionist fascist paradigm and organize them piece by piece. The excuse granted to Israeli Zionism literally becomes a ground for fascist reactionism to develop and flourish freely. This privilege and ‘state of exception’ granted to the Zionist fascist state of Israel becomes an area for all kinds of genocidal fascist destruction to develop and gain the right to exist. From the legitimization of torture to genocide, from various war crimes to drone assassinations, from ethnic cleansing to settler colonialism, the privilege and superiority that are not granted to any other state in the world are presented to the Zionist Israeli state as a ‘state of exception’ and ‘right’. Israel’s zionist fascist state order serves as an orientation for imperialist states. In other words, within the structure of bourgeois democracy bending towards fascism, the allegation of antisemitism is intrumentalized and miscontrued to serve as the protective shield of Zionism.
Two basic themes stand out that this neo-fascist movement, developed under the leadership of the rulers of the imperialist order, uses to narrow the area of political freedom. Firstly: these are the anti-communist measures that have been constantly increased and deepened in the last decade. This is organized in the form of a campaigns and legal regulations in EU countries. Secondly: racism, hostility towards immigrants and the instrumentalization of antisemitism. The performative antisemitism policy in force in the US, Canada, the EU and the UK acquires a function beyond legitimizing bourgeois liberalism. It becomes a basic element and motif of the neo–fascist movement with its new content and function that legitimizes all fascist practices of Zionism.
The rightful resistance of the Palestinian people has been a ground of struggle throughout history, which the progressive groups of the world’s oppressed have made their common cause with effective and strong solidarity. Today, the Palestinian cause is the common cause of the world’s oppressed, a combination of their current struggle. The oppressed of the world see their own struggle for rights and justice in Palestine’s just cause. The anti-Zionist struggle of the student youth movement in the US is developing as a product of today’s total conditions and as a combination of certain socio-political demands. Under the banner of anti-Zionism, they actually shoulder the oppressed people’s own troubles and various rebellions against capitalism. The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, for example, of black Americans is a natural component of the anti-Zionist struggle. A wide spectrum of the oppressed and exploited, from Muslim communities to immigrant and refugee groups, from labor unions to feminist groups and LGBTI+ people, are the backbone of the anti-Zionist movement. The Palestinian resistance unites the oppressed of the world against the imperialist capitalist system of oppression and exploitation. Today’s movement stands ahead of the youth movement in America who did not want to participate in the unjust war in Vietnam. A movement that develops directly against Zionism is moving forward, especially by shattering the armor of anti-Semitic hegemony. Undoubtedly, the movement developing in the world has gained its right to exist by relying on the unyielding power of the Palestinian resistance.
It is clearly seen that the Palestinian youth in the diaspora, who are being educated in universities in the countries of western imperialism and the US, have a catalytic role in the organization of the anti-Zionist movement. The basic condition of creating an organized and active will in the ignition of the movement is fulfilled here by the combination of the most sensitive and assured combative groups. It is precisely through this organized and catalytic power that resistance tents and camps are established in universities in the US and the movement is given a level of continuity and action. Resistance spreads and teaches the world.
The anti-Zionist movement in Turkey and North Kurdistan progresses through the effectiveness and political hegemony of political Islamist forces. We must acknowledge that the labor left movement greatly lacks leadership and in this field, and the Palestinian solidarity movement, which has fallen to the narrowest and most backward tendencies, must be raised. A claim and united line of action should be established that will break the hegemony of political Islamist groups and give the slogan of “Palestine is ours” a political body and movement again. The political action line and movement starting from student youth groups should be expanded to all oppressed and exploited classes. What we should not do is look back at our history and make the Palestinian practice of the ’68-youth movement a subject of nostalgic lamentation. Instead, we need to focus on the tasks of today, relying on the power of our history, and urgently revive our claim to and practice of consistent internationalist struggle
The broad anti-war coalition and practice of united struggle by the laboring left movement established during the Iraq invasion and the Kobanê serhildan practice show us the path to walk towards vicotry. The Palestineian issue, which determined the results of the local election and weakened the fascist regime, is one of the most important links of the current anti-fascist revolutionary struggle.
The Palestinian cause, which has such a wide and solid field of political legitimacy and is responded to by our people with different levels of political consciousness, is clearly one of the political levers of the mass struggle. It is unacceptable that the laboring left has been unable take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity against the fascist Erdoğan regime. The current situation is a failure of political assertion and leadership that must be overcome. However, the opportunity and the moment have not yet been missed entirely. We currently do have a united basis for struggle on this issue. The actions on the Nakba anniversary should be an occasion to move on to a new level. At this moment, our labor left movement as a whole must change its situation according to the needs of the struggle and be able to produce a united struggle practice in line with the saying and political claim of “Palestine is ours”.
The trend and movement of anti-Zionist, antifascist and anti-imperialist struggle, which has become the basis and medium of the united struggle of the oppressed and exploited all over the world, indicates that a new wave of international progressive struggle may develop. Our labor left movement can meet with its main divisions in united forms of struggle and bring closer anti-Zionist, antifascist and anti-imperialist struggle towards the oppressed and exploited social segments.
The first step to creating a movement is taking action. Acting as a pioneer in said action, serving as a vanguard will incline the peoples to struggle, not only actively but also organized. What we must not do is let the day pass by in frustration over limited actions. We must link our struggle to the global Palestinian intifada movement, embracing the spirit and argor of the Palestinian people. Palestine is the common cause of the oppressed. Palestine is ours.Let’s carry the voice of the Palestinian nation, which is on the brink of being exterminated by the genocide and the second Nakba, to all the oppressed of the world. Let’s bring the demands of the resistance of the Palestinian nation to all branches of life and make them the subject of propaganda, agitation and action. Let us increase the struggle of our people against the fascist Erdoğan regime, collaborator of Zionist Israel. Let’s expand, popularize and internationalize the united struggle with the demand and goal of cutting off all relations of fascist Turkey with Israel. Let’s raise the flag of struggle higher.
Let us defeat Zionism and imperialism with the power of the global intifada action that echoes around the world with the slogan of intifada in unison.
The original text was published in Turkish on May 17 as the editorial of the 167th issue of the weekly newspaper ATILIM.