This year’s theme was “Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion.” It featured dresses too delicate to be worn and a walk through the history of fashion, while ignoring the historical moment occurring in the real world. One block from the Gala protestors chanted, “Gaza! Gaza!” and waved Palestinian flags. These students, protesting their universities’ role in funding the genocidal zionist project, spilled into the streets, demanding from these celebrities their voice alongside the rallying cry of those demanding an end to the genocide. Police arrested twenty-seven of them, but you can still hear those voices on the media footage of the event, chants breaking through the metal barricades set up on the street to reach the ears of the wealthiest and most influential fashion party in the U.S..

The dress code was supposedly the “Garden of Time,” a J.G. Ballard story about a wealthy couple who are on the verge of being attacked by an angry mob, forestalled by their magic garden, whose flowers stop time when picked. They rely on plucking roses to turn back time,  but roses and time are both running out. The garden withers; time comes for the couple, turning them to stone and their palace to dust. With the police barricading the surrounding streets and their silence on a genocide, these celebrities are acting out the Ballard story on the grand scale; the spectacle is meant to buy time for a system doomed to die at the hands of a mob.

As boozy celebs pranced about in Manhattan, the zionist occupation rained hell on Rafah, answering the protests with an ear-splitting run of explosions. Joe Biden, never one to restrain his imperialist dog in the Middle East, immediately folded on his so-called “red line.” The insulting opulence of the Met Gala was set against a backdrop of unceasing violence. At an event two days later, billionaire Kim Kardashian overheard, “Free Palestine” and replied, “Free everybody!” This sanctimonious neutrality, this “All lives matter” equivalent to an ongoing genocide, demands our criticism; the genocide in Gaza is as plain as day, and we do not accept that the best anyone with a platform can do is half-baked platitudes. We need to put the pressure on.

In another sense, though, all residents under the umbrella of the U.S.-Canadian Empire are in the Garden of Time, picking the flowers. This system will not last forever. The exploited nations are throwing off their shackles. The Met Gala itself relies on the fickleness of fast fashion, providing a respectable veneer for the destructive waste of the fashion industry. Fashion brands use the Gala for promotion, while profiting heavily from the destruction of the environment and exploited labor of the Global South. One would think, given the Gala’s theme, that these designers would pay mind to the environment they share with us, but we instead saw designs meant to be thrown away. This is an empire that uses things up and spits them out. The clothing goes into a landfill, the factory that made the clothing dumps its pollution into the water, and the human beings who made work under obscene conditions are then cast aside.

The crimes of fast fashion are the crimes of the U.S. Empire. It’s not just poor taste that inspires celebrities to carry ice purses, nor is it simply bad moral judgment that they ignore the cries of the protestors. They need the imperial system to continue to keep hold on their obscene wealth. The glitterati will always stand against the people; their wealth comes from the imperial ruling class.

But our struggles are the Palestinian struggles; the world’s struggles. U.S. police “innovation” is tested on Palestinians in occupied territory before it comes home. Capitalists — and zionists —  run slave mines in Africa, and their political interference in Latin America creates hundreds of thousands of refugees. The climate deteriorates further under the capitalist system, and they offer no solutions. The walls of the garden of time are cracking. The empire is crumbling. The ruling class is losing control.

On the question of Palestine, the tide has turned. The working people of the world, particularly the young, see the zionist entity for what it is: a genocidal state with the full backing of the US. The U.S. celebrity network celebrates in lavish outfits while our government funds and backs a genocide, but you wouldn’t know it with the coverage of the event. The media is merely the hand that washes away the blood of empire. Our government buys missiles and sends them to kill tens of thousands of Palestinian children trapped in Gaza where they cannot run; every new “safe” space becomes a bombing target. Zionist forces maim and kill civilians without hesitation. U.S. military technology is key to Israel’s entire war effort. Yet our political caste refuses to reign the zionist state in, because our outpost in the Middle East is too valuable and our empire too rigid for even genocide to make Joe Biden constrain the zionist monster.

We are living on borrowed time; the capitalist system cannot fix our climate, and the world cannot bear the weight of American consumption much longer. Our flowers are running out. Americans need to stand with the protestors and make our voices heard. We cannot afford to turn away, to retreat further into senescence and decrepitude. We must reject the genocide in Gaza along with the system that requires it. Reject the silence of celebrity and hold the American ruling class to account; put their feet to the fire and secure our own liberation. It is this that will make a truly international revolution. The Black struggle, the Indigenous struggle, and the Palestinian struggle are all struggles for national liberation. The broader class struggle — our struggle — depends on their unconditional victories. The same imperial system conducting this genocide brings its murderous lessons home to use against us. We need to struggle together, or we will die together. We who live in the heart of the empire have the choice; we did not choose this empire, but we can choose its destruction. We have the tools to remake the world. Reject our genocidal ruling class. Stand with Palestine. Stand with liberation. Stand with life. Free Palestine!

Editors Note: This topic is one of particular concern to Unity–Struggle–Unity and to the Red Clarion in particular. It has come to our attention that a subscriber to our newspaper and a local contact on the ground in the state of Connecticut has also faced state repression and news approbation for his anti-zionist views. See the piece about his suspension in The Masses for more.

The spin doctors are on life support. The world sees the truth about zionist occupation of Palestine. Hundreds of thousands march in the streets in protest of the U.S.-backed zionist state, demanding an end to the slaughter of Palestinians. We see the images of bombed-out apartments, schools, and hospitals, as well as children murdered by zionist hands. We see the unlivable conditions in Gaza as zionist troops force Palestinians out of their homes and into the desert. And we see the valiant resistance of the Palestinian people standing up to the genocide that occupation forces are conducting on the ground.

The more obvious the truth, the harder those in power will work to conceal it. Across the entirety of North America, as the people reach out and stand in solidarity with the embattled Palestinians, it becomes increasingly difficult for imperialist mouthpieces to lie. Young people in the United States have not bought into the lies about so-called “israel”. They see the zionist occupation for what it is: a genocidal apartheid state with an increasingly fascist settler population, driven by greed and racism. Zionist news outlets talk out of both sides of their mouths, assuring English-speaking viewers they are taking appropriate precautions to safeguard civilian lives, while openly broadcasting their genocidal intent in Hebrew and Arabic. Their lies are for us. The victims know what they face.

Since the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood, support for Palestine has grown rapidly among young Americans. A Quinnipiac poll listed just over half of eighteen to thirty-four-year-olds sympathizing with Palestine, while a staggering sixty-five percent of the occupation’s supporters are age fifty and older. The generational gap looms large. Since its creation, the zionist state has built up its mythology in the Middle East with the full support of the U.S. media. The occupation’s role as an outpost of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East involved the media construction of an  “Israel” that is a hyper-competent military operator enduring a siege conducted by the America’s barbaric enemies. This was effective in influencing public opinion during the Cold War. Young people today see the obvious truth: that the zionist state is the aggressor, using unending U.S. military aid to terrorize its neighbors and ethnically cleanse its Palestinian population. Young Americans do not have access to the imperial spoils that flowed to the United States after World War II. The rich have concentrated their wealth at unprecedented levels and even the meager welfare state is being stripped for parts. The next generation can see their economic future and it is grim. Young people see the realities of capitalism at home, and are connecting to the struggle abroad.

The cracks in the imperialist narrative are growing. The 2020 killing of George Floyd heightened consciousness of the white supremacist policy underlying the U.S. police state. The police who killed George Floyd, like many of the police across the U.S. Empire, train with the zionists to hone their killing technique. Riding that wave, more people see the zionist state as the United States’ steadfast ally in oppression. Zionist troops test so-called “less lethal” munitions on Palestinians. They deploy new and cruel anti-protest tactics and psychological operations, which they then teach to the largest police departments in the U.S. The U.S., in response, gives the zionists billions of dollars of state-of-the-art weaponry and freedom from the consequences of international law. U.S. and zionist occupying forces are two sides of the same coin, two imperial groups united in their use of overwhelming violence.

Used to acting with impunity, to being able to control the public narrative, the U.S. security regime and its little brother, the U.S. news media, have acted with swiftness and brutality to those who are making their voices heard for Palestine. Advocates have faced censorship from the state and from private corporations. Solidarity with Palestine threatens the increasingly fragile liberal order. Editor Michael Eisen of the journal eLife was fired for simply retweeting a headline from satirical newspaper The Onion, “Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas.” When he refused to apologize for standing up for Palestinians, the board of directors fired him. Seven editors resigned in solidarity with him.

Air Canada suspended pilot Mostafa Ezzo for his participation in a pro-Palestine rally. The company claimed he was not authorized as a spokesperson, asserting that he could not express his beliefs while publicly being an employee of Air Canada. Ezzo posted pictures of his attendance at a rally on his private page. 

Goldie, a restaurant in Philadelphia, fired two employees for wearing Palestinian flag pins. Employees and workers were engaged in an ongoing dispute about whether the restaurant would hold a fundraiser for the IOF on October 12. The company lied to employees about the fundraiser, pretending that the supplies were going to humanitarian aid in Gaza.The company fired the two employees for wearing pins and a manager who refused to enforce the censorship.

The Minnesota Nurses’ Association suspended Tania Singh for posts advocating for Palestinian resistance. Her analysis of the zionist state as a settler-colony led to her panicked firing right after she unionized nurses who specialized in examining sexual assault victims.

Universities, too, have been harsh in their response to pro-Palestinian sentiment. The U.S. Congress conducted a show trial of Ivy League university presidents, drawing a line in the sand. Not even one word of anti-zionist sentiment would be tolerated. Ryna Workman, a law student at New York University, faced organizational and professional consequences for pro-Palestine speech. They were first removed as the President of the Student Bar Association, then their job offer at a top firm was rescinded. This serves as a stark warning to anyone in the legal field.

Student organizations are under fire. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered that all Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters in the state be dissolved. SJP members have faced harassment, doxxing, and firing for their political activities. They are targeted by everyone from their universities to state politicians to the zionist government. Anti-zionist Jews in SJP face especially intense backlash.

Under normal circumstances, there’s one group of people in the U.S. that can tell the truth if they feel like it: celebrities. Wealth, power, and popularity do wonders for insulating someone from consequences. Zionists, however, are so desperate that we have witnessed a slew of high-profile celebrity firings in response to Palestinian solidarity. Actress Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream VII for accurately describing the genocidal conditions in Gaza. Susan Sarandon was dropped from the United Talent Agency after appearing at a pro-Palestine march. Novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen was pulled from an event for merely signing an open letter critical of the zionist state.

From the working class to the red carpet, none of these people are saying anything particularly radical. These are not the sort of statements one expects to see censored. In fact, they are the prevailing opinion. Seventy percent  of the U.S. public supports a ceasefire; support for Palestine is not a fringe view. The zionists are too brutal even for the U.S. ruling class, demonstrating a division in the goals of each. This genocide threatens the stability of U.S. military operations in the region, and the contradictions are driving a wedge between the United States and its puppet.

We are winning. The world sees the truth and we cannot stop speaking it. These acts of petty censorship cannot stand up to the wave of solidarity with the oppressed. Every worthy cause has its risks. For every person fired, we need thousands condemning it. For every zionist lie, we must respond with the truth that this is a genocide, and that Palestinian resistance is noble and worth fighting for. We must respond, “We stand with Palestine!” There is one struggle for liberation against global capitalism and white supremacy, and the Palestinians stand at the front of that struggle. We must declare, with all our hearts, that from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! Our voices together will quake the earth.