All above you dangling were your wise men. I recognized none of them personally. All I knew was from a hundred black and white photographs, all presenting unflattering, villainous angles. A couple, like yours, with faces purpled by pressure, blood massing, riots at the skin. Many more with bullet wounds, taken from executions elsewhere when the idea for this display had struck. Some were decorated with nooses properly tied, though many hung from limbs, and others still from hooks. No doubt from a nearby packing plant. Too far to have been the one your father worked. In the paper I’d read they celebrated this as the return of the Christmas tree, because the year prior that same paper said you’d banned Christmas. 

I moved closer and grabbed what was left of your leg all at once: a strong breeze had shaken you and I couldn’t take the sight. Something primal in me suppressed all disgust. You reminded me of a flag. Perhaps that was what you were meant to be, why the clothes they dressed you in were at first white. 

Remember when we last spoke? I was in your house. You brought me a tray of coffee and sugar. Your daughter listened to the radio, your son left to check the night. That was when they were calling you a despot for arresting your would-be assassins. There were daily papers scattered saying as much, your dog on the couch, a pistol empty on the cushion beside him. The moon swung by its black noose upside down over the house. Your windows had been open when I arrived, and I locked them when you went to the kitchen to fetch me a spoon. You hadn’t noticed, I think. We had dinner, rations mostly, a bag of dried peach halves for dessert, good wine you saved from our university days. We drank our inhibitions and spoke of how hard it was to govern. There was no end to your problems, and limited patience for my solutions. Eventually, I’d torn one of your many newspapers apart — this was the wine — and demanded you censor its lies. I spoke of the necessity of a Red Terror until you, my dear friend, seemed afraid. 

I swept the dried peaches to the floor with my arm. I am tired of your fooling around, I’d said. As for the rights of anyone, of fascists, tell your people they can fuck themselves. Your dog sat up and barked. Your daughter stared. The moon had dug deep bright wells in her eyes. I was shamed into silence. The dried peach halves on the floor, listening to this, in the dark they looked like…

They removed your ears. On both sides of your head there is only  hair that looks caught in the rain, wet. Any idiot can guess this brutal poetry. Retributive justice for an invented crime. Deafen the paranoiac organs of Big Brother. Finally, the snakes are free. Closer now, I see your self. Remembering what you were, piece by piece, becomes how I breathe through the stench. Once two whole wandering legs. Once ten poet’s fingers. Eyes warm as the earth. I see hanging you so low was not just symbolic — you’ve become a tree trunk for carving initials and complaints, nothing romantic. I cut the noose with a hunting knife I found in you. You nearly knock us both over. I lay you in the street. For now everyone is busy, preoccupied with a new, realer terror. Your supporters, the wretched of the earth, either shipped away to some barbed place or filled my nose with their stench. With the handkerchief you once gave me and then forgot, I massage the blood from your face. I do this slowly, while I hold your hand. You won’t be here alone. Now your favorite color, I return the cloth to your breast pocket. I kiss your swollen lips. 

Beside us, the courthouse you so loved burns, casting strange shadows on your tired flesh. If I decide that the flickering of light over your face is the ghost of a smile, I’ll cremate you in that flame, I swear. I won’t tolerate satisfaction, or personal peace. I hope your soul was worth it, it’s Hell for the rest of us. At home, my new home, some of the papers are already calling you an inspiration. All the bastard scholars who never spoke of you while you lived now eulogize you. A nation where all the rebels are losers, they’ll grant sainthood to anyone who fails this spectacularly. Now that you are dead, you are safe for them to worship. I say I’ll burn you, but my face rains on you instead. I have enough fingers to shield yours remaining wholly from the night. Your hands vanish in mine like an infant’s. I wish you’d been half the monster they said you were.

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.

The question of national self-determination for Palestine and its conflict with the zionist state subsumes a number of contradictions within it. The chains of empire snap where they are their weakest: in the periphery and among backwards, besieged, or otherwise destabilized regions. Yes, the zionist state is an outpost of U.S. imperialism in West Asia. However, it is not merely an appendage of the U.S. imperial ruling class. Zionism has its own politics, and the zionist state has its own internal structure and conflicts. Further, it is not a “simple” vassal state — the zionists have long had their own agendas which they have used U.S. and NATO influence to further. Although the zionists are used as the pawns of the U.S. empire, they are not simple pawns. They have an autonomous will of their own, their own goals, and they are sometimes in direct alignment with the U.S. imperial interests, but more often in some manner of misalignment.

This current crisis, that of the successful resistance battles that have been ongoing since October 7, has put the zionists into the greatest degree of contradiction with the U.S. empire that they have experienced in this century.

Let us take stock: the U.S. is embroiled in a heated proxy war in Ukraine, where it is squandering influence and treasure daily. Although it expects to profit from this war, the profits are not immediate, and some of them were meant to come in the form of decreased influence of the Russian Federation globally. Instead, the proxy war the U.S. provoked has created a new axis of non-aligned states and put many countries of the Third World into alignment with both the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. U.S.-NATO aggression has created this new non-aligned pact.

Domestically, the U.S. empire has been fighting its own growing insurgency in the fascist stronghold of the South (see the section “Fortresses of Fascism” in the Red Clarion piece, The Two Faces of Fascism). Since 2020, a simmering insurgency, unformed and inchoate, has been threatening to break out now and again into open conflict with the state. The latest domestic expression of this insurgency is concentrated around Atlanta’s Cop City project, but its nascent tendrils extend into every progressive struggle in the U.S., including the abortive attempts to claw back labor contracts from the brink of total liquidation and the fight to secure reproductive autonomy.

COVID-19 still rages within the U.S. and abroad; the responses in the capitalist West have been utterly inconsequential compared to the coming waves of the disease. As a result, the economies of the West, which had been limping along since 2008 on the hobbled limbs of loosened credit and lowered regulations, are now in danger of entering total freefall. Speculation is rampant and threatens almost monthly to bring down the entire capitalist world-economy. The foundations of the Western markets have been reduced to sand. Although the servitors of the empire are continuously trying to shore up and reinforce the fundamental weakness, the time is not far off when a series of major bank failures will bring down the world market.

The Democratic Party, on its last legs, was offered one last chance to prove it could stabilize an increasingly unstable empire in the form of the Biden presidency. It has failed. Biden’s regime has been unable to prevent massive social unrest, ideological decay, or the further hollowing out of the western market.

Earlier this year, internal conflicts erupted within the zionist state itself between its far-right ruling party and its center-right settler population. Netanyahu, the far-right ideologue who embodies the most fascistic elements of zionist society, neutered the zionist state’s Supreme Court by denying it the ability to rule laws unconstitutional and essentially subjecting it entirely to the control of the Knesset. This provoked waves of demonstration, civil disobedience, and even downright defection. The left wing of zionist settler-society is now at odds with the narrowing right wing. Likud, the governing party, is now operating from a very narrow base of support indeed and, had the Likud government not responded to October 7 with its genocidal second phase of the Nakba, it was likely on its way out. It is only the “coalition government,” created in response to the existential threat of the Palestinian resistance, that permits Likud to keep a tenuous hold on state power.

However, the zionist security apparatus is failing. October 7 and its aftermath have been devastating to a security regime that cannot afford to lose a single battle, let alone a war. Daily, the victories of the Palestinian resistance threaten the faith of the U.S. ruling class in the ability of the zionists to project U.S. power. Daily, these victories — the decimation of the zionist motorized infantry and tanks, the continuous loss of zionist troops, the failure of the zionists to achieve any major operational goals — undermine Likud and the far right within the zionist state.

Further, it’s become possible to receive instantaneous and hard-to-censor data from the conflict. Recordings from phones and computers and messages from the colonized areas that are simultaneous with the atrocities being committed have changed the face of genocidal warfare. Despite the zionist’s best efforts, it is impossible to hide their depravity. Likud’s Second Nakba, perpetrated to allow the farthest-right reactionary elements of the zionist ruling class to retain power, has now exposed the zionist project to the world.

As it stands exposed, the U.S. ruling class is exposed with it. Ripping the curtain back from the zionists has forced U.S. politicians to allow their own garments to be torn away. Even the most progressive-leaning U.S. lawmakers, like angry grandfather Bernie Sanders, cannot help but stand alongside the genocidal regime, endorsing the wholesale slaughter of innocents in Gaza and the West Bank. Almost without exception, the political class-fraction of the U.S. empire has chosen to double down on zionist lies — even after the news media reveals them to be unfounded. Bloodthirsty president Biden continues to repeat the zionist lie of “beheaded babies” even after his own office has repeatedly walked it back. Advanced workers now see these politicians as they are: naked opportunists, willing to not only pander to but actively support genocide for their own gain.

The issue of Palestine is the issue at the head of the spear. The chain of empire now strains and groans under the Palestinian resistance. The pressure by the resistance coalition, led by Hamas but composed of many liberatory groups in alliance, has caused this chain to strain and threatens to snap it. Prior to the outbreak of the current October 7 struggle, class-consciousness was developing unevenly throughout the U.S. and coalescing around different struggles. Since October 7, as the threat to the imperialist system grows ever more acute and the zionist state is backed into a corner, class-consciousness has exploded across the globe. The Palestinian struggle for liberation and self-determination has moved to the forefront of the fight. It has manifested as the issue through which class-consciousness can be realized, developed, and mobilized against the imperialist system. International class-consciousness is growing at leaps and bounds; both inside the U.S. Empire and across the world, the recognition that the struggle of Palestine for freedom is wrapped up in the overall struggle for liberation is growing. Every time the capitalist states lash out against anti-zionists, more workers realize that the state is not on their side. We can see this in the vicious state repression now being unleashed against pro-Palestine anti-zionists across the U.S. empire. Class consciousness, as consciousness of imperialism, is growing at a remarkable rate. A new day of resistance is dawning!