By Abayomi Azikiwe
“The Israeli Zionists are convinced they have successfully camouflaged their new kind of colonialism. Their colonialism appears to be more ‘benevolent,’ more ‘philanthropic,’ a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential victims to accept their friendly offers of economic ‘aid,’ and other tempting gifts, that they dangle in front of the newly independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties. During the 19th century, when the masses here in Africa were largely illiterate it was easy for European imperialists to rule them with ‘force and fear,’ but in this present era of enlightenment the African masses are awakening, and it is impossible to hold them in check now with the antiquated methods of the 19th century.” (Letter from Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, 1925-1965) to the Egyptian Gazette published on Sept. 17. 1964)
These words written by Malcolm X during September 1964 while he was on an extended foreign policy mission throughout various areas of Africa, Western Europe and West Asia, proves that the sympathies for the plight of the Palestinians and other negatively impacted peoples extend back decades among the most advanced elements among the African American people.
His efforts designed to build international solidarity with the struggle of the African American people during 1964-65 proved to be a turning point in history. Other organizations and individuals such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Black Panther Party, League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), etc. would soon follow Malcolm X’s example.
This year represents the centenary of the birth of Malcom X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), who was martyred six decades ago on February 21, 1965 in New York City. His anti-imperialist and Pan-Africanist legacy is alive and well through the upsurge in support for the cause of the Palestinians.
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, the number of people in the solidarity movement with Palestine has grown by leaps and bounds. The center of the movement has been among the youth and students as they have taken up the campaign to demand full disclosure and divestment from all corporate entities, public institutions and governments from the settler State of Israel.
On campuses throughout the United States the students, staff and faculty members have organized mass demonstrations, rallies, petition campaigns, building occupations and encampments to highlight the genocide in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the entire nation of Palestine. These actions have prompted a wave of repression emanating from the ruling class which is pressuring higher educational institutions to not only ban public displays of solidarity with Palestine, but has led to further repressive measures which are threatening the very existence of bourgeois democracy in the U.S.
Today, research funding for scientific projects are being suspended as the administration of President Donald Trump under the guise of proscribing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) along with “wokeness”, is effectively destroying the capacity of the U.S. to function in a rapidly changing world where the peoples of Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the oppressed and working class within the imperialist states are rising up against their exploiters demanding their rightful places within the emerging international situation.
A Global Struggle Against Apartheid
During the period between the 1960s and the early 1990s, the racist settler-colonial regimes in Southern Africa became a focal point for international solidarity. These exploitative states were supported by successive administrations in Washington backed by Wall Street.
Nonetheless, the students, workers and community organizations came to the defense of the people of the sub-continent leading to a worldwide movement against institutional racism. The striking similarities between legalized segregation and national oppression against African Americans in the U.S. and the character of the racist colonial system in Southern Africa were instrumental in mobilizing sentiment aimed at destroying apartheid and settler-colonialism.
A combination of internal mass and armed struggles along with solidarity from throughout Africa and the world brought about the total liberation of the region from colonialism and apartheid. In the former Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau together with Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, the system of national oppression and economic exploitation was challenged, setting an example for peoples throughout the world.
After the democratic breakthrough in the Republic of South Africa in 1994, the first leader of a nonracial government, President Nelson Mandela, maintained the yearslong solidarity between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Palestinian resistance organizations. Even prior to the ascendancy of Mandela as the head-of-state in South Africa, he continued to remain unwavering in the ANC’s solidarity with the Palestinians and other revolutionary peoples around the world.
Mandela said in a December 1997 speech at an international conference in solidarity with Palestine held in Pretoria, that:
“It is in this spirit that I have come to join you today to add our own voice to the universal call for Palestinian self-determination and statehood. We would be beneath our own reason for existence as government and as a nation, if the resolution of the problems of the Middle East did not feature prominently on our agenda…. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians; without the resolution of conflicts in East Timor, the Sudan and other parts of the world. We are proud as a government, and as the overwhelming majority of South Africans to be part of an international consensus taking root that the time has come to resolve the problems of Palestine.”
In December 2023, the South African government filed a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging the State of Israel with violations of the Genocide Convention of 1948. The legal action was ridiculed by the administration of former President Joe Biden as well as the State of Israel.
The U.S. stated openly that the South African lawsuit had no merit. The White House under Biden and Trump have emphatically denied that genocide is taking place in Gaza. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate hold the same view and continue to provide unconditional support to the Zionist state.
Although the ICJ ruled in January 2024 that the charges made by South Africa were plausible, Tel Aviv, Washington and Wall Street have maintained their genocidal posture against the Palestinian people. This level of impunity continues to characterize the political nature of imperialism and zionism indicating that these oppressive systems must be eliminated in order to guarantee peace and security in West Asia and other geo-political regions of the world.
Workers Must Take the Lead in the Struggle to End U.S. Support for Genocide
Over the past year, the U.S. government has waged a repressive crusade against the Palestine solidarity movement. In the aftermath of the initiation of the current genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians and the rapid rejuvenation of support for the ending of zionist aggression, a wave of employment terminations, educational expulsions, arrests, prosecutions and attempted deportations have taken place.
Notwithstanding the number of labor union locals which have passed resolutions opposing the genocide in Gaza, the working class as a whole must take decisive action to reverse the current crisis. If the UAW, AFL-CIO, Teamsters, SEIU, IBEW, among other important unions took action in the form of a general strike, the position of the U.S. government would be unsustainable.
In the recent Handala Freedom Flotilla aimed at breaking the blockade of Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) once again intercepted the vessel and arrested its passengers. Chris Smalls, the co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) was on the flotilla, the only African American aboard.
When the passengers were seized and taken into detention at the Givon Prison, Smalls was choked and beaten by the IDF soldiers, receiving the most brutal treatment undoubtedly due to his African American heritage. Smalls emphasized that his presence on the flotilla was designed to encourage greater labor participation in the Palestine solidarity struggle.
A recently published article in the Nation magazine says:
“Recently a new image of Smalls has circulated: with a keffiyeh wrapped around his head, on board a ship set for Gaza. Smalls joined the July mission of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a group that has been organizing trips to deliver aid to and break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2010. Since October 7, Smalls has called on U.S. labor unions to be more militant in their opposition to the genocide in Gaza, drawing inspiration from workers who have blocked weapons shipments to Israel and pushed their unions to divest their holdings in Israeli companies. By joining the Handala’s journey, Smalls hoped to draw attention to the linkages between the struggles of the American working class and Palestinians.”
The trade unions and the proletariat in general must take inspiration from the efforts of Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Chris Smalls to demand that the U.S. government and corporate interests abandon their support for the national oppression and genocide against the Palestinian people. Until Palestine is liberated, the entire region of West Asia will remain a flashpoint for humanitarian disasters and global conflagrations.
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