October 7 marks one year since the onset of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an imperialist war which has since spread its brutality to the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen and the broader region.
This imperialist aggression would not have been possible without the bankrolling, supplying, and political backing of the world’s most destructive imperialist power, the United States. Yet, the movement within the US for an arms embargo and an end to support for genocide has only grown within the belly of the beast.
“We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated, that it is never again able to govern Gaza, that it fails in its mission to annihilate Israel, and that the people of Gaza are free from the grip of Hamas,” read a statement by Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris is once again pledging the US government’s commitment to eliminating Hamas’ power in the region, despite the political party being a chief negotiator in the ceasefire deal the US claims to also badly want.
“I will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists like Hamas. My commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering,” Harris added, ensuring that the US is no closer to the arms embargo the majority of her constituents badly want.
Jewish activists say “not in my name!”
The diverse sectors of the Palestine solidarity movement within the US continue to stand strong despite their government’s attempts to repress the movement and ignore its demands. Jewish activists, despite politicians like Harris and Biden invoking Judaism and the long history of anti-semitism as a justification for genocide, continue to demand that the massacre of Palestinians not be carried out in their name.
Morgan Bassichis spoke to Peoples Dispatch at a pro-Palestine rally in Manhattan on October 5, and proclaimed they were “one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish anti-Zionists who are outraged and horrified at Israel’s continued escalation.”
“I am one of so many people who said don’t use us, not in our names, don’t use our identities, don’t use our holidays, don’t use our religion, don’t use our histories as a justification for colonialism,” they said.
Jewish activists have been a critical sector in the movement, organizing and participating in militant actions such as the mass civil disobedience in Grand Central Station on October 30, or the shut down of four bridges and tunnels that form major arteries of rush hour traffic in New York on January 8 to draw attention to genocide and Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
Labor demands an arms embargo
The US labor movement’s participation in the Palestine solidarity movement, which began with a handful of left-leaning unions calling for a ceasefire and has blossomed into nearly half of the unionized workforce demanding an arms embargo against Israel, marks a new era of trade union struggle. Whereas unions in the US have in past decades stayed out of foreign policy and largely toed the line of the pro-war Democratic Party, the genocide in Palestine has raised the consciousness of millions of workers.
This is exemplified by the bold action taken by workers organized by United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 student workers across the University of California campuses. In response to the repression endured by students at UCLA, as well as other universities within the UC system, 4811 workers to authorize a strike on May 15 following police and administrative repression of pro-Palestine students staging Gaza Solidarity Encampments.
The strike by UAW 4811 workers was historic, representing the first strike in US history having to do with Palestine solidarity. The strike came to a close in June following the UC system’s use of the legal system against workers.
“What we’re seeing in the United States labor movement is a major, major, major step forward,” Taher Dahleh, activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement and a member of the Communications Workers of America told Peoples Dispatch. “Americans have become clear within their unions that the genocidal plans of the United States ruling class don’t serve us in any way. It’s our children that go to die, it’s money that could be invested in our jobs, in our healthcare, in our wellbeing, that’s being directed to fund the destruction of all of Gaza.”
While Congress failed to allocated hurricane relief funds to the bankrupt FEMA ahead of hurricane season, leaving Hurricane Helene victims stranded, the US government never fails in seizing the opportunity to bankroll Israel’s genocide, spending a new record of USD 17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since October 7.
Reyna Wang, a worker at the New York City Parks Department and member of AFSCME District Council 37, New York’s largest union of public employees, has helped organize fellow city workers against genocide under the banner of the newly-formed organization “City Workers for Palestine.”
“We won’t stay silent while Eric Adams and his administration expresses unequivocal support for the state of Israel,” Wang told Peoples Dispatch, referring to the Mayor of New York City. “We’re the workers who run this city, so we have the power to hold our institutions accountable for their complicity in this genocide.” Wang and her fellow unionists have launched a campaign to divest their public pension from Israeli securities.
“We want to build the labor movement as a whole,” Wang said. “Our fate is intertwined with the fate of the Palestinian people. We know that we have the same enemy…our bosses, our government, it’s the same people who are bombing Palestinians, who are providing the financial means for Israel to commit its genocide.”
Anti-imperialists register mass consciousness shift
The mass movement for Palestine within the US has raised the consciousness of millions who have become outraged at how time and again, the US government has made genocide its top priority over its own people.
“More and more people, maybe it’s not the majority yet, maybe it’s just a very large minority, but a very huge part of the population, numbering in the tens of millions… now think that the Israeli narrative is false,” Brian Becker, executive director of the ANSWER Coalition, told Peoples Dispatch at a national Palestine solidarity demonstration in Washington DC on June 8. ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) was founded in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks to protest the Bush administration’s war against the people of Afghanistan and later Iraq.
According to Becker, there are a few things contributing to that shift. “People can watch the genocide in real time for themselves on social media. The capitalist corporate owned media is not presenting it, but they can watch it on social media,” he said.
“Secondly, we have created this consciousness. By we, I mean all of the groups in the movement who have been in the streets, using all kinds of tactics to show protest, to show opposition, to show struggle. People’s consciousness changes when they are in struggle. When they are in struggle, they open their minds to new ideas. And that’s what we’re witnessing in the United States. This is a new era, a sea change of political consciousness. But it doesn’t happen only spontaneously. It happens because of organization and movement building.”
Artists stand on the right side of history
Artists have represented an important front in the struggle, poet Jaylen Strong told Peoples Dispatch. Not only do artists adorn the movement with signs, placards, and objects at marches, including the ubiquitous bloody-handed puppets of politicians such as Biden and Netanyahu, but artists are also ensuring their their own art practices remain political.
Artists are “making sure they stand on the right side of history in this moment,” Strong said. “It’s one of the most politically active moments for artists,” Strong continued. Many artists have experienced censorship due to their statements of solidarity with Palestine in this past year.
The past year has seen the formation of groups such as Artists against Apartheid, an artists’ network which Strong is a leader in. Thousands of artists, including celebrities such as Roger Waters, Mohammed El-Kurd, Kehlani, and Aja Monet, have signed onto its statement which obligates artists to “stand in firm solidarity with those resisting occupation and fighting for their right to self-determination.” Artists will continue to play their role in “molding consciousness,” Strong said.
Educators take responsibility, students continue their struggle
Peoples Dispatch spoke to Andre Easton, an public school teacher in New York City, on how this mass consciousness can be fostered and grow. “Students need to be armed with critical thinking skills so they can arrive at their own conclusions. One of the things we need to do as educators is mass education to cover the things that get left out in the mainstream media, that get left out of the textbooks,” Easton said. Regarding Palestine, educators “cannot allow the narrative to continue, that states that an occupied people do not have the right to resist.” International law enshrines the right of a people to resist colonialism, and prohibits military occupation.
“[Resistance] is how people like me got our ability to even show up in the world. It was the mass movement of the African Americans through the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement in the 60s, that allowed anybody to have the rights that we see today.”
Phill Campbell, himself a college student at the City University of New York, and who helped organize within the Gaza solidarity encampment on his campus, told Peoples Dispatch that the student movement for Palestine is only getting stronger. “Even though our administrations keep attacking us, keep trying to deport us, keep trying to suspend us, keep trying to expel us, we keep learning lessons in our struggle. We keep learning that nothing will slow our movement down.”
Peoples Dispatch spoke to Columbia student-activist Zainab during the height of the students’ Gaza solidarity encampment, where students were waging a struggle for their administration to divest from Israeli genocide. According to Zainab, their demands “shows us that the student movement plays a monumental role in the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
“Considering that internationally other governing bodies have failed to hold Israel accountable, individuals and particularly students will aim to do anything in their capacity to hold Israel accountable,” Zainab said.
Students at Columbia continue their struggle despite facing mass arrests and brutality from the NYPD in dismantling their encampment back on the night of April 30. On October 7, 2024, students braved Zionist counter protesters and gathered in the center of campus, shouting, “Columbia, you can’t hide! You invest in genocide!”
Millions look beyond “lesser of two evils”
As millions in the US turn their eyes towards the November presidential election, where voters will be forced to choose between the ultra-right-wing former President Donald Trump and Biden’s successor Kamala Harris, many are looking for a third option—one that does not support the US’s bankrolling of genocide.
Peoples Dispatch spoke to Claudia De la Cruz, the socialist candidate for president, running on the ticket of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. De la Cruz was marching on October 5 in New York City with her son, Roque, both marking one year of resistance to genocide. De la Cruz was marching “to reaffirm our commitment to the movement for the freedom of Palestine.” De la Cruz also spoke at a march on October 8, 2023, a day after the genocide began. “We’re out here to say that one year of genocide equals one year of resistance, and one year of solidarity that will be expanded until Palestine is free,” De la Cruz said.
On October 5 in Times Square, De la Cruz spoke to a crowd of 20,000, declaring that “Gaza has rehumanized the globe!”
“We in the belly of the beast must be reaffirmed that this is a long march, and we are walking with millions of people across this globe,” she stated.
