Hudson Valley, NY—The growing anger of the 90-plus people at the Hudson Valley teach-in on Gaza was palpable as the audience listened to three organizers explain why the U.S. government unconditionally funds the Israel genocide in Gaza. Local organizers also inspired the audience with brief reports of their participation in demonstrations against local war manufacturers, a campaign to get a local city council to pass a ceasefire resolution, and student encampments at SUNY New Paltz and Rutgers University. After the formal program, the audience then met in small breakout groups to ask questions, share their own stories, and discuss how and what to do next.
Teaching importance of workers’ solidarity is key
Members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party who are active in Jewish Voice for Peace, Middle East Crisis Response, and others, helped plan and organize the teach-in. We felt it was important to focus on the economic motivations behind the U.S.’ unconditional support of Israel. Helping organize the teach-in gave us the opportunity to meet new people, a few of whom we were able to introduce to the Party as we emphasized the importance of building Jewish-Palestinian unity as a way to not just challenge the U.S. imperialist agenda in the region, but ultimately build more worker solidarity worldwide to smash genocidal bosses with communism.
“The reason for U.S. support goes back to resources, primarily fossil fuels, but also the need for trade routes, and economic and geopolitical control of the region,” said the first speaker, a retired doctor and organizer, who explained that “The U.S. is vying with China and its allies for world supremacy, and Israel is the only country in the region that the U.S. can count on as more Arab countries shift their allegiance away from the U.S.” This is why the U.S. is not going to back down in its support of the genocide, which has already killed more than 40,000 people, injured tens of thousands more, and turned Gaza into a wasteland.
How do we stop the genocide?
After a second panelist spoke about the Israeli government propaganda apparatus, the final speaker spoke about the resistance movement that has involved tens of thousands of people in the U.S. and the extent to which retaliation against those resisting the occupation has largely been centered in “liberal” media like the New York Times and CNN, in liberal-led cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and at elite “liberal” universities like Columbia, NYU, and Harvard. The fact is that the “liberal” Biden/Harris administration has been the arms supplier to this genocidal war with the support of both political parties.
In the break-out group discussions following the three presentations, the common theme among the participants – which included students, community members, and workers – was “how can we get involved” and “what can we do to stop the genocide?”
After the teach-in a group of about a dozen of us went out for dinner to continue the discussion, and in some cases, make new friends. As the war has expanded to Lebanon in the past few weeks and the U.S. shells Yemen, it is more important than ever that we are immersed in the anti-war movement to carry out the struggle for internationalism over nationalism and for communist revolution. Working with new people as angry and determined as we are to oppose the genocidal foreign policies of the United States not only led to new friendships but also helped build our confidence that a revolutionary communist movement to end capitalism is possible. What is needed is to funnel our rage and energy into building the ultimate fighting force—a communist Party. Every worker, student, and solider won to communist ideas represents a nail in the genocidal bosses coffin. Join PLP today!
