The Workers World Party delegation marched in the protest outside the Democratic National Convention carrying a banner that read in part, “We won’t vote for genocide!”
If the only two candidates who can win the presidency both support an obvious, ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza, there is no possible way that a revolutionary, anti-imperialist party can suggest voting for either of them and still claim to be fighting for humanity.
So, we urge our readers to vote for neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates.
Not only are the Republicans super-capitalist enemies of the working class worldwide, they are also white supremacists and misogynists. And that’s the short list. They threaten the few remaining democratic rights workers still have. This newspaper made it clear in July why everyone had to oppose the Republican candidates. (workers.org/2024/07/79895/ and workers.org/2024/07/79838/)
Workers World has always evaluated and described the Democratic Party as the other wing of U.S. capitalism and imperialism. On the one hand, the DP’s membership and even its leading speakers reflect more closely the diverse U.S. population. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has defended capitalism with the same vigor as the Republicans, and its foreign policy has been as militaristic and expansionist as the GOP’s. Both parties promote the exploitation of workers and peoples worldwide.
This year the reason to refuse a vote to the Democrats goes beyond that Marxist analysis. The Biden administration and the Democratic Party are identified with aiding and abetting the genocide in Gaza, a genocide that can be followed on social media. There is no way revolutionaries can compromise with that genocide.
August 19, 2024, protest in Chicago. (WW PHOTO: Sara Flounders)
How the DNC unfolded did nothing to challenge WW’s opposition to this pro-imperialist party. Unlike the usual dissent and near chaos seen at many DP conventions in the past, the Democrats choreographed this event, presenting their candidates exactly as they wanted. No word was out of place, no placard homemade, no hand gesture unpracticed.
When Vice President Kamala Harris made her acceptance speech, we can safely assume that she said exactly what she and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership had agreed on. Not just WW but The New York Times — which in general favored Harris — on Aug. 23 described her talk this way: “It was a patriotic speech that was hawkish on foreign policy and border security.” (WW’s emphasis)
It was clear that Harris directed the foreign policy part of her talk to the Pentagon, the CIA and anyone in the imperialist ruling class who might doubt that her administration would be any less militaristic than Biden’s or Trump’s. Here’s what she said: “As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” …
“I will make sure that … America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership. … And as president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.
“And let me be clear.I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.” And she repeated the lies charging Hamas with sexual violence on Oct. 7, 2023, that the Israeli propaganda machine broadcast and that Biden endorsed. (PBS news, Aug. 23)
In other words, just as the Biden administration did, Harris would threaten China, arm Ukraine’s proxy war against Russia and arm Israel to the teeth to carry out genocide.
Then, to add insult to already severe injury, Harris and the DNC organizers made sure that no Palestinian could speak at a plenary session. And that’s even though Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman — the first Muslim woman elected to the Georgia House and who was among those the “Uncommitted Movement” chose to speak at the DNC — wanted the Democrats to defeat Trump.
Some 300 delegates joined a protest of 30 “uncommitted” delegates just outside the hall, demanding the right to speak. When Romman gave her talk outside the convention center, she called attention to the large number of DP delegates wearing Palestinian pins and keffiyehs.
Were Harris and her advisers afraid that any appeal for Palestine would awaken a struggle within the convention?
As a result of the censorship, “Muslim Women for Harris” withdrew their support for Harris and disbanded. And that’s even though the group knew all too clearly that Trump is their enemy and said so.
Thus, Harris and the DP themselves risked losing the election to Trump rather than giving even the tiniest appearance of stopping support for Israeli genocide in Gaza. This indication of the Democratic Party’s own priorities is another proof of the need for the workers’ movement to organize independently of both big capitalist parties and why Workers World urges its readers to vote for neither Trump nor Harris.
This is what the imperialist pigs sell as freedom...
Heartless pigs murder Sonya Massey in her own home, after she called 911 for help
Sonya Massey and unidentified child. Photo: courtesy of Ben Crump via AP
Sonya Massey was 36 years old, killed in cold blood by vicious heartless pigs in Illinois on July 6. The body camera video, released today, exposed the ugly lie these pigs told that she came at them. Standing in her own kitchen, she did NOTHING except be a Black woman in America, and that was enough for the armed enforcers of this system to shoot her in the face. Heartless pigs enforcing a heartless system. REVOLUTION — NOTHING LESS!!
In a speech from 2018, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian talking about the murder of Ramarley Graham, also killed in his own home in 2012 said:
...in the way this country has been built, and for the powers that be in this country, the humanity of Black people has never counted for anything—they have never been valued as human beings, but only as things to be exploited, oppressed, and repressed. Six years later, and with cold-blooded murders by police continuing in an unbroken chain, I will say again what I said then: How many more times does this have to happen? How many more times do the tears and the cries of anguish and anger have to pour forth from the wounded hearts of people?! How many more times, when another of these outrageous murders is perpetrated by the police, do we have to hear those words that pour gasoline on the already burning wounds: “justifiable homicide, justified use of force” by police?! How many more?!
Ramarley Graham... Nicholas Heyward, Jr... Tamir Rice... Eric Garner... Darius Pinex... Oscar Grant... Manuel Diaz... Joel Acevedo... Laquan McDonald... Aiyana Stanley-Jones... Sandra Bland... Jack Sun... Renee Davis... Michael Brown... Freddie Gray... Maurice Granton Jr.... Harith Augustus... the list goes on... and on... and on—thousands and thousands, especially Black and Latino, and Native American.
And now, 6 years after that, we add Sonya Massey. No more!!!
As Bob Avakian went on to say, "If this were the only thing wrong with this system, it would be more than enough reason to sweep it off the Earth!"
This is what is urgently needed—AND POSSIBLE. Sweeping this system off the face of the earth through an actual revolution.
Humanity can live a whole different way. And in a future revolutionary society, the people's security forces will lay their lives down rather than risk the life of one of the masses of people. We need and we demand: REVOLUTION, for a whole new way to live and a fundamentally different system. There is the leadership to make this revolution. There is a plan for this revolution. And we are in a time when this revolution is more possible. Get organized now for REVOLUTION — NOTHING LESS!
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
The video starts with the masked voice of a fighter planning the attack, which, in its first stage, targeted 23 Israeli soldiers.
The ambush was executed in two stages. In the first stage, two resistance TBG shells were fired at a house where a large number of Isreali soldiers were sheltering in the town of Qarara, east of Khan Yunis.
The second stage was the detonation of the opening of a tunnel with five Israeli soldiers inside.
This was the accompanying information published with the latest video released by the Al-Qassam Brigades.
The video starts with the masked voice of a fighter planning the attack, which, in its first stage, targeted 23 Israeli soldiers.
The video showed the force of the explosion, which, according to military analysts, must have killed or wounded most Israeli soldiers inside the building.
Below are the latest statements by the two main Resistance forces in Gaza, and the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah.
The statements were communicated via their Telegram channels and are published here in their original form.
Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas)
“After returning from the battle lines, our fighters reported executing a well-planned ambush that targeted a zionist force fortified in one of the houses with a TBG anti-fortification shell and another anti-personnel shell. They then detonated a previously rigged tunnel on a force of 5 soldiers who had advanced to the location, resulting in all of them being either killed or wounded in the area of Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
“WATCH: Targeting Tel Aviv with an M90 rocket and targeting and striking the settlements and zionist sites adjacent to the Strip with short-range rockets and mortar shells.
“Al-Qassam Brigades target enemy sites in the settlements of Kissufim, Nirim and Ein HaTel with a number of 114mm Rajoom rockets.”
“WATCH: Scenes from an ambush targeting enemy forces barricaded inside a house in Al-Qarara, east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip.”
Al-Quds Brigades (Islamic Jihad)
We bombed a position of zionist enemy soldiers and vehicles east of the central governorate with a number of mortar shells.
Hezbollah
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance at 14:00 pm on Monday, 26-08-2024, targeted the surveillance equipment at the Ramia site with attack drones, hitting it directly.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance launched an air attack with a squadron of attack drones on the newly established headquarters of the 146th Division in the Shraga barracks, targeting the positions of its officers and soldiers and hitting its targets accurately.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance launched an air attack with a squadron of attack drones on the newly established headquarters of the 91st Division in Ayelet HaShahar, targeting the positions of its officers and soldiers and hitting its targets precisely.”
I don't know anybody who actually supports the conservative social values of any religious organization, but there are times when you have to choose between life and genocide , and between the oppressed and imperialism.
This preliminary statement from Hezbollah — the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon — was issued on August 24, 2024, by Resistance News Network. Many Palestinian Resistance groups including Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, Fatah Al-Intifada Movement Central Committee, Popular Resistance Committees, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others issued solidarity statements supporting this first phase of a military campaign initiated by Hezbollah against the apartheid Israeli regime. The two Israeli bases targeted by Hezbollah in the second phase are Ein Shemer and Gillot.
Hezbollah fighters
On the day of Arabeen of Imam Hussein bin Ali, the Master of Martyrs, the Leader of the Free, and the symbol of sacrifice, altruism, and defiance, at dawn on Sunday, August 25, 2024, as part of the initial response to the brutal Zionist aggression on the southern suburbs (Dahiye) of Beirut, which resulted in the martyrdom of the great jihadi commander Sayyed Fouad Shukr and a number of our dear civilians, including women and children, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance launched an aerial attack with a large number of drones deep into the Zionist entity, targeting a qualitative “israeli” military target that will be announced later.
Simultaneously, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted several enemy positions, barracks and Iron Dome platforms in northern occupied Palestine with a large number of rockets. These military operations will take some time to be completed, and afterward, a detailed statement regarding their progress and objectives will be issued.
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon is currently at its highest level of readiness and will stand firm and vigilant against any Zionist transgression or aggression, especially if civilians are harmed, in which case the punishment will be severe and very harsh.
In this next article about Gaza and what's going on in the "war" , there is soooo much that I disagree with, and yet so much that also makes sense . I enjoy different perspectives, no matter if I totally agree with them or not .
Please read, if you will.
The Genocide of Palestinians: A Test for The Whole Human Family
[Editor’s note: The following article contains a continuation of excerpts from the keynote address ‘What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?’ delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on the occasion of Saviours’ Day, held at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday, February 25, 2024.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
For these last two months, I have been in my house, in my room, music room, baptizing myself in the pain and the bloodshed of my Palestinian family.
Brothers and sisters, that is our family. You may not think that, but it’s okay; you have to grow beyond yourself, and you have to know there are people in this world that are connected to you far beyond your own Black skin. So, as I was baptizing myself in the blood of my family, it was building me up for what I am about to tell you all today.
Palestinians’ right to exist isvalidated by Allah (God)
Prime Minister Netanyahu has a vision of Haaretz Israil. Several states over there, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, they intend to annex that to what is called “Greater Israel.” Do you know about that? That man already has over 400 nuclear bombs sitting in the desert in Dimona, Israel, under where my Hebrew Israelite family stayed.
That’s a lot of weapons. And they, now, feel that they are the power in the Middle East, and they are. They feel that they can manipulate America, because they don’t respect Joe Biden. And they have not respected any American president; in the last 40 years, they have manipulated every president of the United States of America.
One of the great prime ministers of Israel is Golda Meir; pay attention to what she said [in a June 15, 1969 interview with Frank Giles, published in The Sunday Times]: “There was no such thing as Palestinians… It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. [To us] They did not exist.” She is boldly saying, “Yeah, we took your country and threw you out,” because in their minds you don’t exist.
Of Allah’s Names (Attributes), there are two that mean “He Who causes everything that exists to exist” (Al-Khaaliq) and “He Who produces the means and maintenance of their existence” (Al-Hayy). So, for this Jewish woman to say they have not, in her mind, any existence at all, see, this is the way they talk now.
And by Mr. Biden bowing down … And [using] my poor Black sister (Linda Thomas-Greenfield) that’s over the American representation at the security council: I saw her three times with a veto in her hand. She is a mother, she is a grandmother, but she is being used to veto everybody’s disagreement with Israel so that it never carries.
Brothers and sisters, if it means nothing in the United Nations—that because of the American veto, nothing gets done—America is canceling the United Nations. So, for you now to think, “Well, we’ll take our case to the United Nations.” For what?
This has been with the United Nations for 40 years. You don’t exist to them. Moving you and me, and us, it’s petty stuff to them; taking you over, robbing you of your just due in every industry where you both are working together, they take you out because you don’t mean anything to them.
So, as I move on, here is what happened in Palestine.They chose October the 7th, the birth day of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. A real fight went on. That was not fake! That action was real. And I’m looking back at the face of Netanyahu; and I am not sure that even though they were sure of the outcome, they never thought they would suffer what they suffered. Hamas struck them in 22 different places, in the most fortified nation in the world!
So how did they get in? What happened? See, people are asking that question. They have an “Iron Dome [Missile Defense System]” that America provided; and every missile that is thrown by Hamas, they usually pick it off. But not all of them. They sent five thousand on that day, and not all of them were picked off; the Iron Dome failed.
There were 22 breaks in The [Iron] Wall, which was impregnable. You put a cat on that wall, and several means of protection will come out at once! They have automatic machine gun fire; they have balloons, they have drones, they have weaponry! But none of that was brought to bear on the 7th of October. The truth is there was a stand-down that allowed these things to happen.
When President Biden landed, he asked Netanyahu, “Uh, do you have any pictures?” And Netanyahu turned, in a way, and said, “Yes. But when this war is over we’ll have an investigation, where all the things that are questionable now will be brought out.” They thought the war was going to last just a few days. They had overwhelming power! Four months have passed, and now they are at the door of Rafah.
Rafah is the last major city in Gaza. They went from the north … Now, I want you to think with me: They dropped leaflets and told the Palestinians, “Get out. You have (so many) hours.” A million and a half Palestinians trying to get out … And then they said “there are safe routes to the south”—but they started bombing those routes! They have killed so many of our people, and thousands are lost under the rubble. And all the atrocities that they said we were watching Hamas do, “beheading babies,” “raping women,” all of that was found to be false.
The reason I chose John 8:32, is because Jesus said: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” He was talking to Jews! And the Jews answered him, “We have never been a slave to any man.” But the whole world right now is enslaved, and America is the greatest enslaved nation by The Synagogue of Satan.
I never knew that my teacher was going to leave me and put me in a fight with Satan. He knew what I didn’t know: He knew that I had the strength to withstand whatever they will do against me. He knew that! And that’s why Peter, in the scriptures, is called “a rock,” because he said, “On this rock I will build my nation.”
That “rock” was the faith of one man that loved him enough to sacrifice his life, his family, his so-called career. But here we are, back home in Detroit, by the thousands, to give honor to Master Fard Muhammad, Who came alone from Mecca and got The Nation of Islam started—and here we are!
Nebuchadnezzar: The prototype of modern-day beasts in human form
God wanted me to say today what is said in the scriptures about Nebuchadnezzar. After I saw the war council, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad showed me, just the next night, in bold letters: “NEBUCHADNEZZAR.” When I started reading about Nebuchadnezzar, he was a man who was so wicked, that God took out of him the heart of a human being and gave him the heart of a beast.
Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family, and let it happen and not think of a humanitarian crisis? The crisis is not just what is happening to the Palestinians.
The crisis involves what is happening to you, what is happening to me; what is happening to human beings who are more concerned with what they will lose by standing up, rather than standing up and facing the consequence of their stand, knowing that God will bring them out victorious.
So, the Bible says God was going to “open the graves” of all of those who have been slain under the wicked rule, really, of the Caucasian people. They have killed so many … But who will pay for the killing of Palestinians, men and women, and children? Who will pay for the destruction of the Palestinian life and culture, and civilization?
Who will pay for that?! They don’t think they are going to pay! And Netanyahu now thinks, like Pharaoh, he is God—and he talks to America like he is God (“I don’t need the money that you send me every year, because I’m making a lot of money!”).
I am reading a book; I want you to get it. It’s called, “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.” It’s written by Antony Loewenstein. A Jewish man writing about what they have done to Palestinians as a “laboratory.”
Everything they tried out to keep the Palestinians under control, do you know they made it into a business? And in every country that has dissatisfied citizens, they sell them what they have produced in “The Palestine Laboratory.” Every country, now, is buying Israeli methodology in keeping Palestinians under control.
So, if you’ve got an angry community in your nation, “We’ll show you how to keep them under control.” And the ADL spends money taking policemen out of the American cities to Israel, to learn the techniques of how to break you into pieces.
Audience members listen attentively to the message.The Minister discussed the plight of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces. Photos: Monica Morgan and Colin 2X
So now, we’ve got the ADL in court. I can run the list of how they have literally handcuffed American presidents. So, when you vote, who are you voting for? Trump will tell you, “Vote for me! You don’t get nothing anyway from Biden, so you might as well vote for me.” He said that to Black people.
But Mr. Biden should be ashamed of himself, being the leader of a country that is reputed to be “the most powerful nation on the Earth,” and he is in Israel bowing to Netanyahu. And I mean bowing. And they tell him that they are not going to stop the war. The latest thing I read was that they were going to …
If Hamas did not give up the hostages before Ramadan, they were going to continue the war through Ramadan. They said they have to destroy Rafah, because that is where the break started with Hamas, through Rafah, through the southern part of Gaza. So now they have to “get even,” so they say: “No, no, no! We’ll fight, and we’ll fight through Ramadan.”
A history of spineless,fearful U.S. presidents
America is on her way down. How many of you can see that America is not the same anymore? Now, she can extend her time, but President Biden has to be a stronger man. Do you remember last year in my talk, I mentioned the great evangelist Billy Gaham, and I mentioned President Nixon?
There was a conversation that they were having; Mr. President was in the oval office, and Mr. Graham was on the phone, and Mr. Graham said there are “two kinds of Jews.” He was telling Nixon, “They are the wicked ones who are the ones producing all this pornography and these filthy movies and whatnot, that has really destroyed the moral fabric of American life.”
So, in truth, they wanted to do something about it; and Mr. Nixon, with his ability to send bombs all over the world, he said to Billy Graham: “I feel the same way you feel. But I, I … I can’t say it.”
But you’re the president of the United States. I mean, you can’t say anything about this? And Mr. Graham, a deeply spiritual man, said: “Yeah, I know, and I can’t… I can’t say anything either.”
If you are a Christian evangelist, and you know Jesus Christ, how could you ever let words come out of your mouth that “you can’t handle something,” when the scriptures tell you, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”?!
“This anti-Semitism is stronger than we think”—this is Nixon talking—“It’s unfortunate, but this has happened to the Jews; it happened in Spain, it happened in Germany. It’s happening. And now, it’s going to happen in America if these people don’t start behaving.”
Mr. President, how are they going to start behaving if you won’t use the power to help them to see that they are out of line?
Now, The Minister, he is not worried about that! “Why not?” Have you checked my Backup? I am not afraid, I don’t want to displease God. Because if I didn’t say all that He showed me, He might be displeased with me. … I told you from the beginning that there was a scripture that was going to govern my whole talk; a couple of scriptures, two in particular. Jesus said to the people who believe in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings,” and then he says, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
You mean to tell me that there is a truth that is so powerful, that once you hear it, you’ll feel free? Free to say what you want to say, free to think what you want to think? Free to be yourself? Free to worship The God that you wish to worship? Free to practice righteousness if that’s what you wish to do?
Muslim world leaders: Stand up for your Palestinian brothers and sisters!
Do you know that our Palestinian family, they don’t have strong friendship in the Muslim world. Why is that? Are we Muslims? Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “You are not a Muslim if you don’t want for your brother what you want for yourself.” Now, I know that the Muslim world feels the pain of the Palestinians, but they are afraid—afraid to stand. Andfrom the rostrum, I am asking the Muslim world to stop fearing the consequence of standing.
You have taken oil money, and you have bought the service of some of the finest engineers, architects, people of extreme vision, and you brought them into the Middle East. I used to go to Abu Dhabi when there was nothing but a hotel you could go to, but when you come out, it’s just vast desert that you’re looking at. My brother Akbar, my international rep, who is here today, we were in Abu Dhabi
The beautiful hotel we were in, I came out that morning and looked at the desert, and I saw new buildings coming up. I said, “Brother Akbar, all this beauty that we’re looking at now, it can be lost in the twinkling of an eye because of war.” I knew from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that war was coming to the Middle East. I’ve been to Mecca, I’ve been to Riyadh, I’ve been to Jeddah.
When you go there now, they’re building beautiful buildings. But I also saw a flood hit Mecca. And when I saw that, I said, “You see? You can’t get away from Allah’s power. And if you don’t want to act the way you should act, He can touch you wherever you are and bring you to ruin.”
So, I am saying this openly to my brothers and sisters in Islam: You have to stand up against the genocide that is happening to our Palestinian family. They do not need platitudes; they don’t need cheap talk. They need the Muslim world to unite and say to Israel what you should say. But I’m going to say it today, to Israel …
One of the nights that he was revealing to me, in the middle of the night there was the screen again, and one name, “NEBUCHADNEZZAR.” And that man, Nebuchadnezzar: Allah turned him from a human to a beast. And when I looked at what was happening to our Palestinian brothers and sisters, I saw why Allah showed me Nebuchadnezzar; because Netanyahu was becoming a beast in human form, with no feeling at all for the Palestinian people and for what they were causing the Palestinian people to suffer.
“Well yeah, I know that’s rough…” But when we say “that’s rough,” that’s so cheap. That’s not what you should say as a human being. So, what is happening in Palestine becomes a test for the whole human family.
If you could look at their suffering, and it don’t move you, you have lost your humanity. If you can see a dog suffer and have compassion… If you can see your favorite horse suffer, where you’ve got to put him down, you feel pain! Palestinian mothers are crying over the loss of their children! I watched them cry; I watched them touch their babies that are dead, and don’t want to let the baby go to be buried.
That’s not a barbarian feeling, that’s a human feeling. I saw Jews that were suffering, too, burying their dead, and weeping as the Palestinians are weeping. These are not barbarians! They have suffered from Israel’s presence in Palestine
