Why people march for Palestine?
By Benny Schaft
This commentary was written days prior to the historic “Free Palestine” rally and march in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 4, that brought out 300,000 people.
Nov. 1 — The word has been sent. The buses are ready. The words I write sum up the revolutionary action that is going to take place this Saturday, where not only working-class proletariats, but the old and young, student and professor and oppressed will march on the nation’s capital. They will march in defense of the liberation of the Palestinian people and against the warmongering machine that is the United States capitalist, imperialist tool, which has already claimed innocent lives of countless Palestinians.
Part of 300,000 person turnout in Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2023. Credit: WW Joe Piette
That is why the people call upon every worker, whether you be Black, white, Asian, Latiné or Arab; of any gender; LGBTQIA2S+ or straight. Palestinian comrades call upon you to march on Washington, the center of the warmongers’ heart.
The time has come for streets to fill to the brim with flags of the working class and the oppressed, to be carried from Lafayette Square all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue. Then “genocide” President Joe Biden and the entire fascist capitalist class can see that their time is up. The age of the people’s republic and state is here and demands that the blood of Palestinian women and children stop flowing in the streets of Gaza and blood stop flowing in every land stained with the blood of a people fighting for democracy — a word that is only hollow in the country that beats out the word like a club to the head.
Capitalist democracy: a myth
The capitalists have no belief in democracy. If they did we would not even have the genocide that is going on against Palestine. We would not even have exploitation of the working class by the benefactors and defenders of the system. They would say, naïvely or knowingly, that the full purpose of the system is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Anyone from 15 to 100 can see that this is how the system works, but why are the working class and the people marching on Washington?
They are marching on Washington against capitalism and its twin imperialism. The goal of the march is to shut down the machine’s warmongering and to stop the genocide that is taking place.
I tell you this, comrades, do not believe any of the hype or lies of the U.S. capitalist media about the conflict, because this is not a war about antisemitism on the part of the Palestinians; this is a war of survival and liberation.
Already, you dig, the United States has spent $30 billion in arms, things from guns to tanks and missiles, to supply the Israeli fascist government in its efforts. They spend money on surveillance to spy on civilians, just as they used to do in Germany when Hitler was around, just like they used to do in Italy when Mussolini was around and just like they still do in the United States with “genocide” Joe Biden around you.
And this is why the people have chosen to march on Washington – not because they are antisemitic, not because of any lies of both the Dixiecrats and Republicans. Both fascist parties who do not have your interests at heart. They are around as a tool of the capitalist class.
The change will not come from an election. It will not come from electing a Dixiecrat or a Republican. But the world will be changed by the working class, meaning the people, so that is why we are marching on Washington.
