U.S., Britain, out of the Red Sea!

Stop the U.S. war on the Red Sea!

U.S. Armed Forces are waging war on Yemen, escalating a conflict in West Asia. However far it may spread, the fire they set can wreak destruction, and invite payback, as these forces did in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria from 2001-2021.

These actions risk a world war. The people of the world, including the working class in the United States, must mobilize to stop it.

The Ansarallah forces in Yemen (called Houthis) have stated publicly that they refuse to submit to U.S. and British intimidation. Millions of people have joined public demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine all over Yemen and the rest of the world. Still, the Pentagon continues bombing Yemen. 

To its credit, the South African government has charged Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice. By presenting those charges, the South African prosecutors have exposed Israel’s crimes. 

Now, for the majority of the world’s people, the Yemeni government, the Ansarallah, has the legal right under international law to block shipping to Israel through the Red Sea. More than that, Ansarallah and any government has a duty to prevent Israel and its U.S. backers from committing genocide against Gazans. 

Those who yearn to halt that slaughter applaud the Yemenis for their courage. Just as they applaud South Africa for bringing the charges, the Malaysian government for barring Israeli shipping from Malaysia’s ports and the government of Oman –– which borders Yemen — for closing its airspace to U.S. and British planes.

We applaud those in the U.S. who have demonstrated in the streets, rallied at universities, and blocked highways, bridges and tunnels to stop business as usual until the Israelis stop killing Palestinians and Washington stops arming the Zionist regime.

The U.S. government is the executive committee of the U.S. imperialist ruling class. Its decision to expand the war not only inflicts misery on the people of West and Central Asia, but also threatens the working class in the United States. 

By bringing the message of this threat to workers in the U.S., we can expose the crimes of the rulers. We can then expand the anti-war and anti-genocide actions beyond the current movement to broader sections of U.S. workers. 

Expanding the movement is necessary, and it is possible. Many people in the U.S. still remember the cost of those wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. The 20 years of grinding occupation. The hundreds of thousands of people dying. Millions of people displaced. 

And when the war boomeranged, thousands of U.S. troops were counted among those killed, with tens of thousands wounded. Some $3 trillion in tax dollars, stolen from the working class, was either spent ravaging West and Central Asia or used to fill the bank vaults of the capitalist merchants of death who own the U.S. weapons corporations. 

It is an optimistic sign that unions demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. When working people of the Bronx in New York City protest Israel’s war against Gaza. When workers at a job action wear keffiyehs in symbolic solidarity with Palestine. 

Something is in motion, and we should push it as far as it can go. 

To sum up: The U.S. and Israel are the oppressor states and the aggressors in the Red Sea. The Yemeni have every right to shell shipping to stop genocide. And all U.S. workers suffer from Washington’s expansion of the war. Yemen is not the enemy of the U.S. working class. 

We must reach out to these workers so they join in the demands: Stop bombing Yemen! Stop the genocide in Gaza! Down with the imperialist ruling class!