Socialists Without Borders Statement
We commend the activities organized by A15. Activists in cities all over the world coordinated action to disrupt economic activity in support of the Palestinian people currently under a murderous siege by the State of Israel. These actions, while small, were well coordinated and received a lot of attention. The next mobilization will be on International Workers’ Day, May 1, 2024, one day of coordinated international actions again aiming to disrupt economic activity with the goal of ending the State of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
We also commend the Freedom Flotilla, a group of four boats full of aid that intend to sail from Istanbul to Gaza to break the State of Israel’s siege of Gaza by delivering humanitarian aid directly to the Gazans under siege. The flotilla departs next week, under threat from the State of Israel to block their progress. We wish them a safe voyage and that they may succeed in delivering their cargo to people who desperately need it.
We also commend the students and their supporters at Columbia University in New York City who have, since April 17, 2024, peacefully occupied a portion of the campus in support of their demand that their university divest from Israel. These students have been mercilessly slandered from all corners of the ruling class, including U.S. President Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams as being motivated by hatred of Jewish people, when, in fact, many of these students are Jewish. Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who had earlier that day decried anti-Jewish hatred on campus before Congress, took the unusual step of calling the police to arrest the protestors and break the encampment. We encourage these students to remain steadfast and offer our solidarity and support in their campaign against state violence in the U.S. and abroad.
As we support these actions, in order to stop US arming Israel and its attacks against Palestinians, we need to dramatically escalate and generalize such actions, up to and including a general strike, bringing all economic activity in the U.S. to a halt until the State of Israel ceases fire, ends its siege of Gaza, withdraws all settlements from the West Bank, and ends its occupation of land that rightfully belongs to the Palestinian people.
See you on May 1!