Letters

Working class

Congratulations to Moshé Machover for pointing out an all-important truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “The overthrow of Zionism is only possible with the participation of the Israeli working class” (as quoted by Steve Freeman in his article, ‘Marching towards what solution?’, May 19).

Quite right: the more reactionary groups like Hamas attack Israelis qua Israelis, the more firmly they unite the Israeli proletariat and bourgeoisie. This goes not only for Jews, but for Arabs too, who comprise roughly 20% of the Israeli working class. Four years ago, Jews and Arabs were fighting in the streets of Acre. A month after October 7, which targeted both groups equally, polls found that support for the Jewish state was running at 70% among the former, a 20-year high (Times of Israel November 11). Instead of weakening the Zionist state, all Hamas succeeded in doing was binding together the disparate parts all the more firmly. Socialism, needless to say, seeks the opposite, which is to internationalise the conflict by uniting Israeli and Palestinian workers and turning them both against Zionism and the equally reactionary misleaders of Hamas.

So it’s good that someone finally spoke up for united working class action. But there’s a problem. Machover is also a supporter of boycott, divestment and sanctions - a movement that includes Hamas in its leadership and whose prime goal is to disemploy Israeli workers, Jewish or Arab, by persuading imperialism to withdraw investment. Does Machover believe that the best way to organise Israeli proletarians is by throwing them out of work? Does he expect Israeli workers to rally behind forces that are trying to destroy them?

At least Tony Greenstein is consistent. He regards Israeli workers as “the most reactionary” component of Israeli society and therefore doesn’t care what happens to them. This is why he has distinguished himself (if that’s the right word) as an unabashed Hamas apologist since October 7. But Machover wants to have his cake and eat it too by supporting Israeli workers, while at the same time lining up with their class enemies.

Perhaps he’ll explain at his next public appearance how he proposes to resolve this contradiction.

Daniel Lazare
New York

Solidarity

On May 13, students in Athens joined the global movement of the student intifada in solidarity with Palestine and occupied the Athens Law School. They demanded that Greek universities stop all cooperation in the form of research projects or exchange and funding programmes with the Israeli state. The next morning, police raided the occupied space and arrested 28 people. They confiscated a number of items from the grounds of the university, with no existing evidence to relate these items to any of the arrested individuals.

After the finalisation of the law enabling Greek police presence within the university campuses last year, there were unleashed waves of violence against students on their own campuses, while this year has seen a fast-tracked path to the privatisation of universities. Increased police presence and intimidation tactics in once free and autonomous spaces extend beyond the university walls. Events, activities and collective gatherings in public spaces - whether political or not - are targeted by police repression and violence. The state’s aggressive stance is an attempt to quash any form of anti-capitalist solidarity with migrants in support of free movement.

The 28 arrested in the Athens Law School were immediately transferred to the central police station (the Gada). Lawyers were only allowed access to them eight hours after their detainment, with the police attempting to force detainees to provide fingerprints prior to the arrival of their lawyers. In the meanwhile, hundreds of solidarians gathered in front of the Gada, demanding the immediate release of those arrested, while affirming their support for a free Palestine.

The following day, solidarians were present at the court to show their support for those arrested, with chants for a free Palestine and an end to the intimidation tactics. Finally, the 28 were released and the hearing postponed until May 28 of those accused of vandalism, disruption of the public order, refusal to cooperate with police procedures and possession of “weapons”. In spite of the decision to release all detainees, the state security department registered the nine non-Greek international comrades as “unwanted” and decided to continue their detention. Their lawyers were then informed that a deportation order would be issued - an unprecedented development for European citizens.

Administrative detention and deportations are part of the strategy that the Greek state practises as one of the deeply racist components of the murderous Fortress Europe. The state’s blatant racism is evident in the massive number of arrests, detentions, torture and deportations that happen on a daily basis - and mostly go unnoticed by society.

The brazenness with which the Greek state acts is also explained by years of enacting a deadly border policy against refugees, migrants and undocumented people. There are four grounds for administrative deportation, which give the police complete freedom to judge whether a person is a threat to public order, and people can be detained without trial and deported. The detention and threatened deportation of the nine detainees - from Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Britain - is a new application of these repressive orders targeting the solidarity movement with Palestine.

The technology used by the Greek state in its violent and deadly pushbacks of asylum-seekers rely on research and technologies of containment, surveillance and control that the Israeli state tests on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Opposition to the Israeli state, its military occupation of Palestine and the wars it wages in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, is a ‘threat’ to the EU and to Greece’s military border security complex.

The rightwing media released information about the detention and deportation of the nine individuals before any of them or their lawyers were informed - a move that underscores the state’s use of the media as a tool for psychological warfare.

Migrants and those without papers who exercise their right to free speech by being politically active, are now under increased risk of deportation and other legal action. This is exemplified in the case of our Egyptian comrade who, having attended pro-Palestine demonstrations, has been threatened with deportation by the Egyptian embassy. Governments and media outlets collaborate to criminalise and delegitimise efforts to support the Palestinian struggle, portraying individuals as a threat to national security.

These actions reveal the state’s desperation to maintain control and suppress resistance. It underscores the need for alternative media and solidarity networks to counteract these intimidation tactics. By standing in solidarity with those targeted, we can expose the state’s oppressive mechanisms and continue the struggle for true liberation - for Palestinians and those incarcerated. There is a need to escalate our solidarity, to say clearly and loudly that neither intimidation nor imprisonment and deportation will stop the struggle. Resistance will never die, Palestine will never die!

We demand:

• The immediate release of the nine international detainees.
• No to their deportation.
• The abolition of administrative detention for all migrants and asylum-seekers.

Migrants Solidarity
Athens

Free him

On April 25, Bogdan Syrotiuk - a socialist opponent of both the fascistic Zelensky regime and the Nato-instigated Ukraine-Russia war - was arrested by the security service of Ukraine.

Bogdan, who is 25 years old and in poor health, is being held in a prison under atrocious conditions on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. In fact, he is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. He fights for the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union. If found guilty of these charges by a kangaroo court, Bogdan is threatened with a prison sentence of 15 years to life, which is equivalent to a death sentence.

His arrest is the latest example of the Zelensky regime’s brutal repression of leftwing movements, whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class. The international committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site call for a global campaign to demand the immediate release of Bogdan Syrotiuk. The fight for his freedom is an essential component of the struggle against imperialist war, genocide and fascism.

Please sign the petition at www.change.org/p/free-bogdan-syrotiuk-ukrainian-socialist-and-opponent-of-nato-s-proxy-war.

John Smithee
Cambridgeshire

Made a start?

On May 15, I was at the immensely heartening Zoom event with former Labour mayor for the North East Combined Authority, Jamie Driscoll, about where to go after having achieved the second highest vote for an independent in British electoral history in this month’s local elections. The next day, I was in Newcastle with Chris Williamson for the first public meeting to have been organised in the North East by the Workers Party of Britain. Again, it was all very optimistic. Things are moving.

It is public knowledge that Jamie is looking to stand, with other independents, in the general election, while the Workers Party has selected six candidates in the North East. The party should insist on support for those candidates, possibly in return for endorsing Jamie’s independents elsewhere in the North East Metro area - all the while reminding him that it had supported him for mayor.

Jamie may also endorse candidates of other parties that supported him this year, such as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and Transform, but the Workers Party needs to be clear that any deal with him would entail his support of all of its candidates even against any of those others, since it alone is an existing parliamentary party, with an MP elected.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party, although I would not expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power.

Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer, not a ‘lesser evil’ (which in any case the Labour Party is not).

We have made a start.

David Lindsay
Lanchester

Cheap books

The annual International Rare Book Fair has just closed its doors at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

A handful of items stand out, not least a beautifully bound first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the origin of the species, selling for £100,000! This figure is at the upper end of the booksellers’ offers - except, of course, for Karl Marx. Invariably, whenever a book authored by Marx is displayed, its price is in an entirely different league.

This year’s most notable offer is a small, slender book, written in German but published in Belgium in 1848: The Communist Party manifesto, which is attributed to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and is one of 27 known copies. The price? £1,750,000!

Paul Russell
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