quinta-feira, 28 de março de 2013

CORRESPONDÊNCIA LC E ISL - 2 (english)

Carta da ISL a LC

O ISL é um grupo trotskista de Israel (territórios palestinos ocupados).
Abaixo, a correspondência enviada pela ISL a LC.

Dear comrades of the Humberto Rodrigues in Brazil

Thank you for your letter. We read it very carefully and we also read your material in English

We see some common ground for collaboration on the defense of the Palestinian struggle while we think that the formulation of a multi ethnic workers state (we think you means bi national workers state) may be not correct depends on the meaning of this slogan and its relations to other slogans and demands. . We call for a Palestinian workers state from the river to the sea where the Israeli Jewish section of the working class that will participate in the socialist revolution will be part of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the Jewish masses will have equal civil rights. Such a state will have a national character that must reflect that first the Palestinians and especially with the refugees are a majority and secondly that Israel society is a colonialist settler society and in addition we think that Israel is an imperialist state. And we support the right of self determination only of oppressed nation as long it helps the socialist world revolution.  Thus we do not recognize the right of self determination of the Israelis for all these reasons. We do not support the right of the Israelis to form a new Zionist state, that will divide the Palestinians once again and create a new ethnic expulsion  The call for a multi ethnic state contains the seed for the recognition of the right of self determination for the Israelis.  We hold the same method of Trotsky on South Africa.

Leon Trotsky: The Agrarian and National Questions (1935)

www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1935/04/wpsa.htm

At the same time we  strongly do not agree with your orientation toward the Arab revolution from Tunisia to Egypt and Syria that you see as an imperialist ploy. Kaddafi and Assad regimes are not anti imperialist regimes, as we in Israel (occupied Palestine) can testify. Israel occupation of South Lebanon was with the agreement of Assad the father and the intervention of Syria in the 1975 civil war in Lebanon was aimed at the support of the reactionary falangists  and again with the backing of Israel.. Kaddafi supported Ben Ali in Tunisia against the mass movement saying that Ben Ali acts in the same spirit of Israel repression of Hamas. Kaddafi blocked the Africans migrant workers from reaching Europe.

We side with the revolutionary struggle of the masses against the pro imperialist regimes. The fact that the imperialists intervened in the mass revolutionary struggle in order to block it and that the imperialists support of course the pro imperialist bourgeois like the CNT in Libya, or Morsi in Egypt with an eye to the National Salvation front in Egypt, or to pro imperialists elements within the SNC  to prevent the revolutionary struggle from winning, does not make the revolutionary struggle of the masses is a ploy of imperialism. In Libya it was necessary to support the armed struggle against Kaddafi repressive army and when NATO intervened and sent solders to fight for its own control of the oil, it was necessary to fight the imperialists as well even when it meant shooting in the same direction as the Kaddafi army as long it did not shoot the masses without stopping the struggle against Kaddafi. It was necessary to struggle against the CNT for workers leadership.

Trotsky was very clear the question of imperialist interventions. Trotsky wrote

Trotsky wrote on Brazil:

"In Brazil there now reigns a semi fascist regime that every revolutionary can only view with hatred. Let us assume, however, that on the morrow England enters into a military conflict with Brazil. I ask you on whose side of the conflict will the working class be? I will answer for myself personally—in this case I am on the side of ‘fascist’ Brazil against ‘democratic’ Great Britain. Why? Because in the conflict between them it will not be a question of democracy or fascism. If England should be victorious, she will put another fascist in Rio de Janeiro and will place double chains on Brazil. If Brazil on the contrary should be victorious, it will give a mighty impulse to national and democratic consciousness of the country and will lead to the overthrow of the Vargas dictatorship. The defeat of England will at the same time deliver a blow to British imperialism and give an impulse to the revolutionary movement of the British proletariat."
—"Anti-Imperialist Struggle Is Key to Liberation," 23 September 1938

This was in line with Lenin debate with Rosa Luxemburg. Lenin wrote:

"„Britain and France fought the Seven Years’ War for the possession of colonies. In other words, they waged an imperialist war (which is possible on the basis of slavery and primitive capitalism as well as on the basis of modern highly developed capitalism). France suffered defeat and lost some of her colonies. Several years later there began the national liberation war of the North American States against Britain alone. France and Spain, then in possession of some parts of the present United States, concluded a friendship treaty with the States in rebellion against Britain. This they did out of hostility to Britain, i.e., in their own imperialist interests. French troops fought the British on the side of the American forces. What we have here is a national liberation war in which imperialist rivalry is an auxiliary element, one that has no serious importance. This is the very opposite to what we see in the war of 1914-16 (the national element in the Austro-Serbian War is of no serious importance compared with the all-determining element of imperialist rivalry). It would be absurd, therefore, to apply the concept imperialism indiscriminately and conclude that national wars are “impossible”. A national liberation war, waged, for example, by an alliance of Persia, India and China against one or more of the imperialist powers, is both possible and probable, for it would follow from the national liberation movements in these countries. The transformation of such a war into an imperialist war between the present-day imperialist powers would depend upon very many concrete factors, the emergence of which it would be ridiculous to guarantee.“

V. I. Lenin: The Junius Pamphlet(1916); in: CW 22, p. 310-11

The struggle that began in the Middle East in 2011 for democracy has to be led by the working class and its allies with the perspective of workers revolutions that will implement the democratic tasks ( Agrarian revolution and throwing out the imperialists) but will not stop there. It will continue with the fulfilling the socialist tasks, according to the tempo of the world revolution. This is the strategy of Trotsky's Permanent revolution. What today is missing more than anything else is working class revolutionary leadership that we are fighting for on the international and national levels and we hope you will join us..

Let me ask you a question: Do you think that Hamas today is a creature of Israel? If you agree with me that Hams today is not a creature of Israel how do you explain the fact that Hamas supports the opposition and especially the Islamist opposition to Assad?

We will like to offer you to sign our call for the release of all Palestinians political prisoners and to organize a united front in Brazil with the demands:

Free all Palestinians Political prisoners

An Appeal from the Internationalist Socialist League (Israel/Occupied Palestine)

Demand the Immediate Release of Samer alIssawi and All Palestinian Political Prisoners!

To all political parties, trade unions, groups and individuals that oppose the oppression of the Palestinian people,

We call you upon you comrades, brothers and sisters and all advocates of justice and democracy, to demand from the Israeli government to release immediately Samer alIssawi who was imprisoned without charges and without trial. Samer chose to protest this inhumane and grotesque imprisonment by going on a hunger strike that has currently exceeded 200 days. Naturally, his life is now in grave danger.

Samer alIssawi is a Palestinian from Issawiya neighborhood in alQuds (Jerusalem). He is a freedom fighter in the resistance movement against the oppression of the Palestinians. He was twenty four years old, when in April 2004 he was arrested, accused of armed struggle and sentenced to 30 years in prison. You can learn from this that even the Israeli military forces didn’t accuse Samer of killing anybody, as if this was the charge he would be sentenced for life in prison.

In the past, Samer alIssawi’s release was secured by the prisoners’ exchange deal of October 2011 (in which Israel secured the release of its soldier Gilad Shalit). However, on July 7th, 2012, he was arrested again, passing through an army roadblock in Jerusalem. This time he was accused of parole violation by trying to reach Ramallah. The “Ofer” military court decided that Samer should be returned to prison to serve the remaining 20 years left to his original sentence.

Shirin alIssawi, Samer’s sister, has opened a Facebook page, where she published a letter from him. This letter says:

"I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and dignity.

I draw my strength from my people, from all the free people in the world, from friends and the families of the prisoners who continue day and night chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation.

My health has deteriorated dramatically and I’m hung between life and death. My weak body is collapsing but still able to be patient and continue the confrontation. My message is that I will continue until the end, until the last drop of water in my body, until martyrdom. Martyrdom is an honor for me in this battle. My martyrdom is my remaining bomb in the confrontation with the tyrants and the jailers, in the face of the racist policy of the occupation that humiliates our people and exercises against us all means of oppression and repression.

I say to my people: I’m stronger than the occupation army and its racist laws. I, Samer al-Issawi, son of Jerusalem, send you my last will that, in case I fell as a martyr, you will carry my soul as a cry for all the prisoners, man and women, cry for freedom, emancipation and salvation from the nightmare of prisons and their harsh darkness.

My battle is not only for individual freedom. The battle waged by me and by my heroic colleagues, Tariq, Ayman and Ja’affar, is everyone’s battle, the battle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and its prisons. Our goal is to be free and sovereign in our liberated state and in our blessed Jerusalem.

The weak and strained beats of my heart derive their steadfastness from you, the great people. My eyes, which started to lose their sight, draws light from your solidarity and your support of me. My weak voice takes its strength from your voice that is louder than the warden’s voice and higher than the walls.

I’m one of your sons, among thousands of your sons who are prisoners, still languishing steadfasting in the prisons, waiting for an end to be brought to their plight, their pains and the suffering of their families.

The doctors told me I became exposed to stroke because of the disorder of my heartbeats, the shortage of sugar and the drop in blood pressure. My body is full of cold and I can’t sleep because of the continued pain. But despite the extreme fatigue and chronic headaches, as I move on my chair, I’m trying to summon all my resources to continue on the road till its end. There is no going back, only in my victory, because I’m the owner of Right and my detention is invalid and illegal.

Do not be afraid for my heart if it will stop, don’t be afraid for my hands if they will be paralyzed. I am still alive now and tomorrow and after death, because Jerusalem is flowing in my blood, in my devotion and my faith".

A more detailed information in Arabic and Hebrew can be found in the Free Haifa blog.

We appeal to you to send your own demands to release Samer alIssawi to the office and Facebook page of Mr. Benyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel:

http://unitedwithisrael.org/ask-the-prime-minister

A Proposed Petition

We took the liberty to draft a short petition you may want to sign:

To Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minster of Israel,

It has come to my knowledge that Samer alIssawi, a Palestinian from Issawiya neighborhood in alQuds (Jerusalem), was arrested and subsequently imprisoned by your military regime that rules over the Palestinian West Bank. In 2011 he was released in the prisoner exchange deal for Gilad Shalit. On July 7, 2012, he was arrested again passing through an army roadblock in Jerusalem, accused of parole violation by trying to reach Ramallah. The "Ofer“ military court sentenced him to serve the remaining 20 years left to his original sentence. Against this inhumane and grotesque arrest Samer has chosen to go on a hunger strike which is already more than 200 days in progress. I demand his immediate release.

Name:

Name of organization:

An Appeal to Left Groups and Organizations

We call upon all left parties, groups and trade unions, that oppose the oppression of the Israeli apartheid state to demand, not only the release of Samer alIssawi, but also of all Palestinian political prisoners. We call for the establishment of an International Committee for Freedom to all the Palestinian Political Prisoners (ICFPP). Needless to say, all political parties, international tendencies and groups must have their freedom to express their own independent political views, and keep complete organizational independence. This committee could prove useful as a coordinator of international solidarity actions, the most effective of which being, in our opinion, working class actions that could put immense economic and strategic pressure on Israel.

Who are we?

The Internationalist Socialist League is a working class revolutionary Trotskyist organization active in Israel (Occupied Palestine). In our opinion all of Israel is occupied Palestinian land and that it is an imperialist apartheid state from the river to the sea. Even without counting in the Palestinian refugees, there is already an Israeli-Jewish minority rule over a Palestinian-Arab majority. While we support partial, democratic struggles and demands, we do not hide our position that the oppression of the Palestinian people will continue as long as Israel exists and that the only solution is a working class revolution.

We stand for demands such as:

For a Constituent Assembly of all the People Who Live in This Land Including the Palestinian Refugees Who Were Ethnically Cleansed from Palestine in 1947-48 and in 1967.

For the Complete Right of Return to all Palestinian Refugees to Their Historical Homeland.

For a Single Palestinian Democratic State from the River to the Sea. (The same demand the Trotskyists in South Africa raised in the 1930s)

At the same time we understand that the only way to achieve this demand is through a working class revolution. The Jewish workers who will participate in the socialist revolution on the side of the Palestinians will have the right to be a part of the new ruling class in the new workers’ state. This workers’ state must be a part of a Socialist Federation of the Middle East. Under this new workers’ state the Israeli-Jewish working and poor masses would have equal civilian rights. However, since the Palestinians are the majority it will be reflected in the national character of this workers’ state and for this reason we say:

For a Palestinian Workers State from the River to the Sea!

Until such a demand could be realized by the working class in this region, we would struggle for transitional demands such as:

Sliding Scale of Wages and Sliding Scale of Hours

Palestinian Independent and Democratic Trade Unions

Workers’ Control of Industry by the Palestinian Workers and their Jewish Supporters

Expropriation of Capitalist Industries Under Workers Control

Expropriation of the Private Banks and Nationalization of the Credit System, Under Workers Control

Defense of the Palestinian Peasants from Zionist Land Theft

Defense Guards that In Time Will Become Workers’ Militias of Palestinians and Jews who Side with the Palestinian Revolutionary Struggle

Yossi Schwartz
for ISL