On Friday, November 24, Israel “paused” its genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people in Gaza (even as its vicious “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank intensified. As we go to press, this “pause” is holding, with Israel agreeing to observe the truce so long as ten hostages a day are being released by Hamas. This “pause” does not change the fact that the Israeli government has vowed to totally destroy Hamas, the ruling political organization in Gaza. Nor does it change the fact that the Prime Minister of the Israeli government, Benjamin “Netan-Nazi” Netanyahu, has called on Israel to emulate the Biblical figure Saul’s near total genocide against the people of Amalek, or that the defense minister has called every Palestinian an “animal” and said they should be treated like animals (that is, presumably slaughtered).
News reports are that Hamas has seized 150 Israelis and is holding them hostage. Attacking noncombatant civilians, killing them, or seizing them and threatening to kill them, is criminal and an expression of the reactionary nature of Hamas. These news reports, and the expressions of indignation by the rulers of the U.S. and their media mouthpieces are aimed at programming Americans to be fixated on outrage at 150 hostages and blind to the exponentially greater outrage that Israel has taken ALL OF GAZA HOSTAGE. Right now, over 2 million people, overwhelmingly non-combatants, are being held hostage by Israel which has imposed a complete siege of Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, fuel and water, THREATENING TO STARVE EVERYONE IN GAZA TO DEATH! Denying children, elderly people, babies! food, water, and electricity essential to keeping hospitals operating.
On the morning of October 7, armed forces of the Hamas organization, the Islamic fundamentalists who govern the Palestinian region of Gaza, launched a surprise, multi-pronged land, missile, and hang-glider attack against Israel.1 There are reports that between two and three thousand missiles were launched from Gaza at Israel, some breaching Israel’s “iron dome” anti-missile systems. Hamas says it captured Israeli troops, and news reports show destroyed or captured Israeli military vehicles. And as we post this, there are reports that after more than 24 hours, fighting continues inside Israel near the border with Gaza, and that the Hamas forces are holding Israeli hostages, military and non-military.
At its heart, the current war between Israel and Palestinian Gaza is ultimately “provoked” by Israel’s utterly unjust takeover of Palestine, the exile of most of its people, and Israel’s oppressive rule over the millions of Palestinian people who remained there. As the article “Behind the Israel Gaza Clash: ‘Indiscriminate Violence and Terrorism’—PERPETRATED BY ISRAEL AND ITS BACKER, U.S. CAPITALISM-IMPERIALISM” makes clear, when it comes to the “indiscriminate violence” that the U.S. today so loudly and hypocritically condemns, nobody holds a candle to either America or its loyal ally Israel.
Or: Don’t Be Played for Suckers by Trump’s Posturing, or the Democrats’ Posing as Defenders of Justice—We Need a Revolution and a Fundamentally Different and Far Better System
Bizarre and capricious rules enforced by cancel culture threats. Puffed-up unscientific claims to “represent the marginalized.” Insisting that people “stay in their lanes” in fighting oppression. “Woke” lunacy manifests much that is harmful with the capitalist-imperialist system and its dominant culture, furthering the nightmare of humanity!
The following article by Bob Avakian was originally published in 1987. We are republishing it now, because it remains highly relevant in terms of understanding the basic nature of this system we live under—the system of capitalism-imperialism—and the role of the U.S. Constitution as the legal and political basis for this system of ruthless exploitation, murderous oppression and massive destruction. In this republished version, Bob Avakian has provided some Added Notes at the end of the article, to further clarify important points.
I was inspired and challenged by the agitation done by the revcoms on International May 1st on the Constitution of the United States that aired on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less !—Show—how they exposed it as a blood-soaked document of exploiting and oppressing classes and how they compared and contrasted it with the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North Americawritten by Bob Avakian, BA. I was especially struck by Michelle Xai’s powerfully uplifting statement on how the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America specifically and explicitly upholds a woman’s right to abortion and birth control (Article III, Section 3)—something you have never seen and will never see in the U.S. Constitutionor any of its amendments.
