This position was articulated by Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, in its statement on the third anniversary of the Gaza extermination’s beginning: “The future of Palestine will not be determined by the projects of the Zionist occupation, the calculations of Washington and hostile forces, or agreements that diminish our rights. Our Palestinian people will remain the holders of the right, the authority and the cause, and it is they who will determine their future through their free, revolutionary national will.” Though obviously Americans are not the ones to decide whether this will gets enforced, it is a highly positive development that so many of them have come to effectively share Masar Badil’s stance on total Palestinian autonomy. Almost two-thirds of the thirty-and-under generation say they support Hamas over Israel; as Palestine allies in the United States, one of our core duties is to rally these parts of the masses who’ve already been radicalized.
At the moment, this primarily means showing ourselves to be capable of doing what the Zohran tendency cannot. Palestine supporters who were behind Zohran are now seeing that he never was on the side of the cause; this awakening process is happening on its own. Our role in this is to build a version of the pro-Palestine movement that truly understands what it means to support Palestine’s struggle. And this requires going further than rejecting the reformist ideology of the DSA current; to truly safeguard against opportunism, we’ll need to ruthlessly root out any attempts at building personality cults around this issue.
There are plenty of media personalities who’ve cashed in on Palestine by making a spectacle out of debating Zionists, while denouncing the resistance; Mehdi Hasan being the most obvious example. There are even many people who’ve done good work for Gaza, while behaving in a toxic or abusive manner; Andrew Tate came out as a supposed ally of Palestine, and donated to Gaza. In the absence of a movement that was prepared to sustainably build itself after October 7, these kinds of Palestine “friends” have become much more prominent within this sphere than they otherwise would be. Which is a critical part of why the actual Gaza death count has no doubt reached many hundreds of thousands.
Any version of this movement that succeeds during the next phase will be one which draws its strength from the actual popular struggle, rather than from a personality. This is one of the thresholds we’ll need to clear if we want to advance our own fronts within this fight, as Masar Badil instructs us to do:
The facts have demonstrated that the cause of our Palestinian people has transcended the borders of Palestine to become a cause embraced by liberation forces and movements in various parts of the world, particularly those that situate their struggle within the confrontation with imperialism, Zionism and colonialism. Our movement considers that the centers of political, military and economic support for the Zionist entity are not limited to the region, but extend to Washington, Berlin, Paris and other Western capitals that bear direct responsibility for the policies and crimes of the Zionist entity and finance wars of domination, the plunder of the peoples’ wealth and the continuation of colonial policies toward the countries of the Global South.
It’s within these centers of global capital that there’s the greatest danger of liberal co-optation and toxic leadership. It’s only when we stop these elements from dominating that we can become in position to take our efforts to the next phase.
A useful example of this opportunism problem is the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an organization where (as explained in detail by defector Walter Smolarek) the members functionally aren’t allowed to challenge the leadership’s unilateral decisions. PSL certainly takes a more correct position on Palestine than DSA does, but this does not mean it’s good for the Palestinian cause, or any other front in the struggle. The correctness of what it says about Palestine only makes it a more effective vehicle for manipulating people with an advanced consciousness on Jewish supremacy.
Because it’s a personality cult, it acts as a roadblock towards anyone within the structure who seeks to expand the political struggle outside of PSL’s own narrow circle. Brian and Ben Becker make sweeping decisions about the org’s moves without outside input, enforce a culture of intimidation directed towards anyone who tries to do real mass work projects, and have now built a massive Palantir-esque tech infrastructure for monitoring the membership’s online communications.
When Smolarek exposed these activities in his resignation letter from earlier this year, he concluded that those who’ve been driven out of the org represent an objective gain for the American working-class struggle:
I have made peace with the years I have spent in the PSL because I have realized that in order for a viable communist left to be rebuilt, one with genuine cadre who grapple with the lessons of the last century and the novel challenges we face today, there needed to be an intermediate generation of communists who experienced the inadequate remnants of the last wave of left organizing and developed the critiques necessary to go beyond what we inherited. If even a handful of individuals emerge from this generation with clear vision, having accepted their agency in charting the next stage of communist organizing in the U.S., then I believe that we have made a step forward, not backward.
I know that this handful has been formed, and maybe more. I am leaving alongside the leadership of the Brooklyn District to take the next step in the formation of a viable socialist movement in this country. While we will leave smaller in number than if we remained in the PSL, we are confident that in the long run, cultivating a healthy seed is a better choice than continuing to tend to a dying tree.
To the growing number of people who are getting disillusioned with PSL, as well as with DSA, the default position we need to take is that they’re more than welcome within our own circles. I say this based off the history of how Palestine’s different revolutionary factions gained unity after their long and bitter infighting period. It’s always the best option to establish unity among those who the enemy considers to be its enemies; communists from my tendency believe this so strongly that we actually are willing to work with current PSL members, or anyone else who has an anti-imperialist stance.
Helping expose the personality cult leadership’s offenses against the movement is still necessary, but with the caveat that this is done in solidarity with those who’ve been victimized by these toxic actors. By maintaining this posture towards the membership, we’ll end up in a vastly better position after these opportunist orgs inevitably self-destruct.
————————————————————————
If you appreciate my work, I hope you become a one-time or regular donor to my Patreon account. Like most of us, I’m feeling the economic pressures from our era of accelerating inflation, and I need money to keep fighting for a new system that works for all of us. Go to my Patreon here.
To keep this platform effective amid the censorship against dissenting voices, join my Telegram channel.
