As 2024 draws to a close, we prepare to march into the new year. It promises both challenges and opportunities, and now is the time to take stock of the world around us and recommit to the work ahead.
The past year has been a flashpoint—a series of crises that have shone a piercing light on the stakes of our fight. In Palestine, the genocidal war in Gaza, and the unflinching resistance of the Palestinian people and their allies, provoked a global tidal wave of solidarity and outrage, making clear the urgency of the anti-imperialist struggle.
At the invitation of the Comitati di Appoggio alla Resistenza per il Comunismo (CARC), Michela Martinazzi of the Central Committee of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization delivered the following speech to a national meeting against NATO, held in Italy, December 8.
Good morning from New York comrades,
On behalf of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, I extend warm greetings and solidarity to the participants and organizers of this important gathering. The violent involvement of NATO is felt throughout the world. As communists, we have a special task to oppose U.S. monopoly capitalism, the wars that it brings, and its tools like NATO. We’re honored that you invited us to take part in this meeting to fight NATO on a global scale. And we’re ready to continue the fight alongside you!
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization condemns the ongoing U.S.-backed aggression against Syria. President Bashar Al-Assad has been forced to flee the country, and now sits in exile in Moscow. What is clear is that the Syrian government has collapsed. This blatant assault on Syrian sovereignty is part of a larger effort – by Western imperialists, Israel and reactionary forces in the region – to defeat the Axis of Resistance, which is fighting for the liberation of Palestine and to end U.S. control in the region.
On November 27, Lebanon and the U.S.-backed apartheid government of Israel enacted a ceasefire. Hezbollah, a powerful army in the Middle East fighting to free Palestine, fought Israel to a standstill. The Lebanese Army is already reporting that Israeli occupation forces have breached the terms of the ceasefire multiple times in the last two days.
The re-election of Donald Trump and the dominance of Republicans in Congress sends a loud and painful message: the system is broken, and those at the helm don’t care about working people, oppressed nationalities, or the marginalized. We in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization understand that the time is now to channel our rage, dissatisfaction and hope for a different future into something revolutionary.
So, it happened. The racist, reactionary fool Donald Trump is returning to the White House, and Republicans will dominate Congress. The polarization of American political life is sharpening and deepening. Revolutionaries and progressives have some heavy lifting ahead of us.
There is going to be plenty of time to analyze what happened in the election, but on the morning after, some things are clear. The leadership and wealthy backers of the Democratic Party have only themselves to blame for the outcome. The Harris/Walz campaign was tone-deaf to the needs and aspirations of working people. In fact, the two words that they seemed unable to work into any of their speeches were “working class.” Instead, they offered a sad mixture of genocide in Palestine, combined with an appeal to college-educated, “never Trump” Republicans. And they failed.
FRSO urges our members and supporters to take to the streets and organize the broadest possible protests the day after the November 5 elections. No matter what the outcome, we must continue to stand with Palestine and oppose the ever-widening U.S./Israel war in the Middle East. And we must advance a progressive agenda that defends the rights of immigrants, workers, LGBTQ people, women’s and reproductive rights.
The upcoming presidential election is referendum on the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Palestine and the broader war that the U.S. and Israel are waging in the Middle East. The Biden/Harris administration is coordinating the attack on Iran, and the U.S. has dispatched troops and missiles to Israel. There is a minimum of 44,000 dead in Gaza, and Israel is raining 2000-pound bombs down on the cities of Lebanon. While it should go without saying that a reactionary racist like Trump does not deserve a vote, Kamala Harris doesn’t either.
Freedom Road Socialist organization strongly condemns the attacks by the U.S. Treasury Department and Canadian authorities on Samidoun: Palestinian Political Prisoner Network. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claims that Samidoun is a “sham charity,” an allegation that is designed to criminalize solidarity with Palestine. We urge everyone who is progressive or concerned about civil liberties to stand with Samidoun against political repression.
The U.S government has devised a host of laws that treat movements for national liberation, be they in Palestine or the Philippines or points in between, as “terrorism.” As a result, almost every group that is fighting to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine is on the U.S. State Department’s list of designated terrorist organizations. And it gets worse. Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, folks can face long prison terms for “material support of terrorism.” It’s a legal framework that tries to make solidarity a crime. These laws should be scrapped.
Hace casi un año, el 7 de octubre, el sonido de la libertad retumbó en Palestina y sus ecos todavía se escuchan en todo el mundo. La resistencia palestina lanzó la Operación Inundación de Al Aqsa, una fuga masiva de la prisión al aire libre más grande del mundo, Gaza. Y, al hacerlo, dieron un paso histórico hacia la liberación. Karl Marx dijo una vez que esos momentos de revolución, de personas que toman su propio futuro en sus manos, deberían considerarse como “fiestas de los oprimidos”. Tenía toda la razón en eso.
