The following essay represents the thoughts of five BRRN members as they reflect on their organizing work against the genocide in Gaza and suggest paths forward for the movement in the current moment.
by Elise Recluse, Felix T, Ketino B, Jay, and Juan Verala Luz
The state of so-called “Israel,” in fulfillment of its settler-colonial ambitions and representing the imperialist interests of the United States and the dominant classes of the world, is mass starving the people in the Gaza Strip. Mass starvation as a weapon of war has nothing to do with “self-defense” in whatever form or shape it may present itself. On the contrary, it follows a familiar playbook wherein man-made famines are used to subjugate and eliminate entire populations.
As we write this, the next phase of Israel’s 22-month-long genocide unfolds: the occupation of Gaza City. Simultaneously, plans are in motion to build what are effectively concentration camps—so-called “humanitarian cities”—to impose the most unbearable living conditions on the Palestinian population.
As recent pronouncements from the Israeli parliament have made clear, the annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza is a prerequisite for Zionist plans to build a “Greater Israel.” What was perhaps unclear to some a couple of years ago is now self-evident: even in its true character as a puppet of U.S. imperialism and the dominant classes of the world, Israel’s settler-colonial state is, always has been, and always will be a fascist state.
For us, this genocide is both a singular atrocity as well as another instance of the worldwide intensification of class struggle. The horror of the genocide in Gaza must be halted for the sake of Palestinians. It must also be halted here and now before it is applied to other sections of the dominated classes of the world. As we have seen before, the technologies and techniques of domination pioneered in Israel are exported around the globe to reinforce police and military control in the US and elsewhere.
However, the current genocidal violence against Palestinians is the direct result of the growth of imperialist power, which will always translate into more domination, oppression, and exploitation: an iron ring choking the neck of the dominated classes across the world. There is a structural element acting here that turns this into an actual imperialist dynamic—class struggle, in other words. For example, those investment pension funds bought by US state and local treasuries, and even labor unions, have been key in fueling “Israel’s” economy for decades now while actually playing only one real role: to ensure the annihilation of any threat against the interests of the U.S.-based dominant classes that exploit workers both in the U.S. and across the entire world. Workers organized in such unions have begun to push back against Israel bonds, as part of a growing movement of global solidarity.
Just as fast as any surveillance technology from so-called “Israel,” Palestinian steadfastness in the struggle for liberation is globalizing. We revolutionary anarchists, communists, and socialists cannot remain still while a portion of the world is annihilated; every single life counts, and every effort must be made to preserve it. To promote healing, we must first stop the bleeding: in our own efforts toward building social movements, we emphasize deep organizing against genocide, bringing the struggle for Palestinian liberation into long-term organizing rooted in workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, and other sites of daily life.
We support the Palestinian Civil Society Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and the Palestinian Trade Unions appeal to international solidarity: work stoppages, mutual aid appeals within our organizations, boycotts, divestment, and sanction campaigns, direct action to break the illegal siege, and direct action to disrupt the reputation and bottom lines of politicians, perpetrators, and war profiteers are examples of actions that can have maximum impact. We also support efforts by organized workers to end their workplaces’ and unions’ complicity with genocide by divesting from aforementioned Israel bonds in pension funds. These actions not only disrupt genocidal business as usual, but also help to build the defensive and offensive popular power of our own mass organizations in the process. Whenever possible, we should build such popular power, whether that is in Palestine, in our own mass organizations, or both.
To break the machinery of genocide, we must look back, reflect, and learn from both gains and failures. During 2024, the US Palestine solidarity movement swelled with Solidarity Encampments throughout universities. That unity in mobilization powerfully embodied the twin drives to stop the imperialist massacre in Gaza while advancing the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Fascists, Zionists, state functionaries, mass media, and other powerful interests targeted these mass movements and deeply undermined the Palestine solidarity movement: threatening participants, depriving them of jobs and their academic futures, and in some cases detaining and threatening to deport activists.
We have continued to build structures from below and launched targeted campaigns that dent “Israel’s” global legitimacy and means to finance its occupation despite these best efforts to repress us. The lesson is clear: we must amass greater power through forging strategic alliances with clear goals, deep organizing, and large-scale mobilization if we want to dismantle the Israeli settler colony. We must build a vision of victory.
Alongside stopping genocide, we must hold onto hope that positive, liberatory futures are possible for Gaza, for greater Palestine, for the larger surrounding region, and beyond. We should continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Palestinians and support them in rebuilding Palestine’s structures of popular power: unions of peasants and workers, neighborhood assemblies, student unions, women’s and queer organizations, organs of community self-defense, and more.
We struggle for an end to genocide, for a start to healing, for libertarian socialist possibility for Palestine.
Alongside the tactics against genocide and imperialist power outlined above, we strongly urge comrades and friends to contribute what they can to grassroots efforts to alleviate suffering of peoples in and displaced from Gaza now:
- Donate to the Translating Falasteen’s x The Sameer Project’s North Gaza Relief Efforts: https://chuffed.org/project/help-us-deliver-vital-aid-to-gaza-families-in-need
Stop the genocide now!
Free Palestine!
Elise Recluse, Felix T, Ketino B, Jay, and Juan Verala Luz are members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra.