Against genocide and war! Demonstrate in Washington on July 24th!
On July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint session of the US Congress at the invitation of the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties, who have paid this honor to Israel’s Hitler in the midst of a genocidal war that has so far resulted in the targeted murder of over 40,000 Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, over 60 percent of whom are women and children.
Netanyahu will be welcomed by Congress not just in spite of his crimes, but because of them. For all his fascist arrogance, the Israeli prime minister is ultimately a political agent of US imperialism. His speech will be in the nature of a progress report in which Netanyahu will explain to Congress how the genocidal war waged by his government advances the capitalist geopolitical, financial and corporate interests of the American ruling class in the Middle East and around the world.
On the same day that Netanyahu speaks to Congress, thousands of opponents of the genocide – workers from all sectors of the economy and young students – will demonstrate in Washington to express their outrage at Netanyahu’s presence at the Capitol.
The Socialist Equality Party, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) have called for and are demanding as broad a participation as possible in the demonstration on July 24 in Washington DC.
We are calling for this demonstration not to ask Congress to change its policies. Nearly nine months of war have shown that the corporate press in Washington is indifferent to appeals to reason, not to mention morality. The invitation to Netanyahu should put an end to any illusions that the policies of the bipartisan agents of US imperialism can be changed. A new political orientation and strategy is needed.
Therefore, the purpose of the July 24 demonstration is to launch a new and powerful mass movement of the working class against the genocide in Gaza and the global escalation of imperialist militarism by the US ruling class and its NATO collaborators.
The genocide in Gaza is not an isolated atrocity. The brutal attack on the Palestinian people is just one front in a global war instigated by US imperialism that threatens to escalate into a nuclear catastrophe.
There is no separation between “good” and “bad” imperialist wars. The same governments that supply Israel with bombs and artillery shells to murder Palestinians are escalating the proxy war against Russia in alliance with the fascist regime of Ukraine. The Biden administration is crossing all previous “red lines,” now authorizing attacks on Russian territory and declaring that US policymakers will not be deterred by the threat of nuclear war.
At the same time, the Biden administration is relentlessly escalating the confrontation with China.
The genocide in Gaza and the escalating conflicts with Russia and China are part of a global imperialist rampage led by the American ruling class. Recognition of this essential fact is the prerequisite for the development of a powerful mass movement against war, genocide and fascism.
At the July 24 demonstration, the Socialist Equality Party, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees call for the building of a mass movement against genocide and world war on the basis of the following strategic principles:
FirstThe fight against war requires an unconditional and irreversible break with the two capitalist parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, and the establishment of the political independence of the working class.
SecondThe movement against genocide and war must be international, uniting workers of all countries and all continents on the basis of their common class interests.
ThirdThe struggle against war must be anti-capitalist and socialist, because there can be no serious struggle against war except in the struggle to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system which is the fundamental cause of war.
Join the demonstration in Washington DC on July 24. Talk to your colleagues and friends and form delegations from your workplaces, schools and neighborhoods.
Please share this statement as widely as possible on social media and by email.
Stop the genocide!
Declare war on war!
Fill out the form below to join in and help set up the demonstration. For more information, visit wsws.org/July24.
Register to join the demonstration on July 24th.
Contact us if you would like to participate or help us build support for the rally.