A critique of the ISA’s and CWI’s adaptation to Zionism and social-pacifism
By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 25 October 2023, www.thecommunists.net
Major events in world politics are always a crucial test which proves the program and the principles of every socialist organisation. This was the case with the Ukraine War, and this is the case with Israel’s current war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The RCIT and other authentic socialists have defended the Ukrainian people against the invasion of Russian imperialism [1] and support today the Palestinian brother and sisters against the barbarous attack by the Zionist state. We take such a stance because we always side with the oppressed against the oppressor, with the semi-colony against the imperialist state, with the oppressed nation against the oppressor nation.
Such a stance means for us as Marxists that we unconditionally support the struggle of the resistance forces of the oppressed (in these cases the Ukrainian army resp. Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions) without lending political support to the leadership of these forces. Concretely, as revolutionary socialists we oppose the (petty-)bourgeois nationalist or Islamist politics of Zelensky resp. of the Hamas leadership.
The ISA and the CWI – two organisations which stand in the opportunist tradition of Ted Grant but split in 2019 – take a different position both in the Ukraine War as well as the Gaza War. In the former conflict, they advocate a neutral, i.e. a reactionary abstentionist, position and denounce the conflict as a “proxy war”. [2]
Equating Hamas with Israel
In the Gaza War, both organisations effectively take a social-pacifist and pro-Zionist position. [3] They oppose the war but refuse to support the Palestinian resistance in the current war. The ISA – which has a section in Israel – shamefully equate Hamas and Israel. “Hamas is a right-wing pro-capitalist force which has functioned as the ruling party in Gaza over the past 17 years. It plays the role of police in suppressing workers’ strikes and women and LGBTQ rights. We should not confuse Hamas for the Palestinian masses. Hamas is inherently an anti-worker organization.”
Consequently, they express their solidarity with “all victims”, i.e. both with the victims of the oppressed nation as well as those of the oppressor nation! “The Socialist Struggle Movement (ISA in Israel-Palestine) stands in solidarity with ordinary people, with the relatives of those killed and with the wounded from all communities, on both sides of the fence, and with the abducted civilians.” (Another quote: “We stand in solidarity with all victims of war and terror, and join those who are standing up and fighting back.”)
The CWI effectively takes the same position as their former comrades. “Socialists, however, can give no support to Hamas and Hezbollah, parties which are based on right-wing political Islam. They are against workers’ rights, LGBTQ+ rights and equality for women; and their military strategies won’t bring about liberation for the Palestinians, decent living standards for them, or an end to the conflict – none of which are possible under capitalism. Rather, the way forward for the Palestinians will be through democratically organising mass struggle – a socialist intifada – based on the interests of workers and the poor, independent of those of the rich elites.”
Deserting the struggle of the oppressed
Such an equation of Hamas with Israel is thoroughly shameful. True, Hamas is “pro-capitalist”. But how many struggle of oppressed nations have taken place in the past decades with a leadership which has not been “pro-capitalist”?! As long as revolutionary forces are not strong enough to take the leadership of the masses, such national liberation struggles will usually be led by “pro-capitalist” forces. But how on earth could this mean that socialists should not side with the struggles of the masses as they take place (i.e. under a non-revolutionary leadership) in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Ukraine, Chechnya etc.?!
Is it not also true that most workers struggles are led by the trade union bureaucracy which is obviously also “pro-capitalist”. Does this give socialists the right to desert the class struggle just because the workers have not put the right leadership in place yet?! Only reactionaries could take such a stance! Or do the leaderships of the ISA and the CWI ignore Trotsky’s statement that the national struggle is a form of class struggle? “The sectarian simply ignores the fact that the national struggle, one of the most labyrinthine and complex but at the same time extremely important forms of the class struggle, cannot be suspended by bare references to the future world revolution.” [4]
Revolutionaries can only gain influence amongst the masses if they do not stand aside of a just struggle but participate in it on the basis of the united front tactics. Such a stance has to be combined with explaining the shortcomings of the non-revolutionary leadership to the masses. Effectively, the ISA/CWI’s approach is a justification for refusing to support just wars of the oppressed (something which all organisations in the tradition of Ted Grant have done repeatedly starting from the Malvinas War in 1982). [5] This is nothing but desertion of the class struggle!
In contrast to these centrist cowards, the RCIT and our comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine take a principled anti-imperialist stance: “Support the Heroic Palestinian Resistance! Defeat Israel!” [6] and “Victory for Hamas and the Arab masses! Down with the Zionist apartheid regime!” [7] We have repeatedly stated our opposition to the program and methods of Hamas. But we also reject the reactionary imperialist denunciation of the imperialist powers and media to call Hamas a “terrorist organization” and to deny the fact that it is the leading force of the Palestinian resistance. [8] The crude form of the ISA’s and CWI’s denunciation of Hamas is a pale imitation of this imperialist propaganda.
The method of neo-imperialist economism
The ISA’s and CWI’s failure to take the side of the Palestinian resistance is rooted in their refusal of the Marxist understanding of imperialism and the program to fight national and imperialist oppression. We have elaborated our critique on Grant’s method in much detail in a special pamphlet in which we characterised their method as “neo-imperialist economism”. [9]
In the case of Palestine, such an approach is particularly shameful as this is not a “normal” conflict between two nations but a peculiar one. Israel has always been a settler-colonialist state which exists – and can only exist – on the basis of the expulsion of the native population, the Palestinians. However, ISA and CWI completely ignore this fact and advocate a “socialist” two-state solution.
Hence, they “recognise the national rights of the Israeli people for their own state.“ [10] In other word, both the victims of oppression as well as those gaining from such have the same “rights”. The consequence is the CWI/ISA’s advocacy of a two-state solution. “The Maavak Sozialisti comrades also support the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and advocate an independent, socialist Palestine, alongside a socialist Israel, as part of a socialist confederation of the region.” [11]
In the current situation, the ISA advocates this position in a somehow diluted form (certainly influenced by the fact that such a position is highly unpopular among the Palestinian and Arab masses). “For a mass struggle on both sides of the green lines for a ceasefire, rehabilitation of communities on both sides of the fence and for a root solution, on the basis of ensured rights to exist, self determination and a life in dignity in the framework of a struggle for socialist change in the region.”
Hence, the ISA and the CWI put the “right of self-determination” of the oppressed nation on the same level as the “right of self-determination” of the oppressor nation. Effectively, this means the denial of the right of return of millions of Palestinian refugees to their homeland. Based on such a shameful position of “socialist” adaptation to Zionism, it is not surprising that the ISA and CWI refuse to support the Palestinian resistance forces in their struggle against the Israeli Apartheid state!
The approach of the RCIT and our comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine is very different. As we stated in a recently published document, we advocate “a socialist revolution of the working class and the oppressed masses in the Middle East. We stand for the destruction of the Zionist state, the unconditional right to return of the Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a single Palestinian state from the River to the Sea which shall be a democratic and secular workers and poor peasant republic as part of a socialist federation of the whole region. In such a state, Jews will be a minority with full religious and cultural rights. Likewise, such a strategy aims at the overthrow of the Arab and Persian rulers by the popular masses.” [12]
[1] We refer readers to a special page on our website where more than 160 RCIT documents on the Ukraine War and the current NATO-Russia conflict are compiled: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/compilation-of-documents-on-nato-russia-conflict/. In particular we refer to the RCIT Manifesto: Ukraine War: A Turning Point of World Historic Significance. Socialists must combine the revolutionary defense of the Ukraine against Putin’s invasion with the internationalist struggle against Russian as well as NATO and EU imperialism, 1 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/manifesto-ukraine-war-a-turning-point-of-world-historic-significance/; see also: Manifesto on the First Anniversary of the Ukraine War. Victory to the heroic Ukrainian people! Defeat Russian imperialism! No support whatsoever for NATO imperialism! 10 February 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/manifesto-on-first-anniversary-of-ukraine-war/.
[2] For our latest article on the ISA’s position on the Ukraine War see Michael Pröbsting Ukraine War: Beating the Dummy. A commentary on a hidden polemic of the ISA against its internal critics, 27 February 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/ukraine-war-beating-the-dummy/
[3] See the following documents from the ISA: Amid Normalization of Occupation and Siege, New War Erupts, 9 October 2023, https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2023/10/israel-palestine; Stop the Onslaught on Gaza, 21 October 2023, https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2023/10/israel-palestine-2; “The Middle East is on the Brink of Falling Into the Abyss” — The Gaza War Enters Its Third Week, 23 October 2023 https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2023/10/israel-palestine-4; from the CWI: Stop the Israel-Gaza war! For workers’ unity and struggle against national conflict and oppression, 9 October 2023, https://www.socialistworld.net/2023/10/09/stop-the-israel-gaza-war-for-workers-unity-and-struggle-against-national-conflict-and-oppression/. All quotes in this article are from these documents if not stated otherwise.
[4] Leon Trotsky: Independence of the Ukraine and Sectarian Muddleheads (July 1939), in: Writings 1939-40, p. 50, online: https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/07/ukraine.htm
[5] See on this also Michael Pröbsting: The Struggle of Revolutionaries in Imperialist Heartlands against Wars of their “Own” Ruling Class. Examples from the history of the RCIT and its predecessor organisation in the last four decades, 2 September 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-struggle-of-revolutionaries-in-imperialist-heartlands-against-wars-of-their-own-ruling-class/
[6] We refer readers to a special page on our website where the RCIT documents on the 2023 Gaza War are compiled: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/. In particular we refer to the first RCIT statement which has been published in 11 languages: “This is the Time to Expel the Occupiers!”, 7 October 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/fifth-gaza-war-support-the-heroic-palestinian-resistance/
[7] Yossi Schwartz: More News from the War, 9.10.2023, https://the-isleague.com/more-news-from-the-war/
[8] See e.g. Michael Pröbsting: Is Hamas a Terrorist Organisation? 20 October 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/is-hamas-a-terrorist-organisation/
[9] See on this e.g. the pamphlet by Michael Pröbsting: The Poverty of Neo-Imperialist Economism. Imperialism and the national question – a critique of Ted Grant and his school (CWI, ISA, IMT), January 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/grantism-imperialism-and-national-question/
[10] Peter Taaffe: What’s Left? – not Nick Cohen! 08/03/2007, https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/2154/08-03-2007/what-s-leftnot-nick-cohen/
[11] Peter Taaffe: A socialist World is possible – the history of the CWI, CWI Publications & Socialist Books, London 2004, p. 86, https://internationalsocialist.net/en/pdf/docs/CWI_History2004.pdf
[12] Michael Pröbsting: Gaza Uprising: Another Turning Point in the World Situation. Thoughts on Israel’s war against the Palestinian people and its possible regional and global consequences, 11 October 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/gaza-war-and-consequences-for-world-situation/