Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, 18 December 2023, www.thecommunists.net
1. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin announced the formation of a naval task force which shall conduct patrols in the Red Sea. The U.S.-led mission – called “Operation Prosperity Guardian” – also includes Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Bahrain, and Seychelles. Their task is, according to Austin, “to keep strategic waterways safe” because “these reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem” which “demand a firm international response.”
2. This naval mission of Western imperialists does not come as a surprise. From the first day, Ansar Allah – the official name of the Yemeni rebel force popularly known as “Houthis” – has declared its unconditional support with the Palestinian people who face a genocidal war by the Terror and Apartheid state Israel. They have warned international shipping companies to stop trading with Israel in order to put pressure on the Zionist state. They did strike a number of cargo ships which refused to obey such orders. In one case, armed forces of Ansar Allah even succeeded in hijacking of the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-owned cargo ship.
3. The solidarity actions of Ansar Allah have been highly effective. As a result of their campaign, insurance costs for trade with Israel going through the Red Sea increased by 250%. Hong Kong-based shipping company “Orient Overseas Container Line” announced that it would immediately stop shipping goods to and from Israel. Global shipping giants, such as Mediterranean Shipping Company, CMA CGM, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd, which represent 53% of global container trade have announced that they would suspend operations in the Red Sea. Since 12% of global trade passes though the Red Sea, including 30% of global container traffic, accounting for one trillion dollars of trade each year, delay and diversion there cause significant disruption to world trade. As a director at “The Global Counsel” noted: “European natural gas prices jump by 12%, UK natural gas prices jump by 10%, and the price of oil also jumped by 4% in the past 24 hours.” In short, the Ansar Allah’s solidarity campaign with the Palestinian people hurt Israel as well as its Western allies.
4. The purpose of the U.S.-led naval mission is a) to guard the ships against any attacks by Ansar Allah and b) to launch military strikes against the Yemeni rebels, who effectively control most of the populous western part of the country including the capital city Sana’a.
5. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) – including our comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine – strongly denounce the U.S.-led mission in the Red Sea. We have warned against such an imperialist operation for several weeks. This is a reactionary threat to the oppressed peoples in three senses. First, it aids Israel to continue its genocidal war which aims at the defeat of the heroic resistance and the expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza (a new “Nakba”). Second, its purpose is to increase the grip of Western imperialism on the Red Sea and, thereby, on a key route of world trade. And, thirdly, it aims at weakening Ansar Allah, a petty-bourgeois Islamist force which played a leading role in the popular uprising in 2014 as well as in the national liberation war against the Saudi/UAE invasion – backed by Western powers – which began in March 2015.
6. As we have stated from the beginning, we consider the Houthis’ attacks as legitimate actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The RCIT has always sided with the Palestinian liberation struggle and therefore advocates in the current Gaza War – like in the past ones – the military victory of the resistance led by Hamas without lending political support to the program or all tactics of its leadership. Likewise, we support the solidarity actions from Ansar Allah which effectively constitute a form of popular sanctions against the Israeli Terror and Apartheid state. Actions, which economically weaken Israel or its Western imperialist allies and therefore put pressure on them to stop their genocide against the Palestinian people, are completely legitimate in this war for life and death (similar to boycott actions of Arab countries in 1956-57 and 1967-75).
7. In any confrontation between the Houthis and Western resp. Israel, we stand for the military victory of the Yemeni forces and the defeat of the imperialists without lending political support to the former. The RCIT calls socialists and all pro-Palestine solidarity activists to intensify their support the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people and their resistance factions.
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!
Expel the U.S.-led naval force from the Red Sea!
In any confrontation: Support the Houthis against the Western imperialists!
For a global boycott movement against the Terror and Apartheid state Israel!
International Bureau of the RCIT
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We refer readers to a special page on our website where more a number of 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/.
See also RCIT: Gaza War: The Houthis and the Looming Imperialist Intervention in the Red Sea, 14 December 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/the-houthis-and-the-looming-imperialist-intervention-in-the-red-sea/; Gaza War: The Houthis Have Opened the Second Front. Major international shipping companies stop their operations through the Red Sea after a series of attacks by the Yemeni rebels, 16 December 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/gaza-war-the-houthis-have-opened-the-second-front/; Yemen’s Houthis Seize Israeli Cargo Ship: A Legitimate Act of Solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance, 20 November 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/houthis-seize-israeli-cargo-ship/