Not sure where to ask this, but I am looking for a followup post to this post on reddit. Does anyone know where I can find an undeleted copy or where I should be looking? I’ve searched all the reddit undeleters and can’t find it. Link to said deleted post.
“Initial Investigations into the U.$, Pro-Palestine Left, Locally and Nationally (Part 2)” part 2
The original founders for the two NGOs are George Soros and the Rockefeller Family respectively. Those two names are likely enough to carry the entire entangled web of finance capital and the bourgeois state into view but I’ll provide some more immediate information that leads to the overall point I’d like to illustrate. The presidents for each NGO are Mark Malloch Brown and Stephen B. Heintz respectively. Malloch Brown was former Vice-President of External Affairs for the World Bank from 1994 to 1999 and was the driving force for shifting public perception of the bank into a more positive light. Additionally, his position involved managing relations with the United Nations and he later went to work for the UN from 1999 to 2006, after leaving the WB. Regarding Stephen B. Heintz, he had a rather unremarkable career in various state department positions and imperialist organizations. Currently, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, which is a state department think tank uniting various sections of the bourgeois: bankers, politicians, CEOs, CIA directors, state department members, mainstream media figures, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Malloch_Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_B._Heintz
Given this background, I will refer to OSF and RBF as representing the interests of finance capital and now show the ways in which the interests of finance capital condition the already-imperialist politics of the u.$. Left as a whole. Returning to the local sphere, loosely gathering data from this site:
https://samidoun.net/2023/10/calendar-of-resistance-for-palestine-events-and-actions-around-the-world/
which promotes Instagram pages of various pro-Palestine events. From around 25 cities between 18 states (majority of which were coastal or large cities), here are some notable observations:
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is the most consistent non-party organization. Of all events from various cities in the u.$. JVP is the most cited co-sponsor/host of events. CAIR, SJP, and AMP were tied for second for non-party orgs.
CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations SJP - Students for Justice in Palestine AMP - American Muslims for Palestine
Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is the most consistent “socialist” party organization. Likely due to the current campaign they’re attaching themselves to, “Shut it down.” On the topic of that campaign the leading groups behind it are: PYM, SJP, ANSWER*, PACC, and others not covered by this investigation but have shown to play a consistent national role. The DSA comes second for representation nationally at these events.
PYM - Palestinian Youth Movement PACC - Palestinian American Community Center DSA - Democratic Socialists of America
*IMPORTANT SIDENOTE - ANSWER and PSL come from the same web of counterrevolution as outlined in the chart presented in this article: https://fleawar.substack.com/p/unmasking-the-hydra-relationships. Before continuing, open this article in another tab and refer to the chart as you continue reading, the organizations I’ll be listing below show up in this web, and it’s important to see how they all interface with one another to build toward a controlled, Left opposition.
In sum, the various organizations mentioned all in some way co-sponsor, coordinate, or unite with one another forming a general network of the national “pro-Palestine” Left. In combination with other scattered local chapters of the following orgs: AFSC, Al-Awda, PYM, PFC, ANSWER, CodePink, BLM, BAP, SDS, FRSO - we arrive at what could essentially be called the main body of the u.$. Left today. Exact quantities regarding total member counts, accumulated capital in dollars, representations of nationalities, etc., are not covered in this current investigation. Plans for such an investigation will be a necessary step for building understanding of the current political landscape to develop a firm Maoist line, and is something I am hoping to undertake in the near future. For now, we can see at least two formations derived thus far, a particular sect of finance capital and the u.$. Left. I’ll now show the interconnectedness of the two in regards to politics around Palestine.
AFSC - American Friends Service Committee PFC - Palestinian Feminist Collective BLM - Black Lives Matter BAP - Black Alliance for Peace SDS - Students for a Democratic Society FRSO - Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Let’s start with RFB. Organizations (Pro and Anti-Zionist, PZ and AZ) funded by RFB are as follows:
AZ: JVP, BDS National (BNC), AFSC, IF Not Now (INN), SJP*
PZ**: Middle East Institute, Center For International Policy
PZ: J Street, New Israel Fund***
*SJP received funding from another Rockefeller fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
**While not specifically being as openly reactionary as J Street, these are organizations that work with the u.$. state department to negotiate “policy” (read imperialism) in the Middle East, which inevitably involves the existence of i$rael in some form, whether as is now, or a two-state.
***New i$rael Fund is a part of i$rael’s (ultimately pro-Zionist) Left
As for OSF:
AZ: JVP, INN, BNC*
PZ**: Foundation for Middle East Peace
PZ: J Street, New Israel Fund, PEF Israel Endowment Funds***, U.$./Middle East Project
*Many groups that form the coalition of the BNC receive funding from both RFB and OSF.
**Foundation for Middle East Peace represents the u.$. democrat/liberal force for normalization/two-state solution.
***PEF-IEF distributes the $200 million it receives in funding from OSF to various charities in i$rael, and have “touched almost every facet of Israeli life.”
^ https://www.jconnect.org/department/pef-israel-endowment-funds/
(Drawing up a visual representation of the various groups involved could be something I will work on if people express interest in the comments, however I don’t find it immediately pressing given the existence of the chart from the article linked earlier, and may even just lead to a similar situation around debunking lists, where empiricism substitutes dialectical understanding.)
Much of this information is also covered in the JISR Collective article (very first article linked in this post), so again, please go read that if you haven’t. While the JISR article only covers the BNC, it shows a window in the pro-Palestine Left as it is right now.
Putting It All Together:
The last step here is to make some brief mentions of u.$. class structure. The majority, and by some measures, the entirety, of legally employed workers in the u.$. constitute a labor aristocracy, a mass of embourgeois’ed proletarians so far removed from that title they are petit-bourgeois in essence. It derives its material existence from the superprofits violently extracted from the third-world proletariat, the continued national oppression of the various internal nations (New Afrikan, Indigenous, Chicane) in the so-called u.$., and the militarized southern border and restrictive immigration process, which protects its internally inflated wages (superwages).
https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/study/Intro_LaborAristocracy.pdf
(I encourage the reader to, after finishing this, investigate the question of the labor aristocracy via the various resources provided by MIM(P) and the prior discussion in this subreddit on the question.)
What was described just above are the fundamental social and material relations those that make up the u.$. Left have to the rest of the world, the material base. The vast network of the NGOs, finance capital, and the bourgeois state surrounding Palestine-i$rael are part of an even more vast network of social, political, and cultural formations which grow from the aforementioned material base, imperialism. This should be at least somewhat evident to anyone studying Marxism seriously, however if you stumbled upon this post and are not a Marxist, I encourage you to take this as an opportunity to study Marxism as the living science it is.
Given these three forces, the labor aristocracy/petit-bourgeois, the u.$. Left, and finance capital (in the form of NGOs), here is how they operate in tandem to converge on the line of a ceasefire, permanent or not.
Quick Timeline of Events:
Starting with the particular, on October 18*, nearly 10 days after the Al-Aqsa flood, JVP releases an online petition to call for a ceasefire as well as a very public demonstration calling for it as well.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231018212530/https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/ceasefire/
https://newrepublic.com/post/176335/jewish-activists-protest-capitol-demand-ceasefire-gaza-arrest
*(This timeline assumes the earliest archive link represents the earliest existence of a webpage)
As far as I can tell, this is very well the first public call for one. CAIR made one sooner, on October 11, according to the internet archive, however the publicity around it was not as widespread or as coordinated as JVP. Regardless, in the text explaining the petition by JVP, you can see a subtle condemning of Hamas, that was omitted in the text of another ceasefire petition to Congress presented by JVP.
A few days after JVP puts out their petition, J Street releases their statement on the conflict on October 21.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231021151222/https://jstreet.org/j-streets-response-to-hamas-attacks-israeli-palestinian-crisis/
You can’t imagine how cheerful seeing someone post the old blog makes me, despite the delightful crankery of it
“Initial Investigations into the U.$, Pro-Palestine Left, Locally and Nationally (Part 2)” part 3
Here we see an open condemnation of Hamas, but in essence, the same points JVP made in their ceasefire articles: appeals to international law, “ending” the occupation, and humanitarian aid, which can only occur via ceasefire (though it’s not stated in the article). From this instance we see that the basic unity of the anti-zionist and pro-zionist forces join into the current “Pro-Palestine,” “Stop Genocide,” “Ceasefire Now,” u.$. Left. This basic unity is the result of the same source of material existence between these various NGOs, finance capital, of whom, represent a distinct force that has always, and will now attempt to normalize the exploitation and oppression of Palestinians.
Now for the general. In the labor aristocracy, there was an initial split into a “Pro”-Palestine camp and a Pro-Zionist one, but as the war has progressed, the two have begun to find unity in the form of a ceasefire. This is a unity in the true sense, given the class interests of these two camps, but ultimately a false and treacherous unity between the “Pro”-Palestine camp and Palestinians living under siege.
The form this under which this unity is taking place, is the deceitful framing of the war as a “genocide.”
What’s so insidious about this framing is that it points to what is empirically evident, the mass execution and destruction of the Palestinian people, a genuine act of genocide by the i$raeli occupation, but employs the counterrevolutionary usage of “genocide” as a vehicle for carrying imperialist class interests. “Genocide” has been a justification for anti-Communism for decades but in the most notable, recent instance of this, was with the Uyghur genocide question back around 2020/2021. What was/is the national oppression of Uyghur Muslims by China, became instead a petty-bourgeois mud-wrestling match over the question of genocide. The specifics are different, as with the Uyghur question it caused a contradiction in the petty-bourgeois between pro-China leftists (largely Dengists or those who would become that) and sinophobic liberals alongside fascists, but the general effect was the same, in that the ultimate question of national self-determination was muddied over and hidden entirely from view.
Now, we see these groups find unity on the question of Palestine, again through the same process, by casting off the question of national liberation. Thus given both the ceasefire push by NGOs and the self-serving conception of genocide by the petit-bourgeois/labor aristocracy, we see the groundwork laid for a disarming of the Palestinian resistance fighters and a return to the old rotten corpse of normalcy, but with the cobbled together skin of a dying occupation.
Conclusion:
As mentioned at the beginning of this investigation, the question of what a ceasefire could mean for contradictions among Palestinians is something significant to consider. Behind the barrage of Palestinian bodies shamelessly presented by the u.$. Left, there is the typically unreported situation of the war itself. Linking to direct sources here will likely result in censorship from reddit, but there has been consistent coverage of the military incursions here on this telegram channel: https://t.me/palestineresist
In general, i$rael is losing this war, or at its very best, struggling to find decisive footing in it. As a result, since it cannot defeat the Resistance, it attacks the people, like all cowardly fascist governments. Gaza cannot hold out forever though, and an immediately decisive victory for the Resistance does not appear to be visible yet, even though it has been in a successful position throughout the war. For anti-imperialists in the u.$. and the imperial core in general, helping maintain and advance that position should be the obvious goal. I’m hopeful that the information provided in this investigation can give insights into the creation of a correct line and combat the sea of counterinsurgency that is swallowing the question of Palestinian liberation here in the heart of Babylon.