The VIII International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases began this Saturday in the easternmost province of Cuba, an event that from the Mariana Grajales Square denounces the imperialist military presence around the world as a restriction to peace among nations.

Accompanied by the Government, the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and institutions of the province of Guantánamo, the International Seminar was chaired on the first day by Yoel Pérez García, First Secretary of the PCC of Guantánamo; Fernando González Llort, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP); Víctor Fidel Gaute López, Vice President of ICAP, Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Executive Secretary of the World Peace Council (WPC) and Alis Azaharez Torreblanca, Governor of the province.

With the participation of 82 delegates (73 foreigners and 9 Cubans) from 26 countries, the anti-imperialist meeting echoes the international rejection of the genocide perpetrated by the Zionist army of “Israel” on the Palestinian people; and the unanimous demand for the return of the Cuban territory usurped by the United States with the installation of the Naval Base in Guantanamo; first Military Base of that country in the world, as well as the repudiation of the wars organized by NATO under the direction and auspices of the US.

In this context, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, stressed that “the Seminar takes place in a complex world scenario for just causes”, especially for Palestine, Western Sahara, Europe and the Middle East.

“There will be no peace in the world as long as there are weapons pointed against the peoples”, stressed the Cuban top leader.

The Cuban Hero reaffirmed that his nation vindicates Peace and the Sovereignty of the Peoples and “will not cease in its struggle for the return of the territory illegally occupied by the US Naval Base in Guantanamo. It will also not cease to demand the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on our country more than 60 years ago”, and will maintain the struggle “for the elimination of Cuba from the arbitrary list of alleged countries sponsoring terrorism”.

Fernando González Llort considered it imperative to put an end to the expansionism of NATO and its allies, to aim at the dissolution of that aggressive military bloc, mainly responsible for the rise of the arms race in the world.

“We Guantanameros are very proud that our province is an international meeting place to defend peace”, expressed Yoel Pérez García, First Secretary of the PCC of Guantánamo.

Pérez Garcia thanked the presence of anti-imperialist fighters and leaders who debate and expose strategies to counteract the threat of extermination suffered by humanity, “the better world we dream of is possible and together we can achieve it,” he said.

“Let us strengthen the anti-imperialist struggle and solidarity, for a world of Peace and Social Justice”, urged the president of ICAP.

On the consequences of the imperialist military presence of the US, NATO and their allies around the world, -Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Executive Secretary of the World Peace Council (WPC) – stressed that they are not only the source of the war between Russia and Ukraine; they are also the support and prop of the Zionist army of “Israel” to perpetrate genocide against the Palestinian people.

“Not since the Cold War crisis in 1962 has the world been so threatened as it is today by the use of weapons of mass extermination”, warned Lt.Cr. Manuel Carbonell Vidal, vice-rector of the Higher Institute of International Relations of Cuba (ISRI). Therefore, it constitutes a threat to all life and human beings.

Gabriel Aguirre, representative of World Beyond War, pointed out that according to public information, “there are 6 or more military bases with nuclear weapons in Italy, Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and it is very likely that there are others whose information is not in the public domain”.

The Venezuelan researcher denounced that “there are more than 900 U.S. military bases in 90 countries which of course turn this imperialist force into the main promoter of wars all over the world”.

There are -according to the references exposed by the delegates of the VIII International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases- around 1.3 million men and women in U.S. military installations, the country with the greatest presence of military bases outside its national territory.

The United States, the United Kingdom and France are the countries with the most military bases worldwide.

The US Naval Base in Guantanamo-Cuba, with 122 years of existence, is the oldest military base in the world and the first anti-imperialist trench in Latin America.

The origin of the base officially dates back to 1902, but the occupation is much earlier, dating back to the brief period when Cuba was invaded by the British Empire, at a time when the United States had not yet gained independence from the British crown.

During the period of interventions, 7 invasions of Latin American countries were carried out from the Naval Base.

U.S. specialists point out that the Naval Base was the second port in the world with military movement during the Second World War.

“The period from 1939 to 1945 was the only historical period in which the Naval Base played a least bit positive role in history in the fight against Nazi Germany”, said the historian of the city of Guantánamo, José Sánchez Guerra.

From the Guantanamo Naval Base, terrorist actions have historically been orchestrated in sister countries of the region; it is a center for the organization and execution of terrorist activities.

Its presence significantly affects the economy of the province of Guantanamo and causes damage to the environment.

However, Guantanamo, as an anti-imperialist trench, is a meeting point of International Solidarity where the U.S. military presence in Cuban territory is condemned, and strengthens the world movements for Peace in defense of injustices.

International support for solidarity in Guantanamo is also embraced by the Palestinian cause.

Murid Abukhater, a medical student in Cuba, born in Gaza, – expressed on behalf of his people – “the deepest gratitude and thanks to all the free and honest people of the world, who today stand in solidarity with our people and their just cause, in the face of imperialist-Zionist crimes”.

“We appreciate the solidarity of Cuba with our just cause, which considers it as its own and calls and defends Palestinian rights for the liberation, self-determination and full recognition of the Palestinian State in the United Nations.”

“Also for us, defending Cuba is our cause, we condemn the criminal and illegal US blockade and the infamous and arbitrary inclusion of Cuba in the list of alleged sponsors of “terrorism”, together with all the friends of Cuba we demand the end and the elimination of the blockade and to remove Cuba from this infamous list, as well as, we demand the closure of the US Base in Guantanamo and the return of this territory to the Homeland of Cuba and its national sovereignty.”

The Palestinian student, sent from this international event  a special greeting to the students of the American universities, who are protesting against the crimes of the occupation and the support of the Biden administration to the genocide and demand the end of the aggression against the Palestinian people.

The VIII International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases will conclude tomorrow with the reading of the final declaration of its participants. The town of Caimanera will welcome the delegates this Sunday to thank them for their support in the struggle they are facing from the first trench against imperialism.

Source: Resumen English

Palestinian sources revealed to Al Mayadeen Tuesday the outcomes of the meeting held between the two Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, in the Chinese capital Beijing.

The sources confirmed that the two factions agreed on the importance of unifying the Palestinian position regarding the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, emphasizing the importance of a ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Strip.

In this context, the factions further agreed on “coordinating joint national efforts to deliver urgent aid and relief to the sector and to arrange with the relevant parties in Gaza,” and forming a joint bilateral committee in Cairo for coordination and follow-up.

According to the sources, the meeting emphasized coordinating positions and efforts in the West Bank and al-Quds to confront settler attacks on villages and towns, as well as Israeli occupation assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The outcomes of the meeting also stressed the priority of the detainees’ issue and the necessity to preserve their rights and support them during this difficult phase, where they are subjected to the worst forms of abuse and harm inside Israeli occupation prisons.

A unified Palestinian front was on the agenda

On another note, the sources reported from the meeting that Hamas and Fatah affirmed the necessity of unity and ending the division, “within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization by joining all Palestinian forces and factions within it and its institutions, based on previous agreements in this regard.”

The parties also highlighted the importance of forming a non-factional national unity government during or after the genocidal war, tasked with its technical and administrative duties in relief efforts, alleviating the effects of aggression, and rebuilding Gaza.

This government will also work on unifying Palestinian institutions and preparing for general elections, “to strip Israel and America of the pretext of division.”

The sources confirmed that the meeting included an agreement to strengthen Palestinian unity with the assistance of China, which “will contribute to ending the occupation and establishing the Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and al-Quds according to international resolutions.”

The sources informed Al Mayadeen that the outcomes of the meeting constitute the agenda for the next meeting in Beijing on June 14, 2024.

On their part, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that both sides “expressed political willingness to achieve reconciliation through dialogue,” adding that they reached an agreement on ideas for future dialogue, and “they will continue the dialogue to achieve Palestinian unity as soon as possible.”

The Ministry affirmed that Hamas and Fatah expressed their great appreciation for China’s support for the Palestinian people.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Beijing hosted talks between Hamas and Fatah at its invitation to conduct “deep and frank dialogue to enhance Palestinian reconciliation.” Furthermore, the Ministry affirmed that Hamas and Fatah expressed deep appreciation for China’s support for the Palestinian people.

It also announced that Beijing hosted talks between Hamas and Fatah at its invitation to conduct a “deep and candid dialogue to enhance Palestinian reconciliation.”

Source: Al Mayadeen 

Situation

Fully aware of the increasingly violent crackdowns on students and teachers protesting his enabling of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, Biden greenlit an even harsher police response this week. On Tuesday, Biden smeared the campus protests as antisemitic, violent, and unlawful. For university administrators on the fence about escalating the use of force against their own students and faculty, Biden’s comments could have only nudged them one way.

The number and intensity of police crackdowns appears to have escalated dramatically after Biden’s comments. Later on Tuesday, riot police stormed dozens of schools across the country, including at Columbia University. Here’s Adam Tooze:

There was no riot last night at Columbia any more than there has been at any other point. The violence came from the police side and it came at the invitation and request of the University administration.

Police aren’t there to ensure public safety. Look at the video footage from Dartmouth, for example. Or consider what happened at UCLA: On Tuesday, university officials declared the student protests as unlawful. Tuesday night, police officers in riot gear stood by for at least an hour as a mob attacked the antiwar protesters, injuring more than 100 of them. This morning, riot police stormed the protesters’ encampment and arrested over 200 people.

Yesterday, Trump praised the police crackdowns at a campaign rally. Today, Biden again slandered the protests as violent and unlawful. Bipartisanship is back.

Greenlighting violence through budgets

Biden had already given police the greenlight to behave violently through his budgets. The 2020 protests against police brutality were met with rampant police brutality, but after entering office in 2021, Biden dramatically scaled up federal subsidies to police through regular appropriations legislation (for fiscal years 2022 through 2024), and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The chart below visualizes this surge in federal subsidies to police.

Biden supported all these bills and signed them into law, but some people will still tell me that the chart title should attribute blame to Congress and not Biden, and that I should Learn How Government Works. Please know that I’m fully aware that Biden didn’t enact federal subsidies for police unilaterally. If he had, the numbers would be much higher.

Congress constantly reins Biden in when it comes to funding the police. It’s apparent when you compare the amount requested versus enacted for Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) police grants.

For example, Biden requested $601 million for the State Homeland Security Grant Program for FY2024, but Congress enacted $468 million, shaving $133 million off Biden’s proposal. For the Urban Area Security Initiative, Congress shaved $158 million off Biden’s $711 million request.

These two DHS programs have a record of contributing to militarized police responses to protests, expanding surveillance and targeting of protesters, and being totally useless at preventing terrorist attacks.1 They incentivize police to treat protests as an inherent danger; a hotbed for domestic extremism that involves “driving lawful protests to incite violence.”2 They fund “fusion centers” which are joint federal and state/local police operations invented after 9/11 for counterterrorism purposes, but in reality, they focus disproportionately on protests and domestic movements.3 Ultimately, these grants reinforce the practice of police violently cracking down on protests under the (often unfounded) suspicion that they may turn violent or damage public property.

Twenty thousand workers and students took to New York City’s streets on May Day to denounce the genocide in Gaza and police attacks on college encampments.

People came to Foley Square in lower Manhattan to rally, surrounded by courthouses run by the capitalist deep state. These included the federal courthouse where Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were framed and sentenced to the electric chair.

Delegations of city workers, health workers and other union members came along with students. Plenty of older folks attended too. They carried hundreds of colorful signs and banners.

The rally at Foley Square was co-chaired by Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum, and Lameess Mehanna of the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Speakers from Health Care Workers for Palestine and City Workers for Palestine denounced Genocide Joe Biden’s support for the killing of 14,000 Palestinian children. Also speaking were representatives from the United Auto Workers; the Palestinian Youth Movement; PAL Al-Awda: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Tech Workers Against Apartheid; and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

People marched to Washington Square near where New York University students had their encampment attacked by police with many students arrested. One section of the demonstration continued to march and rallied at a NYU building complex. Other groups marched to the New School and Fordham University.

Police have arrested hundreds at the NYU, City College and Columbia University campuses in New York City. As of the morning of May 2, there were still 50 people in jail from the roughly  300 arrested at City College and Columbia. Some students are facing felony charges.

None of the police attacks in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans or elsewhere are stopping the momentum of the movement to stop the genocide in Gaza. Free Palestine!

This May Day, Cuba did not hold its traditional parade in the capital’s Revolution Square for the second consecutive year. The lack of fuel made it impossible to provide the necessary transportation for thousands of Cubans in the surrounding neighborhoods and provinces to travel to the iconic Paseo Avenue in Havana. This event every year attracted all generations of Cubans parading with Cuban flags in hand, and with the typical excitement and pride that characterizes us. The blockade’s impact is real and today is like a punctuation mark on what we face on a day to day basis.

Nevertheless, despite the obstacles, over 260,000 Cubans and international supporters today filled the squares of the country. This date could never go by unnoticed on the Caribbean island because Cuba as a country is solidly on the side of working people and not the rich and privileged and has been that way since the revolution in 1959.

It should be remembered that International Workers Day began in the US in 1886 when police in Chicago attacked workers fighting for the 8 hour work day. The government would like to forget that but it won’t go away. For example the Port of Oakland today, one of the busiest in the US, was shut down by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in honor of the holiday. Retired leader of the ILWU, Clarence Thomas, who participated in the rally in Havana said that, “there is an effort going on in the Teamsters Union to include May Day as a holiday in future contracts.”

The  José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, located next to the U.S. embassy,  was the main event on the island. The feeling there was strong, enthusiastic and united despite the difficult economic situation the country is going through, aggravated by the blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years.

A major theme that underscored the air of resistance at the Tribune was the pervasive support of the heroic Palestinian people that was evident amongst Cubans and the solidarity activists attending from around the world. Palestinian flags, buttons, t-shirts and keffiyehs could be seen throughout.

The U.S. policy of maximum suffocation of the Cuban people and our internal insufficiencies mark this new anniversary of proletarian struggle. The problems derived from the blockade constantly affect Cuban workers in their own lives and the fulfillment of their work in fields such as production, education, health, science, and agriculture.

In this context, Cubans once again demand an end to the U.S. economic blockade and the exclusion of the island from the illegal list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism. The great majority of people on the island continue to stand behind Cuba’s socialist project.

The First Secretary of the Central Workers’ Union of Cuba (CTC), Ulises Guilarte, addressed the event, which was attended by Army General Raul Castro Ruz, President Miguel Diaz-Canel, and other senior leaders of the Revolution. He referred to the current complex and adverse socio-economic context of the country by explaining, “The hostilities of the U.S. government negatively impact the quality of life of the people, who suffer daily food and medicine shortages, as well as the devaluation of salaries and pensions. It limits access to inputs and raw materials destined for our industrial plants and puts pressure on banking institutions and companies around the world interested in commercial exchange and foreign investment in Cuba.

“There is not a single sector of the country free from these effects. Faced with these challenging circumstances, we dedicate this celebration of the world proletariat to the heroism of the Cuban working people, who concentrate their efforts on the country’s economic recovery as their fundamental cause.

“There are good examples in all the territories of the country that show that it is possible to achieve productive efficiency beyond the limitations of material and financial resources. And at the center of these good experiences are men and women who show us that human capital is the most secure and solid resource we have today, and we are not allowed to waste it,” Guilarte concluded.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

April 30, New Orleans – Students at adjacent Tulane and Loyola universities formed a joint encampment for Palestine in front of the universities on busy St. Charles Ave. This evening, as the encampment prepares for its second night, many supporters joined the students to rally. 

Yesterday, New Orleans Police on horseback joined campus police in repressing activists at the start of the encampment, arresting six. City and campus police attempted to confiscate tent materials but were forced to stand down as the united crowd encircled them. 

As of tonight, the full space of the encampment – called The Liberated Zone by the students – has been reclaimed and is being fortified with pallets and other materials. The students are not backing down. 

UPDATE: In the early hours of the morning on May 1, state, city, and campus police violently attacked the encampment. Students held firm in their resistance, even as they were rounded up and forced onto the St. Charles Avenue median. Fourteen activists were arrested. 

Currently, the front lawn of the university — where the encampment stood — has been fenced in, with cops posted up as guards. 

At noon on May 1, students joined by supporters gave a press conference in front of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Department Central Lockup building, denouncing the police violence.

April 30, Los Angeles – Student encampments in solidarity with Palestine have spread rapidly over the last two days in California. The news media is particularly alarmed as a student struggle at Cal Poly Humboldt – a small campus nestled among the Redwoods of northern California — has intensified. 

The New York Times referred to today’s events there as the “Nation’s Most Entrenched Protest.” Students barricaded themselves inside two campus buildings and the administration shut down the entire campus for the rest of the semester. 

Huge numbers of cops have moved in and issued orders to end the occupation and leave the campus, but students are staying put. The standoff is ongoing.

At the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where an encampment is ongoing, Palestinians and their supporters were blocked by campus security from joining the main rally on April 28. Not to be dissuaded, they marched to the periphery of a section of the Zionist counterprotest and held their ground, chanting and clapping. 

The main rally at the center of the campus was supported by numerous community organizations, including Unión del Barrio, Palestinian Youth Movement, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, ANSWER Coalition, and others.

Across town at the University of Southern California (USC), students rebuilt their week-old encampment after nearly 100 arrests on April 25. The administration began issuing suspensions today after students ignored a second deadline to clear out, issued by the Los Angeles Police Department. 

Organizers of a planned May Day rally, including Unión del Barrio, Harriet Tubman Center, and a long list of other community organizations, announced a new march route that will end at USC and finish with an International Workers’ Day rally in support of the students – even though the administration is blocking non-students from the campus until further notice.

Several other California campuses joined the student uprising in support of Palestine today, with University of California Riverside, Cal State Sacramento, University of California Irvine, and Occidental College all setting up encampments. 

On International Workers’ Day 2024, workers in the U.S. could swear that Senator Joe McCarthy and Minister Cotton Mather had returned from the dead.

More than 35,000 Palestinians, including 14,000 children, have died in just over 200 days of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza – funded, armed and given political cover by Washington. Yet any expression of opposition to the mass slaughter of Palestinians is labeled “antisemitism” by politicians of both capitalist parties and the corporate media. 

Congressional hearings reminiscent of the Red Scare anti-communist spectacles of the 1950s target university officials. Depending on how pliable they are, they are driven from office – like former Harvard President Claudine Gay, the first Black person to serve in that post – or they are given marching orders to crack down on student protesters, like Columbia University President Minouche Shafik.

After two weeks of violent police raids against campus Gaza Solidarity Encampments coast-to-coast, Columbia and other schools are now carrying out mass suspensions, threatening to prevent student activists from graduating. Right-wing politicians have called for students who participate in the encampments to be blacklisted from future employment.

Nor is it just Republicans. On April 29, 23 House Democrats called on Columbia President Shafik to “end” the encampment that sparked a nationwide student uprising, or resign. And of course, Genocide Joe Biden himself joined fascist House Speaker Mike Johnson in threatening the heroic students and faculty resisting at Columbia.

This comes after months of police attacks, targeted arrests of organizers, and slander campaigns against pro-Palestine protesters.

Yet the student encampments continue to grow and spread day by day.

Whipping up anti-trans hate

At the same time, another witch-hunt is unfolding across the U.S. targeting transgender people. 

In many ways, this hate campaign – now underway for three years and growing ever-more dangerous – set the stage for how opponents of genocide in Gaza are being treated.

So far this year, 550 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures in 42 states, along with 47 national bills. This includes some of the most drastic measures yet – cutting off all access to gender-affirming health care regardless of age, banning all restroom access, threatening the livelihoods of teachers, librarians and other workers if they are queer or respect the rights of trans students, and generally attempting to force trans lives out of existence.

State hearings on trans issues have the same tenor as the Congressional anti-Palestine hearings, driven by fascist politicians who repeat long-discredited theories or bigoted political and religious ideology as fact. When trans people and supporters show up and try to be heard, they are often silenced, driven out, or arrested.

Typical of this approach is the Cass Review commissioned by the British government, where anti-trans attacks are also at a fever pitch. This so-called review to advise the National Health Service policy on treatment of trans youth dismissed over 100 scientific studies to cherry-pick a handful that reached anti-trans conclusions. 

The supposedly impartial review was carried out by a team that excluded trans people, but included known transphobes who collaborated with Florida’s DeSantis administration.

And yet the Cass Review is already being used by the British government to cut off access to care, not only for trans youth, but also trans adults. It is being favorably cited by U.S. far-right politicians and “liberal” media like the New York Times and The Guardian to manufacture consent for anti-trans genocide.

Like the opponents of genocide in Gaza who are unjustly accused of antisemitism, no amount of evidence will suffice to refute the witch-hunters’ charges of “grooming” and “social contagion.” Like those accused of witchcraft in 17th century New England, the only way trans people can prove their innocence is to stop existing – death.

No more Odessa massacres!

The witch-hunt rhetoric directed at pro-Palestine students and faculty and at trans people escalates the danger of fascist violence, whether from “official” repressive bodies of the state (police and national guard) or “unofficial” neo-Nazi aligned movements. It’s an attack on the rights of the whole working class and all oppressed people, and must be fought with unity and urgency.

Ten years ago, on May 2, 2014, fascist gangs were given the green light by the U.S.-backed coup government in Ukraine to carry out a bloody massacre of nearly 50 activists and workers at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. The working class movement in Ukraine was smashed and thousands of organizers driven into exile in its wake.

Anti-fascists from Ukraine to the U.S. warned then that Washington’s support for neo-Nazi terror abroad would boomerang here. Now this is visible for all to see.

The working class is making important gains in organizing, from Starbucks to Amazon to the United Auto Workers victory at Volkswagen in Tennessee. But this progress is threatened by the attacks on the political and civil rights of students, teachers, and LGBTQIA+ people. 

The bigoted politicians, the neo-Nazis and the big capitalists behind them will not stop with demonizing the Gaza solidarity movement and trans community. The purpose of the witch-hunts is to shatter the ability of the working class and oppressed to resist.

Don’t wait for an Odessa massacre to happen here! Mobilize to resist the bosses’ witch-hunts!

O our great Palestinian people,

O people of the Palestinian working class and strugglers everywhere,

O all the free and honorable in our nation and the world,

Every year on the first of May, the peoples of the world, especially the global working class, and all the poor, oppressed, and downtrodden in this world, celebrate in the face of the brutal, savage, and enslaving practices perpetrated against them by a ferocious financial elite, which disregards all human values and principles, striving with all their might to perpetuate their control and dominance over the peoples of the world and their resources, using for their political, economic, and social objectives everything that military industries and modern technology have developed, and all methods of treachery and deceit, to achieve their goals and interests, without any moral or human scruple or conscience.

Our people, along with all the workers and free people of the world, commemorate the first of May this year at a time when they are subjected to the most brutal and fierce campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing, surpassing in savagery and bloodiness the fascists and the Nazis, at the hands of a group of murderers calling themselves an army for an invasive replacement entity, under the leadership, partnership, support, cover, and complicity of the American administration and the colonial Western imperial powers, the enemies of humanity. 

They believe that, with their crimes and brutality, they can break the will of our people and impose surrender and defeat on them, in a frenzied attempt not only to kill humans and destroy stones and uproot trees but also to erase the identity, history, and civilization of our people, and make it impossible for our people to remain on their land.

At a time when the massacres and crimes committed by the zionist-imperialist alliance continue and escalate, our steadfast people, believing in the justice of their cause, in all their cities, villages, and towns across the entire land of historic Palestine, and in all places of their presence, especially our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip, write a new page of heroism and miracle each day, the likes of which history has rarely witnessed. 

Despite the wounds and pain, despite the blood and body parts, the torrent of flowing blood, and ethnic cleansing in its ugliest forms, our people always rise from under the rubble and debris, carrying their wounds and marching towards victory and freedom, raising the flag of resistance, with more determination and belief in the justice of their cause and the inevitability of victory, their weapons being patience, steadfastness, and resistance, and the support of all the free and honorable people in our nation and the world.

As we bow in reverence and awe before the sacrifices, steadfastness, and determination of our people, we must emphasize the importance of strengthening the internal front and fortifying it, and unity of stance and action across various political, field, and social levels, and depriving the enemy of the ability to achieve through deceit and political maneuvers what it failed to achieve on the battlefields. 

We also call for enhancing social solidarity and support among the various political and social components of our people, to overcome this ordeal with greater strength and resilience in the face of conspiracies and thwart them.

In light of the intensification of the confrontation between the forces of aggression, injustice, and war profiteers, and the forces of peace, justice, freedom, and humanity in the world, despite all the financial capabilities, military capabilities, and economic hegemony that the forces of aggression possess, the forces of freedom and justice grow more aware and discerning in defending their interests against the imperialist plans aiming to eliminate all noble human and ethical values. In this context, we extend our highest expressions of thanks and appreciation to all the free and honorable in the world, who stand today alongside our people and their just cause, in the face of imperialist-zionist crimes.

We send a salute of respect and pride to the university students all over the world, especially to the students at American universities, who are protesting against the crimes of the occupation and the support of the U.S. administration for it, and who demand a halt to the aggression against the Palestinian people. 

We also salute all the labor and women’s organizations that stand in solidarity with our people and their cause, and all the free and honorable who fill the squares and fields of the capitals and cities of the world in support of our people and supporting their just cause.

Glory and eternity to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners, and healing to the wounded. 

A salute to our steadfast people across the entire land of historic Palestine and in all places of their presence. 

A salute of love and loyalty to our brave workers as they, alongside all components of our people — political and social — wage the battle for national, economic, and social liberation. 

A salute to the global working class in the face of injustice, aggression, and the onslaught of global imperialism. 

A salute to all the honorable and free people in the world who stand against injustice and aggression.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Central Media Department

May 1, 2024

Source: Resistance News Network

The following solidarity message was given over the phone by former Black Panther and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal to the participants in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the City College of New York on April 26.

I am speaking to you from the American system of mass incarceration, but what we’re involved in right now is something called mass education. City College, Columbia, Emory, and USC are all part of that process right now. That education is about the repression that Gaza is suffering under.

It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent, and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes. So you are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history. You’re against a colonial settler regime that wants to steal the land from the people who are indigenous to that area, and you’re saying that is wrong.

I urge you, I beg you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicting Gaza with all of your might, all of your will, and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent. It is time, right now, this day, this hour, this moment, to be heard – and shake the earth so that the people of Gaza, the people of Rafah, the people of the West Bank, the people of Palestine can see your solidarity with them.

I am a student of Frantz Fanon. I read him every day, and think about his ideas. When I see what is happening in Gaza right now, I know the people of Gaza are the wretched of the earth. They are fighting to be free from generations of occupation. 

And so it is not enough, brothers and sisters – students – it is not enough to demand a ceasefire. How about this? Make your demand “cease occupation.” Cease occupation, cease occupation! Let that be your battle cry. Because that is the call of history, of which all of you are a part.

You’re part of something magnificent, soul-changing, mind-changing, history changing. Do not let go of this moment. Make it bigger. Make it more massive, make it more powerful. Make it echo up into the stars. 

I am thrilled by your work. I love you, I admire you. On the MOVE!