by Jeff Mackler, published on Socialist Action, August 1, 2024
[July 24 Chicago Federal Plaza rally statement by representative of Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine protesting bi-partisan Netanyahu invitation to address US Congress, 600 attended.]
This Sunday, after nearly 10 months of mass outrage and action against the genocide genocidair-in-chief, Joe Biden has stepped down from the 2024 election race. There can be no doubt that our mass movement and growing shift in consciousness of people against the US’s unconditional support for Israel contributed to this.
But Biden’s poor debate performance was the catalyst. It’s a horrific indictment on our system: a genocide didn’t cause Biden to step down. Rising inflation and rent, and deteriorating infrastructure, while our money is spent on imperialism and Zionism, didn’t cause Biden to step down. Instead, it was his inability to string sentences together and his inability to reassure Democrat donors of his re-election that torpedoed his campaign.
Even as the Democratic Party establishment continues to throw their weight behind Israel in their ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, many are telling us that their new candidate, Kamala Harris, is entitled to our vote. After all, she is the “lesser of two evils.” We hear the same rhetoric every four years as things continuously get worse for the people around us. After years of imprisoning Black and Brown Californians as a prosecutor, Killer Kamala has proved in many ways her commitment to continuing the establishment’s unconditional support for the US war machine in the face of numerous crises we face here in this country. First, on a domestic level, three years of the Biden administration have not changed the situation for our most vulnerable. Less than three weeks ago, a Black woman, Sonya Massey, may she rest in peace, was brutally murdered by an Illinois state police officer. Why? Because she dared to call the police when she thought there was an intruder. We know too well that the police provide no sense of safety and instead, put us all, especially our Black comrades, at extreme risk.
This horrendous act of police violence adds up to the maintenance of cop cities that the Biden administration has been using to terrorize Black and Brown bodies. And Kamala Harris has been complicit in it not only when she was Attorney General in California, but even this year by supporting the police brutality on students’ Palestine encampment protests.
On the international level, despite the mass organization in support of Palestine and in demand for the end of the genocide in Gaza, Kamala, as the vice-president of the US, has done absolutely nothing for us. In fact, she has actively spewed Zionist talking points and furthered the imperialist agenda. While Yemen continues to demonstrate unwavering solidarity for the Palestinian people, it was Kamala and the Biden administration that organized a coalition of imperialist powers and their collaborators to bomb Yemen and quell the rising resistance in the broader region.
It was Kamala and the Biden administration that invited Netanyahu, the current head of the genocidal Zionist entity, to give a speech to both chambers of congress today. We will never forget their unwavering support for Zionism and the US war machine. Most importantly, we will never let history absolve them of their crimes.
For Palestinians and other victims of the US empire worldwide, there’s never a “lesser evil.” This is why students who have been rising up for a Free Palestine over the last 10 months are fed up with the same tired trope of “democracy on the ballot” every four years. The Democrats are in office right now and there is no democracy in sight. What democracy brutalizes and incarcerates students standing against genocide? What democracy continues to spend billions on war and imperialism worldwide as the people that live there continue to face police brutality, rising costs and inadequate healthcare?
What democracy turns a blind eye to the millions that have taken the streets for Palestine demanding an end to genocide and aid to Israel?
We have zero obligation to vote for war criminals and career politicians who serve no one but their rich donors. Instead our duty is to stay in the streets, to organize, and continue to grow this mass movement for Palestine and against the two-party system.