By: April K

Opportunism and zionist chauvinism

In 2024, I was still a member of CPUSA (don’t laugh), an organisation I generally do not like, at least not now. I have had repeated, constant experience of being marginalised in orgs, at least implicitly — or at least, I feel consistently in a subaltern position. Respected enough that people will act nice — far enough away that I never get into cadre. When I was in CPUSA, my concern — because I am someone who likes to talk about ideological consistency — was the part of its program that advocated for a two-state solution, which is an Oslo accords-era capitulation. This generally reflects an inability to even recognise that the Oslo accords is by itself a concession to zionism. “Two-state solution” essentially means this: the zionists steal most of your land, you get a shoebox to live in, which we call the Palestinian state — this state has no working sovereignty in actual practice, it has a Palestinian Authority that only has powers insofar as they are given them (meaning they can be taken away at any time). This shoebox is the west bank and Gaza. There is no way to connect them, the segregated highway system remains in place, most of historical Palestine is stolen, the Golan heights remains stolen. And this is supposedly the “solution.” This is also euphemistically described as “Giving the Palestinian people a state,” which sounds nice until you realise they are essentially being given a Native American reservation type solution — or in other words a redefined concentration camp, with the rest of the land being stolen. This is in addition to the fact that the zionists will, in practice, be able to invade at any time.

Already there are illegal settlements in west bank — more than a hundred of them, placed strategically on hilltops and near natural resources such as water — and zionists occupy half of Gaza still, have bulldozed Rafah to nothing (Rafah was the red line, and westerners let that red line be blown apart). Zionists control the water supply, the electricity supply in Gaza. The airport in Gaza has been destroyed. The university system in Gaza has been destroyed. There has been complete scholasticide in Gaza. There is ongoing femicide in Gaza. There is ongoing ecocide in Gaza. There is still not enough aid going into Gaza. There is constant risk of starvation in Gaza.

In all of this, al-Quds, or Jerusalem, is still under occupation — in fact Gaza itself is occupied, and consistently has been, just under redefined terms. So has west bank, with its areas A, B, and C. More than half of west bank is already totally zionist controlled. Any area that is not can be invaded at any time. Jenin is bombed at any time, villages are bombed at anytime, farmland is attacked, families are beaten to death — settlers in illegal settlements are legally allowed to carry arms, and are constantly surrounded by IOF, which in the zionist entity everyone has to serve for two years.

This also does not address home demolitions, which have been consistently done by IOF against Palestinian homes in west bank — primarily because they claim these homes do not have building permits, but the apartheid system makes it downright near impossible for Palestinian people to get permits in the first place, meaning essentially ever constructed home is barred from having a permit, then torn down because “they did not even try to get a permit.” If you ask for a permit you won’t be permitted one or allowed to build, so you build a home, but then you are blamed for not having a permit, and your home is torn down, in front of you, you are thrown out into the streets by armed settler military forces by violence and brutality, and as your children are crying and screaming you watch everything you ever owned in your life demolished.

Do you think now after 78 years and counting of ongoing nakba, repeated and ongoing wars with Lebanon, ongoing war with revolutionary Ansar Allah in Yemen, ongoing war with Iran, continued war and invasion of Syria — do you seriously believe that an “independent state of Palestine” that is only west bank and Gaza is going to never be intruded upon at all? That it will be respected no matter what by virtue of some mystical agreement?

The two-state solution is completely a lie, but was always deceit, and any meaningful anti-zionist would have abandoned it by now, even outright laugh it away. Despite this, the CPUSA program — at least in the version prior to the 2024 convention — mentioned on page 17 that “there is a growth of resistance to U.S. attempts to dominate military, political, and economic life,” which is being done “through its own direct intervention and invasion and through support for the Israeli occupation and military control of the territory (which territory and how much?) that must belong to the Palestinian Arab people under the necessary two-state solution”, as well as claiming on page 41 “most Jewish people favor a two-state solution.”

I presume this is in reference to the US Jewish population. For the zionist Jewish population, this would be downright lying, which we would expect from an organisation that refuses to recognise settler colonialism and trans genocide. Perhaps it was “supported” in 2009, or was “supported” in 2015, but this was never really legitimate (i.e., beyond verbal abstractions) because consistent polling finds that zionists support whatever genocidal campaign is unleashed by IOF. Furthermore, current polling shows zionist settlers (aka, Jewish people in the zionist entity) are against this by over 60%. Essentially this is a meaningless demand, and the zionist “liberals” have stopped pretending they care if Palestinian people die.

The previous reference (“necessary two-state solution”) appears to be gone now, but the latter reference of “most Jewish people support a two-state solution” remains. Again, this is not true for zionist settlers.

Now again, these references are purportedly in reference to the US population, but this is still not serious. Verbally stating you “support a two-state solution” is not an indicator of a progressive politics. Anti-zionism will have to take a breath and address the basic fact that most Jewish people support zionism, the zionist entity, the Gaza genocide, the ongoing Nakba, the constant bombing of Gaza, the constant IOF attacks, the mass rape, the prisons, and the starvation.

That is not antisemitic. It is just a fact that most Jewish people, and most synagogues, support the occupation. This is not about “targeting someone based on religion.” It is a basic, easily exemplified, fact. We acknowledge this fact in order to be able to address it and combat it. This does not mean denying anti-zionist Jewish people exist. It is rather the presupposition for having more Jewish people become anti-zionist because it means recognising we need to work to break the Hasbara machine. We have to acknowledge the problem to fix it.

This article I wrote is very simple — I am asking the party supports one-state solution, to wit: of Palestine, and Palestine alone. I remember in a Chicago CPUSA meeting (which sadly I cannot verify as I did not record it) a member berating a new member in chat that one-state solution support is prohibited in the party, that they in the CPUSA all support “two-state,” and to read the program and constitution to find out more. I was appalled. And this was what eventually drifted me away from the party.

More specifically, I had a spasm and panic attack after they let a “Communist Party of Israel” (Maki) representative speak at the Chicago convention, condemn Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, as well as the October uprising. This spasm resulted in me over-reacting in a twitter thread (if anyone remembers, I was apologising for it and asking people do not associate my ideology and myself with what had happened).

He had no reason to do this (this is not some trial in front of zionist court, it would not be justified there either however — nor was he “forced to say this,” he could have just said nothing about it). The Palestinian People’s Party, the CPUSA-aligned communist party (which is also not any major force in Palestine at all), did not even have the ability to show up, despite the plans to have them speak next. In the midst of the ongoing Gaza genocide, the CPUSA had only a zionist white settler speak — in which he condemned the resistance and the uprising — and everyone was applauding for him, indicative that they did not care that he condemned the resistance, the uprising — this was not a red line for them. If it was a red line to at least one of them, in that moment, it suddenly did not matter at all. I do not really care if he proceeds to “condemn the occupation and genocide,” if he’s going to proceed to do a bothsidism and condemn the oppressed for taking the completely justified and progressive action of assault against a racist genocidal occupier.

During this over-reaction was surprised to realise literally no one in the party seemed to care that this happened or was appalled by it, calling it just an “online concern,” from what I’ve seen from various screenshots internally (which a friend shared) and externally. As well as CPUSA members ghosting me subsequently. Essentially I was the only CPUSA member to publicly have panic over it (although I guess I cannot say much, because only subsequent to September 2024 have I been able to partake in on-the-ground organising in any saidorg).

I do not think this really is that important, because people come and go. But it was instrumental in my realisation of how coterie-cult like organisations suffering from colonial, cis, male chauvinism have become, where they take “democratic centralism” and vulgarise it into meaning never address any criticism at all, and avoid criticism at all costs because the absence of criticism keeps you from losing friends and keeps you in a position of good social capital. If you criticise, even internally, you are stigmatised. This is why people obsess over a commodified spectacle of “their own” communist organisation, obsessing over how much they love it, adore it, how “this is the party” — they circle their lives around it , they eroticise it, they pepper it up like a celebrity; chauvinism is denied, repeatedly, constantly.

This contributes to why I am republishing this, because I am going to take the line Ghassan Kanafani said and say that this is not “whatever” because this is where the problem starts, this is why you ask all of your questions. This is not a conflict, this is not a civil war, and this is not something solved by an abstract “peace-for-peace’s sake.” Palestinian liberation must be by any means necessary and that means any and all means.

A “two-state solution” is inherently a capitulationist, reformist act, that seeks to dismantle opposition, demilitarise the resistance, even disperse the resistance, leave most of historic Palestine stolen, Golan heights stolen, and the rest of Palestine can be bombarded and genocided at any given time. CPUSA has taken an opportunist line — and the moment they had a revolutionary duty to stand for the uprising, and the Palestinian resistance, particularly al-Qassam, Hamas, the PFLP, the PIJ — they backed away entirely. The moment they could have taken a stand against the oslo two-state “idea,” they backed away entirely. Everything fell apart in a moment and their “support” for Palestine essentially only manifested in the form of calling for a weak ceasefire, as if this will not be functionally nonexistent and constantly occupied by said zionist entity we are arguing insofar as we are for one-state has to be abolished because it will not do anything except do genocide.

The CPUSA program now says it supports the “rights of the Palestinian people to form their own independent state” — which as I alluded to, this is still “two-state”! This is just a euphemism for it. What is this independent state? It is only an independent state if it is the 1948 borders; there is a reason the demand has been “we don’t want no two states, we want all of 48.”

I wrote a resolution demanding the organisation support a one-state solution, cut off ties with functionally liberal zionist organisations, specifically Maki. “Post-zionism”, “a new israel,” that is literally what the Maki program says.

Their bloody wretched founding principles— I do not apologise for my language —explicitly state the support for an “Israeli-Palestinian peace of two states for two Peoples: the establishment of a Palestinian State, whose capital is Eastern Jerusalem, alongside the State of Israel whose capital is Western Jerusalem.” I am resentfully amazed at how stubborn CPUSA members are to recognise that this is the verbatim dictionary definition of “t w o -s t a t e.”

It says it on the page in written word, that they support two-state — and this has not been modified at any time. It says it right there on the paper statement; CPUSA theoreticians claim it does not. What to do when people “cannot see” what they are looking at when it is directly waved in front of them?

This resolution was not supported, generally speaking. CPUSA members called it “flawed” because they did not want to break with “comrades in Maki” (because political principles in fascist amerikkka are sold away like hotcakes for temporary advantages). The resolution did not make it to congress, although to be forthright, neither did most resolutions people made (there is over 30 pages of them on the CPUSA website). And at this same congress, only the Austin CPUSA chapter walked out during the speech, which caused an uproar amongst anyone who could watch the video for over two minutes — a chapter which the organisation eventually expelled for Black nationalism (our Marxists are back in 1959 and are rabid jingo-socialists and yankee social chauvinists).

Then the CPUSA declared settler colonialism was not the principal contradiction because they did an “investigation.” Then the CPUSA cross-ran an article condemning the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) in South Africa for being a “faux left formation” .

I am saying all of this to show CPUSA’s consistent refusal to abandon “two-state solution” is connected to consistent opportunism which, as Lenin observed, is usually embodied by chauvinism — in this contemporary instance, (1. denial of settler colonialism; (2. denial of a colonialist mode of production, the principal contradiction as settler colonialism in turtle island, fascist amerikkka as a settler project (complacency of the white working class in both imperialism and white settler colonialism); (3. “two state solution”; (4. condemnation of the Palestinian resistance and uprising; (5. democratic party tailism, explicit or implicit; (6. tailism to the “israeli left” or “israeli peace movement” as opposed to support for the armed resistance (al-Qassam); (7. zero transfeminist politics or political program; (8. refusal to expel liberal zionists; (9. refusal to support land back; (10. condemnation of the South African resistance, such as EFF.

I am not against democratic centralism. I am against organisations that are chauvinist on trans rights, settler colonialism, the Oromo question, the South African resistance (ibid), gentrification expansion in Mexican communities, and every other seemingly “unrelated” position that stems out of a joint chauvinism-opportunism that haunts this “communist political party” network in the west.

I wrote this resolution to address opportuism which is chauvinism, which is also manifesting as liberal zionism insofar as they condemn the resistance, do not support the right of Palestinian people to any means necessary including violent uprising (even the UN is very meekly tolerable to this). I am republishing this article, because I do not want it exclusively attached to an organisation that is chauvinist, which is definitive of the “c”pusa. I have decided, for the sake of ideological integrity, to republish it here, because I do not want the article to just be on “c”pusa.

Resolution 12; For a one-state solution in Palestine, and other suggestions
March 25, 2024
By: April K

(at the time I used the pseudonym “Avril Marx.”)

The zionist entity’s existence is the same as the ongoing nakba, the extermination of Palestine. There has never been, and there never will be, a zionist entity which is not the consolidation of the genocide of the Palestinian people. It is not just apartheid — it is worse than apartheid. Activists from South Africa have confirmed this — it is unlike even what they experienced. That is not to diminish South African apartheid — rather, it is a wake up call. The zionist entity is a rapist state, a terrorist state. You can use the word “entity” to describe it, because it has no legitimacy; it is not a nation, it is solely artificial, it is a stereotypical settler project— an entity which is inherently racist, and is, in real time, committing once again yet another genocide against Gaza. The Palestinian people — uprooted, thrown in the camps, living in starvation, killed for seventy-five years, and forbidden to use even the name Palestinian — are a people living under what objectively is a fascist occupation.

The Palestinian people are thrown into modern-day bantustans, which are all over the west bank. The splitting up of west bank into areas A, B, and C make any notions of an independent Palestinian state impossible. The Camp David accords, the Oslo accords — these have only resulted in zionists gaining the ability to pillage and terrorise all of west bank to their liking, which they do not even refer to as a west bank, but rather as the Judea and Samaria area.

Lately, with 30,000 and counting Palestinian people murdered by the “Israeli” occupation forces (IOF), it has become increasingly difficult to deny or whitewash what is simply the obvious. It was otherwise described as hyperbole, but is not anymore arguably as such. A zionist entity which accepts, works with, and embraces the Palestinian people is not coming. The zionist entity inherently is an attempt to genocide the Palestinian population out of existence. This is a violently racist society, and a violently racist system of apartheid. It is a butchering occupation.

Zionism, in all of its forms, is simply racism. Zionism makes the zionist settlers supreme under the law, and throws crumbs at Palestinian people. The zionist entity will never accept the concept of peace, because the concept of “peace” has never meant anything so long as it presupposes a zionist colonising ethnic cleansing project. Zionism is to its core an ethnic cleansing project. It has consolidated a segregated society.

Every single morning, there is another massacre. Every morning, another Palestinian child goes hungry in the extermination camps of Rafah. Meanwhile, the zionists refuse to acknowledge there is a Palestine. They give Gaza and the West Bank different names — because they all simply want Palestine to die.

Palestine is the site of the most important anti-imperialist struggle of today; Palestine is the Vietnam of the 1960s. Every single communist in the United States must — and with the most unapologetic, most comprehensive, and most unrestrained attitude — support Palestine. Palestine must get its liberation. It must take back all the land. It must not stop at any point and it must return back to the 1948 borders — before even the UN partition.

A one-state solution of Palestine is supported by an increasingly large number of the Palestinian people, such as the PFLP and Hamas. There can only be a one-state solution of Palestine. If Palestine was completely free from the river to the sea, and was one single state of Palestine, it simply would never do what these zionists do every single day. When Palestine liberates the rest of its land, there will be peace. How is there peace with a “two-state solution” when the zionist entity simply will kill off the other state with slow and tortuous methods? It is a dead “solution” that, to begin with, was never alive.

Apartheid and occupation in South Africa ended, and that was the solution which worked. No one suggested there be a two-state solution in South Africa. Palestine is not free if all it gets is a hundred different hyper-policed ghettos, but that is what “two state” brings.

The left in the United States must render all of its support to Palestine. The Communist Party certainly cannot do everything — but there is one thing it can do to show genuine solidarity. To wit, it can become a principled anti-zionist organization.

I am thus asking that the Communist Party does the following, and I do not think it asks for much, as these are mostly just policy positions:

• Support a one-state solution of Palestine, in which all can finally actually live in peace.
• Support right of return for the Palestinian people.
• Support reparations for Palestine.
• Recognize zionism as racism — no matter how it expresses itself, no matter if it calls itself “liberal” or “labour.”
• Stop associating with organizations in the zionist entity which will always have a muddled opinion against Palestinian people. Just work with the Palestinian people themselves.
• Recognize that “settler” is a broad category — everyone who is “Israeli” is going to be a settler because their entity is engaging in a protracted genocide against Palestinian people which, at the same time, benefits and privileges “Israelis.”
• Do not condemn the Palestinian people and what they do out of desperation in any circumstance. This is blaming the victim.
• Support BDS.
• Have a policy in place which expels members of CPUSA if, (1. they repeatedly publicly condemn BDS despite being educated on what it actually is; (2. they be of affiliation with the zionist entity/government, and; (3. provide material aid to the zionist entity.
• Have the candidates we endorse, as the Communist Party, follow the above-mentioned criteria; have them refuse to ever vote to benefit, or the zionist entity (e.g., funding the iron dome is grounds for revoking endorsement).
• If we have not already done so, establish relations with Palestinians’ rights organizations, such as Students for Justice in Palestine.

I want Palestine to live. I know I am just a rank-and-file member of the party, and I am not suggesting I am some kind of experienced organizer. But what I’ve witnessed the past several months has shaken me so much that I don’t think I can ever be the same again. I am daily fearing for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people in Gaza at risk of famine. I am begging that we please see this is a defining moment in history, one in which we either give our fullest support for the oppressed people or support their oppressors’ extermination attempts. We must choose the former, for Palestine.

Glory to all of the martyrs, and may they never be forgotten. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea — this is a genuine, real slogan. Why cannot the Communist Party support it? Stop dragging your feet, and finally get ahead of the times.