Towards a New Year’s Revolution: Fighting for Our Lives in 2024

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. – Lenin

Today, we are living in an historic moment. All over the world, and here in the United States, people are rejecting their government’s support for Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Millions in the Arab world, in the Global South, and in the West have taken to the streets to say No More War/End the Israeli Occupation/Free Palestine. But the leaders are not listening to the majority voices. When 60% of Americans are calling for a ceasefire and only a dismal few representatives have come forward to actually introduce and support legislation calling for a ceasefire, the system is beyond broken. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is even accusing people who support Palestinians of being agents for Russia, and President Genocide Joe Biden has proudly declared himself a Zionist while sending billions of dollars to Israel to kill more Palestinians. It is time for us, the people, to refuse once and for all, to be the silenced majority.

“The whole world is watching” is one chant that we hear on the streets today as people protest our government’s support of a genocide that we are all witnessing live on social media. For many of us old enough to remember the 1960’s antiwar protests, this chant will always be connected to the horrors that unfolded at the Chicago Democratic National Convention in 1968. The mass global protests today are reminiscent of those in the late 1960’s that exploded across the U.S and abroad. Young people around the world who were fed up with the establishment, organized mass protests against the war in Vietnam, poverty, racism, police brutality, and imperialism.

One of the most extraordinary protests in U.S history took place at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Leading up to the convention the battle lines had been drawn. The organizers were denied permits to protest by the local government and Mayor Richard Daley threatened to show no mercy to anyone who came to disrupt the convention. Earlier that year, riots broke out in Chicago after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and Daley gave his police department “shoot to kill” orders against rioters. So not surprisingly, in August, when the convention came to town tensions were high and rumors were rampant. Thousands of mostly young people and students arrived in Chicago for what was planned as a peaceful protest, but it didn’t take long before the protestors were brutally attacked by the police and national guard troops. Over 600 protestors were arrested and over 1,100 were injured as authorities sprayed copious amounts of tear gas into the crowds and used their rifle butts and Billy clubs to viciously assault anyone in their way. And to the horror of the world, it was all broadcast live on television: The whole world was watching.

The “police riots” as they were labeled by the media unfolded night after night in living rooms around the world. As the protestors chanted and marched outside, the protests spilled over from the streets to inside the convention hall. In his opening remarks, national television broadcaster, Walter Cronkite commented: “A democratic convention is about to begin in a police state. There just doesn’t seem to be any other way to say it.” Reporters were roughed up by convention security teams causing Cronkite to remark that the security forces inside were “a bunch of thugs”. Senator Abraham Ribicoff ditched his speech for nominee, Senator George McGovern, and instead used his time to criticize Mayor Daley saying that his administration was using “Gestapo-style tactics in the streets of Chicago”. By the time Hubert Humphrey stood to accept the democratic presidential nomination, there were empty seats in the convention hall and escalating chaos in the streets of Chicago. The protest, however, was a pivotal moment for the antiwar movement in the U.S., eventually shifting public opinion and ultimately forcing the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.

It is not hard to draw similarities between what we are seeing today and what took place 56 years ago in Chicago. The role of the liberal media then, has been replaced with social media platforms where Palestinians on the ground can livestream the devastation in Gaza and it can be instantly shared and viewed by millions around the globe. We see young people en masse, rising up to demand an end to yet another genocidal war. We see again today the mobilization of coalitions of sometimes unlikely partners, united behind a single cause. Most importantly, we see again the belief that when people unite, they can bring about revolutionary changes. Unfortunately, we also see both then and now that our public officials and representatives are not listening to the people’s demands.

Now is the time for a revolutionary people’s movement to chart a new future. The Palestinian freedom struggle has ignited a new freedom struggle to toss off old leaders and build a world anew. We call on people everywhere to join in a year-long course of protest, political analysis, and organization building towards a socialist future with working people in command of our society. “Fighting For Our Lives” is a new coalitional initiative rooted in daily struggles against capitalism, racism, oppression, and imperialism. We are looking to identify the intersectionality of struggles and movements in order to build life-long coalitions that will demand our voices be heard and to put people before profits. Fighting for Our Lives aims to be a platform for all these movements to come together to find our common ground, to amplify the peoples’ demands, messages and goals of all struggles against the capitalist system. And we plan to do this by building the largest protest in U.S. history at the 2024 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

To that end, the Puntorojo Collective will hold a series of meetings on building the largest protest in U.S. history at the Convention from August 18-22, 2024. The time is ripe to introduce a radical political collaboration/coalition that will speak to the interests and needs of the people rather than to the interests of corporations, and big money. We need to unite multiple struggles under one umbrella and organize to create a real challenge to both the Democratic and Republican parties and generate a true Socialist alternative. Therefore, immediately following the protests, Puntorojo will host a revolutionary people’s summit/forum to bring the leadership of the participating organizations together to plan/discuss how we take this movement forward.

The beloved Palestinian educator and poet, Refaat Alareer, who was murdered by Israel on December 6, 2023, was from the area known as Shujaiya in the eastern part of Gaza City. Shujaiya is well-known for being a stronghold for brave resistance against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Once, Dr Refaat told Ali Abunimah from the Electronic Intifada that he thought Chicago was “the Shujaiya of the United States”. We hope that in his memory, we can realize his vision of Chicago this coming August and show the world that the people’s resistance movement in the US is strong and demanding a world with ordinary people and workers in command.

To join us in Chicago please add your name and/or the name of your organization to this call to action: https://www.puntorojomag.org/2024/01/23/end-the-genocide-now-a-call-to-action/

To learn more, we would also like to invite you to our first organizing and political education zoom call on Sunday, March 3rd at 7pm ET/4pm PT. Registration required. Click here to register.

If you have questions, please contact: puntorojomag@gmail.com