The class bias of the system begins with who the police target: police are far less likely to arrest higher-income people for committing the same crimes as poor people, and far more likely to charge a poor person than a well-off person for the same offense. Swat teams aren’t barging into wealthy neighborhoods and arresting teenagers holding drug-addled parties while their parents are on vacation at the second home in Cabo.
It’s important to remember that high civilian casualties are a conscious objective of Israeli military policy. Israel wishes to force the Palestinian population out of Gaza, and tomorrow the West Bank, altogether. This is a crucial precondition for the long-term Zionist goal of an Eretz Israel. A high death toll makes future Palestinian emigration much more likely and therefore serves Israeli purposes.
Two out of three major wars between India and Pakistan were fought over Jammu Kashmir. Even the rise of BJP and the black reaction of saffron movement in India is, to a considerable extent, due to the dispute over Jammu Kashmir. On the other hand, it also has served as a breeding house for Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan. But as the great Marxist theoretician Dr. Lal Khan had predicted years ago, the role of Jammu Kashmir in the region seems to be dialectically turning into its opposite.
Union revitalization will happen when unions make themselves relevant for both highly-skilled employees and solo self-employed workers (often working from home) and expand their presence among the growing army of mostly young platform workers, migrants and employees with part-time and fixed-term contracts.
After its tumultuous birth in 1948, the Zionist state was regarded as an illegitimate colonial entity by the Arab countries, despite the legitimacy bestowed upon it by the United Nations. The truth is that the international organization was at that time under complete dominance by countries of the Global North ruling colonial empires, while most of the present member states of the organization were under the colonial yoke, lacking representation in international forums.
There is no indication as yet that pro-Palestinian students will retreat in the aftermath of the repression they have faced—especially as Israeli genocide continues. Repression against dissent can sometimes shut it down, but it also can backfire, by radicalizing students as it did in the 1960s—by exposing the hypocrisy of U.S. rulers who claim to support free speech yet forcibly shut down those who challenge its imperial interests.
