On 26 July, American trade unionist Chris Smalls was illegally detained and beaten by the Israeli state. His crime? Participating in one of the Freedom Flotilla expeditions that have been attempting to break the aid blockade on Gaza and end this monstrous man-made famine.

The Zionist thugs not only detained all the volunteers who were peacefully attempting to deliver aid, but also targeted Smalls as a black man: “They attacked me out of the 21 volunteers because of the color of my skin.” His immediate release after this criminal treatment shows that there was no case to be made against him or his comrades.

In 2021, the former Amazon worker led the struggle for the first ever Amazon labor union in the US. Today, he is one of the few prominent labor leaders to speak out boldly for Palestinian liberation.

As he said during an interview after his release, “This is a working-class issue.” The same ruling classes that are funding this genocide are also attacking workers’ pay and conditions in their own countries.

The shameful thing is that the bureaucrats in charge of the mass trade unions are not mobilizing the enormous power of their membership. This is indeed a class issue, and only class methods can force the lifting of the blockade and immobilize the war machine.

Dockers should follow the lead of the French workers who are refusing to load components headed to Israel, and workers in the defense industry should be supported to take over their factories and reorganize them for the production of socially useful technology.

Ultimately, the working class must be mobilized to overthrow the entire imperialist system.

Down with Zionism! 

Down with Imperialism!

Solidarity with Chris Smalls!