One year after the start of the Gaza genocide, Israel, with the support of US imperialism, is only intensifying its extermination and ethnic cleansing of the civilian population of Gaza.
A Palestinian man holds the body of a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]
Between October 5 and 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from areas in northern Gaza as Israel continued its offensive near the Jabalia refugee camp.
Despite reports on social media that “Jabalia is being wiped out,” no death toll has been published, amid a near-total collapse of Gaza’s medical infrastructure.
“Attacks in northern Gaza, combined with mass evacuation orders, which are inconsistent with international humanitarian law, raise serious concerns about the forced displacement and forced transfer of Palestinian residents of Gaza,” the UN Human Rights office warned Monday.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces demanded the evacuation of the Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
“It is evident that there is a new plan to displace our people in northern Gaza by dismantling the healthcare system across all its sectors in this region,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a statement. “We have informed everyone that the northern region is densely populated with a significant number of residents. We have the right to continue providing services to these people. We will remain steadfast, we will stay, and we will continue to offer medical services no matter the cost.”
He added in an interview with CNN, “What is happening is arbitrary and clear displacement of the residents from northern Gaza.” He continued, “Kamal Adwan Hospital is still the only hospital operating in the north, so putting the hospital out of service would be a big disaster for the people who need (it). There are still many patients in the hospital and there are many babies and children in the neonatal unit, so it is difficult to evacuate.”
The United Nations reported in its daily update that in northern Gaza, “more than 400,000 people are under pressure to move southward to Al Mawasi, which is already overcrowded and lacks basic services. Humanitarian access also risks becoming further constrained, particularly between southern and northern Gaza, and so are the accessibility and functionality of key humanitarian facilities within areas slated for evacuation.”
These ethnic cleansing operations are accompanied by constant bombing, artillery bombardment and shootings by Israeli troops.
The deliberate starvation of the population of Gaza is only intensifying. A report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) found that the amount of food supplies entering Gaza in September was the lowest since March of 2023 and there was a major decline in the availability of food for children aged 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women across Gaza.
According to the report, “only five percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women had consumed dairy products, and six percent of children had eaten some meat, with these percentages plummeting to one and three percent in northern Gaza, respectively.”
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Chris Gunness, a former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, accused Israel of carrying out a “slaughter” of the people of Gaza.
“In the last year, we have seen Gaza transform from the world’s largest open-air prison to the world’s largest concentration camp,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.
“Today, Gaza has been transformed into an industrial-scale slaughterhouse. And I use the word ‘slaughter’ advisedly because frankly animals in most abattoirs around the world are killed more humanely than the women and children of Gaza.”
In remarks on the first anniversary of the start of the Gaza genocide, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The nightmare in Gaza is now entering an atrocious, abominable second year.”
He added, “More than 41,000 [Palestinians] have been reportedly killed, mostly women and children. Thousands more are missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble. Virtually the entire population has been displaced—and no part of Gaza has been spared.”
He continued, “We are witnessing a clear intensification of military operations by Israel. Residential areas have been attacked. Hospitals ordered to evacuate. And electricity cut off—with no fuel or commercial goods allowed in. Around 400,000 people are being pressed yet again to move south to an area that is overcrowded, polluted, and lacking the basics for survival.”
He concluded, “No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe.”
Israel’s assault on Gaza is being accompanied by an Israeli military offensive throughout the Middle East, with a direct attack on Iran under discussion with the Biden administration in the US amid active operations in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
In a speech Tuesday addressing the people of Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened the country with destruction “like Gaza.”
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu threatened, demanding that all resistance to Israel surrender.
Israeli strikes killed 36 people across Lebanon on Tuesday and wounded 150. Since mid-September, 1,473 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes.
On Tuesday, Israel also carried out a strike in Damascus, Syria, killing seven civilians and wounding 11 more, according to Syrian state television.
[This article was originally published in WSWS here on 09 October 2024]
~Given the enduring supremacy of oil and gas, countries holding large, cheap reserves of the commodity remain essential to geopolitical calculations~
The United States and Israel are on the brink of war with Iran. While the Biden administration has publicly stated that it does not want “escalation,” it has made clear that it will support Israel regardless of what Netanyahu does. Nearly every bomb dropped on Gaza and Lebanon was made in the US and given for free to Israel by the Biden-Harris administration.
A natural gas refinery in the South Pars gas field in Asalouyeh, Iran, on the northern coast of Persian Gulf. November 19, 2015 [AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi]
For Netanyahu, who faces multiple criminal indictments once he leaves office, this moment presents an opportunity to realize the long-held, grotesque ambitions of the Israeli ruling class: to destroy the Iranian regime through war. As the Financial Timeswarned this past weekend, “the chances of an Israeli attempt to topple the Iranian regime cannot be fully discounted.” The paper noted that last week Netanyahu declared, “When Iran is finally free—and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think—everything will be different.”
The Trump faction of the American ruling class has expressed its full backing for such a war. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former Middle East adviser, wrote a long post on X arguing for Israel and the US to topple the Iranian regime. He stated, “Iran is now fully exposed. … Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.”
Though other sections of the ruling class have voiced concerns about the spiraling situation, the logic of their position—unconditional support for Israel’s actions—puts them on the same road toward war with Iran. The Democrats may have tactical differences with Trump about how to overthrow the Iranian regime but both salivate at the prospect of doing so.
The removal of the Iranian regime, while a geopolitical end in itself for American imperialism, is also a critical steppingstone in its economic and military confrontation with its chief adversary: China. All factions of the American ruling class unconditionally support Israel because they know that controlling the resource-rich Middle East—and ending the Ayatollah’s power—will significantly increase their power and flexibility in a war with China.
The importance of Iranian hydrocarbons
Iran is a large country, roughly the size of Spain, Ukraine and France combined. Eighty-nine million people live there. Compared to Iraq, its neighbor, which was invaded by the US in 2003, Iran has almost four times as many people and a far more sophisticated military and economy.
Iran has a long history of colonial subjugation, including British control over its oil industry in the first half of the 20th century, the CIA-MI6 coup in 1953 to prevent the nationalization of its oil industry and several decades of bloody rule by the US-backed Shah.
Everyone knows that Iran’s wealth primarily comes from its oil. Iran produces a little more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, about 3 percent of the world’s total. What is not as well understood, however, is the potential for Iran’s oil production to expand. Only three other countries in the world have larger reserves of commercially realistic oil (Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq). Additionally, Iran has the second-largest reserve of natural gas in the world after Russia.
Oil and natural gas remain the energetic bedrock of the global economy. Despite efforts to promote new alternative energies, the “energy transition” under capitalism remains a half-hearted and contradictory affair. The principal concern of the US and Europe with their investment in EVs and critical minerals is not stopping global warming but ensuring their economic and geopolitical supremacy vis-à-vis China, which has excelled in this area. Fifty-seven percent of the world’s energy comes from oil and gas, another 27 percent from coal, and just 1 percent comes from solar, a record high.
Given the enduring supremacy of oil and gas, countries holding large, cheap reserves of the commodity remain essential to geopolitical calculations. It is striking that Russia, Iraq and Iran—after Saudi Arabia—are the world’s largest holders of cheap oil reserves. Each country has been a principal target of US imperialism over the last quarter-century. The US invaded Iraq and is now on the brink of war with both Russia and Iran, the second and third largest holders of oil and gas reserves.
What is more, each of them—partially due to being squeezed and sidelined by economic sanctions—has a relatively underdeveloped oil industry, deprived of vital streams of capital and advanced technology required for production. This is evident in the case of Iraq, where after the US’s brutal invasion, American and European oil companies significantly raised production, increasing output from 2 million to almost 5 million barrels per day today.
The US oil boom’s role in imperialist strategy
Were the current US-Israeli onslaught taking place 10 or 15 years ago, the impact on global markets would be significantly worse. In the last few days, oil prices have risen by about 10 percent, the largest increase in two years since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, a dramatic shift in global oil and gas markets has tempered the effect.
In the last 15 years, the US has experienced the largest oil and gas boom in world history through hydraulic fracturing. This method allowed the US to grow from about 5 million barrels of production per day (mb/d) to over 13 mb/d. This represents about 15 percent of the world’s oil supply and is the only major source of supply growth internationally during this time.
The US ruling class is in an entirely different situation today regarding controlling global oil and gas production than when it was planning the Iraq invasion in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By being able to put a lid on oil and gas prices through fracking, US imperialism has been able to afford the loss of oil from Libya, Russia and Iran on the world market, allowing the US and its NATO allies to squeeze these countries and make plans for their regimes’ overthrow. (In Libya’s case, a “successful” plan that has led to a permanent state of civil war.)
The US oil boom, however, will not last forever. Generous estimates give it another 10 years, after which it will precipitously fall.
In his critical work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism written in 1916, Lenin explained the importance of imperialism remaining one step ahead of its current needs. He wrote,
The more capitalism develops, the more the need for raw materials arises, the more bitter competition becomes, and the more feverishly the hunt for raw materials proceeds all over the world, the more desperate becomes the struggle for the acquisition of colonies.
To this, one could add that resources also deplete, and as they deplete, this “feverish hunt” further intensifies.
Where are the future supplies of oil and natural gas—so vital to the global economy—that will persist as other sources dry up, such as US fracking? They remain in the Middle East and Russia, with Iran, Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia being some of the most important future sources.
China and the US
It is important to stress that a key driver of US imperialism is the growing military and economic collision with China’s development. The US and its allies are fundamentally opposed to giving Chinese capitalism a “seat at the table” of the most advanced capitalist countries.
For several decades, China served as the cheap goods platform for the world’s major companies. But due to its own internal development—particularly in education and more advanced manufacturing processes—China has now created domestically controlled industries that seriously challenge US and European companies.
This is most obvious in the realm of automobiles, where Chinese EVs, advanced and cheaper than those of the US, have experienced rapid growth. In just a few years, China’s auto exports have gone from being a small fraction of those of Japan, the US and Germany to now overtaking all of them.
Having completely jettisoned past rhetoric of “free trade,” the US and its allies seek to prohibit Chinese corporations from playing a major role in the global economy at all costs. Confronting its own deepening economic and social contradictions, the US seeks to use its still dominant military and financial power to undermine the economic rise of China.
A central reason to control geostrategic resources like oil and minerals is not simply to profit from them but to pressure countries by denying access to this vital supply of energy and resources.
China, for its part, has much of the world’s critical mineral processing located inside the country, posing a problem for US imperialism’s war plans. However, while China has a relative advantage in critical minerals and batteries, the US has the advantage in oil and gas, at least for the next five to 10 years.
A RAND Corporation study on how the US could win a war against China noted, “If China is vulnerable to critical shortages in a war with the United States, it could be … in oil supplies, of which it imports about 60 percent and has a declared strategic reserve of just ten days.” Indeed, it is likely that one of the key reasons China was so quick to pioneer EV technology was its ruling class’s awareness of this serious weakness.
Almost all the oil China imports comes from the Middle East. Now that that oil no longer flows to the US, due to the fracking boom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Iraq and the UAE send their oil east to China. China imports a staggering 11.4 mb/d of oil, making it the largest importer of oil in the world. China is the top recipient of Iranian oil.
Oil and World War III
Taking the geopolitical situation as a whole:
The US currently has control over global oil and gas markets more than any other country.
This level of dominance, however, has a limited window of about five to 10 years before that control significantly erodes due to the eventual decline of fracking.
The US, economically threatened, plans for a military confrontation with China centered around Taiwan.
China is strategically vulnerable when it comes to oil, relying on massive daily flows of oil from the Middle East. Iran’s largest oil export partner is China.
The Middle East and Russia, in the long term, will be the principal sources of the world’s remaining oil and gas. Iran is one of the single largest sources of undeveloped oil and gas reserves.
Taking these components together, it is evident that Iran’s oil and gas are of great interest to the United States and its partners. While many other factors go into the consideration of war, it is no accident that the principal targets of US imperialism are the most resource-rich countries in the world.
Netanyahu’s threats that Iran will “soon be free” reflect the fact that Israel, acting as a US attack dog, has been given a blank check to restructure the Middle East. The Israeli ruling class has its own distinct set of interests, but the Israeli war machine is ultimately funded, armed and driven by US geostrategic interest in the region.
This is the cold geostrategic logic that underlies the US-Israeli war against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. The US seeks to strengthen and deepen its hold over this vital region as it prepares for a potential war against China.
For those who are disgusted by the rampage of Israel in the region and the blood-soaked, hypocritical role of the US, it is essential to understand that this war is not a “policy choice.” Capitalism, in its nationalist pursuit of profits at all costs, drives American imperialism toward a conflict that threatens the lives of billions of people. However irrational and dangerous, the American ruling class sees no other way out to its deepening spiral of economic, social and political crisis.
[This article was originally published in the WSWS here on 07 October 2024]
මෙහි පලවන්නේ ලෝක සමාජවාදී වෙබ් අඩවියේ 2024 ජුනි 10 දින පල වූ ‘For a mass demonstration on July 24 in Washington D.C. to protest congressional invitation for Netanyahu’ යන හිසින් කල ප්රකාශයේ සිංහල පරිවර්තනය යි. පරිවර්තනය සුනිල් ප්රනාන්දු විසිනි.
The leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists (YGBL), a Socialist, Trotskyist organization operating in Ukraine, Russia and the former Soviet Union, was arrested on April 25 by the SBU – the state security service of the fascistic Zelensky regime – and detained in a maximum security prison in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikolaev (Mykolaiv).
thesocialist.lk claims that he was arrested for his leading role in the campaign by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) against the criminal war of NATO imperialism and calls for his immediate release and the withdrawal of criminal charges made against him.
Insisting that this arrest is a usurpation of the democratic right of the working class to stand up against the scourge of war, we call on workers, youth, and oppressed people around the world to come forward to free Bogdan and to defend the political rights of the WSWS by defeating this attack.
Bogdan has been charged primarily with treason, for which the 25-year-old Bogdan is in danger of being sentenced to life in prison. The basis of this accusation is that for the past two years, Bogdan was “engaged in the preparation of publications commissioned by representatives of a Russian propaganda and information agency, the World Socialist Web Site” [emphasis added.]
In bringing this absurd charge against the WSWS, they conveniently ignore the analytical critiques of comrade Bogdan and the World Socialist Web Site regarding the Russian capitalist regime’s invasion of Ukraine. Bogdan, who advocated the opinion of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in this regard, that the bankrupt Russian capitalist class had no other choice but to fall into the trap of the world war plans of the imperialists in the face of the imperialist pressure brought on by surrounding its borders day by day, insisted that only the unity of the international working class can defeat the cruel war plans of imperialism.
The target of this repression against Comrade Bogdan is the internationalist resistance against war—the geopolitical strategy of imperialism. It is no coincidence that the WSWS is a target of the Ukrainian security service. This attack is directed not only at the WSWS but also at the socialist internationalist alternative to imperialist war.
The arrest of Comrade Bogdan is an indication of the wider crisis of not only the Ukrainian fascist regime, which has been at war with Russia for more than two years as a puppet of the NATO imperialists, but also the NATO imperialists, who are sponsoring the war by pumping money and arms behind them. The tension of the entire world capitalist order, squeezed by the already ripened antagonisms between globalised production and the world market and the capitalist nation-state system that dominates it, is characterised by unprecedented social inequality and the cracking up of the whole post-World War II order— systems of governance, international conventions, intergovernmental organisations and borders. The result is the rapid pull towards a world war by all the imperialist powers. This situation has led to a situation where the spectre of the socialist revolution is terrorising imperialism. This is why the imperialists and capitalist regimes want to crush democratic rights completely. The ruling class of Sri Lanka is being driven rapidly towards anti-democratic dictatorial plans by these very conditions of the crisis, which provides the backdrop to the war effort of the imperialists.
American imperialism, which has virtually been at war every day for more than three decades, is now leading NATO on a desperate march towards a global thermonuclear war. It is at war with Russia using the Ukrainian cat’s paw, providing weapons, funds, and diplomatic support for the genocide crimes of the Netanyahu fascist regime of Israel in the Middle East. It is working to outlaw the protests and arrest the protesters—workers and students—for those crimes. In Ukraine, the US ruling class headed by Joe Biden and NATO are working to arm the Zelenskiy regime, which is openly violating human rights, as admitted by a bureau of the U.S. State Department itself. They are giving the Ukrainian regime the ability to drop missiles on the Russian public, hence creating the potential for massive civilian casualties. The aim is to provoke Russia into a thermonuclear war.
These conditions have thrown all pseudo-leftist projects of applying pressure on imperialism and the capitalist system and of seeking refuge in capitalist ‘justice’ and ‘peace’, into crisis. Objective conditions are increasing for the potential to convince the working class that the only way to prevent genocide and war is to mobilise the working class all over the planet from an internationalist socialist perspective. It is under these circumstances that the watchdogs of imperialism jump in to attack Comrade Bogdan and the WSWS.
Thus, it is apparent that standing up against the arrest of Comrade Bogdan is not simply for the democratic rights and freedom of a socialist in a distant land. Instead, it is a necessity of the day-to-day struggle of the workers, the oppressed, students, and young people across the globe facing challenges to their lives and livelihoods. Defeating this reactionary attack is a burning need for the oppressed and the workers.
We call upon the workers in Sri Lanka, in the South Asian region, and in the entire world to mobilize struggles by organizing discussions, meetings, campaigns, strikes, and various other class actions against this arrest by taking such campaigns to the students, workers and the oppressed. Furthermore, we call upon all our readers to sign the petition posted on Change.org demanding the release of Comrade Bogdan.
[This statement was originally posted in Sinhalese on May 31, 2024]
On Thursday, April 25, Bogdan Syrotiuk—a socialist opponent of the fascistic Zelensky regime and the NATO-instigated Ukraine-Russia war—was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, in his hometown of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine.
Bogdan Syrotiuk
Bogdan, who is 25 years old and in poor health, is being held in a prison in Nikolaev under atrocious conditions on fraudulent charges of undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine and serving the interests of Russia. If found guilty by a kangaroo court of these charges, Bogdan is threatened with a prison sentence of 15 years to life, which is the equivalent of a death sentence.
The arrest of Bogdan is the latest example of the Zelensky regime’s brutal repression of left-wing movements, whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class.
SBU agents ransacked Bogdan’s apartment and the office that he has used to conduct political and educational activities. The World Socialist Web Site has been informed that the SBU is claiming that it found a Russian military coat, a backpack with the letter “Z”—a symbol associated with Russian military chauvinism—and a gas mask in the office. Only dull-witted fascist police will expect people to believe that such items will be found in an office that prominently displays a photo of Leon Trotsky and offers a wide selection of Marxist-Trotskyist literature.
If such items were “found” in Bogdan’s office, it is because they were planted there by the SBU, whose unscrupulous and Gestapo-like methods are common knowledge in Ukraine.
Bogdan Syrotiuk at a May 9 rally in honor of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Attempts to portray Bogdan as a supporter of the Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine are politically preposterous. Comrade Syrotiuk is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), a Trotskyist youth organization active in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union.
In political solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the YGBL opposes the oligarchic capitalist governments in both Ukraine and Russia. In numerous articles posted on the World Socialist Web Site and in speeches delivered at events sponsored by the ICFI, Bogdan has unequivocally condemned the war and called for the unity of the Ukrainian and Russian working class against the reactionary national-chauvinist regimes headquartered in Kiev and Moscow. His comrades in Russia unequivocally oppose the capitalist restorationist regime of Putin and its delusional glorification of neo-tsarist Russian nationalism.
In a speech written three days before his arrest, which he planned to deliver at the International Committee’s upcoming celebration of May Day, Comrade Bogdan states:
“On the day of international solidarity of the working class, we, members of the Ukrainian branch of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists, and the entire YGBL call for the unification of the Ukrainian and Russian proletariat with the proletariat in the imperialist countries to end this war!”
The arrest of Comrade Bogdan Syrotiuk, part of a pattern of brutal repressive measures by the Zelensky regime against opponents of the war and the entire working class, exposes the lying claim that the US-NATO war against Russia is being waged in defense of democracy. Ukraine is a police state. Its population is subjected to martial law. Elections have been cancelled and Zelensky rules as a dictator, subject only to the dictates of his NATO sponsors, the financial interests of the billionaire oligarchs, and the neo-Nazi gangs upon whom he relies to intimidate the Ukrainian people.
In fact, the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor acknowledges in its latest report, issued earlier this month, the Ukrainian regime’s brutally repressive character. Among the grave “human rights issues” cited by the report are:
“enforced disappearance; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; restrictions on freedom of expression, including for members of the media, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association; restrictions on freedom of movement; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence; systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor. Some of these human rights issues stemmed from martial law, which continued to curtail democratic freedoms, including freedom of movement, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, and legal protections.”
Under these conditions of vicious repression, the life of Bogdan Syrotiuk is in immediate danger. Within the prisons, the inmates are subject to the violent regime instituted by an administration saturated with Ukrainian fascists. The State Department report further states:
“Although the constitution and law prohibited torture and other cruel and unusual punishment, there were reports law enforcement authorities engaged in such abuse. Under normal circumstances, courts could not legally use confessions and statements made under duress to police by persons in custody as evidence in court proceedings, but the institution of martial law since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion permitted this.”
Particularly ominous, given the attempt of the SBU to frame up Bogdan as an agent of the Russian military, is the State Department’s finding that:
“There were reports law enforcement and military officials abused and, at times, tortured persons in custody to obtain confessions, usually related to alleged collaboration with Russia.”
The Kiev regime, which is responsible for these atrocities is being showered with billions of dollars and armed with the most advanced weaponry by the United States and its NATO allies. The arrest of Bogdan occurred just as the US Congress voted to allocate another $60 billion to a war that has already cost the lives of approximately 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The Biden administration and its counterparts in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and the other capitals involved in the direction of the proxy war are no less responsible for the fate of Bogdan Syrotiuk than their agents in Kiev.
The working class and youth throughout the world are justly outraged by the criminal war being waged by Israel, with the support of the Biden administration and NATO, against the people of Gaza. But it must be understood that the same governments that are collaborating in the Gaza genocide are sponsoring the proxy war in Ukraine. The violence in Gaza and Ukraine are interconnected fronts in a global escalation of military conflicts that threaten humanity with a nuclear catastrophe.
The fight for Bogdan’s freedom and for an end to the proxy war must be seen as an essential component of the struggle against imperialism, genocide, and fascism.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site call for a global campaign to demand the immediate release of Bogdan Syrotiuk.
The international working class and student youth throughout the world must be informed of the seizure of Bogdan and mobilized in his defense.
We call for the widest circulation of this statement on all available social media. An online petition calling for the freedom of Bogdanhas been established at Change.org. We urge you to sign the petition and post a statement on the site amplifying your call for his freedom. Bring this campaign to the attention of your co-workers and fellow students. For more information on how you can become involved in the fight for Bogdan’s release from prison, contact the World Socialist Web Siteat this address.
