On May 21st in Washington, DC, in response to the ongoing brutal genocide against the Palestinian people, 2 Israeli Embassy workers were shot dead by lone gunman, Elias Rodriguez, who, upon arrest, pulled out a Keffiyeh and chanted “Free, free Palestine”. In light of this act of desperation responding to the terror and mass murder abroad, which has raised the question of political violence in response, our Marxists have been faster to make the most reductive of assertions than they have been capable of conjuring up a single coherent political thought. This question has manifested itself in two tendencies. The first of which to our left is the vulgar revolutionists who have proudly proclaimed this spontaneous act as one of armed struggle, militancy, and war. This gross conflation is largely being perpetrated by the self-described propaganda front, Unity Of Fields. And the second of which to our right is the politically liquidated, half-baked activism of the tailists who proclaim that by simply stepping up the protest, we will deal a blow to the fascist Trump administration and zionism. What a sad state of affairs when THE Communist Party's highest call to action is to merely wage a protest. While both may appear on the surface to suffer from different fallacies, it will soon be seen that the common error in both lies in the complete disregard for articulating and sharpening the political task of the movement, and in its place, completely bowing to spontaneity. 

I. Vulgar Revolutionism

Let’s firstly take a look at our vulgar revolutionists in Unity Of Fields who released a statement not long after the shooting in full support, titling it: “Free Elias Rodriguez: Build The International Popular Cradle of Resistance.” [1] Already in the title, our cohorts have implied that the international resistance is something that will be built by championing an assassin. Has the liberation of Palestine not already become a popular call amongst a massive section of the populace in the face of violent and brutal exposures? Is it not a movement that has garnered the outcry and support of tens of millions? And does the act of assassination alone have any basis within a revolutionary movement? Already evident in this title is the rejection of the popular struggle as it exists, and in its place, only a resistance for which our cohorts idealistically envision.  

The tendency of “revolutionary” organizations to place either themselves or the deed of a few individuals over the historical popular movement of the masses has rendered us irrelevant and useless against the hegemonic forces that support this genocide by way of the cultural, social, and political institutions. Without any ideological framework that could sharpen and define the aims and tasks of the popular resistance across the West, we have surrendered any semblance of power to the reactionaries, allowing them to politicize against our spontaneity and disorganization. 

The vulgar revolutionaries begin their remarks stating “...the time has now come for real consequences. They have left no other option for effectively opposing their rampage”. In the face of a highly organized enemy utilizing all institutions capable of carrying out its violence, have they deduced that the only option for effectively opposing this rampage is a spontaneous act of assassination? They go on to acknowledge the highly organized nature for which the Zionists' conduct their violence, stating that “the zionist movement uses all means to repress opposition among the people and states existing outside of, or on the boundaries of, Western dominance. They have used diplomatic, economic, and even military means”. If Unity of Fields had any political competence they would immediately realize then that the lack of a revolutionary program to sharpen the masses resolve has damned the movement to unorganized acts of desperation against a highly organized enemy who has already worked this counter-action into its strategy thus rendering this resistance wholly insufficient in the face of this multifaceted system of brutality. 

Lenin sharply critiqued this spontaneity in What Is To Be Done, stating, “Surely it is not an accident that… liberals who wear the mask of Marxism—wholeheartedly sympathise with terror, and strive to foster the spirit of terrorism that is running so high at the present time.” [2] It is interesting to note the intersection that Lenin has drawn between terroristic violence and Liberalism: the underlying logic that it is up to the individual actor to excite the movement. The importance of the individual has replaced the most basic of socialist conceptions: the idea that it is the masses who make history.

The vulgar revolutionaries later go on to urge that the “Opponents of imperialism, zionism, and genocide must rally to defend Elias Rodriguez, and through this defense support the legitimacy and necessity of resistance itself. What takes place with regard to his case over the next months and years  will fundamentally alter the trajectory of the international movement against zionism and US-led imperialism.” Unity of Fields has completely confused the concept of organized resistance with that of assassination! They have ridiculously implied that the act for which Elias Rodriguez committed will be of more fundamental importance to the movement than the resistance of the ever-growing millions who have since October 7th, 2023, worked tirelessly to support Palestinian liberation. And lest we forget that the highest expression of anti-zionism is the armed struggle being carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, who have fought through blood, sweat, and tears for the freedom of their people. 

Unity of Fields, the self described “propaganda front” continues their idol worship in a premature declaration stating that “The zionists will make Elias Rodriguez an avatar of our movement, while distorting his and our message, seeking to strike yet more fear, to intimidate us further into silence and hapless, hopeless “protest.” The Zionists will make him an avatar of our movement when we condemn ourselves to worshipping his spontaneity and when we reject the social and political tasks that are required to lead the movement. And regardless of what Elias Rodriguez has done or could have done, the zionist forces have conceived of this avatar since before October 7th. They have distorted the message of liberation since before the inception of the international resistance. They can strike fear because the spontaneous struggle, in its forms both peaceful and violent, is already accounted for within their strategy and turned on its head by institutional forces, which are both social and cultural. Because the struggle is not guided by a political force that can derive a revolutionary conception of social and cultural norms from the activity of the mass movement, the narrative is left in the hands of the Zionist forces to shape and adjust to their own reactive purposes.

Forgotten are the words of Karl Marx when he proclaimed that “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” [3] It is not the task of a revolutionary to create the circumstances to push forward the resistance. It is the task of a revolutionary to build upon the resistance that has been presented before them. To sharpen the demands of the masses who stand in solidarity, to give these demands clarity in the context of capitalist-imperialism, and to exhaust every practical avenue to the point at which the movement will evolve. Under no circumstances can armed resistance have any basis outside the context of what the masses have logically concluded by the guidance of a revolutionary program.

II. The Tailists

In an interesting parallel with our cohorts in Unity of Fields, our communists in the CPUSA (in their ever-so-cautious fashion) have chosen the path of spontaneity as well. However, unlike the spontaneous violence celebrated by Unity of Fields, the communists have chosen to follow the spontaneity of demonstrations. Not long after the shooting, a statement was released condemning the act, for which they remarked, “The shooting death of two employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. Wednesday night sets the stage for attempts to repress the U.S. Palestinian solidarity movement. This attempt is already underway in the MAGA right's "Project Esther." Acts of terror invariably set back movements for peace and justice.” [4] Our communists in the CPUSA are correct in the analysis that the US government will always seek any sporadic act of violence to justify the repression that is occurring at present. What is to be additionally commended is the recognition of the Heritage Foundation's Project Esther as a specific program that seeks to criminalize any support for Palestinian liberation. But where our communists have already fallen short is their inability to see that spontaneity is an inevitability (in forms both peaceful and violent) when we are talking about a movement involving millions. Is it the act of one individual who will invariably set back the movement, or is it the lack of political leadership that has damned the most energized of the cause to acts of desperation, leaving the solidarity movement entirely vulnerable to politicization by the fascist far right?

The CPUSA statement goes on, “In the United States, from the movement against apartheid in South Africa to today's fight against the apartheid policies of the right-wing Zionist Netanyahu government, it is militant non-violent protest that has time and again proven to be the most effective form of struggle.” If the error listed above wasn’t erroneous enough, our communists in damning terminology have implied that it is not the ethno-state in its entirety which from conception has sought to remove Palestinians from their homeland in place of a religious ethnic group but merely just the Netanyahu government of Israel who is carrying out this genocide. This framing occurs at the tail end of the liberal conception of the conflict, which has failed to resonate with the active progressive base for whom they represent. They have failed even within their tailist attempts! This framing has sacrificed the revolutionary slogan put forth by the Palestinians fighting for freedom abroad and from the movement at home that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

Additionally, within this remark, the CPUSA has definitively claimed that it is the militant non-violent protests that will struggle most effectively against Zionism, comparing it to the struggle for Apartheid South Africa. This is a purely activistic remark which follows at the heels of what is already on-going!  To rank protesting as the single most effective tactic against zionism ignores the political militancy that helped to define and realize sharply the aims of the masses within their protests against the US’s support of South African apartheid. Have we forgotten the work of TransAfrica and the ACOA? Our brilliant theoreticians within the CPUSA then go on to state that “Trump's green light to Israel's attempt to force Palestinians out of Gaza - including starving the population to death - underscores the need to step up the protest.” Have we not learned any lessons from the mass demonstrations and civil disobedience of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising, which saw the involvement of the masses, unlike anything ever seen in the country before? Demands had been made in conjunction with these actions, most ignored and some realized, but ultimately completely defeated by the weight of the far-right social and cultural institutions which helped to politicize against it.  If the Communist Party has decided that its political task in the movement is to be one based on activism, the party has, in essence, squarely abandoned the struggle.

Lenin reminds us of the necessity for political militancy, “V peryod directly and definitely indicated… how precisely "political power" can and must "be utilised" in the interests of the proletariat, bearing in mind what can be achieved immediately, at the given stage of social development, and what must first be achieved as a democratic prerequisite for the struggle for socialism.” [5] What goals and strategies have our communists outlined for us to achieve and act on immediately in their statement to offer as an alternative to the acts of terroristic desperation? Is it, in essence, the same as Unity of Fields, developing more spontaneous resistance, albeit through activism? Do the communists feel any more effective in their spontaneity because they have rejected violence? Precisely in this same spirit, they go on to remark, “Today we must focus on building a peace and solidarity majority for democracy at home and the liberation of Palestine abroad.” The “peace and solidarity majority” is already here! It is living! The task of the party is to make the movement of the masses the basis of revolution. In ‘The Marginality of American Communism’, Scottie O. refers to this as concretization. “rather than standing athwart history and yelling stop, like the ‘applier’ of Marxism (the activist) tends to do, the concretizer of Marxism takes history and makes it his own; he makes it the basis on which the new society will arise; he tells the story and makes the communist party its only natural outcome.” [6] The question the party must ask itself is not one of building more of this majority, but rather how it can sharpen its aims, define its tasks, and shake the very ground on which the capitalist-imperialist order lies. 

The Zionists will be able to maintain control so long as they can politicize every act of resistance under the terms they have defined and have expressed control over. Altering the definition of anti-semitism and equating Zionism as a fundamentally Jewish value are representative of their gross power. Even the fundamental expression of language has changed to fit into the contexts that suit them. This is an act of hegemonic control for which both our vulgar revolutionists and our tailists in the CPUSA have completely failed to grasp. This is a war being waged on the front of our basic cultural humanity, for which we have completely ceded ground.

Our communists within the CPUSA end their remarks by declaring, “We remain committed to joining forces in common cause for these goals here at home and in Palestine and Israel as well. We restate our solidarity with the Palestinian resistance to the genocide in Gaza and for an independent state.” What an amazing display of impotence by our Leninist party, which in summary has essentially reduced its task to merely joining forces in common cause of building more protests! In the face of Project Esther, which has sought to criminalize these protests, all they can muster up is to do more of it! Lenin is rolling in his grave.

III. Conclusions

It is no wonder that many of the vulgar revolutionaries have looked with admiration towards the spontaneous violence of Elias Rodriguez. The revolutionary energy held by many of the most active on the left lacks avenues to express this potential and has merely found a substitute for the lack of political guidance in vulgarity.  Again, we must recall that this was the case during the period from 2020 to 2021, when mass demonstrations took place, police stations burned, and the people made their demands. A fire seemingly so unstoppable, only to be turned to smoke by the water of an enemy already prepared to extinguish it. And left in the ashes was a nihilism to be opportunistically preyed upon by the same reaction that put it out. The consequences of the left's failure left a disillusioned progressive consciousness to be bastardized into a chauvinistic consciousness. We are left with the reflections of our failures in the recent past, and if they are to show us what is ahead, presented to us is the prospect of political suicide, i.e., the full surrender to fascism.

The revolutionary struggle will not be based on what individuals or small bands of activists wage ahead on their own terms; it will be based on the concrete struggle of the masses, for which the revolutionary party will express itself in the most sharpened and practical terms. Zionism will be crushed by the liberation forces in Palestine, and across the West will be smashed by the most concrete political forces waging the sharpest struggle for the very cultural essence of humanity. 

1 -  Unity Of Fields - FREE ELIAS RODRIGUEZ: BUILD THE INTERNATIONAL POPULAR CRADLE OF RESISTANCE

2 - V.I Lenin, WITBD, 73-74

3 - Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 1852

4 -  CPUSA - Terror opens the door for repression

5 - V.I Lenin, 2 Tactics, 69-70

6 - Scottie O, The Marginality of American Communism