On Tuesday, March 12, International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at the University of Michigan (U-M) will host a lecture by Socialist Equality Party (US) national chairman David North titled, “The Gaza genocide and the death of Aaron Bushnell: What are the political lessons?” The meeting will begin at 6:00pm in the Ballroom, Michigan League, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. We encourage all of our readers and supporters who live in the area to make plans to attend.

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Israel’s genocidal war against the people of Gaza has now entered its sixth month. More than 30,000 Palestinians, of whom more than one half are women and children, have been murdered since last October. The aircraft, artillery, tanks, bombs and bullets used by Israel to carry out the slaughter have been provided by the Biden administration. The United States and its imperialist allies in Canada and Europe are providing massive financial support for the carnage. Following the example of Hitler’s use of the tactic of the “Big Lie,” Democrats, Republicans and the corporate-controlled media viciously label opponents of the genocide as “anti-Semites.”

Since the beginning of the war, millions of people have demonstrated all over the world demanding a cease fire and an end to the assault on Gaza. But what has been lacking is a political strategy that can achieve this goal.

The suicide of 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell on February 25, an act of extreme protest against the war, was a demonstration of personal idealism and self- sacrifice. It is correct to mourn his death and pay tribute to his memory. But his action should not be glorified as an effective response to the war, let alone one that should be emulated. The defeat of Zionism and its imperialist patrons requires the building of an international revolutionary socialist movement based on the working class.

The political issues raised by the death of Aaron Bushnell and the socialist strategy to end the genocidal war will be the subject of a lecture by David North, the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party.

North has played a leading role in the American and international socialist movement for a half century, and has written prolifically on Marxist theory and political strategy. His active involvement in the struggle against the Zionist regime and for the establishment of a socialist and bi-national Palestinian state dates back to the 1970s. David North’s latest book, published in February, is The Logic of Zionism: From Nationalist Myth to the Gaza Genocide.