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The UPS and US Postal Service Rank-and-File Committees endorse the July 24 demonstration in Washington, called by the Socialist Equality Party, against the appearance of the Israeli Prime Minister before Congress. It is urgent that workers take up the fight against the genocide in Gaza and against the threat of world war.

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, responsible for the deaths of close to 200,000 Gazans, according to one estimate by The Lancet medical journal. But his appearance in DC shows that the Israeli government is acting with the total support and involvement of both corporate parties in America. They are joining hands to ship tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including 2,000 pound bombs capable of leveling city blocks, to be used on the defenseless population of Gaza.

The slaughter puts to rest the endless claims by the US government to be fighting wars for “democracy” and “human rights.” In reality, this is a government of, by and for the rich. In addition to the profits which are always made out of war by defense contractors, the Palestinian people are being sacrificed for the control by US corporations over the Middle East, its natural resources and supply chains.

But this is only one front in an emerging world war. Another dangerous front is the US-backed war against Russia in Ukraine. While they slander all opponents of the Gaza genocide as “antisemitic,” they are in league with open neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian government and military. Earlier this month, the US government and NATO pledged to deploy long-range missiles capable of hitting Moscow, and to establish a command center inside Ukraine itself.

And preparations are being made for another war against China, which the US corporate elite see as their biggest competitor worldwide.

We insist that we, the working class, must become the basic force against war. The trillion-dollar war budget comes directly from the value we produce with our labor, and which could be used to improve our wages and working conditions. As the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees said in a May 1 statement: “Workers and their children will be shipped off to fight these wars, which are being paid for by the destruction of wages, pensions, healthcare and social programs.”

It concluded that the student protests against the Gaza genocide this year: “anticipate an even more powerful movement in the working class.”

The issues they have raised cannot be resolved on the campuses, but rather in the factories, warehouses, railroads and docks. The working class, the most powerful social force on earth, which creates all wealth through its labor, must leverage that power to force an end to genocide and war.

There is huge potential for the movement in the working class against exploitation to link up with the fight against war. All three contracts are currently up at USPS, where Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is trying to ram through a massive “Delivering for America” restructuring plan which will cost tens of thousands of jobs. At UPS, workers are fighting against similar mass layoffs under the company’s “Network of the Future” program, made possible by the sellout contract the Teamsters officials rammed down our throats.

Major contracts are also set to expire soon for:

• over 30,000 workers at Boeing, where cuts to safety inspectors have led to plane crashes which have killed hundreds;
• Over 40,000 east coast dockworkers are also gearing up for a potential strike at the end of September, and;
• Teachers in major school districts such as Chicago and Detroit are fighting against huge budget cuts.

The fight against war means a fight against the trade union bureaucracy. Officials in the Teamsters, the postal unions, the United Auto Workers and others not only ramming through sellouts and signing off on mass layoffs. They are helping the government prepare the “home front” for war. Earlier this month, Biden visited the AFL-CIO headquarters, where he called the unions his “domestic NATO.”

The meaning of this statement is that he sees them as allies in the war against us, the working class.

Without a fight against war, we cannot defend our democratic rights at home. Biden and the Democrats are joining hands with Republicans to carry out mass arrests against people for using their democratic right to peacefully protest against war. And last week’s Republican National Convention shows that the corporate oligarchy is driving towards dictatorship and fascism.

The development of a mass, working-class anti-war movement requires the development of a network of rank-and-file committees, to counterpose to the corporatist alliance of the bureaucrats with the government and management genuine organizations of workers power.

Our committees have been formed in opposition to the naked betrayals of the Teamsters and the postal unions. We have sought continuously to arm our coworkers with the information and the strategy which they need to organize a fight against both management and the union bureaucrats.

Building real workers’ power means breaking from the corporate parties. At the RNC last week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien claimed that his presence at this filthy meeting, where he hailed Trump and other fascists, showed he and the bureaucrats were not “beholden to any party.” In fact, it proved they are beholden to Wall Street, which controls both parties.

O’Brien claimed the problem facing workers was corporations which were “disloyal” to the US. But the issue for workers is not to promote “patriotic” American capitalists, but uniting with our class brothers and sisters all over the world to put a stop to war and exploitation by multinational corporations. The ruling elites in every major country, above all the US, are using their governments and their militaries to try to conquer the world and put down unrest at home. Those who suffer are the workers in every country, who have no interest in war.

We urge our coworkers to turn out in wide numbers for the July 24 rally. But this is only the beginning. In a statement, WSWS chairman David North explained the purpose of the rally is “to set into motion a new and powerful mass movement of the working class against the Gaza genocide and the global escalation of imperialist militarism by the US ruling class and its NATO collaborators.”

We agree that this is the urgent task of the day. We must build up this movement in every factory and working place. We must learn to use our power as the working class to force a halt to the war machine, starting with the halting of weapons shipments to Israel and other for-profit killing fields.

If you agree, then join us! Fill out the form below to become involved in our committees, or for help setting up one of your own at your workplace.