• On 29 October 2023, the Permanent Revolution Collective (CoReP) sent the L5I and the ITO a draft declaration on Palestine (in English) which was to serve as a basis for discussion of a joint international document. We have not received a reply.
• On 8 December 2023, the ITO leadership sent us a draft on Palestine, which it had drawn up in collaboration with the L5I and sent for signature to various organisations, including the NPA-R in France, OKDE in Greece and RS in India.
• We replied on 11 December that we would discuss proposed amendments to this document at our International Bureau meeting on 14 December.
• On 13 December, an ITO representative replied that he did not want any major changes and that amendments would only be accepted when they were absolutely necessary.
• On 19 December, we sent an e-mail containing our proposed changes in the form of additions and deletions to the ITO-L5I draft (in English).
• On 26 December, a comrade from the L5I leadership told us that our amendments would change “the overall character of the resolution”, which should be “a response to the current situation” and not go into too much “historical detail”. “Some” would also require “more discussion”.

The ultimatum of the L5I and the ITO is alien to the methods of the Bolshevik Party and the 4th International. The refusal of any serious discussion is all the more regrettable as the common project of the L5I and the ITO is often insufficient, sometimes erroneous.

1. There is no mention of class struggle until the end, in a confused form (see 5 and 6 below).
2. There is no mention of the Zionists and the Western imperialist States accusing anti-Zionists of anti-Semitism, which is a feature of “the current situation”.
3. The Oslo Accords are wrongly presented as the result of the Intifada.
4. There is no explanation for the rise of Islamism in the Palestinian population, which is a feature of “the current situation”.
5. The “action programme” includes the “revolutionary unity of the Arab people”, which has nothing to do with the communist programme: a) which is a concession to Arab bourgeois nationalism, b) which ignores the central role of the proletariat of Turkey and Iran, c) which overlooks the national oppression of the Kurds, Berbers, etc., by the “Arab” bourgeois States.
6. All actions of “solidarity” are put on the same level, against the tradition of the Communist International and the 4th International, to the point of endorsing the campaigns of Gandhi’s followers, which range from the petty-bourgeois refusal of consumption of products imported from Israel to the reactionary and counterproductive cutting off of cultural, sporting and university relations with the entire population of Israel.

This must be countered by class struggle, as called for by the Palestinian trade unions. We call on trade unions in the sectors concerned to refuse to manufacture arms for Israel, to refuse to transport arms to Israel, to adopt motions in their unions to this effect, to take action against complicit companies involved in the implementation of Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, to put pressure on governments to end all military trade with Israel and, in the case of the United States, its funding. (17 October) In this way, we would be acting in line with the 4th International during Trotsky’s lifetime. The 4th International proclaims that the best and most effective help that the workers of the world can give to their brothers in Spain lies in direct action, organised particularly by the trade unions of the war industry, transport and ports, in the boycott of shipments to the fascists and in the general strike to overthrow the blockade governments. (Founding Conference of the 4th International, Appeal for the Spanish working class, September 1938) What is the point of an international declaration signed by organisations that claim to be communist if it does not enlighten the avant-garde in Palestine and the rest of the world on all these questions? Below we are publishing the resolution with our changes, without highlighting them (to make it easier to read). Interested parties can download here the original L5I/ITO draft and our response with the changes marked in colour, so that they can assess the differences for themselves. CoReP International Bureau