Lenin’s view of the working class is so important today, with so many in our global class struggling just to make ends meet, especially workers of color, here and in the Global South. And capitalism is threatening the world’s inhabitants with endless war and climate catastrophe.

There’s an old union slogan: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” The global working class has an obligation to the people of Palestine: Build a great wall of solidarity. Make it strong. Make a thick wall and a high wall, too high for [neo]imperialism to knock over. Multiply solidarity with Palestine in the name of the working class.

We must use our power as workers, as the ones who create [almost] all of the wealth in society, to help the Palestinians bring down the Zionist apartheid state — and ultimately bring down the whole [neo]imperialist system behind it.

That’s what an alliance of over 30 Palestinian unions have asked us to do. A significant number of national, regional and local labor organizations have taken a big first step. They have called for a permanent ceasefire. That is not enough, not by a long shot, but it’s something we can build on.

We again need to revive and elevate a fundamental principle of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism — that the working class IS a revolutionary class. It is THE revolutionary class whose historic mission is to bring about the downfall of the capitalist system of exploitation — and by doing so usher in a whole new phase of human development.

Free, free Palestine!