Liberation Speaks: On October 7th and the Right to Resist
October 7, 2023, is a day that will never be forgotten – neither by the free people of the world, nor by their enemies. On that day, we saw a modern day jailbreak, a revolutionary act that heartened the masses all over the world, including here in the imperial core. On this day two years ago, the brave Palestinian people showed us how to fight. Not with begging, nor with pleas, nor with half-measures, but by standing up and getting into the struggle. Here are a few of our comrades' reminiscences of that day - responding to the question: How did October 7, 2023 make you feel?
Gato (East Bay - Liberation Labor Committee): My thoughts on the 7th of 2023 was both disbelief and excitement. Pictures of occupation armored vehicles taken by the captive population. War criminals in the colony taken by the guerrillas. Declarations by the united front that it's "time to expel the occupation." There's nothing like it. All I could think from occupied Turtle Island is we better take notes. The barbaric unfiltered savagery that followed from the colonizers and their global imperialist allies is unspeakable tho. They know globally they can't sustain what they've stolen and they revealed they're scared to death and willing to sacrifice entire nations to try to hold onto their empire and status. Likewise to all the traitors who called themselves "anti-war" and "progressives" only to put the guerrillas at equal fault with the colonizers for the genocide of their own people. Remember when Liberation dawn's the old saying. The last shall be the first and the first last.
BRG (STL - Liberation Political Education Committee): The masses of Palestine, led by their armed forces, engaged in a massive, justified jailbreak from the concentration camp. They saw their land, some flying over it. I remember sharing their feeling of ecstasy and elation. Those who "critique" from the imperial core are either cowards unfit for the name "socialist" and for revolution, or actively opposed to the liberation of oppressed nations, including my own. Nobody in the imperial core has the right to dictate terms of a people's liberation.
Darkness (STL - Political Education): I was ecstatic when Oct 7 popped off. Rooting and cheering the Palestinians on as they broke outta their cages and caught the IDF with their pants down. Not only was I ecstatic that this was going to a be a historic event that will help catapult the Palestinians closer to their liberation, but I knew as well that this would start a fire in the hearts of other colonized folks around the globe and give them revolutionary optimism that they too can fight for their freedom and that Palestinians were paving the way with direct action.
Rah (Chicago - Liberation Outreach Committee): The first thing I saw on that day was the motorized paragliders flying over the high walls of Gaza and motorcycles speeding below them in a cloud of dust. It was a marvelous sight, and got me amazed at the ingenuity and effectiveness of the Al-aqsa flood operation and what a resistance movement can do with a united front. They were the spear of the Palestinian vanguard liberation that broke the wall of oppression being held up by nothing other than concrete and metal. That day also revealed the cowardice and the paper tiger that is the zionist fascists and their imperial backers. The resistance brought the empire to its knees in West Asia, and it’s only a matter of time if we learn from our principled comrades how to bring the spear to the center.
Tiva (Atlanta - Labor): Elated and hopeful. the first thought in my head was “Finally, the world will know the struggle of the Palestinian people”. I’d been waiting for some shit like that since the early 2000s.
Shane (Space Coast - Political Education Chair): They flew like birds over the prison walls, symbolizing defiance and liberation. It was a moment that called for two, three, many Al-Aqsa Floods, a rallying cry for continued resistance. The seventh of October is the most just day in an unjust world, when everything changed. I remember everyone immediately jumping to condemn Hamas, and my initial reaction before even reading anything about what happened was that I would never condemn a colonized people for breaking out of the world's largest open-air prison.
Skrilla (Northwest Indiana - Labor): Ecstatic. I love seeing chickens coming home to roost.
Tex (At-Large, Political Education): One cannot be a labor Zionist. You are with socialism or Zionism. One cannot be a Christian Zionist. You are with God or Zionism. One cannot be a labor Zionist. You are with socialism or Zionism. One cannot be a humanistic Zionist. You are with humanity or Zionism. Min il-mayyeh lal-mayyeh, Filastin 3arabiyeh.
Red (Metro DC - Liberation Agitprop Committee): Since the 1910s, the majority of the blood that has soaked into the soil of Palestine has been that of Palestinians. It has been their bodies that have been used to fertilize the Venus fly trap that is the so-called State of Israel. October 7th, 2023 was a day when it was decided in spectacular fashion that IOF troops had no better usage for the world than as jarhead fertilizer. As the land continues to soak with blood, we stand with the resistance that will one day stand over the blooming flowers and olive trees which they've fought and given everything for. The struggle in Palestine is a spear tip for the struggle to realize a new and liberated world, and so all corners of the world look to it for guidance.
