Wadih Halabi on the Emancipation of Palestinians and the Task of the Communists

Wadi Halabi was born in Palestine. In 1948, his family moved to Gaza after 95% of the population of his birthplace, Jaffa, was 'ethnically exterminated'. He describes contemporary Gaza as 'a detention camp run by the imperialists for Palestinian refugees'. His family moved to Egypt, but were forcibly expelled in 1956 in the wake of the Suez War. In 1958, they moved to Lebanon and then to the United States. His parents later returned to the Middle East.

Wadi is a prominent member of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the United States of America). According to him, "Under conditions of failures by the Communist movement to lead the way out for humanity, fundamentalism represents the petty bourgeoisie's resistance to capitalist devastation. That class cannot find real solutions, it is reactionary, anti-working class, promotes patriarchy, narrow nationalism (or localism, or tribalism) - but it does pose resistance to the growing devastation of capitalism in decay. The real problem are the weaknesses in Marxism and organization and practice, the errors of the world communist movement - that ultimately was the decisive factor in the fall of the Soviet Union, the decisive factor in the defeat of the (unknown but very) real 'Beirut Commune' of 1976, the defeat of what should have been a socialist revolution in Iran in 1979 (workers in Iran seized factories, oil fields, refineries - and formed Soviets!), and other severe defeats. In 1945, Soviet leaders reversed the historic position of Lenin and the Comintern and supported imperialism in creating the Israeli state. (In light of capitalism's crimes against Jews, Sintis and Romas (of South Asian origin) in Europe, there was Marxist justification for forming refuges for Jews and for Romas in Europe.) But creating the Israeli state meant that Communists were supporting taking land from the tiller, in other words ripping the sickle from the hammer, breaking the hammer in the process. Quite a serious error, still largely uncorrected. Reaction has followed. Hamas is one expression of this reaction...'. 

He finds the historical accomplishments of the working class and Marxism as the material basis for his revolutionary optimism even in the current difficult situation. The world communist movement that emerged from the victory of the Russian revolution or the ecological agriculture developed in Cuba are his inspirations. And he is in favor of using this optimism in the struggle for the transition from capitalism to socialism. In his opinion, this requires correcting many of the previous errors and weaknesses (like the dissolution of the Communist International in the aftermath of the Second World War), the seizure of workers' power and the implementation of two important democratic tasks, the liberation of oppressed peoples and land reform.

[His email conversations with The Diligent forms the basis of this article. 

Opinions are personal.]