– We at the Student Co-ordination Meeting of April 18:

-Welcome the brave action and militancy of nearly 40 campuses across the country – debunking the myth that students are passive, cynical and apolitical.

-Recognise that it is incumbent upon revolutionaries to deepen and politicise the outrage against this onslaught – crucially by struggling for a new openly revolutionary student movement able to initiate, guide and co-ordinate further struggles

-Appreciate that with the left chronically divided and split into campaigns with little or no politics between them, our movement can never be organised into a disciplined and united force able to link up with the working class and force real, radical change.

-Understand that politics begets organization. Instead of smoothing over potential issues of contention, differences must be openly and sharply discussed, not avoided in the name of ‘non-sectarianism’ or ‘unity’. We need to be clear about not merely what we are against, but what we agitate for.

We:

-Unreservedly condemn Zionist expansionism and aggression. Contrary to those on the social imperialist left, Israel did not “have a point” in Gaza, and Zionism has nothing to do with working class politics. Standing for open borders, we must agitate for the right of return of the Palestinians. As Gaza and the horrific experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan underline, imperialism’s wars, sanctions and occupations are not able to export democracy or freedom but merely barbarism and social decay. Imperialism is the main enemy of the people of Gaza and indeed all peoples of the world.

-Wish to see the militant students in Gaza, Israeli Refuseniks/anti-Zionists and the occupation movements in Britain articulate their own foreign policy – proletarian internationalism – in order to organize for the defeat of the imperialist project which has brought so much suffering to Palestine and the Middle East more generally. To say this does not mean that we call for the victory of Hamas.

We believe that:

-Although temporary alliances with forces like Hamas may be permissible under certain circumstances in fighting the main enemy – and that any criticism of it must be qualified by the fact that the Israeli state’s actions are a thousand times worse – Hamas cannot be supported politically or militarily.

-Hamas has recently won support from the population of Gaza for its willingness to fight back – however ineffective this may be in the face of high-tech Israeli military technology. But we must be clear that Hamas’s disastrous outlook – whether in its rhetoric of “driving the Jews into the sea” or in its contempt for workers’, women’s and LGBT rights – offer no way out for the Palestinian masses. It is also apparent that Hamas’s mass support is contingent and already bleeding away. It is not completely beyond imagination that they could strike a deal with imperialism.-The perspectives outlined here are a concrete expression of the strategy of Marxism: class political independence, extreme democracy against the state and consistent internationalism. As such we believe that any new student co-ordination must promote the study, teaching and discussion of Marxism. We must generalise its inspiring and practical method on campus and society at large, equipping our movement with the politics that can actually stop wars and defeat imperialism by consigning the moribund capitalist system to the dustbin of history.