This is Part One of a series based on a talk given at a national Workers World Party meeting held on May 18.

The recent rise of the student intifada for Palestine has forced to the surface new questions about the relationship between the historical and material conditions of Palestine versus those of Turtle Island — or what is often referred to as “North America.” While it is clear that our siblings in Palestine are living under the violent oppression of Zionist settlers who are backed by imperialist forces — chiefly the so-called “United States” and other members of NATO — the situation here on Turtle Island is less clear to the average person, in large part because of the propaganda most people were raised with. 

Several previous issues of Workers World have discussed the myth of “thanksgiving” and other related white supremacist, settler myths created by the ruling class. These lies essentially all claim that Indigenous peoples welcomed the settlers and the so-called “civilization” they brought with them and that the Indigenous nations either disappeared or assimilated into a new society. 

While there was some assimilation, and genocide did cause certain Indigenous nations to disappear, this version of history in its totality is a bald-faced lie. Indigenous nations are still here and deserve our respect and recognition. Even revisionist versions of history that highlight the violent truth of events like the Trail of Tears or the mass lynchings under Abraham Lincoln tend to look at this history as “past history.”

Capitalist historians ensure that little attention is paid — outside of conversations explicitly initiated by Indigenous voices — to the current nature of the situation here on Turtle Island. Likewise, discussions of the history of the theft and enslavement of African persons and forced labor on Turtle Island, and examinations of the subsequent history post-enslavement of the Black community, filter history through the lens of treating racist oppression as “all in the past.” 

The victories in proletarian history of oppressed peoples — including the Borinqueñe Young Lords, what was called the Chicano (now Xicane) movement, the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party and other Black liberation groups — are obscured by capitalist historians in an effort to deny our class the psychological sense of empowerment oppressed people often get from learning about the victories of their forebears. 

Understanding the past is essential — and it is filled with many horrors and failures — but an exploration of history that ignores or revises present day struggles in the interest of capitalist ideology does not do justice to the struggles of our forebears. All of us living on the soil of Turtle Island need to understand that the injustices of the past — especially the theft of land and denial of the right to national self-determination — done to our Indigenous, Black and Latine siblings are ongoing and have never been adequately addressed under the dictatorship of capital. 

To build unity, dismantle systems of domination and oppression

There is no denying that the future of proletarian struggle is a multinational one. Unity between persons of different ethnic, cultural and national backgrounds is essential to the struggle for the socialist future of the workers and oppressed — and ultimately the survival of our species (and other species) on this planet. Unity, however, does not appear in a vacuum. It requires solidarity and a sharing of the tasks of dismantling the systems of domination and oppression which have harmed our siblings for generations. It also requires a systematic understanding of the nature and tools of our class enemy — the capitalist ruling class. 

Today many workers and oppressed people understand that the U.S. ruling class is fundamentally imperialist and relies on the tools of white supremacy, cis-hetero-patriarchy and ableism to maintain its capitalist dominion. However, what is less often acknowledged is the fact that the U.S. ruling class required the exploitation of the land, resources and people living on Turtle Island to take advantage of specific historical circumstances and then colonize and exploit large sections of the world. 

Now we are entering a period when workers and oppressed people are fighting back against U.S. imperialist aggression and making significant wins against the capitalists. The ruling class is once again relying heavily on its control over the resources, land and labor on Turtle Island to secure and defend its position. This is something that many of the European colonial powers are not able to do as their colonial projects in Africa and Asia are overthrown.  At the same time, the danger that the U.S. ruling class will turn toward fascism is very real.

As Workers World Party First Secretary Larry Holmes stated: “U.S. imperialism is like a wounded beast on the threshold of defeat. It is at such a time when a beast is most dangerous. … Notwithstanding the Trump regime’s escalation of repression and attacks on the few rights that workers and oppressed people have, fascism has not yet been established, nor is it inevitable that it will be. 

“It is, however, naive to dismiss the threat of fascism. The questions are: What is fascism? And how can it be defeated? … Fascism is more than the eradication of democratic rights. … Fascism, like imperialist war, is what a desperate capitalist class resorts to when its empire and system are endangered. … 

“The working class must take the lead in the struggle against fascism. Moreover, the goal of this struggle must be more than defeating fascism — it must be ending the system that is responsible for producing fascism.” (Workers World, Apr 25, 2025)