La Marx International

The Global Sumud Flotilla, scheduled to depart from Barcelona on April 12, 2026, bound for Gaza with vessels from various countries, is a movement spearheaded by officials from capitalist governments and imperialist institutions like the UN. They advocate for a "two-state solution" for Palestine , recognize and defend Israel's right to exist, and champion a "pacifist" policy , opposed to the struggle of Palestinian and Middle Eastern militias. This is the second flotilla, following the first one that took place a few months ago in mid-2025, and featured the renowned climate activist Greta Thunberg as its public face. This undertaking does not mobilize its forces and vast resources to fight for the liberation of Palestine from occupation, but rather has a "humanitarian" objective, focused on providing aid. As they themselves acknowledge on their website, which you can read here , the flotilla's objective is to deliver supplies, food, and medicine to "alleviate" the situation of the oppressed Palestinians, not to end oppression, but to try to make it more sustainable and bearable.

In this article, we Marxists explain why we reject this policy, which we characterize as pro-imperialist and serving the interests of Zionism, even though the flotilla's leaders loudly proclaim their opposition to Zionism. Disguised as "struggle" and " protest," it is a policy that educates and promotes the acceptance of subjugation, turning its back on the armed struggle that the Palestinian people and the peoples of the Middle East have been waging against Zionism and imperialism, as illustrated by the recent events in the Iran-Iraq War. At the end of the article, we dedicate a brief section to analyzing the shameful position of the social-democratic, Stalinist, ex-guerrilla, and ex-Trotskyist left-wing groups that comprise and promote the "flotilla ," whose policy is part of the political course of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie that they have been pursuing in countries around the world.

Bourgeois and imperialist enterprise clashes with civil war

The flotilla is not an "independent" undertaking by " activists," as its organizers claim. While some activists are involved, it is an action driven by officials from imperialist organizations such as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, and supported by capitalist and imperialist organizations such as the World Health Organization and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), whose spokesperson, Jens Laerke, expressed support for the flotilla, stating that "we welcome any initiative that can provide aid... as long as it is distributed according to humanitarian principles and in a dignified manner."

While food and medical aid are necessary, all the aid in the world cannot solve the Palestinian tragedy, which can only be truly resolved through the destruction of the Nazi state of Israel. As long as Palestinians remain under threat from the Zionist beast, medicine and food are merely palliative measures that do not solve any problems; on the contrary, they exacerbate them by increasing the population's dependence on bourgeois and imperialist assistance for their survival. But the hypocritical " two-state" policy of the imperialist institutions that claim to provide humanitarian aid clashes with the existence of the Nazi state of Israel, created by the UN itself, since Israel blocks all access to that humanitarian aid.

The occupying beast of Palestine desperately seeks to crush the 3rd Intifada by defeating the armed resistance of the joint chamber of Palestinian militias made up of the Al-Qassam Brigades that answer to Hamas, the Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Nasse Salah Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that answer to Fatah, the Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , the Brigades of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Brigades of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement. Since the UN is unable to deliver humanitarian aid amidst the revolutionary war of the peoples of the Middle East, officials are attempting to pass off their welfare and pacifist policy of coexistence with the Zionist beast as a legitimate solution through "flotillas ," which clashes with the reality of the people's revolutionary civil war. The UN is trying to impose a "pacifist" policy that is neither serious nor applicable to the group of genocidal figures who govern Israel.

The flotilla seeks to divert the global shift towards "bourgeois pacifism"

The Third Intifada of the Palestinian militias defeated the Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) attempt to seize control of Gaza through urban guerrilla warfare, inflicting 80,000 casualties on the IDF, including dead and wounded. This military drubbing was accompanied by a global mass mobilization in support of Palestine, plunging the Nazi state of Israel into global isolation and an unprecedented political, social, and economic crisis. This victory imposed a ceasefire in Gaza last October, but the Zionist beast is attempting to extricate itself from the crisis by rallying its population around the war with Iran or the aggression against Lebanon to resolve the serious problem of the million internally displaced people from northern Israeli cities who are sleeping in hotels. However, Netanyahu and Donald Trump have unleashed a new chapter of revolutionary war, in which they have suffered yet another defeat, resulting in severe destruction of Israeli cities and exacerbating the global crisis of capitalism, as you can read by clicking here.

The global mobilization of the 3rd Intifada, like the current war in Iran, is the epicenter of the 3rd global revolutionary wave sweeping the world with mass mobilizations against capitalist governments in Greece, Serbia, Turkey, South Korea, Georgia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, France, Venezuela, and Cuba. This wave also incorporated the emergence of Generation Z in Nepal, Morocco, Peru, and Paraguay, along with the battles of the Ukrainian National Liberation Army against Putin's dictatorship, the "No Kings" movement , the mass uprising against immigration police in Minnesota in the USA, and general strikes in Italy, Portugal, and Belgium in Europe. The revolutionary wave is marked by political revolution, the radicalization of sectors of global activism, and the break of the masses with the old social-democratic, Stalinist, ex-guerrilla, and bourgeois nationalist leaderships. This led to the 3rd Intifada, where activism advanced through self-organization processes with mass actions outside the control of the old leaderships, and launched increasingly radicalized slogans such as "Death to the IDF" or "Free Palestine from the river to the sea."

But while the reality of the class struggle is heading towards a violent confrontation between revolution and counter-revolution that strikes at the pillars of imperialist domination, such as Israel, the policy of the "flotilla" is heading in the opposite direction. It is heading towards "pacifism ," the "rejection of armed struggle ," paternalism, and "humanitarian" aid. The Flotilla's Steering Committee seeks to divert the global activism mobilizing for Palestine towards a policy of "bourgeois pacifism," and it has formed a Steering Committee of officials willing to promote this policy, as you can read by clicking here. They are officials of the Progressive International, the "international" oriented by the US State Department, who head the Steering Committee of the "flotilla" such as Thiago Ávila, deputy of the PSOL of Brazil who is part of the capitalist government of Lula, or Saif Abukeshek, general secretary of the "Popular Conference for Palestine" sponsored by sectors of the imperialist Democratic Party of the USA such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the Stalinist group Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

The Progressive International's alignment with the Democratic Party is hypocritical on the part of the "flotilla's" leadership , given that Joe Biden's Democratic administration deservedly earned the moniker "Genocide Joe" for promoting genocide in Gaza in defense of Israel. Another flotilla leader is Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, a Special Envoy for the Middle East at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the capitalist government of Malaysia. Also on the flotilla's Steering Committee is Marouan Ben Guettaia, an official at the International Executive Office of IIFSO, the global youth organization with consultative status at the imperialist UN.

The flotilla works in coordination with the Palestinian humanitarian organization Al Mezan, which is funded by imperialist entities such as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the French Consulate, and the Ford Foundation. Outside the Steering Committee are figures who support and participate in the flotilla, such as Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson and a member of parliament in the capitalist government of the African National Congress, and Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona. The flotilla is also publicly supported by European capitalist and imperialist governments of opposing ideologies, such as the neoliberal government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy and the " progressive" Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez, which sent frigates to support the first flotilla. Furthermore, the foreign ministers of 16 countries issued a joint statement declaring their support for the Globel Sumud Flotilla's objectives.

It is these officials from capitalist and imperialist governments, imperialist global institutions, and NGOs funded by sectors of imperialism who are spearheading this costly and complex undertaking of launching 100 ships in the Mediterranean, all in an attempt to derail the revolutionary upsurge and mislead a significant sector of global activism toward "bourgeois pacifism." To carry out this treacherous policy of deception, they rely on the invaluable support of leftist groups that follow the line of the Progressive International.

The left shows a shameful submission to imperialist politics

The capitalist governments announcing their support for the flotilla, in addition to those already mentioned, are Turkey, Bangladesh, Colombia, Slovenia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, and Qatar. NGOs such as Greenpeace and Open Arms have also joined the flotilla, which has the support of other NGOs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders. These latter organizations are openly linked to and funded by global imperialist corporations on Wall Street, such as Bank of America and BlackRock, which are managed by businessmen like Larry Fink and George Soros. However, it is not so easy to deceive thousands of activists worldwide with this humanitarian policy.

The first flotilla was marred by a crisis involving activist Greta Thunberg, the leading figure who brought international visibility and impact to the initiative. Thunberg resigned from the flotilla 's board of directors due to disagreements, and it's unclear whether she will participate in the second flotilla based on available reports. However, the Progressive International (PI), led by US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis of Syriza in Greece, is taking the lead in this second flotilla. IP's political focus is "the fight against the right" and it brings together reformists from around the world, led by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), a US social democratic organization within the imperialist Democratic Party. This includes figures such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France and his organization "La France Insoumise," Jeremy Corbyn of Great Britain , Gustavo Petro (current president of Colombia), Lula and the PT, as well as Guilherme Boulos of the PSOL in Brazil; Podemos, SUMAR, PSC , ERC , Comuns , and the CUP of Barcelona and Spain; former president of the capitalist government of Chile , Gabriel Boric; former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa; Álvaro García Linera of the MAS in Bolivia; and other officials from capitalist governments.

IP also includes intellectuals and personalities such as Noam Chomsky from the United States, Tony Negri from Italy, Silvia Federici from Italy, Baltasar Garzón, a judge from Spain, Naomi Klein from Canada, Slavoj Žižek from Slovenia, progressive think tanks like CLACSO (Latin American Council of Social Sciences), and the publication DSA, Jacobin Magazine, as well as various professors and pundits who pose as scholars but are outright enemies of Marxism. IP attempts to occupy the role that the Second International played in history as the central organizing force of global reformism, which proposes fighting for a "Humanized Capitalism" as a solution to the serious crisis facing global capitalism. As part of this policy, IP seeks to divert, contain, and channel the revolutions and uprisings developing around the world against capitalism, and lead them down the dead end of bourgeois democracy, based on which IP promotes the "flotilla" to Palestine.

To this whole horde of officials who are enemies of Marxism and the revolution, composed of social democrats, reformists, Stalinists and ex-guerrillas, have been added the ex-Trotskyists, among them the LIT-CI, which answers to the PSTU of Brazil, the LIS, which answers to the MST of Argentina, the Workers' Party of Argentina, Izquierda Diario, which answers to the PTS of Argentina and the UIT, which answers to the Socialist Left of Argentina, all organizations that collaborate with the "flotilla" by placing militants and resources in it. Although they are smaller groups that have adopted the electoral reformist path, their strategy is the development of welfare NGOs, recovered factories, and they have a deep dependence on income from the bourgeois state, as in the case of the LIT due to the bureaucratization of its leaders at the head of unions. It is necessary to mention them because they lie, seeking to confuse unsuspecting activists by passing themselves off as "Trotskyists," when in reality they broke with Marxism and Trotskyism a long time ago.

These groups have been pursuing a policy of class conciliation within the Marxist International, as exemplified by the FITU in Argentina, which has come out in support of the corrupt former capitalist president Cristina Kirchner. We Marxists do not support the Global Sumud flotilla, nor any of these imperialist ventures. The policy of the Marxist International is global mobilization for Palestine, support for the Third Intifada, and the armed struggle of Palestinian and Middle Eastern militias against Zionism and imperialism. At the same time, we support the relentless struggle of the Iranian people and Middle Eastern activism against all fundamentalist Islamic leaderships and the Ayatollah dictatorship in Iran. We denounce "bourgeois pacifism" and call for the construction of a revolutionary organization to sweep away Zionism and imperialism, uniting activists and honest, militant Marxists around orthodox Trotskyism—a project to which we invite you to join.