Joint statement of classconscious.org and the Liason Committee of the Fourth International (LCFI)

The US tries to shield the genocide carried out by Israel against the Palestinians by threatening to include Yemen in the massacre through Operation Guardian of Prosperity. And what is the crime of the Yemenis? To stand up actively, courageously and militarily in defense of the Palestinians, which is what all lovers of humanity and innocent lives should do at this moment. Since the beginning of the massacre in Gaza, the largest and fastest extermination of civilians and children since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagazaki, Yemeni guerrillas have been attacking ships serving Israel in the Red Sea, an operation that, however heroic it may be, is a small act of resistance in comparison to the magnitude of the criminal blockade imposed by Israel against the Palestinian population.

As communists and proletarian internationalists, we welcome the armed action of the Ansar Allah (Supporters of God) movement, better known as the Houthi, which holds power in much of Yemen, for instituting an armed blockade of Israel, seizing and attacking Israeli-owned ships , and now threatening to do the same against all maritime traffic bound for Israel. The reason for this is completely simple and commendable, as they told Al Jazeera:

“If Gaza does not receive the food and medicine it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces.” ( Yemen’s Houthis warn they will target all Israel-bound ships in the Red Sea ).

This has already been achieved to a large extent. It caused major problems for the main shipping companies, many of which use the Red Sea, where 10% of world trade takes place ( Risk of attacks makes BP reroute maritime transport and avoid the Red Sea ), to supply Israel and to pass through the Suez Canal to other destinations. Up to 11 of them have suspended use of the Red Sea route. According to the International Business Times:

“Shipping companies MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Haag-Lloyd have suspended all operations, already diverting more than $35 billion in cargo from the Red Sea. At least 103 ships were rerouted from the Red Sea this week, adding thousands of miles around the Cape of Good Hope to journeys and complicating last-minute holiday shipments between Asia and Europe.

Oil major British Petroleum (BP) announced on Monday that it has halted all shipments through the Suez Canal due to “deteriorating security”; Equinor told CNBC on Monday that it had redirected a number of oil and gas shipments, but had not yet made a decision about halting future ones.” ( Oil prices recover after Houthi attacks in Red Sea;  BP and Equinor pause shipping through Suez ).

This has already cost Israel billions of dollars and represents military and financial pressure. It also increased the price of oil internationally and could possibly result in a new outbreak of global inflation. However, this is not the work of the Houthi – they are simply fighting for basic humanity as they see it, motivated in part by human motives derived from their form of Shia Islam. The Houthis have made clear that they are not targeting shipping in general, but only pro-Israeli shipping, in response to the genocidal mass murder currently taking place in Gaza and Palestine. They explicitly stated that their specific objective is to “completely close the sea route to any ships destined to dock in the port of Eilat” ( The US and Israel Face a New and Powerful Enemy in the Middle East ).

The Yemeni guerrillas are indeed making a strong effort for a new peace agreement and conciliation. They told Al Jazeera they would stop their attacks if “Israel’s crimes in Gaza stopped and food, medicine and fuel could reach its beleaguered population”. ( Yemen’s Houthis ‘will not stop’ Red Sea attacks until Israel ends war in Gaza ) They clearly do not target non-Israeli shipping, and have made this particularly clear with regard to Russian shipping traffic.

As with Gaza, it is the US that insists on the escalation of this situation. The Biden administration has assembled a supposed “international coalition” of “partners” who are supposed to send naval forces to threaten the Houthi and ostensibly safeguard maritime traffic. Its title, Operation Guardian of Prosperity, actually indicates the callous and genocidal nature of the threats against Yemen in support of the Palestinian holocaust in Gaza. For the Biden administration, as for the Zionists, the Palestinian victims of genocide are  untermenschen . (subhumans).

What counts is “prosperity”, that is, the profits of imperialist capital. Rarely has the ideological link between profits and genocide been so starkly exposed by an imperialist US administration that has claimed in the past to be motivated by “liberal” and “humanitarian” motives in its armed actions. This pretense is now completely destroyed by the US’s open support for the genocide in Gaza.

The US is having difficulty putting together its coalition and confronting the Houthi. The US had hoped that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt would join them in this, but all three refused to get involved. This is a huge blow to your credibility. 

The Spanish government said it is thinking with “the utmost caution” before deciding whether to join the coalition. Australia chose to send a small number of troops to support the operation rather than sending a warship as initially requested by the US.

The only Gulf state that is a member is Bahrain, whose population is mostly Shia, but whose royal sectarian elite is Sunni – and extremely repressive and at war with Bahrain’s 70% Shia majority. Saudi Arabia, as a close ally of the US and Israel in recent decades, has itself waged a near-genocidal war, supplied by both the US and Israel – and has failed to dislodge the Houthis, whose support base in Yemen is deep and demonstrably unbreakable. . It became clear in this conflict that, had it continued, the Houthis would have had the armed capability to destroy Saudi Arabia’s oil production facilities. Therefore, the Houthis are not exactly afraid of US imperialism and are confident that, if attacked, they will inflict similar defeats on them.

The refusal of Saudi Arabia/UAE/Egypt to get involved is a blow to the US as they were all previously loyal client states. The failure of the US-led proxy war to defeat Russia in Ukraine has produced a major shift in geopolitics. One manifestation of this is the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in early 2023, mediated by China, which appears to have started a chain of events that led to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt (along with Iran itself) agreeing in joining BRICS, which will formally take place on January 1, 2024. Fear of the Houthi as well as this shift against the US internationally appears to have combined with the extremely negative impact of US support for the genocide in Gaza and the huge wave of anger in the Global South this year, causing the US-led anti-Houthi coalition to substantially collapse almost before it got off the ground. As Sputnik reported:

“…in addition to the ships of US Task Force 153, which includes between three and five US destroyers, the British missile destroyer HMS Diamond and a Greek Navy frigate, the coalition is preparing to include just a handful of troops from US-allied countries including the Netherlands (sending two officers), Norway (10 officers), Australia (11 soldiers), Canada (three officers) and Denmark (one officer). France and Italy have indicated that any naval forces they have in the region will remain under national command, while Spain has said it will not participate in any military operations unless under NATO or EU direction.” ( Houthis reject US threats and promise to intensify anti-Israeli operations if the conflict in Gaza is not stopped ).

This is not a formidable force and will not make the Houthis tremble before the power of the US-led coalition. In any case, as internationalist communists and defenders of their own lives, as well as the basic rights of the Palestinians, Yemenis and all peoples of the Middle East, the defeat of Israel and the USA, and the victory of the Palestinian and Yemeni forces fighting against them, it is very much in the interests of the global working class. This is what we, as communists, defend, as part of our struggle for world socialist revolution.

For an immediate and unconditional ceasefire!

For the release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners from Israel’s dungeons!

For the right of return of all refugees from Nabka!

For the end of the Nazi-Zionist State!

For a socialist and multi-ethnic Palestinian State!

For the victory of the Resistance axis over imperialism!

For the socialist federation of the peoples of West Asia!