------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
"WEAPONS INSPECTIONS" PART OF U.S. WAR AGAINST IRAQ By Sara Flounders Workers World Party was trained to be combative in the face of an imperialist war, to stand with whoever is under attack. We make no attempt at conciliation on the fundamental issues--even as we try to build the broadest possible unity in mobilizing opposition to the war. We want to work with all possible forces opposing this war, even when we have differences. Bush has an enormous problem that he is trying to cover over with the most bellicose threats. He has weapons of mass destruction, but his political support is thin, apprehensive and suspicious. Among the masses of people, there is already deep suspicion. Wars radicalize whole sections of the population overnight. The ugly face of the capitalist drive for markets is exposed. The veneer of democracy and legality is ripped off. Why is the mass anti-war demonstration called for Oct. 26 so important? It is an action in coordination with many political forces who want to resist. It is a living coalition that is growing by the hour. We are committed to its success because the first action of mass opposition to an unfolding war defines the movement. It shapes what comes after--what role the oppressed and working class organizations will play. In countless interviews with the mass media, we have helped to cut through the war propaganda with class-conscious politics, explaining who benefits from the war and who pays. The same political currents that divided the movement against the Iraq war in 1991 and artificially injected the slogan, "Sanctions, not war" are now raising the slogan "Inspections, not war." Both of these slogans imply that Washington and Wall Street have legitimate interests, have the right to intervene. They disorient the movement. They put demands and pressure on the oppressed nation under attack and imply that the intransigence is on their part. Support for sanctions has proven to be support for the right of U.S. imperialism to starve a whole people. It is the most brutal form of war. Inspections are war, too. They allow an invading army to reach into a country and claim the right to blow up industries, cut off all technology in the name of searching for weapons of mass destruction. The new U.S. demand for more "muscular inspections" or "coercive inspections" is a cynical war plan developed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It is a plan to include U.S. tanks, jets and armored units with the inspectors. It would impose no-drive zones along with the present no-fly zones. It would cut off whole sections of Iraq, carve it into pieces and destroy at will, all in the name of looking for weapons of mass destruction. Any resistance would be met with bombardment. Iraq would be required to pay for this occupation with funds from the "Oil for Food" program. It is the end of all sovereignty. This is the plan Bush wants to introduce in a new UN resolution. Bush has made a declaration of war on the peoples of the entire world. No country, no government can risk military confrontation with the U.S. Even small socialist countries are trying to avoid direct threat. They may have to make onerous political and economic concessions in order to survive. Our challenge is to help shape the resistance, to expose the lies and to mobilize opposition. No secret conspiracy can succeed. Only mass mobilization of millions in the streets in determined opposition can stop this war. Millions who are conscious that their own interests are directly opposed to the war makers. Consciousness is a weapon. We have cadre who are tenant or union organizers, who struggle for women's rights, lesbian and gay rights, prisoners' rights, are organizers against the death penalty, student organizers. Everyone who has worked on any campaign has an urgent role to play right now in mobilizing our class. Our party is trained for a crisis. Even a small group can give leadership at the most difficult junctures. That is what a Leninist party is capable of because it is the concentrated experience of our class, armed with a scientific outlook. It is an organized force that sees clearly the cause of the war crisis and understands what must be done. We know what this war is and what this new, more aggressive stage of decaying imperialism will mean for our class. We also know how to mobilize, how to get resolutions, buses, make calls, set up outreach. This is the struggle Workers World Party was born to fight. [Flounders is a Secretariat member of Workers World Party.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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