New statement by Movement for a Socialist Future

[Movement for a Socialist Future]

Here is the latest updated statement from the Movement for a Socialist
Future on the growing international crisis.

We will be holding a meeting to discuss what we can do to stop the drive
to war. Contact us for further details.

The statement is also available at our website @
www.socialistfuture.org.uk


STOP THE DRIVE TO WAR
STATEMENT BY THE MOVEMENT FOR A SOCIALIST FUTURE

President George W. Bush's decision to launch a "sustained war" against
unspecified "barbarians", together with the declaration of a national
state of emergency in America, threatens everyone on the planet. The
horrific terror attacks on New York and Washington revealed a
vulnerability at the heart of the American system, coinciding as they
did with a growing political and economic crisis.

Now Bush plans to reimpose America's lost authority through "sweeping,
sustained and effective" military actions, with Congress rushing through
an extra $50 billion for the job. Bush can count on the support of the
New Labour government of Prime Minister Blair, who agrees with him that
"we are at war".
Both men hope their military offensive will restore popular legitimacy
to their discredited political system, which saw Bush buy the White
House for the corporations and Blair elected by just one in four of
British voters. Neither will even consider acting to end the poverty and
oppression suffered by hundreds of millions of people at the hands of
globalising capitalism, which is the root cause of desperate terror
attacks.

Immediate victims will be the people of poverty-stricken countries like
Afghanistan. Far from "solving" the crisis, their deaths will
undoubtedly produce more individuals willing to commit desperate suicide
terrorist acts in the heartlands of the developed world.

And make no mistake - the workers of the advanced capitalist states will
also suffer, and not simply from terrorist acts carried out in
retaliation. For all the talk about defending "civilisation", the
fundamental crisis affecting people's lives is not terrorism but the
deepening global economic slump. Bush's demands for "national sacrifice"
is a clear warning that US workers will be expected to shoulder the
burden of the crisis in the form of lower wages, unemployment and
harsher exploitation of those with jobs.

We should take a warning from history. In the 20th century, economic
turmoil and international rivalry led to heightened international
tension and then to open war between nations and peoples. The drums of
war are already beating their sinister rhythms. The Pentagon has said
that the first 35,000 reservists called up on Bush's instructions would
be for "homeland defence". Deployment of the military to maintain law
and order in US cities constitutes an open move towards authoritarian
rule and the loss of basic civil rights.

In Britain, the hysteria whipped up by the media and the government in
the days following the attacks on New York and Washington have
reinforced an atmosphere of intolerance. The BBC has already apologised
to the United States for allowing people on Question Time to criticise
US policies.
We totally condemn the terrorist actions of September 11. They were the
indiscriminate reaction of frustrated people to social and political
injustice. They did not distinguish between the US government and mass
of the working population. In fact, the mass killings in New York and
Washington drive a wedge between people of different countries and
religions at a time of grave crisis for the major powers.

No amount of rhetoric can disguise the fact that: we have entered a
period of global slump; market forces have driven the planet's
environment to the edge of a catastrophe; "democratic" rule has given
way to the domination by uncontrolled and unaccountable corporations;
political processes and parties are discredited; the world's poor are
getting poorer and peoples like the Palestinians see their hopes crushed
daily.

Bush and Blair stand powerless and paralysed in the face of these
realities. Instead, using the tragic loss of life in the US as a cynical
pretext, they reach for their guns. We now, therefore, enter a period of
history when the major powers will resort to feudal-style holy wars to
reimpose their shattered domination.

Anyone anywhere who chooses to differ with what Bush and Blair describe
as "civilisation" and "democracy"  - by which they mean the unbridled
rule of global capitalism - is a target. What is emerging, therefore, is
a global struggle between the corporations and their stooge
governments - and the majority of the world's population.

The White House and Downing Street want to make people believe that the
whole of Western civilisation is under threat from Islamic terrorism.
This is enough to get the TUC bureaucrats to abandon their annual
Congress, where they were due to pass motions against New Labour's
privatisation policies. Normal life is suspended during an imposed
period of national mourning, although, of course, not in the City, where
the stock exchange and financial markets continue to trade.

In searching for those responsible for the attacks, the American
government has pointed the finger at Saudi guerrilla leader Osama bin
Laden. Bush conveniently forgets that Bin Laden was funded and supplied
by the US when he opposed Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

Blair's Biblical pronouncement that the attack was "by the forces of
evil against democracy" which "ignored the sanctity of human life" is
particularly obnoxious. This is the man who authorised the bombing of
civilians in Yugoslavia and the use of depleted uranium in weapons.

The "democratic" governments of America are responsible for the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children through sanctions and bombing
in recent years and the slaughter of millions of Vietnamese 30 years
ago. Bush supports and supplies the Israeli military machine,
responsible for thousands of deaths in Palestine and Lebanon.

The responses to the events of September 11 are a dire warning.
Imperialism wants to plunge us into a "holy war" to ensure its survival.
A catastrophe threatens the world unless we break the grip of the profit
system and the global corporations. We totally denounce and oppose this
drive to war and retribution by Bush and Blair. Instead, we are for a
unity between the peoples of the developed and developing nations. The
basis for this is our common interests and common enemy.

Terrorism may temporarily destabilise governments - but it never
undermines them, nor creates the conditions for their overthrow. Only
mass action by working people with a perspective of a new society can do
that.

The Movement for a Socialist Future is for a planet based on
co-operation and collaboration, not profit and ruthless competition. We
reject the existing political structures as undemocratic and
unrepresentative and campaign for the exercise of direct power and
control at local, regional and national level. We are for the
democratisation of the ownership and control of the major corporations
which exploit the world's resources and working population.
The declaration of war by Bush is not a sign of strength but of a
desperate reaction to mounting problems faced by the system. We have to
stop the madmen at the White House and NATO from unleashing global
devastation and terror.

To achieve this we have to take from them their military, political and
economic power through the planned actions of a mass, social movement.
This is our antidote to the war hysteria which threatens us all.

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Movement for a Socialist Future
16 September 2001