The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 19,
2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010
Australia.
Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
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Editorial - The world's new superpower
It's People's Power! It does not have any tanks, bombers, cruise
missiles or nuclear weapons. It does not have wealthy corporations
financing its activities. It does not have powerful newspapers to convey
its attitudes and activities.
But it does have the power of millions of people who are taking action
for their needs and policies. It is worldwide. It has swept into
unprecedented, co-ordinated action against a war that has not yet been
launched. It has all the moral arguments and truth on its side. The
decisions of the advocates of war can only be defended by lies. People's
Power reflects the needs of the people worldwide. It expresses the real
national interests of all countries.
The issue of peace or war has become worldwide affecting the lives of
millions of people. It divides a very small group of governments who are
planning and intend to implement war, aggression, invasion and
occupation from the overwhelming majority of governments opposed to war
and its consequences.
Not only is this movement opposed to a specific war against Iraq, it is
opposed to wars in general that have caused endless suffering and death
for millions and millions of people and for thousands of years. People
now say, NO WAR, meaning that war should be opposed and rejected. It
calls for the universal destruction of all weapons of war.
This movement has not come into existence just because of the Bush
administrations criminal policies. Many factors have contributed to the
present movement. The Ban the Bomb movement, opposition to the Vietnam
War, demands for complete international disarmament and against the use
of biological and chemical weapons, the anti-globalisation and
environmental movements, the movements against the IMF and the World
Bank have all played a part.
Behind the propaganda is a system that thrives on war and has never
renounced war as a means to achieve its ends. The system is moved by
greed and the drive to occupy other countries, seize their resources and
exploit the people of those countries - it is the system of imperialism
which is in turn a product of capitalism.
The real forces driving Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, Blair and Howard are
the oil corporations and the arms manufacturers in particular. They are
the pillars of imperialism. They dream of restoring the colonial era in
which all countries come under their military, economic and political
control.
War will only be exorcised from human society when the system that
thrives on war is replaced. Sooner or later that must become the
objective of the anti-war people's movement.
People's Power will not go away even if war comes and Iraq is occupied.
People worldwide can see now how strong they have become, that they have
allies in every country, that it is a truly international movement, that
it combines people of all nationalities, all religions and all but the
most right wing of the political spectrum.
The outbreak of war will lead some to think that "nothing can be done"
and, that despite all efforts, governments don't take any notice of
their citizens. That is true of some governments. The task then is to
throw such governments out of office. This is a foremost task for the
Australian people - to throw out the Howard Government of war and
national betrayal.
A number of countries have already achieved that aim in South America,
Africa and Asia. The governments of the socialist countries are
consistently on the side of peace and the well being of their people.
This People's Power must form new governments that really struggle for
the needs of the people and above all, for the peaceful resolution of
international conflicts.
Just as the worldwide movement against war is a coalition of many
forces, new people's governments with new policies can be formed of
coalitions that unite the political forces on an agreed political and
economic program.
At the time of writing, war has not yet been launched. It might even now
be prevented but whatever happens the worldwide People's Power has been
born and it holds within it a better peaceful future for the people of
all countries.
Welcome to People's Power!
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