------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 30, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AS BUSH MOVES TOWARD WAR: MASS OPPOSITION AT HOME GROWS By Fred Goldstein Whatever Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors tell the United Nations Security Council on Jan. 27, it is clear that the politics and diplomacy of the Bush administration and of Britain's Tony Blair are strictly calculated to bolster their military plans for an unprovoked war of aggression against Iraq. It is equally clear that the anti-war move ment must urgently broaden and escalate its efforts to stop this catastrophic war drive. The menacing buildup of U.S. and British forces in the Gulf area, in the face of worldwide opposition, must be met with mass mobilization everywhere. Bush has brushed aside every positive assertion of the UN weapons inspectors. He has dismissed the opposition of France and Germany-- imperialist allies of the U.S. who nevertheless fear the war and see no gain in a campaign that will leave Wall Street and Washington in charge in Iraq. He has dispatched officials to relentlessly promote the war in an effort to overcome the growing anti-war sentiment in the U.S. and in defiance of the opinion of the vast majority of humanity. A NAKED QUEST FOR EMPIRE The Bush administration is making it as clear as it possibly can to the entire world that the White House and the Pentagon are on a course of conquest. No amount of diplomacy, no international or constitutional legality, nor any truth or facts will be allowed to stand in their way. The drive to conquer Iraq--to seize its oil fields for the profits of the giant monopolies and the military-industrial complex and to set up a base in the Middle East--overrides all other considerations. The Bush administration's plans for the long-term military occupation of Iraq are nothing more than undisguised, pre-World War II-style colonialism. This is part of a naked quest for empire. The National Security Strategy document issued last September makes clear the intention of Washington to rule the world. It declares the right of preemptive war. It warns that no power or combination of powers will be allowed to challenge U.S. military supremacy. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and retreat of the world national liberation struggles, Washington feels that its military might makes it omnipotent. The militarists and the ruling class are drunk with power and prone to adventure. They falsely assume that they can remain supreme forever so long as they retain nuclear and conventional military superiority over other nation states. But the Achilles' heel of the Pentagon is the people of the world, who will not submit to oppression passively. Wash ington has completely discounted the mass resistance that its aggression is sure to provoke. And above all, it has prematurely discounted the potential for resistance right here in the U.S. MASS OPPOSITION NOW INDISPUTABLE The extraordinary outpouring of hundreds of thousands of people in Wash ington, D.C., San Francisco and other cities across the U.S. on Jan. 18 was a huge setback to all the pundits, poll takers and propagandists who have worked overtime to undermine and conceal the massive grassroots opposition to a war on Iraq. The demonstrations, organized by the International ANSWER coalition, were twice the size of the coalition's large Oct. 26 protests. These events have shown that no amount of concealment or minimizing by the big business media can stop the development of a deep and abiding grassroots U.S. anti-war opposition. The pro-war propaganda machine, including all the television networks, news services and newspapers, widely reported the Jan. 18 events. They fear losing all credibility with the people. Some want to force the Bush administration and the rest of the ruling class to take account of the potential anti-war rebellion brewing down below. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell were both questioned about the demonstrations on Sunday morning talk shows by NBC's Tim Russert and CNN's Wolf Blitzer. They politely ducked and said that the demonstrations were an exercise in democracy. They then both went on to reassert the Bush administration's determination to go to war. Rice and Powell's glib responses aside, the Bush administration and the Pentagon have until now been able to totally disregard the opposition in the U.S. as a factor in the struggle. This is no longer the case. There is a serious new front in the struggle, whether Bush knows it or not. The New York Times, which has supported the war plans and regards itself as an adviser to the capitalist government, flat-out stated as much in its editorial of Jan. 20, entitled "A Stirring in the Nation." "A largely missing ingredient in the nascent debate about invading Iraq showed up on the streets of major cities over the weekend as crowds of peaceable protesters marched in a demand to be heard. They represented what appears to be a large segment of the American public that remains unconvinced that the Iraqi threat warrants the use of military force at this juncture," wrote the Times. "Mr. Bush," continued the Times, "would be wise to see the demonstrators as a clear sign that noticeable numbers of Americans no longer feel obliged to salute the administration's plans because of the shock of Sept. 11 and that many harbor serious doubts about his march toward war." The Times' tepid understatement about the demonstration tries to orient the movement towards moderation and patriotism. But the fact is that demonstrators on Jan. 18 were concerned about the horrendous effects of U.S. aggression upon the Iraqi people. MORE THAN AN ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT They were concerned with the genocidal sanctions; the imperial plans of Wash ington; the racism of the economic draft; the sending of poor, nationally oppressed and working class youth to kill and be killed to expand the empire of the oil companies and the Pentagon. They applauded calls for an end to U.S.-supported Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. They applauded denunciations of the repression of the thousands of people from the Middle East and Asia being swept up in dragnets by the FBI and the INS. They cheered calls to force the U.S. to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction. They were outraged at the cost of the war being shifted onto the workers and the poor. In fact, the most important aspect of this new emerging anti-war movement is that it is more than an anti-war movement. It is an emerging, strongly progressive current in U.S. capitalist society that has been galvanized by the threat of war. It burst through the surface on Oct. 26 and again with more force on Jan. 18. Its manifestation as a national movement is largely due to the persistent and determined organizing of the ANSWER coalition and its growing number of allies and friends in all corners of the progressive and anti-imperialist movement. It is important to note that this new movement, which has grown so rapidly, has arisen in the face of a solid wall of reaction. The Sept. 11 disaster opened the door politically for the right-wing militarist grouping in Washington to go on a worldwide offensive. They went full force to implement their long-planned campaign of expansion. They waged a criminal air war against Afghanistan; gave the green light for a devastating attack by Ariel Sharon on the Palestinian national movement; dispatched troops to the Philippines and North Africa; and unleashed racist bigot John Ashcroft, the Justice Department and the INS in a campaign of racist repression and intimidation, trampling over democratic rights. And they opened up their campaign to reconquer Iraq. All of this war and intimidation has been supported, with a greater or lesser degree of enthusiasm, by a monolithic propaganda machine and the entire political establishment of both capitalist parties. There have been no cracks in the class unity of the bosses and bankers and their representatives. No dissident section of the imperialist bourgeoisie has arisen so far to give the slightest encouragement or cover to opponents of the war. Thus this grassroots movement has grown up pushing back against the entire weight of capitalist public opinion during a very reactionary period. Spontaneous demonstrations have been organized in hundreds of cities, towns and campuses, but the existence of a national movement has been indispensably assisted by the initiatives of the ANSWER coalition. MOVEMENT IS BROAD AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST ANSWER's hallmark has been to broaden and unite the movement by giving a platform to every genuine anti-war voice, regardless of political outlook. At the same time, however, it has guaranteed that the voices of the Black, Latino, Asian and Native peoples, as well as people struggling for their liberation against the U.S. government all over the world, are heard loud and strong. ANSWER has demonstrated in life that there is no contradiction between giving voice to the struggle against imperialism and broadening the movement. In fact, for this movement to succeed it must ally itself with the workers and the oppressed of the world, in order not to get derailed by reactionary, pro-war chauvinism against any people targeted by Washington. And it must ally itself with the workers and the oppressed of this country, who are suffering under the growing capitalist economic crisis that brings poverty, cutbacks, layoffs, deficits, racism and repression. The real Achilles' heel of Washington, despite all its military prowess, is right here at home. Nothing can protect the Pentagon against a really militant, mass anti-war movement that takes hold among the working class. A war of conquest intensifies all the reactionary aspects of capitalist society. The ruling class tries to make the masses of people fight the war, pay for the war and subordinate their demands for civil, social and economic rights to the war effort. This is laying the groundwork for a genuine mass resistance to the war drive, from the community to the workplace to the campus. Anti-war sentiment is spreading. Determined organization can convert passive sentiment into effective opposition and militant, widespread resistance. This is the only way to stop the war. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
