World wants to know--
What will U.S. movement do to stop war?
By Larry Holmes
Holmes, a member of WWP's Secretariat, was part of an
Inter national Action Center delegation at a Baghdad anti-war
conference Sept. 17-19.
Teresa Gutierrez, Kadouri Al-Kaysi, journalist Barbara Aziz
and I constituted a delegation to a conference in solidarity
with Iraq in Baghdad this week. It was scheduled to begin last
Monday, but it was postponed for a day, and we did not know
why.
It turned out that Monday was a climactic day in the
international pressure campaign on the Iraqis, really from all
sides, to agree to admit unconditionally the so-called weapons
inspectors, who we know are the first division of the invasion
force.
There was a sense of relief at the conference when the
decision to admit the inspectors was announced. It says a lot
about how dire the situation is. I don't think the participants
at the conference, or the Iraqis, think the simple fact that
they agreed after their arm had been twisted will stop the war.
However, they hope it will buy time.
Our question is: Will it really do that? It appears that
since Iraq agreed to inspections, instead of backing off, Bush
and his clique and the generals have stepped on the gas pedal
and are speeding ahead with preparations for war. Bush is
demanding immediate authorization from Congress and the United
Nations.
Despite all this, I think the conference was good for the
Iraqis. It was a necessary boost to morale. The media were
there, interviewing delegates from all parts of the world. The
delegations made strong statements, making it clear that this
is not just an attack on Iraq but on people everywhere. And
they promised to find concrete ways to solidarize themselves
with Iraq.
There were about 170 delegates representing 80 to 90
countries, including the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Latin
America and Western Europe. We were the sole delegation from
the United States, so they listened carefully to what we had to
say. But I would say the majority were from Russia, Yugoslavia,
Albania, Romania, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
As we looked around at the delegates, speaking in so many
languages being simultaneously interpreted, it made me think
that years ago these delegates could have been representing a
strong socialist camp. They could have come with more than
words. They could have come with weapons, food, medicine and
other material things the Iraqis have been deprived of because
of the sanctions. And they would let the imperialists know that
they could only go so far, because we will not tolerate it. But
this no longer exists.
We appreciate that this is the kind of solidarity Iraq
really needs right now. We know if it's just a military
struggle, if that's the sole criterion, then of course U.S.
imperialism is the far stronger power.
If you listen carefully to what the Iraqis are saying, they
are relying on solidarity from the Arab masses and any
maneuvers they can make to win a temporary diplomatic edge in
the United Nations Security Council. But this is not enough.
And it begs the question: What are we going to do about it?
Everybody wanted to know: What are you going to do over
there? It's your country that wants to wage this genocidal,
racist war against the people of the Middle East.
It begs the question of the relationship of the movement,
not just the anti-war movement but the working-class movement,
to the struggle against the war and the struggle for socialist
revolution.
During the last century we saw that rebellions against
imperialism first sprang up where imperialism was weak, at the
extremities of the system. At the center, in Europe and here,
the struggle was slow. But we also appreciate that ultimately
the struggle has to move from East to West, to the heart of
imperialism--to give the system a heart attack.
Almost 100 years ago Lenin understood the relationship of
the movement in this country to the world revolution. The fate
of the world revolution will probably be decided by the
struggle of the working class in the United States, because
this is the center of imperialism.
If we understand this, we can feel the special
responsibility we have to the world. I think that's a good
thing, because nothing motivates serious revolutionaries more
than understanding their relationship to the struggle. When you
understand that, you wake up in the morning and you know you
have a purpose.
Popular anger and resistance to U.S. imperialism around the
world is greater than it has been in a long time. Contrary to
popular opinion, this country is not an island. It is not
separate from the planet, unaffected by the change in
consciousness of the masses. Workers and oppressed people in
this country are weary of war. That's why the imperialist
propaganda machines are really turning it on, trying to drag
everyone into the war, because they're nervous about whether
the workers will follow them.
We know Bush and his clique want to divert attention away
from rising joblessness, poverty and misery among our sisters
and brothers. The capitalist economic crisis is very deep.
What's happening in the stock market, WorldCom, Enron and so
forth, is just on the surface. Underneath there's a
catastrophic capitalist crisis in the making.
Will the combination of the war crisis and the economic
crisis have the effect we've been awaiting for so long? Will it
finally radicalize the masses, wake them up, and begin to melt
away the passivity of the working class?
Will it end the demoralization, disintegration and confusion
of the revolutionary and progressive forces that have been a
consequence of the counter-revolution of the last period? Will
it open up a new chapter of the working-class struggle?
We can't wait for conclusive answers to these questions. But
we are obliged to act as though the answer is affirmative--and
that not only is it coming soon, but that with every moment
that passes we are losing time in preparing for it.
We don't have the luxury of being bystanders. That's
contrary to everything revolution is about, from a socialist
and communist perspective. We're catalysts, agents of
revolution, an essential ingredient. We don't have to worry
about the workers. They'll come. But the leadership has to be
ready. History is full of stories where the masses were ready
and the leadership was not.
Of course, our first priority is the war. We have got to
awaken the full scope and breadth of anti-war sentiment in this
country. That's what the Oct. 26 march is about. Whether people
agree with us on every detail is not important. Everybody's got
to come out. If they ask us, can we really stop the war before
it starts, we've got to say if you come and you each bring 100
or 1,000 or 10,000 people with you, then maybe we can!
We have to revive the socialist movement, because there's
been no socialist movement in this country. It's been beaten
down. We have to build it up. Who else is going to do it? We
have an opportunity to make a socialist and anti-imperialist
and anti-war movement that is revolutionary. Why should we wait
for someone to lead it in a weaker direction?
We not only want to stop the war; we want to bring the war
home where it belongs.
Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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