'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. o
Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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