EDITORIAL
The year's end
At year's end, where do things stand? Has
anything been proved or disproved by this year of brutal
imperialist conquest and occupation?
The upholders of the capitalist system, and especially its
leaders in the U.S., have had one more year to show what they
have to offer in the post-Soviet era, now that they have only
themselves to blame for the condition of the world.
The politicians and military leaders who serve Corporate
America have never strutted higher on the world's stage. They
have gone to the frozen mountain ranges of Afghanistan and the
searing deserts of Iraq, flaunting their spectacular technology
of death and destruction. How could anyone fail to bow down and
submit before their unmatched air power, their 5,000-lb.
oxygen-consuming bombs, their satellite-coordinated battle
command posts?
And the images the monopoly media have brought into the
humblest living rooms: Images of power--jets roaring into the
night, missiles slicing their way through buildings. Images of
an apple-cheeked president beloved of his troops and subjects
leading a great crusade against terrorism and evil. Images of
the recalcitrant "enemies," caged, shackled, hands bound,
gaunt, unshaven. A real Hollywood blockbuster.
So why has Bush been working so hard at trying to lighten
his image? Why did he bring his overlord Paul Bremer back home
in a sweat and start talking about a quick transition to an
Iraqi authority?--hand-picked, of course.
And why did this famous "unilateralist" agree to try and
bring France, Germany and Russia in on the exploitation of
Iraq? Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz thought he had
scotched the deal when he made public a Pentagon document
limiting contracts for the "rebuilding" of Iraq to only those
countries that have sent troops there. Wolfowitz acted just as
James Baker III, a shrewd and well-connected (think Carlyle
Group) dealmaker from the Reagan-Bush years, was on his way to
Europe. But Baker was able to get the two imperialist
governments, France and Germany, to agree to cancel much of
Iraq's debt so the money can go to pay for the occupation.
Whatever the details, it was a sure sign that there is a
deal, Wolfowitz and Co. notwithstanding, and the big money
class in the U.S. has conceded for now that it really can't
pull this off totally on its own.
One big reason has been the level of resistance. The Iraqi
people don't want to return to being an Anglo-U.S. colony, and
have shown it now for the better part of a year. Neither the
puppet show called the "Governing Council" nor the ruthless
suppression of demonstrations can conceal the fact that all
over Iraq, in the Shiite south, the Sunni center and the
Kurdish north, there is hatred of the foreign occupation. The
capture of Saddam Hussein didn't change that.
Then there is the powerful, worldwide anti-war movement that
mushroomed up a year ago. It spoke for many, many millions of
people and cannot be shrugged off. Sentiment against the war
has even found its way into the usually barren electoral arena
in the U.S., although most of that is demagogy.
Increasingly, the ones who most want the occupation to end
are the U.S. troops themselves, who were thrust into the role
of hated colonial occupiers by their commanding officers. The
only program that makes sense to them is to come home.
Many of them joined up in the first place because of the
rotten prospects for young workers in so much of the United
States. Work for minimum wage at an anti-union shop like
Wal-Mart, or roll the military dice and hope they will take you
to an education, job skills and a way out of depressed areas.
But the dice were fixed, and the troops wound up facing not
only the horrors of war but the mysterious illnesses--caused by
depleted uranium, a cocktail of vaccines, who knows what?--that
now plague tens of thousands of veterans.
Veterans' benefits are being steadily cut, too, just as so
many other sectors of the working class are feeling the pinch
turn into a stabbing pain. The capitalists are doing what they
know best--making money, and keeping more of it because of the
tax cuts--while steelworker pensions are drying up, health care
is a luxury, and consumer prices are rising with the falling
dollar.
Something is happening among low-wage workers, too. They're
not all flocking into the military. Many thousands are standing
up and fighting the huge corporations that lord it over this
country. And this new labor movement gets much of its strength
from those ordinarily considered the most
vulnerable--immigrants, some of them undocumented, and
women.
If they can organize and fight for a living wage, benefits
and the right to organize, why can't the rest? The courage and
determination of the most oppressed can be a spark to ignite
others in this largely unorganized and sorely abused
multinational class of workers.
It all boils down to this: Without the workers, the
imperialist bosses have nothing. Zip. Nil.
Happy New Year.
Reprinted from the Dec. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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