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 spread ing. Determined
organization can convert passive sentiment into effective
opposition and militant, widespread resistance.
This is the only way to stop the war.
Reprinted from the Jan. 30, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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