A time for revolutionary optimism

Greetings to the tens of thousands of progressive activists gathering for sessions of the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, and Bamako, Mali. No matter what part of the world you have come from, you can help give a push to the rising up of oppressed peoples that is already so evident in Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world.

As your meetings and exchanges are taking place, the peoples of all continents face grave and growing dangers on many levels. We speak to you from the United States, the “belly of the beast.” We agree with the view held in so much of the rest of the world: the main source of these problems, whether it is war, environmental degradation or the polarization of wealth, is here. The U.S. imperialist ruling class, along with its political and military establishments, still believes it can dominate the world with its fearsome and costly military machine. Its destructive geopolitical agenda is driven by an insatiable appetite for super-profits.

We are sure you will put opposition to the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan high on your agenda, along with the Israeli occupation and repression in Palestine. We have marched in coordination with you many times since the U.S. embarked on its new stage of aggression and military expansion after 9/11. Together, we all have demanded an end to the war and then to the occupation of Iraq. These demonstrations, which sometimes numbered in the millions, gave great encouragement to everyone in the U.S. trying to stop the war. And they helped turn the tide of public opinion here against it.

Now the Bush administration, besieged on many sides, is doing what the Johnson administration did during Vietnam: it is talking peace while continuing to wage war. Every day many more lives are lost—especially among the Iraqi people—as the Pentagon attempts to con solidate a puppet regime and an effec tive state that will remain subservient to U.S. interests. But it is a hopeless task; the Iraqi people have shown their determination to continue this struggle until they have won true self-determination and expelled the invaders.

The people in the United States want the troops brought home now and the huge sums spent on war and occupation allocated instead to social services in crisis—health, housing, education and pensions. But, in the political establishment, there is no real opposition. The Democratic Party, which voted for the war, criticizes Bush’s methods but supports the occupation.

We hope you will take a clear anti-imperialist position on these questions: 1) that the U.S. and other occupying nations withdraw all their troops from Iraq and let the people there decide their own future; 2) that the movement recognize the validity of the resistance in Iraq; 3) that the movement show solidarity with soldiers of the occupying forces who refuse to participate in the war effort;
4) that activists everywhere join in coordinated anti-war efforts on the weekend of March 18-19 to end the occupation. This will strengthen the anti-imperialist, anti-war movement here at the very center of the problem.

The anti-war, anti-imperialist struggle is a critical part of the growing movement of the working class and all oppressed peoples for a society based on cooperation and sharing—not class domination, racism and exploitation. In the United States, this was made crystal clear during the New Orleans crisis after Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds died, mostly poor and African American, because the state was organized to protect the interests of a privileged few, not the needs of the people. They died for lack of food, clean water and transportation out of the flooded areas. The U.S. government refused emergency help offered by both Cuba and Venezuela. When U.S. troops were finally brought in, it was to repress the people as much as to help them. New Orleans was like a war zone, and Black people were treated like the enemy.

Today, the survivors of that disaster are organizing and demanding the right to return to their city and to determine how it will be rebuilt. They are demanding money for jobs and reconstruction, not for war.

Everyone knows that more and bigger “natural” disasters lie ahead as global warming wreaks major changes on our planet. Just as with the tsunami, the Caribbean and Gulf Coast hurricanes, the earthquake disaster in Pakistan, and the droughts and famines in Africa, it will be the poor, those without options, those already without adequate food and shelter, who bear the brunt of them.

But where the people have rebelled against imperialist control and reorganized their society to put human needs first—as in Cuba—the effects of such disasters have been mitigated. While the U.S. authorities, who boast of their awesome military strength, responded to Hurricane Katrina with total disorganization and chaos, Cuba has withstood many violent storms by mobilizing the people, thereby saving countless lives and showing it can be done. It is a lesson in what kind of society is really more powerful and can endure.

Those of you meeting in Bolivarian Venezuela can feel the spirit of revolutionary struggle that is inspiring new generations to stand up to imperialism and dare to hope for a better world. With capitalism and imperialism, there is no future. But with the revolutionary struggle of the people, we can build a new, socialist, humane world capable of overcoming every obstacle.