[Marxism] Re: Why Anti-Imperialists Should Support a Mass MovementAgainst the Iraq War

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

> http://www.laborstandard.org/Iraq2/Anti-Imperialists.htm
> Why Anti-Imperialists Should Support a Mass Movement Against the Iraq War
> by Bill Onasch
<snip>
> Two separate antiwar demonstrations in the same city on the same
> day? That is absurd and unthinkable. We should all be marching
> together as one, giving expression to the 60 percent of the
> population who, according to recent polls, want some or all troops
> brought home from Iraq. This now is a majority demand-and if the
> focus is kept on this demand, it can be won! U.S. imperialism can be
> forced to get out of Iraq!

I, too, would prefer one demonstration to two on the same day in the
same city, and the main slogan of the demonstration should squarely
focus on troop withdrawal from Iraq, but it is important for leftists
to discuss the Iraq War in the context of Washington's domestic
policy toward the working class and its current and historical roles
of directly or indirectly policing the world for capital, and I
believe that we can do so without sectarianism.

Washington will eventually end the Iraq War with or without the
anti-war movement simply because it can't win it -- at least not on
terms that it initially envisioned.  The question is exactly how it
will do so and what it will do next.  It will be no victory for
Iraqis, for instance, if a faction of Iraqi guerrillas come to power
and Washington puts Iraq under economic sanctions again after US
troop withdrawal; if Washington comes to a cease-fire with
guerrillas, with guerrillas controlling central Iraq, Kurds
controlling northern Iraq, and Shiites controlling southern Iraq, the
latter two supported by several thousands of US and other troops,
military advisors, and civilian technocrats; or if Washington
succeeds in co-opting enough Iraqi men of military and internal
security expertise to protect its puppet government, allowing
Washington to withdraw most of troops.  (Other outcomes are also
possible.)  The Iraq War itself, even without Palestinian and other
questions, is a complex question that organizing big demonstrations,
necessary as they may be, can't resolve.

Also, consider the possibility that the housing bubble may burst
around 2007, with economic repercussions that are unforeseeable but
probably big and bad; and/or China's economic boom may come to an end
at about the same time, again with probably ugly consequences, though
it is impossible to tell exactly what will happen.

The task of leftists is to mobilize as broad sectors of society as
possible against the occupation of Iraq while increasing the numbers
of organizers and intellectuals who are ready to take on questions
like above.

> (At the upcoming AFL-CIO convention, beginning July 25, USLAW is
> working to have a resolution adopted putting the entire federation
> of 13 million American workers on record against the Iraq war.)

That's good of USLAW activists, but we ought to remember that the
AFL-CIO, too, is heading toward a split, for good reasons as well as
bad ones -- the split that may _potentially_ create openings for
leftists in electoral politics as well as labor organizing, if the
Andy Stern faction gets forced to turn to rank-and-file activists and
other leftists to strengthen his side of organized labor (which he
hasn't done so far, the struggle remaining a faction fight inside the
AFL-CIO for the time being).
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Monthly Review: <http://monthlyreview.org/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>

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