[Marxism] Militant withdraws support from garment union's challenge to employer, Pentagon

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Militant here corrects the "error" of supporting trade unionists who
protested against the short-changing of Gis by the government and big
business, which has also spurred occassional protests among the troops.
This is couched in ultramilitant "antipatriotic" terms and the customary
unconditional hostility to "our troops."

Nonetheless, I think in fact they got too close to comfort to one of the
ways that antiwar sentiment is developing among workers, and they want
nothing in common with the antiwar sentiments of the masses -- in this
country or any other. (In other imperialist countries, the Militant
portrays the antiwar protests as chauvinist because they speak
disrespectfully of the US president.

James P. Cannon's writings on the "proletarian military policy" are a
useful reference in this area, to get a sense of the political stance
and tradition that is being repudiated here.

The new nine-page Militant (combined with three pages of Perspectiva
Mundial) promises to be even more sectarian than its predecessor but a
blessedly quicker read.
Fred Feldman


Imperialist military not ?ours? 
(editorial)
 
The Militant, as our front-page masthead asserts, is published in the
interests of working people. The headline and content of an editorial in
our June 13 issue??Oppose faulty gear for GIs??flew in the face of that
pledge and must be corrected. 
The editorial commented on news reports that Point Blank Body Armor, a
company with plants in Florida and elsewhere that make bulletproof vests
and related equipment, had sold substandard gear to the Marines. The
column condemned ?the production and sale by the bosses of defective
bulletproof vests used by U.S. soldiers,? which it said was ?increasing
the dangers facing the GIs stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.? Similar
statements appeared in a front-page article the following week. 

The call to ?oppose faulty vests for GIs? can only be read as backing
?our GIs.? But the U.S. imperialist army and its troops are not ?ours.?
The U.S. military does not defend the interests of working people. It is
the army of the tiny handful of capitalist families who maintain their
power and privilege off the wealth produced by the labor of our class
and its allies. 

Along with federal, state, and local cops, the army is the body of armed
men and women used by the propertied rulers to defend their exploitation
and oppression of workers and farmers, from Boston to Baghdad.
Washington?s bloody wars abroad are an extension of the bosses?
offensive at home to push down wages, extend hours, throw safety to the
winds, and cut pensions and medical coverage. 

That is why class-conscious workers do not join in calls for ?better
quality? bulletproof vests or other military equipment. So-called
protective gear produced by Point Blank is no different from other
weapons that allow units of the Army, Marines, and Special Operations
forces to carry out urban warfare with greater brutality. 

Workers? interests are harmed by anything that strengthens the army of
our exploiters. That includes anything aimed at reducing the dangers the
U.S. Army confronts as Washington carries out military operations
against our brothers and sisters around the world. 

The earlier editorial stands in contrast to the working-class
internationalism that is and remains the hallmark of the Militant since
our first issue more than 75 years ago. It was a political adaptation to
what communists have called social patriotism. It echoed one of the
rationalizations used by ?our own? capitalist class to mislead working
people into backing U.S. government war policies. 

>From our origins, the Militant has responded to U.S. wars and military
interventions?from World War II to Korea, from Vietnam to the Gulf wars
of 1991 and today?by opposing any appeal by the employers for ?national
unity? and ?equality of sacrifice.? We?ve urged labor and the oppressed
to reject calls to subordinate or let up struggles for better wages and
conditions, for Black rights, for women?s equality, and for other
demands. 

Above all, we have explained that working people must organize a
revolutionary movement to take power out of the hands of the war makers
and establish a workers and farmers government?the only way to put an
end to imperialist war and brutality once and for all. 

War profiteering, whether by Point Blank or Boeing, is endemic to
capitalist war. As the bosses whip up patriotic sentiment to rationalize
using young workers and farmers as cannon fodder, they also squeeze
every penny they can from war production?from their own government,
other governments, and often from both sides. 

The response by class-conscious workers is to demand immediate,
unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and other imperialist troops from
Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Korea, Haiti, Colombia, Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, and anywhere else they are deployed. That is in the interests of
working people?both at home and abroad.  


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