[OPE-L:8546] Re: Main Contradictions behind War on Iraq

["gerald_a_levy" <gerald_a_levy@xxxxxxx>]

Hans, Howard, and others:

I think we have to make more explicit the character of the
current struggle not only in terms of inter-imperialist
rivalry and the economic crisis in the US and internationally
but also in terms of class struggle.  Some brief -- and
provocative? -- notes in that regard:

1)  The context in which this drive to war is taking place
has to be understood  with reference to the "War on
Terrorism"  which as John M noted in [8539] has become,
amongs other things,   a vehicle for the repression of the Left
and of workers'  movements internationally.  Indeed,  part of
the "War on  Terrorism" has been a  real war on selected
insurgency movements in the Philippines, Colombia, and
elsewhere (was this what Howard had in mind re "national and
popular struggles in the Third World" in [8527]?).

2)  Yet,  this same drive to war has already given rise to a
mass movement against the war.  This, for our purposes, is
more important than the opposition of certain bourgeois
governments to war with Iraq at this time.  Indeed, *IS IT
TOO SOON TO CLAIM THAT WE ARE SEEING THE
BEGINNINGS OF ANOTHER WORLD-WIDE
RADICALIZATION?*   This radicalization  has both a
potentially revolutionary character and, in some parts of
the world where it is more closely linked to Islamic
fundamentalism, a potentially regressive character.  Yet,
if we compare the numbers of people worldwide who
have been mobilized by the anti-war movement to the
numbers of people who were mobilized after Seattle as
part of the anti-globalization movement,  I think it is fair
to say that the current movement has become a  truly
*MASS*  movement.  Perhaps more than anything else,
the creation of this mass movement may prove to be
the "main"  contradiction behind the war on Iraq.

Solidarity, Jerry