Against the Slanders
Revolution #28, December 26, 2005, posted at revcom.us
David Horowitz and Bill O'Reilly made a number of wild, unfounded, and slanderous accusations against the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA on O'Reilly's show last Monday night.
Others have noted the cold irony in O'Reilly (who called on the media to refuse to even run paid ads for the Call for January demonstrations demanding that Bush step down) and David Horowitz (who has waged a systematic, well-financed and intimidating campaign to demand that radical or liberal professors be fired for their political views) accusing others of attempting to suppress speech. Suffice it to say that Horowitz accusations have as much as credibility as O'Reilly's defense of the "legality" of the Bush administrations invasion of Iraq.
There is no irony at all, however, in their inventions and distortions of RCP actions and beliefs. There is, instead, an ugly and quite calculated attempt to not only break up the unity of the World can't Wait initiative but also to set up the Party for persecution and outlawing. And that too, as others have also noted, is another example of why it is correct to point to the fascist direction of things, and the urgency to unite and change that direction by driving out the Bush Regime.
To be clear: the RCP thinks there is an urgent need right now, in countries like the U.S. and globally, to build massive political resistance and opposition to what the system of U.S. imperialism is doing--to the many crimes these imperialists have committed and are continuing to commit, and to the widespread and incomparable terror that they inflict on people in the course of that. This has many dimensions, chief among which for us right now is the immediate and pressing need to join together with others to bring forward millions to drive out the Bush Regime, which is the chief representative of U.S. imperialism and is on a course of qualitatively heightening those crimes. In particular we endorse and are working for the call to mount massive political demonstrations around the State of the Union demanding that Bush step down--the call that has so incensed O'Reilly, Horowitz, Buckley, and others. In doing this, we are joining together with many others, from all sorts of different ideologies and viewpoints, uniting around this Call and its basic demand.
As to the charge that the Revolutionary Communist Party "opposes the 'war on terror,'" there is no "war on terror." There is a war for empire, as the lies used to justify the illegal, immoral, and utterly unjust invasion of Iraq reveal. And that is something that millions of people should and do oppose.
The revolution that we stand for--a genuinely emancipating communist revolution--is a struggle that involves millions and millions of people, who are determined to bring about a radical change in society and the world. This communist revolution aims to overturn the grotesque and horrific systems and relations in the world that cause such untold and unnecessary suffering for literally billions throughout the globe. The nature and aim of this revolution is nothing less than the conscious and determined struggle of millions and ultimately billions, throughout the globe, to bring into being a world without exploitation, oppression, and social inequalities. It is a serious thing and it must be approached in a serious way--soberly, with science, commitment, and maturity.