Revolutionaries Around the World Denounce U.S. War

Revolutionary Worker #1132, December 23, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org

The following are excerpts from some statements by a number of different parties and organizations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) and other revolutionary forces internationally.

The wounded U.S. beast identifies itself--in an awful, chauvinistic, xenophobic and racist way--as the cradle of civilisation and democracy. The U.S. proclaims its symbols and cities to be untouchable, almost sacred. In order to assert their rule once again, they are cynically using the grief and anger of the American people for their victims in order to unleash, through the bombing of Afghanistan and their global war against so-called "terrorism", a war and a crusade against all the oppressed peoples, all those who are fighting for liberation, and all the nations not aligned with them. By means of their weaponry and violence they aim to impose their iron rule in the service of profit and the masters of finance and industry, the oil barons and warlords. All the imperialist states, whether guided by rightist or "leftist" governments, have joined this imperialist, war-mongering, fascist crusade....

The authors of the 11^th September attacks, be they Osama bin Laden or someone else, are an expression of feudal lords, created, nurtured, financed and armed with anti-communist and anti-progressive tasks by the same imperialists they claim to fight. In the absence or weakness of genuine communist parties and anti-imperialist united fronts led by the proletariat, they are riding the tiger of the rebellion of the people, particularly in the Arab-Muslim countries. They represent fractions of comprador ruling classes who already live by exploiting their own people and underselling their resources, and, where they are in power, they set up obscurantist and reactionary regimes like in Afghanistan, Iran and generally in the Arab-Muslim countries. Where these forces are in power, the masses are oppressed and economic power is in the hands of the imperialists. The form of struggle they use, including in this case, even though it may produce devastation, will never help to strengthen the liberation war of the people or the unity between the oppressed peoples and the proletarians and the exploited, that is, the only winning global weapon against imperialism.

All the Western imperialist countries, as well as Japan, Russia and China, have declared their receptivity to this war, but behind this unanimous face there is fierce competition for economic, geo-strategic, commercial and financial interests, there is competition for control of raw materials, oil, etc. These interests, in the medium and long term, will not be sacrificed to the U.S. The imperialists are united in the same crusade against the peoples of the world, but deeply divided amongst themselves, and this strategically undermines their "fire power." Furthermore, the internal costs and consequences of this global war could and will become more and more explosive for the imperialist countries.

The Holy War of Mr. Bush is global imperialist aggression that, while seemingly targeted on "Islamic terrorism" and "rogue states," is really against people's wars, anti-imperialist armed struggles, the uprising of the Arab-Palestine-Muslim people who still lack the red, proletarian leadership that would lead them to victory, and against any government not aligned with imperialist rule. They are launching global war to suffocate the aspirations of the oppressed peoples and countries.

Within the Western imperialist countries, the Holy War is bringing about a war state, a police state, modern institutional fascism and nazism based on racial defence of the values and way of life built up on the hunger of most of humanity. They need a police state to make war against the anti-globalisation mass movements in which--from Seattle to Genoa--a new generation is entering the field of struggle, challenging the interests of the masters of the world, of the warlords and their values and way of life, the "civilisation" worshipped by Bush and Berlusconi. They need a war state to make war against the proletarians and oppressed masses in the metropolitan heartlands, the Afro-Americans, Hispanic, Turkish, Arab, Asian and African immigrants who, through riots and resistance--from the USA to the United Kingdom, France, etc.--are resisting exploitation, discrimination, racism and slavery....

To the imperialist global war we must reply by advancing global people's war, applied in different and distinct ways according to the kind of country--imperialist or oppressed--until the victory of the proletarians and the people, and the achievement of a world without imperialism and war: Communism.

U.S. imperialism, the number one enemy of people across the world and main source of world terrorism, has turned to war after the unprecedented attacks on the World Trade Center, the symbol of imperialist financial might and on the Pentagon, the center for military brutality the world over. We emphasize the fact that it is ridiculous and unbecoming of American butchers to shed tears for the dead ones. It is U.S. imperialism which always trampled underfoot aspirations of democracy, equality and freedom for so many decades, and is now masquerading as saviour against terrorism. It has the ghastly record of dropping atom bombs on Japan, butchering thousands and thousands of freedom-loving Vietnamese, resorting to large-scale napalm bombing in Vietnam, unleashing frequent missile attacks on Iraq, killing lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of people in various parts of the world and so on....

We strongly condemn the warmonger U.S. trying to drag the World towards a massive war. We appeal to all peace-loving democratic people to oppose U.S. war efforts in every possible way. We condemn the servile role of the reactionary governments of this region, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who dance to the tune of U.S. imperialism in the name of countering terrorism.

Let us redouble our initiatives and effort to resist imperialism by rallying the people worldwide and specially those of South Asia. Let us build up a strong and mighty anti-imperialist movement in these regions and spread it throughout the world.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2000 threw up a huge cloud of dust--dust that we need to wipe from our own eyes in order to understand what really happened here, and to understand and prevent what the powers here in Germany and in the U.S. are now planning....

Without wasting time, the rulers of the USA threw their war machine into motion. And now it is being said, "Whoever is not with America, is against us." As for their imperialist NATO allies of the western countries, the rulers of USA are quite clear that their allies have to bow down in order to keep getting a piece of the pie. Whoever wants to join in the feasting must first join in the killing.

Under the banner of "fighting terrorism," the U.S. is planning a new campaign of conquest, in order to impose their strategic interests in Central and South Asia, the Gulf and the Middle East, and in order to create at gun point a "new world order" that serves them. There are 50 or 60 countries on the list that is being threatened with attack by the U.S. The "Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" are being used as theme music for Might-Makes-Right. The flag-waving is used to create an atmosphere where anyone who steps out against these war plans can be portrayed as a traitor and a criminal.

The rulers here in Germany are also seizing the moment to expand their new "Fourth Reich." They want to strengthen their preeminent position within Europe. It is now supposed to be acceptable, once again, that German soldiers can be deployed anywhere in the world. One politician after another have been standing up and swearing their "unconditional solidarity with America"--which, in plain language, means that German imperialism wants to get in the action, to serve their own interests. What is needed is not "unconditional solidarity" with the U.S. imperialists--but the unity of people throughout this world who stand against the imperialists' criminal system of exploitation and against the new crimes that they are preparing....

And, in addition to all this, the situation is being used, to unleash an all-sided attack on the rights of the people here in Germany itself. A huge campaign has been unleashed under the banner of "internal security" restricting any rights people have to freedom of thought and speech, and to expand surveillance methods of the police. Any doubts about these measures are supposed to be silenced by the argument that they are necessary for the "fight against terrorism" and that we therefore have to accept them. A racist hysteria is taking place against Arab and Muslim people in order to justify further restrictions on the right of asylum in Germany and on the rights of immigrants generally. Privacy rights have been more or less suspended. Things that would seen as intolerable and anti-democratic measures in "normal times," are now being pushed through in the name of "protection against terrorism."...

This U.S.-led crusade, with its cynical name of "Limitless Justice," will mean more suffering and misery for many millions of people in the oppressed countries and also in the wealthier industrialized countries. There has never been a war by the exploiters that served the interests of the majority of humanity on the planet. No matter what they tell us, no matter how they try to hem us in and threaten us, we need to mobilize all our resistance in order to prevent further crimes against the people of the world, and to use this struggle to fight for a world where there will truly be "limitless justice."

The war that the U.S. and its allies are carrying out against the Afghan people and its government, the Osama bin Laden network, "terrorism" and eventually against all those who stand in their way, is not a battle of good against evil, nor is it a struggle against obscurantism: it is a war waged by a handful of rich countries against the poor people of the world, people who suffer on a daily basis because of imperialism, a suffering that pushes them to desperation. This war can also be called one led by a superpower--the U.S.--that is seeking to spread and consolidate its power throughout the world. People of the world have nothing to gain in supporting this bombing of Afghanistan. We must on the contrary put a stop to this war and support the just struggles of oppressed people and nations. We must struggle as much as we can so that these imperialist forces be defeated! U.S., Britain, Canada: Out of Afghanistan! Victory to the people of Palestine--Down with the Zionist occupation! The blockade against Iraq must be lifted now!

The U.S. as well as the other imperialist countries involved in the current military crusade against Afghanistan (including Canada) are using those events to step up measures of repression against their own proletariat and masses. The September 11 attacks have been used to justify huge layoffs in many sectors of the economy, such as air transport, tourism and the hotel business. Soon, military spending and money needed for security will be invoked. This is how new cuts in social programs will be justified. On a general manner, the upper class will seize the occasion to step up its control on the population, giving more power to the police, having recourse to more security and surveillance devices, preventing people from moving about as freely--namely at the borders--and by reinforcing censorship (arguing that some levels of discourse play into the hands of our enemies).

Immigrants--especially from Arab nations--as well as refugees are the first ones that have fallen victims to the war hysteria entertained by the media: racist slurs and systematic harassment have already been witnessed as this can bring to eventually refuse them the right to house and grant them citizenship. We must say no to the bourgeoisie's crisis measures! Let's fight for absolute equality for all immigrants and refugees! No support whatsoever to the Canadian army, to the police and the government that have always acted against the working class!...

In recent times, the U.S. officialdom and mass media have dished up as acts of humanitarianism and as audio-visual entertainment the mass destruction of human lives in Iraq and Yugoslavia through the use of U.S. high-tech air power and cruise missiles on the civilian population and their social infrastructure.

The U.S. and Israel have practically converted Palestine into a slaughterhouse for the Palestinian people. With overweening arrogance, U.S. President Bush has encouraged the Sharon regime to destroy Palestinian lives and property at will.

The U.S. has a long record of terrorism. It is responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands or nearly 10 percent of the Filipino people in the course of the Filipino-American war. It is also responsible for the massacre of more than a hundred thousand Japanese civilians in a matter of seconds in the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is further responsible for the massacre of millions of civilians in Korea, Indonesia, Indochina and elsewhere in the course of the Cold War....

As a consequence of the attack on the WTC towers and the Pentagon, the U.S. as a whole (the Bush regime with bipartisan support) is trying to push its own colossal kind of terrorism under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Bush has received from the U.S. Congress war-making powers similar to those given to Lyndon B. Johnson after the U.S.-fabricated Tonkin Gulf incident and has received an initial funding of 40 billion USD.

The U.S. has already identified the band of Osama bin Laden as the main suspect in the 11 September incident. And yet, U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell has declared that the U.S. will make a "global assault" on "terrorism in general" throughout the world. U.S. vice president Cheney and other high officials have called for the most unbridled kind of dirty tricks, such as the unlimited hiring of human rights violator and other unsavory characters and the lifting of the ban on assassination of leaders opposed to U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. is now using the incident as a pretext for expanding extraterritorial powers for the benefit of its military forces abroad and for launching all sorts of terrorism against the peoples that wage revolution, nations that fight for liberation and states that assert their independence. We can therefore expect more U.S. acts of aggression, intervention and other acts of terrorism from the U.S. and from its most servile allies and puppets.

In abject servility to the U.S., the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in the Philippines has volunteered the use of the Philippines again as a base for U.S. aggression and intervention as in the past in connection with the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and other armed conflicts. The Filipino people must resist such scheme of the U.S. and the puppet regime.

The people of the world, including progressive American forces, should forewarn the American people not to be carried away by jingoism, war hysteria and the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim drumbeat. The U.S. imperialists should not be allowed to run berserk with their own brand of terrorism and to obscure their responsibility for the worsening socioeconomic crisis, the reemergence of fascism and the growing danger of war....

Only the revolutionary mass movement can defeat U.S. imperialism and the local reactionaries and sweep away terrorism from any direction. As the crisis of the world capitalist system worsens and deepens, the revolutionary mass movement of the proletariat and the people in general is rising and carrying forward the anti-imperialist and socialist cause.

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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