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The
U.S. war and occupation of Iraq is the central issue in world politics
today. The war exposes in bold relief the fundamental contradictions in
U.S. and world capitalism. It is, simultaneously, an imperialist war of
conquest and a geopolitical war for U.S. hegemony in the region against
its imperialist competitors.
Furthermore,
it is a war for control of Iraqi and Middle Eastern oil—the single
resource whose continued use as the world's primary energy source carries
with it the message that U.S. capitalism acts with absolute disdain for
the ecological future of the earth and human life itself. And it is a
war that exposes the deepening economic crisis of the world capitalist
order, with its disastrous consequences for the vast numbers of
workers, peasants, and the poor everywhere.
Stopping
this war by forcing the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and
military bases from Iraq is an objective that requires the mobilization
of mass forces in the U.S. and worldwide. It requires a level of unity
and consciousness among these forces that has been largely absent as we
approach the war's fifth anniversary. It requires an all-out effort to
unite and engage the U.S. working class, its allies among all the
oppressed and exploited, the youth, and every progressive social
movement in a major confrontation with the American imperialist ruling
class and its twin Republican and Democratic parties.
The
stakes for U.S. capitalism in stabilizing Iraq and extracting its
resources are high. The U.S. is more dependent on oil than any other
nation and, facing unprecedented worldwide competition with respect to
virtually every product produced for the global marketplace, will not
be easily dislodged. It will never be dislodged through the replacement
of a Republican administration with one headed by the equally
responsible and inherently war-making Democrats.
The
crisis-ridden ruling class today has no choice but to deepen and extend
its wars of intervention abroad while eliminating more and more of the
hard-won past gains of working people at home. This is the central
explanation for the assaults of every kind on working people over the
past 30-40 years.
Thus,
a victory in forcing the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from
Iraq would pave the way to building a fightback against the unceasing
encroachments of capital against the labor movement and against wages,
pensions, and health care.
Similarly,
a victory in the fight to stop the war in Iraq would inspire and
energize the fight to democratize and rebuild the trade unions; to
reverse the unprecedented attacks on the environment; and to protect
and extend immigrant rights and democratic rights for all.
Without
the direct involvement of mass-organized and consciously led social
forces, nothing is possible.
With a working class in motion fighting for its rights and for
all other victims of the wars at home and abroad, a new world is within
reach.
The
stakes are higher than ever and the task is monumental to build a
united movement to win, engage the American people in the fight for
their future, and free the Iraqi people from the clutches of the
U.S.-perpetrated horror.
Few
have any illusions that such a fight will be easy, or that there is a
single simple solution to successfully challenging the world's foremost
military power. But the battle must begin at home with the forces
presently at hand, as dispersed, disunited, and politically disoriented
as they are.
It
is in this context that we must judge the capacities of every political
tendency on the left and every social force that stands in opposition
to the war. Those who can find a way to building a united movement, a
movement that is open to and inclusive of all those who are victims of
capitalism's mounting attacks, those who increasingly suffer racist
abuse and social exclusion—as is the case with 12 million
immigrants—and to engaging this movement in powerful mobilizations
against the war, will emerge as the present and future leaders of even
more powerful struggles that challenge capitalist rule itself in the
years to come.
Mass
action in the streets, independent of the warmakers’ parties, is far
from an end in itself. It is, however, a decisive first step in
empowering the majority; of visibly convincing this still hesitant and
questioning majority that they do have the power to change their lives
and indeed the course of world events.
Independent
and united mass mobilizations expose the government's war parties for
the minority that they are. They lay the basis for future struggles in
every arena, from fighting the boss at the point of production to
standing in solidarity with all who are oppressed and exploited. Mass
action can bring working people onto the stage of history, increase
their
confidence
and unity, and clarify in their consciousness that real power lies in
their hands.
What
does a united American antiwar movement to “Bring the Troops Home Now”
look like today? Is it possible to bring activists and leaders
representing the diverse forces in U.S. society that oppose the Iraq
War and U.S. occupation into the same hall to plan and prepare for
unprecedented united mass mobilizations against the war? Can such a
united movement bridge the gap between the 70 percent who oppose the
war and the still limited numbers that have come into the streets to
demand “Out Now”?
Can
an inclusive, democratic, politically independent, and
united-front-type antiwar movement be constructed today? What are the
most effective forms of struggle for this movement at the present
juncture?
These
are among the central questions that will be discussed and debated at
the first "Open U.S. National Antiwar Conference," sponsored
by the newly formed National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation.
The conference is set for June 28-29, 2008, at the Crown Plaza Hotel in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Initial
list of conference endorsers
The
initial conference endorser's list of over 350 organizations and
prominent individuals indicates that this important and bold initiative
is off to a running start. The breadth and geographic spread of
conference supporters ranges from the Cleveland area AFL-CIO central
labor council and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, to local
and regional antiwar groups and coalitions across the country, to the
National Lawyers Guild, U.S. Labor Against the War, and Veterans for
Peace. It includes prominent antiwar fighters and social activists such
as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Cuban Five attorney Leonard Weinglass, Howard Zinn,
Cindy Sheehan, and Lynne Stewart.
Political
currents that have endorsed the conference include several local and
state-wide Green Party groups (and Green Party activist and former
Congressperson Cynthia McKinney), the national Progressive Democrats of
America—as well as Progressive Action, which is a coalition of the
Duluth Central Labor Body, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, and the
Duluth Area Green Party.
A
number of socialist organizations have also endorsed—including
Socialist Action, Socialist Organizer, the International Socialist
Organization, Freedom Socialist Party, Socialist Alternative, Socialist
Viewpoint, the Workers International League, and several Socialist
Party affiliates.
Important
endorsers also include the 45,000-member United Teachers of Los
Angeles, the San Mateo, Calif., and Troy, N.Y., central labor councils
and a host of antiwar, immigrant rights, civil and human rights groups,
Middle East solidarity committees, faith-based organizations and
leading social activists across the country.
The
leadership of the present, often competing, national antiwar
coalitions—United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), ANSWER (Act Now to Stop
War and End Racism), Troops Out Now Coalition, World Can't Wait, and
others—have been extended formal invitations to endorse and
participate. Conference organizers are hopeful that they will accept
and play leading roles. There is not a single sound reason why they
should not.
The
time has come for the endless turf wars and subordinate political
issues and manufactured differences that stand in the way of a united
movement to end.
Such
unity in action, of course, would not imply or require the dissolution
of the present coalitions and their unification in a common
organization. Indeed, these coalitions have every right to function
independently to advance their separate agendas. This has never been in
question.
The
National Assembly conference call is clear on this critical issue. It
concludes with the statement, "Everyone is welcome. The objective
is to place on the agenda of the entire U.S. antiwar movement a
proposal for the largest possible united mass mobilization(s) in the
future to stop the war and end the occupation."
The
above-named coalitions, to varying degrees, are based on relatively
narrow forces headed by one or two political currents. They are hardly
representative of the qualitatively larger forces that can constitute
what is sorely needed today—a united front, an action front,
representative of all the broad forces opposed to the war.
The
present divisions and their associated turf wars weigh heavily on the
antiwar movement's current malaise, including its collective default in
failing to call any mass mobilization to mark the fifth anniversary of
the war. Indeed, Cindy Sheehan's recent effort to initiate such a
united mobilization was essentially thwarted because of the present
factionalism that permeates the movement.
What
is realistic today is an agreement between these
"coalitions," and many other forces, to collectively mobilize
against the war in periodic mass demonstrations that seek to
progressively involve ever widening constituencies. The essence of the
classic united front strategy and tactic is unity in action based on
agreement on a limited number of critical demands raised against the
U.S. government.
Those
who participate and build the united front to end the war now will
distinguish themselves by their deeds. Those who criticize and remain
outside will face isolation and eventual degeneration and irrelevance.
That was the case with the successful fight against the Vietnam War and
that is the case today.
To
date, affiliates and supporters of all the present coalitions have
enthusiastically endorsed the Cleveland conference, a fact that will
hopefully influence their "parent" organizations to
follow. The conference call
explains that everyone, every group and individual, is welcome with an
equal voice. Operating on the
principle of "one person,
one vote," the conference Coordinating Committee has announced
that action proposals from all quarters will get an equal and fair
hearing. A democratic process to sort through and distinguish between
proposals with broad support, as opposed to others with little, will be
employed—with time for adequate discussion, debate, and voting to
determine the best way forward to achieve an antiwar movement united in
action.
Workshops
on broad range of issues
While
most of the two-day conference will be devoted to these open plenary
sessions, an important block of time is scheduled for 16 simultaneous
workshops or breakout groups, where the war's relationship to a broad
range of social issues will be discussed. Workshops are planned that
deal with the war's relation to the labor and environmental movement;
to soldiers, veterans, military families and military recruitment; to
youth, immigrants, civil liberties, racism, social priorities; and to
the economic crisis.
The
conference will begin with welcoming remarks from Harriet Applegate,
executive secretary of the Cleveland area AFL-CIO. Keynote speakers
will include Gold Star Families for Peace activist Cindy Sheehan (on
video); Greg Coleridge, Northeast Ohio Antiwar Coalition and program
director of the American Friends Service Committee; and Donna Dewitt,
president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO.
Keynote
speaker at the working luncheon session will be Navy Petty Officer
Jonathan Hutto, author of “Antiwar Soldier” and a co-founder of Appeal
for Redress.
The
conference is designed to address and move toward a resolution of the
crisis of leadership that currently plagues the antiwar movement. In a
real sense, it is an experiment or probe to test whether further steps
can be taken on the road to building the mass movement necessary to end
the war. The National Assembly
comes at a difficult time for antiwar fighters, a time when the false
hopes generated by the corporate media in the electoral shell game
weighs heavily against those who seek to break out of this straight
jacket. It also follows a virtually uninterrupted, decades-long series
of working-class defeats.
But
the conference also takes place in the context of a growing mass
awareness that, despite the brazen claims of spokespeople for the
two-party corporate system, the possibility of an economic recovery and
a return to "prosperity" is not in the offing today.
Likewise,
more and more people have become aware that the government lied about
the Iraq War, that it manufactured a war for oil, and that it offers no
hope for increasing millions who are its victims in Iraq and in the
U.S.
This
growing consciousness serves as a counterweight to the feelings of
disillusionment that earlier defeats might have caused. The success of
this first effort in Cleveland can in significant measure determine the
future of the antiwar movement—and more. For further information on the
National Assembly to End the Iraq War, call (216) 736-4704. Website:
natassembly.org. Send contributions to: P.O. Box 21008, Cleveland, OH
44121.
All
out for Cleveland, June 28-29!
Bring the Troops Home Now!
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