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    Vol.62/No.16           April 27, 1998 
 
 
U.S. Troops Out Of Korea  
Below we reprint a message sent to the Workers Party of Korea by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, on the occasion of the April 15 national holiday of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

On behalf of the Socialist Workers Party I send revolutionary greetings on this occasion of the national holiday of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Our party reaffirms its support for the struggle of the Korean people for national reunification and for the removal of all foreign troops from the Korean peninsula.

We join you in condemning the recent steps by Washington to reinforce the command structure of its 37,000-strong force in the south of Korea, to conduct military exercises there, and to further arm the regime in Seoul. We solidarize with your demand for an end to the criminal economic embargo against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and with your call for needed supplies of food and fertilizer.

Showing the U.S. rulers' imperial disregard for the lives of hundreds of millions, Washington's central banker, Alan Greenspan, recently made the arrogant pronouncement that the financial crisis convulsing Asia is an "important milestone" in the "seemingly inexorable trend toward market capitalism." The unfolding economic catastrophe is indeed a "milestone" - in the inexorable trend of world capitalism toward social devastation, fascism, and war. It reveals the face of imperialism's inevitable future for the peoples not only of the south of Korea and the rest of Asia, but the world over.

Washington's unrelenting aggressive moves on the Korean peninsula are of a piece with its steps to tighten the encirclement of Russia - from the imperialist occupation in Yugoslavia, to the eastward expansion of NATO, to the U.S. efforts to strengthen its military presence and sphere of influence from the Arab-Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea and all along the Silk Road. The U.S. rulers' ultimate aim is to reimpose the dominance of capitalism everywhere the toilers have overturned it.

But America's ruling families face a tremendous obstacle along this road - the resistance of the exploited and oppressed the world over, from Korea, to the workers and farmers of Cuba, to working people in the imperialist countries who will not accept the horrors the capitalist system in its decline has in store for our class and the world. Trade unionists in the midwestern United States battling the Case Corporation for dignity and better working conditions, a new generation of Puerto Rican youth revitalizing the struggle for independence, workers and students saying "no" to the austerity dictates of the imperialist banks and national bourgeoisie in Indonesia - these are but a few examples. Among such fighters the Korean people will find some of their best allies.

The Socialist Workers Party welcomes the opportunity to fight shoulder to shoulder with you against the enemy of humanity, Yankee imperialism, in the battles of today and tomorrow.

s/Jack Barnes

National Secretary

Socialist Workers Party  
 
 
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