We urge working people and youth to join the peace marches of March 15 and March 22 planned for many cities, and campaign on college campuses and high schools, street corners, door-to-door in working-class communities, on the job, and at factory gates with the above demands. The struggle is not just against Washington and London assaulting Iraq but against the entire imperialist system and its wars.

The war is already on. Washington is rapidly winning public opinion at home for unleashing its military might on Iraq, no matter how any votes at the UN Security Council turn out. It is also making propaganda gains in winning acceptance for targeting the other two components of its "axis of evil"--Iran and north Korea.

This is not just a war for oil. It is about which among the competing imperialist powers will control the mineral and strategic Mideast platform that Iraq sits on. It is part of a wider conflict over the redivision of the former colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East among the "civilized hyenas"--as Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin aptly called the imperialist powers. This inter-imperialist conflict, with Washington-London on one side and Paris-Berlin on the other as the main unstable poles, is at the center of the ongoing UN-sanctioned assault on Iraqi sovereignty and the imminent U.S.-led invasion. This war is the first of a number of imperialist wars in coming years, as the capitalist system worldwide sinks deeper into a prolonged depression.

Far from being "Bush’s war," as the current situation is described by many critics of the current U.S. administration, this course has the full support of the entire U.S. ruling class. If U.S. forces succeed in taking over Iraq, Washington will have massive ground forces in place along the Afghanistan-Iran and Iraq-Iran borders. It will exercise domination of the Arab-Persian Gulf region and be in a much stronger position to threaten the ruling monarchy of Saudi Arabia to not take any steps that contradict U.S. interests in the Middle East. Such an outcome would mean a significant economic and military shift in the relationship of forces in the world in favor of Washington.

That’s why the U.S. government is after "regime change" and an American protectorate in Iraq. Paris, on the other hand--the most aggressive of Washington’s rivals--is pushing for regime continuity and no American protectorate in that country.

At the end of the imperialist slaughter of the Iraqi people in 1991, U.S. forces were the unambiguous military victor. Washington stopped short of marching on Baghdad, however, in the face of opposition from its allies, especially those in France and Germany. That clash threatened to blow up the imperialist coalition. Over the next decade, the French rulers built a massive profitable relationship with Iraq in industrial products, and oil exploration and extraction, while Washington got zero such contracts. Paris wants to build on this success, while Washington is seeking to reverse it to its advantage.

This is the real conflict. This is what the debate in the UN Security Council is all about.

That’s why it’s important to do away with the myth that the governments of France and Germany are the "peace party." As the Militant explains this week, these predatory powers have had as big a hand as Washington in devastating Iraq for the last 12 years through their support for draconian sanctions and other measures codified in UN resolutions.

On the same basis, backing demands to "let the inspections work" and for disarmament--promoted by many Stalinists, social-democrats, and bourgeois-liberals as part of their antiwar posture--lends support to the ongoing violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. It provides further justification for the use of the United Nations as the tool of imperialism it has been since its inception.

The U.S. rulers and their allies are serious about pursuing the "axis of evil." Iran and north Korea are now clearly in their sights. As part of opposing this disastrous course, working people need to reject all the rationalizations presented by the rulers, including their calls for so-called nuclear nonproliferation. We need to defend the right of oppressed nations to defend themselves by any means necessary. We should emulate the stance of the revolutionary leader Malcolm X. Malcolm took pride when the Chinese people developed the atomic bomb in 1964. "I had to marvel at that," he said. "It made me realize that poor people can do it as well as rich people."

On the front lines of resistance to imperialism are strikes and other working-class actions showing refusal by trade unionists and others to subordinate their class interests to support for "our country" and "our troops." Many class-conscious workers join these struggles to show their solidarity. As they do so, they will find fertile ground for explaining that the best approach towards the U.S. soldiers and other troops in imperialist armies deployed in the Middle East--most of whom are workers and farmers in uniform used as cannon fodder by the enemy class--is demanding to bring them home now.

At most antiwar rallies around the world today pacifist demands predominate. At the same time, these actions are against the strongest imperialist power on earth assaulting Iraq. They are also wide open to banners, signs, and participants who start with Iraq’s sovereignty, and demand not only "Bring the troops home now" but the withdrawal of all imperialist forces claiming extraterritorial rights in the Mideast.

Most young people taking part in these protests have not yet learned the facts hidden behind the demagogy of the competing imperialist rulers, and often have many illusions in the UN or the possibility of taming or reforming imperialism. The spirits of many of these protesters, however, will not be broken when the massive bombing of Iraq begins or the imperialist war extends to other fronts. The communist movement will have an even better chance of getting a hearing among thousands of these youth. A hearing on the necessity of building proletarian parties capable of leading the toilers to take the power out of the hands of the imperialist war makers--American, French, or any variety--establish a government of workers and farmers, overthrow capitalism, and join the worldwide struggle for socialism.
 
 
Related articles:
Iraq: British, U.S. forces move toward invasion
Washington targets Iran as ‘nuclear threat’
North Korea: U.S. mounts military provocations  
 
 
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