Vol. 72/No. 9      March 3, 2008

The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists send revolutionary greetings on the occasion of your February 16 national holiday. We reaffirm our solidarity with the people and government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and our unconditional opposition to the economic sanctions and military threats by Washington, Tokyo, and other imperialist powers against your national sovereignty.

Today Washington is pushing further east in its “global war on terror”—from extending an Iraq-style “surge” of increased troops to Afghanistan, to preparing for stepped-up military operations in Pakistan. The U.S. government is working to expand participation in the ballistic missile “defense” system, aimed at securing nuclear first-strike capacity for U.S. imperialism in Asia and around the world. Having already secured joint ABM operations with Tokyo, the U.S. rulers are working to win such cooperation with the government in Seoul, along with its participation in the legal piracy of north Korean ships under the guise of searching for “weapons of mass destruction.” Meanwhile, Washington maintains the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

The U.S. imperialists’ wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, their massive military presence in Europe and on the Korean peninsula, are all part of their decades-long plans, where war is to be the norm in order to secure “peace”—on Washington’s terms.

The dog-eat-dog workings of the world capitalist system drive the U.S. rulers along this belligerent and expansionist course. Today that system is being shaken by a profound financial crisis. The crisis is destroying enormous amounts of capital, but its consequences will increase the economic and social devastation for working people the world over.

The U.S. employing class, their government, and their twin parties seek to convince workers and farmers in the United States that we have some stake in their bloody wars of conquest. At the same time, just as the U.S. government continues to use economic and military warfare to try to solve its crisis by beating out its imperialist rivals for markets and resources abroad, it will continue to drive down wages and working conditions inside the United States to increase its “productivity” advantage over its foreign rivals.

The employers meet resistance to these assaults on our conditions, however. Less than one month ago, packinghouse workers at Dakota Premium Foods in South St. Paul, Minnesota, voted by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to defend their union from a company drive to decertify it. The workers in the plant—immigrant and native-born; Black, Latino, white, Native American—overcame the national and racial divisions the boss tried to exploit in an effort to weaken their ability to fight. Instead, in face of ever-accelerating line speed, rising injuries on the job, and no wage raises, the workers banded together to defend themselves. They are now headed into a fight for a new contract, having gotten a taste of what union power is. It sets an example for meat packers and other workers throughout the region.

It is among working people and youth such as these—in the United States, and all over the world—that Washington faces its biggest obstacle in pushing ahead unchecked on decades of war. As working people move into struggle, an understanding of the necessity of solidarity among the exploited and oppressed worldwide—from Europe, Latin America, and Africa, to the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and beyond—can and will take root and grow.

On this national holiday, we remain committed to fight alongside working people the world over, including on both sides of Korea’s 38th parallel, for the reunification of your country, which was brutally partitioned by the U.S. rulers in 1945. We demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops and nuclear warheads from the Korean peninsula and surrounding waters. End the sanctions! Normalize relations! Korea will be one!  
 
 
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