FT. MADISON, Iowa - Capitalism's parade of wars and famines seems to march daily across our TV screens and newspapers. Disgusted and overwhelmed by these never-ending catastrophes many wonder if it wouldn't be better to "turn our backs" on the rest of the world and just worry about our "own problems" instead.
I agree that Washington should stop sticking its nose and its bayonets into the lives of the rest of humanity. I'll even go a step further and insist that this government quit messing us over here at home, too.
But it would be a big mistake for wage workers and family farmers to be ignorant of or indifferent to what's going on around the globe. An even bigger error would be to put "America first," as the nationalistic politicians favor. When they say "let's take care of our own" they mean their profit-grabbing machinery, first and last.
The truth is "Americans" aren't in this together. The capitalists want more capital and the working people want to do something besides just getting it for them. Workers want to be productive and use the wealth we create to educate ourselves, our children, and live free and healthy lives. "Workers of the world, unite" is a good slogan to live by to achieve that aim. If we don't unite, the capitalists, in their drive to acquire more capital, will send workers in their armies to kill one another. Again.
The working class must be keenly interested in international affairs. We need to make our own foreign policy, and come up with our own position on immigration and on war.
On the issue of war, nuclear war to be specific, all signs indicate that this terrible threat is growing. Led by the U.S. representative, the United Nations recently approved the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This fraud merely gives its blessing to the five governments (the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and China) that openly admit to having most of the bombs and have no plans to reduce their stockpiles. Meanwhile, Israel, India, Pakistan, and others also possess atomic bombs or are close to building them. Instead of a reduction or even "status quo" what we really have is proliferation and instability.
We are not on the verge of nuclear war, but combine these trends with trade wars like the one the U.S. government is heating up with Japan, for example, and then stir in the expanding shooting war in the ex-Yugoslavia, and armed conflicts flaming up in India, in the Middle East, and the old Soviet Union. All are in regions that have been made unstable because of capitalism and where various ruling classes posses nuclear weapons. It doesn't stretch the imagination to conclude that if a radical fascist-minded politician like Patrick Buchanan in the United States or Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Russia came to power (and they are contending for power) limited nuclear warfare would not be unthinkable.
In promoting a working-class policy on immigration, we can look to an important fighter who recently died in March at the age of 99, Pedro González. González took part in the Mexican revolution, a great rebellion of peasants against their servitude to the landlords, and foreign capital. He later immigrated to the United Sates and continued fighting for the rights of migrant workers and against racism.
González, a longshoreman, put the interests of workers ahead of any "nationalist" definition of toilers as "illegal immigrants," or other such nonsense. Through his talents as a singer and radio talk show host in Los Angeles, González fought against the deportations that scapegoated Mexicans for unemployment in the 1930s. For this he was targeted by the Los Angeles district attorney, who put together a frame- up case of rape that sent González to prison for six years.
The successful campaign to free him and his own organizing work in prison also provide important lessons in class solidarity and internationalism. The movie Break of Dawn dramatizes González's life and is a good educational tool for those who want to counteract Proposition 187 and other anti-immigrant laws.
Lastly, I would like to thank the many Militant readers whose letters and telegrams forced the prison authorities to release to me the pamphlet, Why is Mark Curtis Still in Prison? In holding it back I think they were testing the bonds of solidarity between us. Looks like those bonds are still pretty strong!