The number one task for class-conscious workers is to organize fellow unionists, students and other youth, working farmers, GIs, and everyone who detests the U.S. empire's march toward war against the Iraqi people to join protest actions and speak-outs throughout the United States and around the world.

The truth about Washington's imperialist designs on the Middle East must also be told - clearly and widely. We urge all our readers to join in selling the Militant, its sister Spanish- language publication Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books (see ad below) - on the job, at plant gates, union picket lines, on campuses, in the Black communities and other working- class neighborhoods, at military bases, and events where working people congregate.

Election campaigns by socialist workers and weekly Militant Labor Forums can also become tribunes for exposing the lies of the U.S. propaganda machine.

The only power on earth that has ever used the deadliest weapons of mass destruction - nuclear bombs - has no moral or other right to demand that the Iraqi government dismantle any of its weaponry, which pales compared to the arsenal of the U.S. rulers. In fact, with classic imperial arrogance, Kenneth Bacon of the Pentagon is telling reporters that his government will not rule out using nuclear weapons on the Iraqi people. Washington's goal is to topple Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and put in power a client regime subservient to the interests of the 60 families that rule the United States. The U.S. rulers are unleashing an imperialist war drive. It's a war drive for oil - to guarantee that the profits derived from the organization and control of petroleum remain in the hands of Big Oil, of the monopolies and the imperialist governments that defend their interests. It's a war drive waged by U.S. finance capital over economic domination and control in a region where the relationship of forces shifted against U.S. imperialism with the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979. It's also a war drive waged against many of Washington's imperialist allies, like Tokyo and Paris, that have their own trade interests in Iraq.

The White House has laid out this course since November. As the Militant has explained, the Clinton administration was set back last fall because some of its imperialist rivals and other governments whose interests diverge from Washington's, especially Paris and Moscow, refused to go along with Clinton's plan for a military assault. The Clinton administration is now shaken by another sex scandal that stems from it weakening last fall. Whatever the facts about Clinton's lechery and all-around offensive behavior, he is certainly not unique among U.S. presidents - including hallowed liberal icons like Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy - or many congressmen. His greater vulnerability to scandals today is a reflection of the instability of the world imperialist order and the growing lack of confidence in this system and its leading personnel.

The scandal notwithstanding, capitalist politicians of all stripes have closed ranks behind their "commander in chief." From ultrarightists like Patrick Buchanan to conservatives like Senate majority leader Trent Lott and liberals like George Stephanopoulos there is near unanimity for unilateral military action by Clinton's White House. The chorus calls for using "American" power by "Americans" and for "America." And the ultraright, especially, intends above all to use the war abroad to teach a lesson to militant workers at home who dare become unruly.

This course stems from the historic weakness of U.S. imperialism. After slaughtering 150,000 Iraqi people in 1991, they were unable to overthrow the Iraqi regime or to force the Palestinian people to give up their just struggle for self- determination. These failures have sharpened conflicts with other imperialist powers - vying with Wall Street for markets, raw materials, and cheap labor - and have even led bourgeois Arab regimes that have allied with the U.S. government to take their distance. In its weakness, though, the U.S. imperialist colossus becomes more, not less, dangerous.

Working people cannot stop the war, short of revolution or a major upsurge in the Mideast. It is imperative, however, that class-conscious workers organize protests in the streets to oppose the imperialist war preparations no matter what the turnout may be at the moment. Many will remember in the future the small numbers who stood up week after week demanding that all UN inspectors get out of Iraq, that the embargo be lifted, and that Washington, London, and other imperialist powers keep their hands off Iraq. Many will remember those who rejected calls by liberal reformers and petty-bourgeois radicals for "neutral inspectors" or for charity for the "poor Iraqis." These arguments walk workers right into the nationalist trap of the rulers by joining their demonization of Saddam Hussein to defend democratic and "cultured" imperialism. In doing so, socialist workers will find receptive ears among fellow fighters in explaining that the same class waging war against working people at home - cutting wages, slashing social services, and worsening working conditions - is the class starving the Iraqi people through sanctions and preparing to try to bomb them into submission. Many workers, farmers, and students will be convinced in the process that in order to stop the warmakers once and for all the toilers must fight to take state power out of the hands of the exploiting classes.

Their wars will speed the day.  
 
 
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