The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.1           January 11, 1999 
 
 
Workers Discuss The U.S. Bombing Of Iraq  
 Below we print several notes sent in by supporters of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books about discussions with their co-workers about the U.S. bombing of Iraq.

DES MOINES - Richard McBride, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149 at the IBP packinghouse in Perry, Iowa, said, "On the second day of the bombing, I asked a co- worker how to say in Spanish, `I'm against the bombing of Iraq!' I got the translation, shouted it out on the line, and everyone got quiet. At first, most of my co-workers thought the U.S. was right to go after the `weapons of mass destruction.'"

McBride said he then pointed to the long history of U.S. domination of Mexico.

"Eight of the 10 workers who got into the discussion are from Mexico," he said. "After a while, I won agreement from all of them that the United States is not trying to bring democracy to Iraq, but trying to advance its own interests."

Joe Swanson, a member of United Auto Workers Local 1672 at Emco Specialties in Des Moines reported, "An older co-worker of mine who served in the military at one time said he thought the U.S. government cannot remove Saddam Hussein without going into Iraq with ground troops. He said he's against that, and thought opinion polls that now show majority support for the bombing would turn against a ground war in Iraq."

At Bridgestone/Firestone in Des Moines, where I work, there was a lot of debate and discussion on the U.S. assault on Iraq. The first day of the bombing there was a protest picket line at the Federal Building, on half an hour's notice. This really paid off the next day at work. All three local TV stations covered the protests, and half a dozen workers came up to me to say they saw the news report.

It gave me an opening to explain why workers should oppose U.S. war moves in the Middle East. There was a real openness for the discussion, and one co-worker said he was against the bombing, saying, "The U.S. is just out to control the oil."

Ray Parsons

*****

DETROIT - The morning of the day the bombing started I commented to a co-worker, Ron, that we should keep our eyes on developments in Iraq, not just the impeachment hearings in Washington. "Clinton just pulled the inspectors out: I wouldn't be surprised if they start bombing tonight or tomorrow morning," I said.

This laid the basis for continuing the discussion in depth the next day. Ron said that he thought the bombing was controversial, at best. He offered that he simply could not know what the actual situation was in Iraq, in terms of weapons and "threats against their neighbors." I showed him a copy of the Marxist magazine New International no. 7, with the article "The Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq."

Another young worker supported the bombing, declaring that the U.S. government needed to get rid of an excess of weapons, and a good place to unload them was over Iraq.

But most workers were opposed, or skeptical about Clinton's motives. One said, "This is a question of sovereignty, just like it was wrong to bomb that pharmaceutical plant in Africa," referring to the U.S. missile attack on Sudan in August. He bought a copy of the Militant.

Another worker decided to buy a subscription to the Militant. We had been talking about the Freeman miners strike the week before. When we discussed the 1991 Gulf war and its aftermath, she bought her subscription, saying, "What you say makes sense." The next day she checked back with me: "Did you send in that subscription?" When I said I had, she said, "Good."

Marty Ressler

*****

PHILADELPHIA - I was talking with a co-worker recently, in the garment factory where I work, who is originally from Iraq. She immigrated to Philadelphia following the Gulf war of 1990-91. She told me that she talked to her boyfriend in Baghdad the night before, after the four days of U.S. and British air strikes. He told her not to worry, "We are not afraid," he said. "The mood here is defiant."

Betsy Farley

*****

CHICAGO - Militant supporters here made a special effort to get out to factory gates where we regularly sell the paper to campaign against U.S. imperialism and its assault on Iraq.

Three copies of the Militant were sold at the airport plant gate that week, seven at the LTV steel mill, and two were purchased at UPS. At a mine portal sale at Farmersville, Illinois, two of the three people who stopped to discuss the paper decided not to buy it because they agreed with the bombing. The third did get a copy.

Pattie Thompson  
 
 
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