These ruling families rely on their national economic weight; the corruption and compliance it can purchase, including within broad layers of the working class; their massive military might; their monopoly of state power; and both legal and extralegal violence against those who resist their exploitation and oppression.
--From "What the 1987 Stock Market Crash Foretold," the 1988 resolution of the Socialist Workers Party, published in New International no. 10.

This passage from "What the 1987 Stock Market Crash Foretold" stands in stark contrast to statements about the world by top U.S. government officials and politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties. The spokespeople for the superwealthy capitalist class in the United States portray their war in Afghanistan and assault on workers' rights at home as an example of unrivaled American power and leadership. They hope to convince working people the world over--including in the United States--of this myth, and that it is not possible to stand up, fight, and win against Washington.

The truth can be seen by scratching the veneer of the "crusade" against "terrorism" that Washington is using as its latest justification for waging these wars at home and abroad. Far from a response to the attacks on September 11, the military assault in Central Asia is an extension of the more than decade-long assault on the rights, organization, social wage, and conditions on the job of working people in the United States. This war at home is one that the employers and their government have been pursuing with renewed vigor since the stock market crash sent shudders through world financial markets in 1987.

Since launching its war drive Washington has moved to codify attacks on workers' rights carried out under the administration of William Clinton, such as wider use of domestic spying and electronic eavesdropping, use of secret courts and indefinite detentions, erosion of Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure, and a range of other measures.  
 
Military tribunals and sedition laws
In addition, the Bush administration has now given authorization for use of military tribunals in which the accused have fewer rights than a military court martial. On orders of the U.S. president a person can be picked up, run through a secret "trial," and imprisoned or executed. The executive order covers noncitizens, of which there are millions in the U.S. working class, and stands as a threat aimed at the entire labor movement. Immigrant workers have been a central part of many labor battles over the past several years, and their incorporation into the unions has strengthened the working class and its organization in the United States to the detriment of the employers.

The government is also probing a revival of sedition laws, historically used to imprison opponents of government policy. Thomas Jefferson's statement that the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 imposed by U.S. president John Adams was an "unconstitutional reign of terror" reflected the views of many workers and small farmers at the time.

These examples of "legal and extralegal violence against those who resist their exploitation and oppression" show how the U.S. empire increasingly relies on a strong federal government and executive authority to carry out actions that more and more conflict with the interests of working people at home and abroad. These moves reflect the decline of U.S. imperialism, affected by falling profit rates and a slowing economy, and preparations by the rulers to attempt to defeat coming struggles of working people resisting the effects of this economic crisis at home.  
 
Naked use of force
In establishing a "Pax Americana" Washington, like Rome and Britain before it, must more and more rely on the naked use of force, as the social and economic system of capitalism has long ago proved incapable of providing an avenue of advancement for humanity.

Washington has scored some victories in Afghanistan by pounding with bombs from afar one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the least equipped armies--without even advanced antiaircraft weapons, tank battalions, or fighter squadrons. But as Pentagon operatives note, Washington has still to defeat the Taliban forces, something that can only be done with ground troops if the Taliban fighters continue to resist. The U.S. brass is moving more troops into the country to pursue their bloody war.

Within this rapidly escalating class struggle and polarization in the United States, workers, farmers, and youth can turn more deeply to the struggles of fellow toilers--whether it be battles to defend unions, such as that waged by dockworkers in South Carolina; to efforts to defend First Amendment rights, such as the campaign in support of Michael Italie, the recent socialist candidate for mayor of Miami; or struggles by mine workers and auto workers.

Especially important as the true face and future of imperialism is bared before the world, is reading, studying, distributing, and using in our struggles the history and lessons of the modern working-class movement contained in Pathfinder books and pamphlets. Books that present a working-class and fighting perspective and assessment of current developments such as Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, Capitalism's World Disorder, and the New International series are an invaluable part of this rich legacy.

We urge all our readers to join in efforts to promote solidarity among working people in struggle, to read and distribute Pathfinder books, and to join in the fight to build a proletarian leadership that can ensure that the coming revolutionary struggles of workers and farmers for a government of their own to replace the brutal rule of the last declining empire will be victorious.
 
 
Related article:
Central Asia war accelerates attacks on workers' rights  
 
 
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