In the weeks and months ahead U.S. imperialism will be working to create another pretext to press toward its goal of removing the regime of Saddam Hussein and replacing it with a protectorate. But as Cuba's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ricardo Alarcón, asked in a speech to the UN Security Council on Aug. 6, 1990, as Washington began to gear up its war machine: "Is the defense of the legitimate interests of the Kuwaiti government really the concern that has led the United States delegation to act as it is doing now, or is it the ambition of the United States to intervene in and dominate the Middle East?"

Today, however, the bipartisan campaign to demonize the governments of Iran, Iraq, and north Korea has run into resistance. Millions of people poured into the streets throughout Iran to denounce the U.S. rulers' threats against their country and demonstrate their determination to defend the gains of their 23-year-old revolution. Workers and peasants in north Korea will never forgive the brutalities meted out by U.S. and Japanese imperialism and are determined to defend their homeland and join their brothers and sisters in the south to fight for reunification. Filipinos have held almost daily demonstrations opposing U.S. special forces troops who are already carrying out commando operations on their land.

The rulers' campaign against "terror" is also wearing thin at home. Without American troops being killed in combat and body bags coming home, the rulers are running into problems trying to whip up the kind of war fever they need to attempt to qualitatively deepen their assault on workers' rights and deal blows to the labor movement in the United States. More workers are standing up to firings and other victimizations resulting from their political beliefs, nationality, or religion.

Working people are also refusing to postpone their struggles "in the interests of national unity." Machinists and aircraft cleaners representing some 13,000 workers at United Airlines have rejected the company's proposed contract and voted to strike if a better deal is not put on the table. Protests continue in Miami against near-weekly cop killings of Blacks and other working people. Coal miners and widows are mobilizing against attacks by coal operators and the government on black lung compensation.

The grinding effects of capitalism in its decline are setting workers and peasants into motion throughout most of the world. Sometimes these defensive actions against assaults on their conditions of life and work portend greater social explosions, like the recent round of protests and strikes in Argentina. Groupings of workers, peasants, and students who are trying to figure out how to most effectively defend their interests are forming in both imperialist and semicolonial countries. And the United States is no exception.

These expanding openings offer opportunities for communists to meet up with and win proletarian fighters to the communist movement. Out of the turmoil, wars, social catastrophes, and dislocation that capitalism brings forth in its decline are coming the very forces capable of building revolutionary working-class parties and of leading the struggles to take power out of the hands of the wealthy ruling families, overthrow capitalism, and join the worldwide fight for socialism.
 
 
Related articles:
Millions in Iran denounce threats by U.S. imperialism
Revolutionists oppose threats against Korea  
 
 
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