The war that Washington is steadily moving toward in the Mideast is not about Saddam Hussein. It is about U.S. imperialism taking over Iraq and gaining supremacy over the vast oil and natural gas reserves throughout the region.

As in every previous imperialist conflict, the U.S. rulers today are driven toward more wars in order to conquer markets and territories, and to restore the declining rates of profit of their capitalist system.

The fundamental argument that the billionaire families of the U.S. ruling class--the owners of Exxon, J.P. Morgan Chase, and other giant corporations--use to draw working people and others behind their wars is that "we Americans" face common problems. But that "we" is a lie.

Capitalist politicians argue that "our" oil supply is at stake in the Mideast and that taking over Iraq--or even Saudi Arabia--will protect "our country" from being cut off and economic disaster. They try to suck working people and the middle class into the view that "we" may be attacked by "them" with "weapons of mass destruction."

But the real "we" are working people around the world. Workers and farmers from Iraq to Mexico to France to the United States have everything in common. And we have nothing in common with them--the capitalists who rule the United States, who profit by exploiting our labor power and plundering the peoples of the world. It’s not our government. It’s their government, their army, their corporations. Likewise, a U.S. war of conquest in the Mideast is an assault on us, on fellow working people there.

As Malcolm X, the outstanding revolutionary leader, so clearly stated on behalf of millions, "I am not an American, I am a victim of Americanism."

The trade union officialdom promotes the reactionary trap of American patriotism, as it did at this year’s Labor Day rallies, which were orchestrated as pro-government, pro-war actions--with a few themes of labor struggles thrown in for cover. The labor officials’ acceptance of the framework of "we Americans"--bosses and workers--is simply a product of their class collaboration with the employers. One pro-war argument with a social veneer that union officials sometimes promote is that war spending "is good for the economy" and means jobs.

In times of war, the bosses demand that working people "sacrifice" for the interests of "our country" and stop fighting to defend our wages, working conditions, and unions. But as the bosses press their assault, there will be no class peace. The fights that workers wage--whether they be union organizing drives, strikes, protests against cop brutality or against attacks on the right to abortion--cut through the attempts by the exploiters to blur these opposing class interests.

An increasing number of working people involved in this resistance will be among those most interested in discussing the socialist perspective of organizing a movement of workers and farmers that can make a revolution, take political power out of the hands of the warmakers, and join with millions in transforming the world.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S., British war planes target Iraqi air defenses
Tens of thousands of imperialist troops are deployed in Gulf  
 
 
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