An international socialist strategy is needed to oppose war

Statement by the Socialist Equality Party (Britain)

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/war-s27.shtml

27 September 2003

The following statement of the Socialist Equality Party of Britain is being
distributed today at a demonstration in London as part of protests being
held world-wide against the continuing US-British war and occupation in
Iraq.

Today’s demonstration in London testifies to the continued and growing
opposition to the US and British occupation of Iraq and the threat of
further colonial wars of conquest in the Middle East and internationally.

Everything that opponents of the war waged by Washington and London against
Iraq warned against has been confirmed. What took place in Iraq was a crime
of historic dimensions for which precedent can only be found in the
unprovoked wars of aggression carried out by Nazi Germany.

All efforts to portray this illegal act as a defence of world peace from
the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been exposed as lies.
The leaked report of the 1,400-strong US Iraq Survey Group states that it
has not found even a “minute” amount of chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons material. And United Nation’s chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has
been forced to admit that Iraq destroyed its chemical and biological
weapons at least a decade ago. Each day there are fresh exposures of the
lies employed by the Blair Labour government to drag the country into war.

Ten thousand civilians and an unknown number of Iraqi soldiers were
slaughtered in an unequal military contest launched with the aim of seizing
control of Iraqi oil and establishing America’s global hegemony. According
to recent estimates, up to 1,000 Iraqi civilians are dying every week as a
direct result of the occupation, either in confrontations with the
occupying forces, or as a result of the ongoing societal breakdown.

With troop deaths now far exceeding the lives lost during the war itself,
Iraq is becoming a Vietnam-style quagmire that will demand millions of
pounds in taxes and the continued sacrifice of hundreds of lives.

President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that war
would bring liberation and democracy. Instead a puppet government has been
installed answerable directly to Washington and there are reports that the
CIA is recruiting former agents of Saddam Hussein’s secret police to deal
with popular discontent.

Little or nothing has been done to restore Iraq’s social infrastructure,
bringing with it a growing threat of disease and malnutrition. Instead,
every effort is directed towards opening up Iraq to the predatory designs
of the major oil corporations and other transnationals through the
imposition of a privatisation programme akin to the disastrous “shock
therapy” that devastated the Soviet Union—a prospect made worse for being
contemplated in a country already ruined by war and economic sanctions.

The Bush administration has already made clear its intention to move
against Iran based on accusations that it is developing a nuclear weapons
programme. The doctrine of pre-emptive strike has destabilised
international relations and points the way to an eruption of militarism
that will not be confined to those countries named as part of the so-
called “axis of evil.” No nation is safe from the predatory aims of
Washington.

This makes it essential that a balance sheet is drawn of the antiwar
movement and its failure to stop the bloodshed in Iraq.

The mass protests of February 15 mobilised more than 10 million people in
the first-ever worldwide movement against war. Yet despite this powerful
expression of international human solidarity, Bush and Blair felt able to
ride roughshod over the democratic will of the people and proceed with
their military agenda.

Hostility to the government and opposition to the occupation of Iraq is, if
anything, greater and more entrenched that it was six months ago. Blair is
not only considered a liar over Iraq, but he is not trusted on any other
question—whilst in the US the Bush administration continues to suffer a
haemorrhaging of support.

But further protest, though vital, will not prevent these governments from
committing further crimes. It is not enough to simply argue, as the Stop
the War Coalition do, that “our movement nearly stopped the war” and call
for a redoubling of efforts “to bring the government to account.” What must
be confronted is the failure of the political perspective which has thus
far guided the antiwar movement.

What does this consist of? Back in February the United Nations and the
major European powers of France and Germany were held up as a possible
check on American unilateralism. The self-serving opposition of Schröder
and Chirac to the threat of US dominance in the Middle East, and its
implications for their own interests in the region, was glorified as a
means through which the working class could express its own principled
opposition to war. Speakers shouted “Vive La France” and urged the Blair
government to abandon its orientation to Washington and uphold the
authority of the UN.

Millions have subsequently learned through bitter experience that it is
impossible to oppose one imperialist power by lending support to another.

Neither France nor Germany was prepared to clash with the US over Iraq.
Instead they have sought an accommodation with Washington in return for
their own share of the spoils of war. At the same time they have stepped up
their own military drive, with the European powers forming the backbone and
military command of UN military interventions in Africa, Afghanistan and
the Balkans in order to advance their own global ambitions. The European
Union has itself adopted Washington’s doctrine of pre-emptive action. In
June the EU formally endorsed a new security strategy that declares, “Pre-
emptive engagement can avoid more serious problems in the future.... We
need to develop a strategic culture that fosters early, rapid, and when
necessary, robust intervention.”

For its part the UN has demonstrated that it is a tool of the imperialist
powers by sanctioning the US/UK occupation of Iraq, for which it has earned
the enmity of the Iraqi people who regard it as just as much an oppressor
as Washington and London.

Secretary General Kofi Annan this week told the UN that “it is not enough
to denounce unilateralism” and that the Security Council “may need to begin
a discussion on the criteria for an early authorisation of coercive
measures.”

The adoption of such a policy not only sanctions whatever wars the US plans
in future, but enables the European powers to pursue their own military
ambitions without restraint.

The essential result of all appeals to Germany, France and the UN is to
subordinate the working class to sections of the ruling elite and to
prevent the development of an independent movement against its political
representatives such as Blair.

Imperialist aggression cannot be opposed without articulating a programme
upon which to oppose the economic and social system that gives rise to it—
capitalism. War is rooted in the fundamental contradictions within the
profit system—between the globalisation of production and the division of
the world into antagonistic nation states based on private ownership of the
means of production. It is this that gives rise to the contest between the
major powers for control over the world’s major resources and its markets,
which under today’s conditions of mounting economic crisis takes on
explosive forms.

The drive to war is inseparably bound up with domestic policies aimed at
enriching a financial oligarchy at the apex of society, through constant
attacks on the living standards of working people. That is why the Blair
government, which acts as the representative of this oligarchy, is deaf to
the wishes of the electorate. It will no more heed appeals to halt its war
drive than calls to stop the privatisation of health, education and other
vital services.

The struggle against militarism is inseparably bound up with the defence of
the social position of working people and their democratic rights. It is
not a question of changing this or that leader or government, when all the
official parties—whatever their formal political coloration—are committed
to furtherance of the interests of the super-rich. It requires the
construction of a new social order that places the needs of the mass of the
population for jobs, decent wages, housing, health care and education at
the centre of economic life.

The antiwar movement can not succeed in its aims without turning to the
international working class. The allies of workers in Britain are not the
European governments or the UN but the working people of Europe, America
and the globe. The movement against war must unite workers of all nations
against the common enemy.

The movement against war must be politically independent of the pro-
capitalist parties, whether Labour, Liberal or Green. A new party must be
built on the basis of an international socialist programme through which
workers can fight for power.

The Socialist Equality Party is dedicated to the task of unifying the
international working class on the basis of such a perspective, as a
section of the International Committee of the Fourth International. The
World Socialist Web Site is the instrument through which this goal can be
realised, providing as it does unparalleled daily analysis of world events
that helps educate a new layer of socialist minded intellectuals, workers
and youth on every continent. We invite all those taking part in today’s
demonstration to read the WSWS every day, distribute its statements, join
the SEP and participate in building the new international party of
socialism.

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