Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 14:14:50 -0500
From: Steve Rosenthal <steve-rosenthal at cox.net>
In addition to the enormous anti-war marches of millions of people that took place yesterday throughout the world, there were many smaller marches and rallies in cities and towns throughout the U.S. and many other countries. My wife and I and some of our friends went to a rally at the Federal Building here in Norfolk, VA, yesterday. The turnout of about 250 people on a cold rainy day was the largest anti-war rally I’ve seen in Norfolk during the more than a quarter of a century I’ve lived here. Consisting of veterans, liberals, church based pacifists, college students, whites, Asians, and blacks, the rally was covered by the local television channels and newspaper and was a modest achievement in the metropolitan area that hosts the largest U.S. naval installations on the East Coast. Vast numbers of warships, fighter squadrons, and military personnel have been sent from here to the Persian Gulf area during the past few months.
Speakers at the rally mirrored the contradictions evident in the larger rallies. There were Democrats, Greens, and pacifists, some of whom reassured everyone of their patriotism and urged the government not to go to war without the support of the UN and “our allies.” But there were also speakers who explained why a U.S. invasion of Iraq is wrong, regardless of who is bribed or coerced into supporting it. They described the history of U.S. ties to Saddam and Bin Laden, detailed the long history of terrorism by the U.S. and its favorite allies from Israel to Turkey to Colombia, documented the long record of U.S. defiance and manipulation of the UN, analyzed the U.S. drive for oil, oil profits, and global domination, and called for struggle against a system of imperialist capitalism. The more politically radical statements drew enthusiastic applause from the audience.
A poll published in our local newspaper today reported that only about half of the people in this Hampton Roads area support a U.S. invasion of Iraq. A majority of women are opposed and only 29% of blacks support war. This in a metropolitan area dominated by active duty military, reservists, military retirees, civilians who work for the military, and military families.
The sharpening of divisions between the U.S. and most other governments is clearly having a significant impact on the political consciousness of most people in this country. Whatever happens in the UN Security Council in the coming weeks, the world has entered a period of sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. If France withholds its veto and other governments go along with the U.S. attack on Iraq, vast majorities in those countries will be furious with their governments’ betrayal. If there is a veto or a Security Council majority vote against the U.S. and the U.S. invades Iraq anyway, the UN will be mortally wounded, millions who have organized and demonstrated against war here and worldwide will see vividly that U.S. imperialism will stop at nothing to wage war for global domination. NATO and other alliances that represented the main structural pieces of the capitalist world order for over half a century will be decisively undermined and will never be the same.
The analysis from Richard K. Moore forwarded by Dan Brook, is, in my estimate, mistaken and misleading. Although there are and there will continue to be immense economic, political, and military ties between the U.S. and E.U. nations, they will not stop the growing conflict. It is worth remembering that capitalist nations had close economic and diplomatic relations with each other right up to the eve of both world wars, and some significant economic relations even continued throughout the war. Trade and investment do not prevent inter-imperialist wars.
The argument that a trans-national capitalist ruling class has largely become detached from nation states is a figment of the imagination of the anti-globalization movement, a movement that mistook U.S. domination for U.S. omnipotence. The crudeness of the strategy of Bush and Powell has not only taught millions that this is a “war for oil” and that underlying the drive for war is U.S. imperialism. It has also revealed much more clearly the re-emergence of inter-imperialist rivalry as the driving force in the post-Cold War world. When the Wall Street Journal suggests that it is time to abolish NATO, it is time for us to realize that our anti-war organizing efforts should be guided by an awareness that we are in a period of war times that may well lead to a third world war. As we participate in all sorts of anti-war coalitions, our most important task is to spread and deepen the understanding that “regime change” must mean something far more than getting rid of the Bush Administration.
Steve Rosenthal