Albany and beyond

Workers World Party activists are proud to be among the many anti-war, union and community organizers from dozens of groups who have come to Albany, N.Y., on July 23-25 to plan the next steps to end the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop further U.S. wars.

The anti-war movement must go beyond routine and symbolic actions to prevent the Pentagon from making war in whatever corner of the world it chooses. The Albany meeting could be a strong first step in building that fighting movement.

The disarray within the U.S. war machine exposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s firing presents a new challenge to anti-war forces. The turmoil within the military and civilian command provides an opening to convince workers here to oppose the war. It is time to take action.

There is continuing danger that the militarists may look to use high-tech weapons and air power to expand U.S. wars. They already are bombing with pilotless planes in Pakistan, a country of 170 million people. And they even threaten to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s 70 million people.

The conference’s action program provides a starting point. This program includes fighting to end the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also allows a full discussion on fighting U.S. interventions in Africa and elsewhere.

There are workshops on supporting the Palestinian liberation struggle, with full participation of Palestine activists from Al-Awda and other groups. Supporting Palestine’s liberation is a cutting-edge issue deserving solidarity from all anti-imperialists.

The discussions should open the door to building a movement that opposes all imperialist wars worldwide. Whether the pretext is “human rights,” “the war on terror” or “weapons of mass destruction,” and whether the administration is Democratic or Republican, any U.S. military intervention must be actively opposed.

The war at home

The action program, the breadth of invited speakers, and the workshop topics at the Albany conference show that this coalition is reaching toward the working class and the more oppressed sections of the population.

The demands to “Reverse and end all foreclosures” and “Stop the government attacks on trade unions, civil and democratic rights, and immigrant communities” are a sign of this outreach. So are the presence of immigrant rights organizations, those who defend political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, and groups defending Muslims that Homeland Security has framed. A march on the last issue will take place in Albany following the conference.

Those who are serious about stopping imperialist wars should work to reinforce these developments: a more anti-imperialist approach, more outreach to and more leadership from the oppressed communities of color, and more focus on the working class and working-class demands.

This is a principled position. It is also the only way to build a fighting movement that can take effective action.

This approach may or may not bring the most people out to protest at a given moment. But this program is not just a question of tactics. It involves the root cause of imperialist wars and how to fight it.

War rooted in capitalism

The U.S. drive to war is rooted in the profit system. Since capitalism led to monopoly and thus imperialism at the end of the 19th century, the imperialist powers have steadily engaged in aggressive wars, including two enormously destructive world wars in which they fought for domination.

Since World War II, U.S. imperialism has launched six major wars and hundreds of military attacks. Since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, this drive to war has turned to conquering lands that the world’s peoples had earlier liberated from colonialism — such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran and much of Africa.

The almost unbounded expansion of the capitalist productive capacity combined with a steady decrease in average wages has resulted in a crisis of capitalist overproduction that is refusing to be resolved by a normal cyclical recovery. The ruling class opts for war not out of rational choice; it is driven toward war by this economic crisis.

Only by eliminating capitalism can the drive to war be ended. At a time like now, when anti-capitalist struggles are ripe for breaking out and when so many millions are unemployed and faced with dire economic woes, the movement must consider as worthy of solidarity any action that exposes the profit system and challenges its legitimacy.

Workers going out on strike; an Oakland, Calif., community rebelling against police brutality; immigrants marching against Arizona’s SB 1070; students seizing their schools to demand education; homeowners fighting to stop foreclosures and evictions; soldiers leaking videos exposing war crimes — and any other troops who throw a wrench into the war machine — should all be welcomed and defended as allies in a critical struggle.

Solidarity is crucial. Any blow against capitalism and its state apparatus is a blow against imperialism and war.