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Fracción Trotskista - Estrategia Internacional (Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico)
League for a Revolutionary Communist International (Australia, Austria,
Britain, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, and Ukraine)
Communist League, India
Revolutionary Socialist Tendency - Ucrania
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We are issuing the following appeal to organisations and individuals
on the international revolutionary left with an invitation to co-sign
it and act together to realise its tactics and slogans in every
country in the period ahead.
1. The war on Iraq will be a war for oil: for the plunder of the
country's natural resources by a consortium of the biggest North
American oil companies like Exxon and by Britain's BP. But it is
at the same time another step in the drive for total world domination
by the USA.
2. First Afghanistan was subjected to massive bombing ending in
its effective colonisation. Now Iraq is in line for the same treatment
but this time with a massive land invasion by over 250,000 US and
British troops. A US general would hold power in Baghdad - with
or without an Iraqi puppet government. This recolonisation is projected
to last for a decade or more if George Bush gets his way. He must
not!
3. The White House has asserted a new doctrine: its 'right' to take
pre-emptive military action against any sovereign state. Bush claims
the right to impose '"regime change" by military means
wherever he deems the vital economic and security interests of the
USA state and big business are threatened.
4. The massive oil reserves of Iraq will be used to undermine still
further the already shaky sovereignty of the states of the Middle
East. Bush and Ariel Sharon will impose a final solution against
the Palestinians that will deprive them of every hope of achieving
national self-determination for their people.
5. Meanwhile, the expansionist settler colony, boosted by billions
of US dollars a year and state of the art weapons technology, is
given free rein with its bloody occupation of Palestinian towns
and cities. The Palestinians are stigmatised as "terrorists"
and, like Iraq, told to change their leadership or suffer the consequences.
6. It is Israel and its transatlantic master that are the "terrorist
states", armed to the teeth with "weapons of mass destruction"
on an incredible scale. That Iraq poses a threat to them is laughable.
7. The major states of the European Union, plus Russia and China
pose as upholders of international law and express their doubts
about an attack on Iraq. Diplomatically they play a game of hide
and seek in the United Nations Security Council to limit unilateral
and pre-emptive action by the USA.
8. Their motives are not a disinterested search for peace but sheer
self-interest. France and Russia have their own investments and
concessions in Iraq to defend. Germany seeks to restrain the extension
of US control because it wants to construct a rival imperial superpower
with independent influence in the region.
9. Russia and China wish to continue with their own oppression of
the Chechens, the Uighers and Tibetans without outside interference.
Thus they wish to preserve the power of their Security Council veto.
But as long as the price is right, they will not obstruct Bush.
They have no reason to defend the independence or Iraq or any other
country. The UN Security Council is truly a "thieves kitchen."
10. But thieves do fall out. Despite the present US global pre-eminence,
imperialism remains a system of feral rivalry between several imperialist
powers. None of them dares challenge the USA militarily today, but
Washington's global offensive will inevitably force them to combine
to resist it. Therefore all their talk of international law and
"peaceful solutions" is a lie.
11. All those who advocate a UN solution are preparing a trap for
the working class and all those resisting this war. As soon as bullying
and bribery obtain UN approval- they will subside into a sorrowful
acceptance of the decision of "the international community".
No! With or without UN approval we must fight against this imperialist
war!
12. Bush and Blair claim that the "war on terrorism" is
justified by the need to secure the USA's national defence and security.
This lie is repeated a thousand times every day in the millionaire
media. By means of these weapons of mass deception, the US and British
ruling classes want to rally support from the working class for
their imperialist aggression.
13. What "anticapitalist" fighters in many parts of the
world have come to call global capitalism or neoliberalism- the
plunder of the entire planet by the IMF, the World Bank and the
large multinational capitalist corporations, is integrally linked
to the "war against terrorism" and the attempt to recolonise
Iraq. Why? Because they are the essential characteristics- utterly
destructive and inhuman- of imperialism. Therefore in order to put
an end to war it is necessary to root out the imperialist system
as a whole
14. For the working class, the "war on terrorism" means
the suspension or abolition of key civil rights: today, freedom
of movement and asylum is curtailed and state surveillance is massively
extended. Racism and Islamophobia are given a veneer of respectability
- on "security" grounds. As the war crisis mounts, freedom
of expression and organisation will be in the firing line.
15. The War on Terrorism is a green light for all oppressor nations
to step up military action against peoples who are denied the elementary
right of national self-determination. The Spanish state bans the
Basque party Batasuna. The British police raid Sinn Fein's offices
in the Northern Irish assembly and then suspend it. Moscow seizes
the chance to increase its murderous campaign against the Chechen.
The war criminal Sharon reoccupies the West Bank and destroys the
Palestinian National Authority. In name of the war against terrorism,
the United States finances "Plan Colombia" and supports
the reactionary Uribe
16. However it is not inevitable that Bush and Blair will succeed.
They must not succeed.
17. Today around the world a mass anti-war movement lives and fights.
In late September and early October mighty demonstrations of 400,000
people in London and one million in Rome showed what can be done.
Class conscious workers, immigrant and Muslim communities, women
and revolutionary youth oppose this war in their millions.
18. We seek to stop this war by mass mobilisations that will shake
the system to its foundations and topple the warmongers and those
who support them.
19. This must take place in the imperialist countries themselves.
When fighting breaks out we must call clearly and unequivocally
for the total defeat of the imperialist invasion and victory for
the Iraqi resistance to it. As in the days of the Vietnam War, the
victory of a former colony against Great Power aggression must be
the rallying call of the international anti-capitalist and working
class movement. Victory to Iraq!
20. We must demand that the trade unions take action against the
war: boycotts, mass strikes, demonstrations. In the USA and Britain,
the task is to convert the imperialist war against countries Iraq
into a massive political social crisis, leading to the overthrow
of Bush and Blair.
21. The deputies of the labour, socialist and communist parties
must force debates in parliament - using its tribune to expose the
real motives the warmongers. They must not only vote against the
war, but also disrupt the normal business of the talking shops and
summon workers and youth to active resistance.
22. We support mass intifadas across the Arab and Muslim world against
the USA and Britain, against all the regimes that support them,
actively or passively. We call for demonstrations and direct action
against the bases and symbols of imperialist power and their corporate
investments around the globe.
23. These actions alone distinguish anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist
and revolutionary opposition to the war. The reformist leaders will
oppose us on the grounds that support for Iraq's resistance against
a US-UK attack means supporting Saddam Hussein, just as they claimed
that defeatism in the Afghan war meant support for the Taliban dictatorship.
24. But only the Iraqi people - both Arabs and Kurds - have the
right to overthrow Saddam's brutal dictatorship and at the same
time ensure the independence of their country. To be colonised by
the USA and Britain would be a terrible disaster for them all. Liberation
can only be achieved if the workers and youth of the cities rise
up and replace the Baathist and military regime with a democracy
based on workers and peasants' councils.
25. The official leaders of the European labour movement have again
betrayed the working class by offering either open or veiled support
for the imperialists' war of plunder. Social Democracy is continuing
its nine decades of treason by taking its place at the head of the
war drive in Britain.
26. In Germany, France, Spain and Italy, the social democratic leaders
follow the policies of their own ruling classes. They do not challenge
the USA's crusade against Iraq: they simply demand that any war
be sanctified first by the approval of the United Nations. The official
leaders of the trade unions are no better. Pressed into declaring
opposition to US unilateralism by the strength of anti-war feeling
among the workers, they nevertheless tie themselves to the social
democrats and, through them, to the UN and thus, in turn, to the
imperialists.
27. The leaders of the so-called Communist parties seem more left
wing. In opposition they support anti-war demonstrations and call
for peace. But for the leaders these are merely pious words, not
backed up by deeds. In government they act just like their social
democratic brothers. The French Communist party was part of the
imperialist government that attacked Serbia in 1999 and Afghanistan
in 2001. The Spanish CP did not dare vote against the banning of
Batasuna.
28. Even Rifondazione Comunista continued to support the Olive Tree
coalition government when it sent imperialist troops to stop the
Albanian uprising in 1997. Today all of them focus on respect for
the United Nations. Not one of them dares, honestly and openly,
to defend a nation under attack by the rogue superpower.
29. However as the reality of war becomes ever clearer, thousands
of rank and file members and activists from these parties, and the
trade unions linked to them, are beginning to resist the pro-imperialist
stance, or reliance on the UN, of their party leaderships.
30. We call on them to intensify their opposition, to be more consistent
and determined. We call on them and to either oust the warmonger
leaderships or break with them en masse. There can be no consistent
opposition to war without naming and declaring war on the warmongers.
31. Not only should give no recognition to any UN-bestowed legitimacy,
we should not support calls for the return of the UN weapons inspectors.
We do not deny Iraq the right to possess deterrents that Israel,
not to speak of the USA, already has in enormous quantities. We
recognise and support Iraq's right to defend itself against imperialism
and its creation, Israel. We demand the immediate lifting of all
UN sanctions that have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi civilians.
32. With or without the UN this war is an imperialist war of plunder
and national oppression. Its initiators must be stopped from launching
it or defeated if they do. Our position has to be "US and UN
hands off Iraq!"
33. The task of anti-capitalists, anti-imperialists and all partisans
of the working class is to intensify the social and political crisis
caused by Bush's "endless war" into a revolutionary struggle
for the overthrow of capitalism. This alone can bring lasting peace.
34. The increase over the last three years of internationally co-ordinated
protest against neo-liberalism global capital, and imperialist war
reveals one thing above all. The time is ripe to establish once
again the highest possible level of international organisation of
the working class, of youth, of all those who wish to replace capitalism
with socialism.
35. This means not resting content with a "movement of movements".
It means a worldwide organisation which is democratic but also a
centralised - an International. This international can develop a
strategy based on world revolution as the means and socialism as
its goal.
36. All those who oppose or delay the creation of such an organisation
of the working class are consciously or unconsciously, aiding the
efforts of the global capitalists and imperialists to keep us divided.
This is true whether they do so in the name of opposition to all
centralisation or political organisation, or because they believe
mass parties have to be first of all in each country and then united
into an International.
37. Let the call go out from all the mobilisations against imperialist
war for the formation of a New International, a revolutionary world
party of the working class, the strongest weapon against imperialism
and war. The Fracción Trotskista and the League for a Revolutionary
Communist International believe that this International must continue
and build upon the programmatic and organisational heritage of Lenin's
Communist International and the Fourth International of Leon Trotsky.
Nevertheless we do not make this into an ultimatum for those orgaisations
and individuals who agree with stopping the war against Iraq and
whose close collaboration in struggle we urgently seek.
No Blood for Oil! No war for the US Empire!
Hands off Iraq! Stop the war preparations!
Repeal all "antiterrorist" laws and release all prisoners
and detainees.
All imperialist forces out of the region! US bases out of the Middle
East and Gulf, the Indian Ocean and South/Central Asia!
No UN arms inspectors in Iraq - spies, provocateurs and advance
troops of imperialism!
Lift ALL sanctions against Iraq! Break the blockade now!
Stop Sharon's murder of the Palestinian people. Victory to the Palestinian
intifada!
Not a cent or person for the "war on terrorism" - vote
against the military budgets.
Use direct action to impede the war effort: mass demonstrations,
road and rail blockades, occupations of military facilities.
Broaden economic strikes against the capitalists' neo-liberal plans
into political mass strikes against the war.
If the invasion takes place - Defeat for the US-UK armies: Victory
to Iraq!
Turn the "war against terrorism" into a class war against
the exploiters.
Down with global capitalism and imperialism.
For a new revolutionary workers' International.
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