This speech was first presented on Feb. 9 at the organizing conference for a national anti-war march on the Republican National Convention in St. Paul on Sept. 1. The author is an organizer with ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
The ANSWER Coalition is glad to be with you and we thank the organizers of today’s event for their great work in pulling this coalition together.
By the time the Republican Party gathers in Minneapolis in August to formally nominate their presidential candidate,
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As everyone here knows, the anti-war sentiment in the United States is the majority sentiment. But even if that were not the case, even if the Iraq war and occupation had succeeded in placing the country under the military, political and economic domination of imperialism—in other words, even if Bush had been successful—it would be imperative for progressive and anti-imperialist forces to do everything in our power to expose the criminals who carried out this operation.
The ANSWER Coalition has been involved in organizing many of the largest mass actions against the Iraq war. ANSWER has initiated the largest national actions in U.S. history in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Along with others, ANSWER helped mobilize mass protest against the U.S.-Israeli invasion and bombing war against Lebanon 18 months ago. ANSWER has organized all over the country in solidarity with the Arab American and Muslim community, and those who have been targeted, demonized and repressed as a domestic component of Bush’s so-called “endless war.”
ANSWER has, likewise, drawn the connection between the struggle against racism—such as the fight to free the Jena Six—with the inherently racist character of U.S. foreign policy.
In fact, our coalition rejects the separate categories of foreign policy and domestic policy, as if there was some bridge to cross between them. The foreign policy of the State Department, White House, Pentagon and CIA is predicated on the global designs, needs and interests of U.S. transnational corporations and banks. The orientation of empire-building is not the province of the neo-conservatives or the Republicans or the Democrats. It is the orientation of the corporate ruling class in the United States.
“Peace time” for the imperialists amounts to using different tactics to achieve the same diplomatic, economic and political ends that are foundational to the Iraq war and any other conflict initiated by U.S. imperialism.
Similarly, the domestic program is a reflection and an extension of the needs and interests of the same class of transnational corporations and banks, regardless of who is president. Whoever occupies the White House is charged with managing the common affairs of the corporate and banking ruling class.
Republicans and Democrats offer no real alternative
When we march against the Republican Party, it is essential to make it clear that we are not hyper-focused on the Republicans as opposed to the Democrats.
In 1964, the peace movement and other progressive forces campaigned vigorously for Lyndon Johnson on the basis that a Barry Goldwater White House would inevitably lead to war. Johnson was elected and immediately sent another 500,000 troops to Vietnam.
Within months, the Johnson administration began the carpet bombing of villages both North of the demilitarized zone and in the U.S.-occupied areas of the South. At least 1,000 civilians died e ach week from the U.S. aerial bombardment that took place under Johnson’s administration from 1965 to 1968.
The anti-war movement of the 1960s became profoundly radical. People were chanting, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” It was obvious by then that electing the Democrats was not the solution because they were in fact the war party.
Whether the politician in the White House is a Democrat or a Republican, whether he or she is a little more liberal or a lot more conservative, U.S. foreign policy is dictated by the needs of U.S. imperialism to maintain dominance.
The U.S. government dragged on the Vietnam war until 1973 to avoid the perception of having suffered a catastrophic military defeat. That would have harmed their reputation everywhere and stimulated resistance against U.S. domination everywhere.
When we march, as we must, in Minneapolis against the Republicans, we do so with the clear understanding that the candidate for the Party too belongs to a ruling class party. That candidate will share the objectives of the Bush administration today, which, like their predecessors during the Vietnam era, has reorganized military strategy so as to avoid the perception of a catastrophic defeat at the hands of an armed Arab resistance movement in the strategic oil-rich Middle East region.
Working class unity key to radical change
When we march in Minneapolis, we are marching to forge ever-greater unity between all working class communities, especially in the Black, Latino, Native American, Asian and Arab communities, not to mention a greater unity with the union movement.
Tens of millions of working people in the United States are now suffering from the economic recession, a catastrophic crisis for workers wreaking havoc all over the country.
The unemployment rate is rapidly climbing. Two million workers are losing their homes through foreclosures. Hundreds of thousands of construction workers are being laid off. Some 1.6 million people in New York City go to a food pantry to get charity and food supplements to feed their family every month. That is 1.6 million people in the richest city in the world.
The accumulating fortunes at one pole in society are matched by the accumulating misery of broader and broader sectors of the U.S. population. Our movement must set its sights not only on ending the war in Iraq, and certainly not simply on swapping one plutocratic party for another in the White House, but on creating a thorough and radical transformation of the United States.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the endless threats against Cuba, the attempted destabilization of Venezuela, the ever-expanding prison population in the United States—now numbering a staggering 2.3 million people—are all consequences of politics and of policy. More than anything, it is the byproduct of contemporary militarism rooted in modern-day capitalism.
The ANSWER Coalition, along with all of you, pledges to do everything in its power in the coming weeks and months to mobilize the largest possible anti-war and progressive manifestation in Minneapolis and wherever the war mongers and criminals of either party gather.
Only by organizing the people of this country and building a true multinational, politically conscious and politically independent mass movement of the people that we will change the political climate in the United States and carry out the reorganization of society. This is the only real solution to the problem of ever-present war, unemployment, poverty, racism, sexism and environmental destruction.
The election campaign of the past weeks indicates a deep yearning for change. That authentic desire of the people must be organized as a fighting force against the Republican and Democratic parties. The other way—ending up as a tail to the kite of the Democratic Party—will lead to the complete evisceration of the truly great movement that has emerged in the recent years.
The desire for change can either be manipulated by the twin parties of oppression, or turned into a massive and militant fighting force for capable of realizing that change. The ANSWER Coalition will mobilize for the mass demonstration in Minneapolis during the RNC with that perspective in mind.
