Americas

The anti-war movement around the world has been a great inspiration to the workers and youth in America. From the seas of demonstrators on mass demos in the US, Spain, Italy, Britain, France, Pakistan, the Middle East, and elsewhere, to the hundreds of smaller demos from small town USA to Antarctica, this is truly a global movement. This wave of radicalization is occurring even before the war on Iraq has formally begun. Above all, it is a reaction against the ongoing war on working people all around the world. More and more, people are realizing that a tiny minority of wealthy parasites makes its profit by leeching off of the majority of humanity. The drive to war has served as a

...

The results of the first round of the presidential elections show that the period of instability that began in Argentina a year and a half ago has not ended. The massive scattering of votes also reveals the high level of discontent present in all layers of society. These elections mark a new milestone in the social and political situation in Argentina.

The US has announced that it will establish at least four permanent military bases in Iraq once the 'occupation' is over. Maintaining these new "Guantanamos", together with the overall cost of the war and “reconstruction", is going to push US debt to dangerously high levels.

Hundreds of thousands gathered in Bolivar Avenue, Caracas, on April 13 to commemorate the first anniversary of the popular uprising that defeated the reactionary coup of April 11, 2002. The different events that have been taking place a year after the coup give us a clear picture of the current balance of forces between the classes in Venezuela.

Two years ago, on April 22, 2001, the Spanish paper El Mundo published the following news.

As we have explained many times, the war on Iraq is nothing but an extension of the war on working people and youth here in the US. It is being fought in the interests of the rich capitalists in this country. These people cannot be trusted to work in the interests of the American people as a whole, let alone the Iraqis.

Another general strike against the war called in Greece for April 3

Antiwar feelings are running very high in Greece. There has already been a general strike against the war. This took place shortly after the war broke out. And if some people thought this would die down once the war had started they will have to think twice. The workers and youth of Greece are not going to give the imperialists any respite.

GW Bush claims that the US is the most "democratic" of all countries, and that therefore they have a duty to bring it to the people of the world. But the reality of the situation is very different. What we have is democracy for the rich.

As soon as it became clear that the US-UK war against Iraq was on, stock markets around the world rocketed upwards by as much as 20% and the price for a barrel of crude oil fell back sharply. Now it's a week in and all that bravado has faded. The real costs of this imperialist adventure are beginning to come out.

In spite of what the media is saying, there is still a strong antiwar mood among a significant part of the US population as the following reports clearly show. They report on events shortly after the war broke out.

The Workers International League declares itself in total opposition to US imperialism’s war on Iraq. This is nothing short of an imperialist war, the objective of which is to gain direct control of the Iraqi oil fields in the interests of the US oil corporations as well as being an attempt of the strategists in Washington D.C. to cement their control of the entire region. They are attempting to solidify their domination in the Middle East with the blood of the American and British workers in uniform and the people of Iraq. The pleas of the Bush Administration about the evil of the Iraqi regime and the plight of the Iraqi people aside, this conflict is being waged with nothing other

...

Less than twenty-four hours after U.S. missiles struck Baghdad, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney on March 20 announced his “unequivocal” support for the war and presumably for the war’s aims. Sweeney has no business being a shop steward, let alone being the head of organized labor’s largest federation. His urge for basically collaborative relations with Corporate America explains his support of the war on Iraq; just as it explains his starkly feeble resistance to Corporate America’s downsizing of the U.S. labor movement.

In spite of what the media is saying, there is still a strong antiwar mood among a significant part of the US population as the following reports clearly show. They report on events shortly after the war broke out.

The world is only days, or even hours away from war. The farcical charade over UN inspections is over and the American ruling class imagines it can achieve world domination through military force. But Bush disregards the anti-war and labor movement at his own peril. The truly massive anti-war mood which has emerged even before the war begins is a sign of things to come.