Workers Solidarity Movement

One of the favourite arguments of the pro-war crowd in Ireland is that anyone who opposes the war is 'anti-American'. Leaving aside the fact that they are reducing the one billion population of the Americas to the 250 million resident in the US is there anything to this claim? The hundreds of thousands who have already demonstrated against the war in the US obviously don't think so. Anarchists in the US are part of the anti-war movements there. Below we reproduce the text of a leaflet produced by one anarchist group there for the January 18th anti-war demonstration in Washington DC.

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR
The elite of the USA and Iraq, personified by George Bush and Saddam Hussein, are leading their countries and much of the world, into a disastrous confrontation on the plains where civilization arose. The cost of this clash of powers will be paid, in sweat and in blood, by millions of people across the globe to enrich the coffers of the sultans of industry, their executors of State, and officers of war.

In this struggle over petrochemical wealth we will have no share of riches, only sorrow. This war, and all future wars of nationalist futility, will never be prevented by appeals to those who would be our masters. Only when we, whose toil creates their wealth, cast off these murderous despots, can we enjoy the peace and freedom which is the right of each and all.

The hollow excuses for this war cannot be defended. The tyrannical regime in Iraq, while a misery for its citizens and a threat to its neighbors, is to Western powers but an opportunity to introduce a greater military presence in an economically and geographically strategic point on the global chessboard. Even as heads of State prepare for war against Iraq, they dance diplomatically around North Korea. Even as they demonize a despot in Iraq, they support monarchies and dictatorships around the world. They would wage war against Iraq not because they must, but because they can.

Unemployment, low wages, lack of education and decent housing in the USA are mirrored by outright starvation and continual warfare in Iraq. Our mutual suffering is for the benefit of the elite and the States they control. Taxes on American workers fund the military that guarantees control of cheap oil for industry and the profits of its owners. For their pleasure we pay the State, in sweat and in blood.

The oil for which we toil and kill, poisons the very earth itself. Instead of developing sustainable energy and managing resources for the benefit of all humankind, the energy most easily controlled is extracted and marketed for the profit of the powerful. These oil wars are not only wars against humanity, but against the earth itself.

The current economic crisis of overproduction, wage slavery, and rampant speculation in the financial markets cannot be solved by the gluttonous destruction of war. War will only increase the miseries of we who must pay for the pleasures of those who exploit the world for their own desires. Americans, and citizens of the world, must say no to Iraqnophobia and yes to freedom! No to the war on our fellow citizens and yes to war against the bosses and States! War will only end with the end of capitalism and nationalism. No to the war on our fellow workers and yes to war against all of the international ruling elite! NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR!

Roundhouse Collective (North East Federation of Anarchist Communists), Baltimore, Maryland, USA"

This page is from the print version of the Irish Anarchist paper 'Workers Solidarity'.

Print out the PDF file of WS74
This edition is No74 published in Feb 2003