USMLO Statements Distributed at DNC and RNC Actions Organize for an Anti-War GovernmentBeware Obama Euphoria: Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights


We Do Not Want or Need a War President!

Organize for an Anti-War Government

As Senators John McCain and Barack Obama contend for the presidency, it has become increasingly clear that their main battle is to show that they can be commander in chief. McCain says he is the one capable of winning wars. The people are to abandon their aim of winning peace by ending war, and instead join the imperialists in their war aim. Obama, for his part, says he has a new strategy for the same war aim — only his is to win in Afghanistan. Both are campaigning to be commander in chief of a war machine, not as civilian heads of state. They are running to be war presidents for a ruling class that has war as its aim — war against the peoples at home and abroad so as to save a dying and rotten system that cannot provide for the people. Everyday life more brutally shows U.S. imperialism cannot provide an economy that meets the rights of the people, it cannot provide a political system that empowers the people to govern and decide. These achievements are up to the working class and people.

The more both candidates run to be a war president, the more both oppose the anti-war demands of the majority of Americans. Americans have repeatedly made their stand clear, with petitions, faxes, letters, years-long weekly vigils, meetings, teach-ins, conferences, and repeated demonstrations involving millions: End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Now! No War on Iran! All U.S. Troops Home Now!Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights — not in more wars against the world’s peoples. We do not want or need a war president!

We reject the war aim of the ruling circles and refuse to submit to their dictate that we vote for a war president. What we want and need are workers, women and youth to have the equal right to run and be elected. We want our anti-war stand represented in Congress and we call on all concerned to take up the fight to contend for power in the electoral arena as one front of struggle. Let us organize so that the 2010 elections see a flowering of anti-war candidates and the committees needed to elect them!

The U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization (USMLO) salutes all those who have joined the many anti-war actions and battles for rights across the country and all those present at the actions at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Republican National Convention (RNC). We applaud all the small parties and independent candidates running against the Democrats and Republicans and taking their stand against war and repression. We are calling on all to unite to break the stranglehold of the rich and advance the fight for the people themselves to be candidates and to choose their own candidates. Let us together break down the existing electoral machinery and put in place the mechanisms of the people to govern and decide. We demand equal rights and urge all to join in fighting for them — equal funding, equal media time, equal access to the ballot, equal right to elect and be elected, equal right to vote by all eligible.

There is widespread recognition that the Republicans and Democrats are both parties of the rich and cannot be relied on. Democrats again failed to submit to the will of the people after they were voted in as a majority in 2006. Instead they used their majority to continue funding the war, pass the president’s spy bill, keep Guantánamo open, do nothing to stop the raids and deportations. Yet despite all these facts, people are told to ignore fighting for the right to political empowerment and contending for power in the electoral arena because it is “a waste of time,” or something that cannot be done. We are not to even consider organizing to modernize the existing political set up so that the monopoly by the rich and their parties can be broken.

We live in a modern society with modern socialized means of productions and a modern working class. It is a class already producing the wealth needed to guarantee the rights of all here at home, and contributing to the same abroad. Yet the only role for the workers in politics is to be voting cattle for the parties of the rich. Why should we accept this limit of voting every two years, and then pressuring those in power? The rich have made abundantly clear that they do not listen to the people. They are desperate for world empire, to protect their dying system, and so they will pursue the most vicious and brutal course of war and fascism. They require a commander in chief and the candidate that wins the election will necessarily be that commander and serve the war aim of the imperialists.

We, the people, refuse to be used for war and refuse to be sidelined. How will the change demanded by so many be won absent contending for the political power to enforce such change? It can be done!

USMLO very much supports and defends the resistance struggles of all kinds and our red flags can be found flying in the front ranks of these battles. Strengthening these battles and further building unity in action in defense of the rights of all is an integral part of fighting for empowerment. But there is no need to restrict the struggle to such battles. Indeed, there is a necessity to challenge the limits set by the ruling circles. For them, one may exert pressure in a variety of ways, but always from the position of being excluded from power — not contending to win that power and organizing to do so in the here and now.

A modern society requires an electoral system consistent with universal suffrage and the right of the people to govern and decide. And certainly, as Americans, there can be no acceptance that it cannot be done! Let us together intervene in the elections with political empowerment of the people on our banners. Let us meet, discuss and together chart a course for the 2010 elections so that anti-war candidates can be elected. It can and must be done!

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Beware Obama Euphoria

Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights

The struggle in the U.S. in 2008 has seen the continued fight of the people against imperialist war and for rights. Across the country actions of all kinds have been organized, including those in support of Palestine and the Right of Return, against the blockade of Cuba and to Free the Cuban Five, and many more defending the rights to education, healthcare and housing. Major anti-war demonstrations took place in March and numerous weekly vigils and actions continue. In April, work was organized to oppose the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) organized in New Orleans. President George W. Bush attempted to use this opportunity to say the racism and brutal attacks on the people of New Orleans — where the ruling circles are attempting to eliminate public housing, schools and hospitals — was the model for the rest of the country and all of North America.

Once again the peoples of all three countries, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, stood firm and organized to broadly inform the public about the SPP. The U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization (USMLO) played an important role in this work and provided the information and analysis needed for activists to oppose the SPP as a weapon of annexation, fascism and war. And it is in part because of this work that people are now better positioned to contend with the proposal being made by Senator Barack Obama to form a Security Partnership. It should be noted that prosperity is no longer part of the picture. This “Security Partnership” is designed to create an international military alliance, controlled by the U.S. military to carry out its pre-emptive wars. Like the SPP, it is not a partnership but an aggressive take-over bid by the U.S., organized at the executive level and directly through the military forces. There is no approval or role for legislatures, and certainly not for the people. There are no “votes” for admitting countries — simply the U.S. acting to force them to submit to a “partnership” that cannot be refused.

The fascist arrangements being imposed now can also be seen in the massive and vicious raids by the government against undocumented workers and whole communities. The government is using these raids, with their hundreds of agents from numerous agencies, controlled by the federal government and military, as live exercises in submitting to fascism. Homes are raided at gunpoint without warrants, people rounded up without cause, children left abandoned. Hundreds of workers guilty of no crime are jailed, brought into court shackled and chained, arraigned ten at a time. Using the threat of indefinite detention, they are then forced to take guilty pleas for felony offenses, serve jail time and then be deported. The judges and lawyers involved all know the workers are innocent but they too are forced to submit to these arrangements, as are local police. Thus those implementing the arrangements are trained to be foot soldiers for fascism and the workers being detained, their families, workplaces and communities, terrorized and humiliated.

Yet despite this repression May Day this year again saw actions across the country, with undocumented workers and their families in the fore. Workers of all nationalities stood as one to say: No One Is Illegal! An Injury to One Is an Injury to All! This year also saw the West Coast longshoremen shutting down the ports for the entire day and playing a main role in organizing marches and rallies. From Seattle to San Diego, all the West Coast ports were shut down, with the workers calling to End the Iraq War Now! A large portion of war material is shipped from the West Coast and this stand to oppose the war by refusing to ship the war material was applauded by all. The actions represented an important development in the united efforts of the workers themselves to be political and take their stand against war and for rights.

More recently, while President George W. Bush, Congress, and both presidential candidates are stepping up their threats against Iran and calling for blockades that constitute acts of war, the people are saying No! The large majority of Americans do not want war against Iran and they want wars against Afghanistan and Iraq ended now. All U.S. Troops Home Now! is the stand and contribution to world peace that Americans are demanding. This was reflected in demonstrations across the country in dozens of cities in July and again in more than 80 cities in the U.S. and more in Canada and elsewhere, in the beginning of August. It is the stand of demonstrations at both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

The Necessity to Rely on Our Own Efforts — In the Electoral Arena and Outside of It

USMLO joins all these efforts, organizing to strengthen the level of organization and consciousness. The common experience of all brings forward the need to strengthen unity in action for the demands and rights of the people, relying on our own efforts. The elections are designed in part to derail this forward march and divert the fight for rights. We are to abandon the hard won consciousness of this necessity to rely on our own efforts and organize to represent our demands and agenda, and instead bow down to that of the rich.

As a presidential election year, this has been a time of great pressure against everyone, here and worldwide, to force to submit to the politics and agenda of the ruling class. One must choose one candidate or another from the parties of the rich and debate the proposals of each. When Bush again stole the elections in 2004, Americans were said to be supporters of Bush and pro-war. Now, with the promotion by the ruling circles of Obamamania, we are to be supporters of Obama and his pro-war platform. But at no time are we to be supporters and defenders of our working class and its agenda for an anti-war government.

We, the American working class and people, do not want the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we do not want war against Iran or anyone else. USMLO is intervening in the elections to bring to the fore the demands of the class for its rights, including strengthening the fight for political empowerment. We salute all the various efforts to run anti-war candidates and are working to strengthen the recognition that in the electoral arena, as we do outside of it, we must rely on our own efforts, not the candidates of the rich. We encourage all those who want to continue to vote against the establishment, continue to vote against war, to vote for candidates that represent this struggle to rely on our own effort and advance our own fighting anti-war agenda.

Reject the War Aim of the Ruling Class and Their Candidates

We do not want or need a war president. This is a need of the ruling class — to have a commander in chief, one that can rescue the U.S. imperialists from the deepening economic and political crisis and do so by eliminating all rule of law and imposing impunity and tyranny.

The inability of U.S. imperialism to provide any security at home or abroad is deepening. The economic crisis is such that layoffs of 10,000-20,000 workers are being called for. The debt crisis, of the government, including banks and government lenders failing, and that imposed on the people, with millions facing foreclosure, has no end in sight. The anti-social offensive has become so severe that infant mortality levels went up for the first time in ten years, and those for national minorities increased to levels higher than many less developed countries.

The attack on healthcare is such that lack of healthcare is the third leading cause of death for uninsured adults between the ages of 55-64. It is estimated that at least 22,000 people a year die from lack of healthcare, the large majority of them workers. Education across the country is also being wrecked, while executive rule is coming to the fore. As just one example of this executive dictate, the governor of California, in the name of balancing the budget, recently issued an executive order to cut the wages of 175,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage. 10,000 workers are to be laid off. Contracts mean nothing, meeting the needs of the workers and the people they serve mean nothing, the governor can simply act to force all these workers into poverty, which is what the minimum wage provides. The workers immediately demonstrated against this proposal and it has not yet been implemented. By executives in California, New York and elsewhere are organizing to take such brutal and violent action against the workers.

Instead of attacking the workers, what is needed is a stand by state and local governments to stop paying war taxes and stop paying the debts imposed by Wall Street. Stop Funding War! Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Funding for Social Programs! This is the program of the working class to open the path to progress.

The exhaustion of this outdated system and its rulers can also be seen in the fact that their only vision of the future is that of the past. For example, in his speeches Obama consistently talks about how his grandparents and parents were able to fulfill their dream of better jobs and homes. And our task now is to “return” the U.S. to this “promise” of a job and home. His recent speeches about a “new strategy,” call for returning to the Marshall plan, with its still-existing U.S. occupations in Europe, Japan, Korea. It is a return to the anti-democratic U.S. attacks on communism and all the anti-fascist fighters. In his speech in Berlin, there is no mention of the anti-fascist struggle waged by partisans and communists across Europe, no mention of the decisive role of the then Soviet Union in defeating fascism and opening the path to progress worldwide. Instead we are to resurrect the anti-worker, anti-social, anti-communism and racism of the fascists.

Returning to fascism is indeed the path of U.S. imperialism and its two competitors for commander in chief, Obama and McCain. But how can the aims of today’s youth for the future be that of 50 and 60 years ago! How can the working class look backward when it is the rising class of the new world with a vision for a future where rights are guaranteed?

We are a modern society with modern socialized means of production and a modern working class. It is a class capable of not only producing the wealth needed to guarantee the rights of all here at home, but to contribute to the same abroad. It is a class capable and positioned to decide the direction of the economy and a people capable of governing the country. We demand our right to do so and are organizing to affirm this right!

Beware of Obama Euphoria

The rise of Obama as a candidate is in part a reflection of the strength of the people’s demands for change, for a society and world that does not promise prosperity but instead guarantees the rights of all while safeguarding the natural environment. All the world’s peoples, Americans included, are rejecting U.S.-style democracy, with its genocide, occupations, endless wars and broad denial of the rights of the peoples at home and abroad. They are increasingly recognizing that only by relying on our own fight for rights will change be brought about. Obama, and Obamamania, is being brought forward to precisely target this conclusion and direct everyone to hope for change from this new found savior.

When Obama was running in the primaries, people rallied to vote for him mainly as an expression of their rejection of the establishment. Now, as candidate, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is running to be commander in chief, to be another war president. He is not opposed to the Iraq war because it is a war crime and crime against humanity. No, he says of Iraq, “This war distracts us from every threat that we faced and so many opportunities we could seize. This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy and the resources we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century.” He then goes on to call for more troops in Afghanistan, for “talking” to Iran and then using military force against them, for threatening Russia in the name of “securing nuclear materials,” and for building his “Security Partnership.” At home he recently voted for Bush’s spy bill, which allows the executive to continue spying on anyone without cause and without warrants.

The euphoria the ruling class is creating around Obama, euphoria promoted at home and abroad, is used to hide the reality that the coming U.S. president will intensify the U.S. path of fascism and war, will be yet more ruthless and aggressive against the peoples. The racism of the U.S. state is such that for African Americans to be included in the state apparatus, especially at these top levels, they must show themselves to be worse than everyone else. Thus a very real danger that presents is that the euphoria created that Obama could bring change will serve to give the rulers breathing space to try and temporarily escape their crisis, and do so by disorienting or at least causing hesitation within the movements of the people. We are to “wait and see” rather than place our hope and energy in stepping up our fight for the rights of all. We are to depend on a ruling class that can only look backward because it refuses to look forward and instead organizes to block the future the current conditions demand — a future where the rich and their imperialist system are not in command and people themselves are empowered to govern and decide. Today is the time to fight for that future! Let us together strengthen the fight for the rights of all and contend for power in the electoral arena by relying on our own efforts and providing the ways and means necessary to build the struggle for political empowerment.

Fight for Political Empowerment!
Organize for an Anti-War Government!

(The material above was prepared by USMLO for presentation to an international audience.)

 

 


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