If there was any shred of doubt left as to the Democrats’ complicity in carrying out the brutal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama’s December announcement of deploying 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan erased that doubt for good, making their role startlingly obvious for all to see.
The Afghanistan escalation is being estimated to cost $30 billion, on top of the $1.05 trillion already allocated for the wars. Yet despite these massive costs and a death toll quickly approaching 6,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, Obama and the Democrats continue to wage imperialist war with the same gruesome disregard that had previously characterized the Bush Administration.
This should come as no surprise. Obama himself had vowed, during the heat of his presidential campaign, that if elected he would escalate the war in Afghanistan. It should, however, come with the realization that we cannot sit back and rely on these same politicians to end the war for us. We will need to do it ourselves.
The Need for Mass Action
Our generation’s antiwar movement has largely been defined by a contradiction: a high level of public opposition to the wars and a low level of active struggle. Even though a majority now opposes both occupations, those involved in protests and other actions remain a tiny minority. In September 2005, over 200,000 marched in Washington, D.C. against the war, whereas in March 2009 the demonstration protesting six years of war in Iraq drew just over 10,000 as people put false hopes in the newly-elected Democrats.
Given this low level of activity, the main task of the antiwar movement at this stage is filling out its ranks by mobilizing new layers of people into struggle. Crucial to accomplishing this task will be calling for mass protests with the maximum possible attendance and support around a few central antiwar demands, like “Money for Jobs and Education, not War!” and “Troops Home Now!”
A flashpoint for resistance is the National Day of Action on March 20, which marks the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Nationally built marches are being called in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with local and regional demonstrations being called by various organizations around the country (check back after March 20 at SocialistAlternative.org for reporting on the demonstrations). While demonstrations aren’t likely to reach 2005 levels, they will become a focal point for radicalizing youth frustrated with the Obama Administration’s warmongering.
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations has played an important role in helping to unite different groups around mass demonstrations and democratic functioning in the movement.
Socialists see that mass protests will never be enough to stop the war on their own. But they are a crucial tactic for rebuilding a mass antiwar movement: uniting different sectors of the antiwar movement, providing a lever for mobilizing around, drawing in new forces, and raising the movement’s level of confidence, education, and organization.
Of course, we also support other actions that can be used to galvanize support - tactics like student walkouts and well-planned direct action that appeals to a wider audience. But these tactics will not be enough to stop the war on their own either, and they must be used as tools to build the movement that has already achieved a mass base, not just as ways of venting frustration for radicals.
Linking Up With Other Struggles
The issue of the war does not exist in isolation from other problems facing working people and youth. Antiwar activists need to link up with struggles against cuts, layoffs, and evictions. In all struggles for jobs and services, the antiwar movement should help build support and solidarity while calling for all money being spent on the wars to be redirected to meeting the needs of workers and young people.
In order to struggle effectively, this will mean breaking all political ties with the Democratic Party, which is pushing through this vicious war agenda. We need antiwar, anti-cuts candidates in every possible election, starting in 2010, so we can challenge the parties of big business for political power at the same time as we organize in the streets. Electoral campaigns in support of independent, working-class candidates have the potential to broaden the movement and bring in new bases of support.
It is the big business nature of the two main political parties that drives them to war in their endless quest for U.S. dominance and immense profits for their corporate paymasters. We need to fight against the brutal capitalist system, which breeds war in its subordination of every human concern to the need for higher profits. If we truly wish to end war for good, then out of this struggle we must build a democratic socialist society in which regular working people control a world based around meeting human needs and establishing a safe, peaceful existence.
