[Fwd: (en) US, Anarchist Workers Solidarity Alliance on the 2009 US-Afghan Escalation]

[Joe Golowka]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	(en) US, Anarchist Workers Solidarity Alliance on the 2009 US-Afghan Escalation
Date:	Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:37:23 +0200
From:	a-inf...@ainfos.ca
Reply-To:	a-inf...@ainfos.ca
To:	en <a-inf...@ainfos.ca>

On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama announced that he will send tens of thousands 
of additional troops to Afghanistan, escalating the war in central Asia. Obama claims to 
want peace while he orders more war and death for poor and working people. He claims that 
the US fights for freedom and democracy, but he allies himself with tyrannical Afghani 
warlords. He does this with the backing of both Democrats and Republicans and the 
corporate interests they serve. None of this is new or unusual for the United States 
Government and its NATO allies. The only thing �new� is the person issuing the orders 
today: Obama, the �Candidate of Hope� was elected promising �Change.� Now in office, he 
delivers more of the same�using the US military to install pro-capitalist governments in 
countries around the world in order to maintain and expand access to raw materials, cheap 
labor and consumer markets for Western corporations.

Obama and his cohorts have lured many sincere working people into supporting the war in 
Afghanistan by promises that it will curb terrorist attacks against the US and bring 
freedom, democracy and women�s rights to Afghanistan. The real facts in Afghanistan show 
such �humanitarian� concerns to be nothing but lies:


     * US/NATO aerial bombardments relentlessly murder thousands of Afghan civilians in 
their homes, villages and cities; in fact, air bombings in Afghanistan have significantly 
escalated under President Obama
     * US/NATO forces have allied since day one, and remain allied, with the �Northern 
Alliance� warlords responsible for mass atrocities against civilians in 1992 and who now 
dominate the corrupt regime in Kabul, through which they secure immunity for their past 
and present crimes
     * Afghani women activists�to whose cause the occupiers pay lip service�have 
consistently denounced the US-led occupation and puppet regime, demanding that foreign 
troops leave and calling for prosecution of both Taliban and pro-US war criminals


The escalation of the war is a disaster for the oppressed poor and working people of 
Afghanistan. As such, the �surge� will inevitably fuel more terrorist attacks against 
civilians in the US and elsewhere, attacks which elites will then use to justify the far 
bloodier terrorism of �Western� military powers against cities and villages in the Middle 
East. US elites will then seek to manipulate workers� fear of terrorist attacks into 
support for the so-called �War on Terror,� increased defense spending and decreased 
funding of education, welfare, healthcare and social services, increased militarization of 
the domestic police, and increased spying and repression of workers organizations and 
anti-capitalist political organizations in the United States. All in the guise of 
�fighting terrorism.�

It is our stance that authentic peace and security can only be achieved through worldwide 
working-class solidarity against all forms of oppression. The Workers Solidarity Alliance 
firmly stands with the oppressed people of Afghanistan and with progressive organizations 
such as the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and others, who we 
know are risking their lives at this moment to defy imperialists, warlords and 
fundamentalists alike. The WSA unequivocally supports the aspirations of all oppressed 
Afghanis for a free, democratic and peaceful life.

There can be no hope for liberation of Afghanistan by foreign occupiers�only the struggle 
of oppressed Afghanis and authentic solidarity from struggling people around the world 
offers any such hope. American workers who wish to stand up for oppressed Afghanis should 
stand against the war-mongering of �our� government.

It is heartening to see the anti-war movement stirring in the US and internationally 
against the troop surge in Afghanistan. However, the movement as it stands now suffers 
grave limitations. It is telling that many liberals and Democrats who have spoken out 
against the war in Iraq are willing to compromise with the Afghan war. This fact alone 
speaks to the dire lack of coherent social principles in the broadly defined anti-war 
movement. Many who criticize it do so (as with Iraq) out of �strategic� or �pragmatic� 
reasons�that the war is a �mistake� or �cannot be won.� Such reasoning is not anti-war. 
These reasons imply that the war would be just fine if the US could achieve its aims.

That is but a flip-side argument to those now clamoring for �victory.� On the other hand, 
in our experience, many in the protest movement seem more concerned to prove their moral 
righteousness, while neglecting to build an anti-war movement that can actually defeat 
wars. We find both the �pragmatic� and �moral� arguments against the war unsatisfactory.

The WSA proposes a different orientation for the anti-war movement. As an organization of 
working-class militants rooted in the traditions of anarcho-syndicalism, libertarian 
socialism and class struggle, we are convinced that militarism can only be defeated by the 
rank and file of working people, in common struggle against the class of bureaucrats, 
politicians and capitalists who profit from the slaughter of war. Only through a mass 
struggle against all bosses and the overthrow of capitalism and its supporting political 
structure will war and imperialism ever be definitively ended. While we firmly support 
anti-war protesters, we know full well that news-grabbing marches by a small crew of 
professional activists are no substitute for the kind of mass working-class resistance 
that wreaked havoc on the US war effort in Vietnam: rank-and-file refusal, sabotage and 
mutiny, social upheaval in the ghettos and working-class communities from which the 
soldiers are recruited, and so on.

Here we find the Achilles heel of US imperialism. The US military is an army made up of 
recruits largely from working-class backgrounds. With rampant unemployment and 
underemployment in precarious service industry jobs, many workers increasingly see 
military service as their only viable career option. Many immigrants join the US military 
in exchange for US citizenship, interpreted as a path to a decent job and a better life. 
Frontline GIs are enlisted largely from working-class neighborhoods, towns and ghettos 
suffering economic hardship. The rank and file of the US military do not simply enlist 
because of blind patriotic loyalty to the ruling elite. They often enlist out of the 
economic hardship inherent for working-class people forced to live under an economic 
system in which basic necessities such as shelter and health care are treated as luxuries 
for those who can pay rather then necessities that all people are in need of and have a 
right to, in a word�capitalism. Already we have seen the first stirrings of resistance in 
the military's rank and file, from soldiers who have refused to serve in Iraq. We deeply 
respect the courage of those soldiers and technicians who have taken a stand against the 
madness of war, asserting the value of working-class lives. Their brave example serves as 
the clearest manifestation of the fact that US soldiers do not fight simply out of 
ideological faith in the objectives of US imperialism.

The anti-war movement, if it is to have a chance at success, must encourage the growing 
resistance in the lower ranks of capitalism�s armed forces. The rank-and-file soldiers of 
capitalist empire, recruited from the working class, could turn against the brass to 
become a true workers' army dedicated to fighting the real enemy at home: the ruling class 
of capitalists, politicians and the middle managers who do their bidding.

We pledge our support for rank-and-file soldiers who refuse the orders of their 
commanders. We extend our support in particular to the Iraq Veterans Against the War, an 
organized grouping of veterans and active-duty soldiers that seeks to undermine support 
for imperialist war in Iraq and Afghanistan from within the US military. We also encourage 
efforts to establish solidarity across battle lines with the rank-and-file of state 
militaries around the world.

While supporting anti-militarist resistance within the armed forces of the US, NATO, and 
other imperialist states, we also acknowledge the right of oppressed Afghanis to resist 
all forms of aggression and despotism at home, whether it be in the form of foreign 
imperialism or homegrown autocracy. Thus the Workers Solidarity Alliance extends its 
solidarity to all who struggle to build a truly democratic Afghanistan that respects the 
humanistic aspirations and needs of all working-class Afghanis, male and female alike. We 
affirm again our internationalist, anti-authoritarian principles and our solidarity with 
oppressed and struggling people everywhere.

Workers Solidarity Alliance (W.S.A.)
ws...@hotmail.com
www.workersolidarity.org.
_________________________________________
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