George W Bush is set on war. He will not let anything get in his way. Not Iraq’s agreement to let weapons inspectors back. Not the United Nations meddlesome attempt to let diplomacy work to disarm Saddam Hussein.
He will try to bully France, bribe Russia and berate China to get the UN Security Council to back his war plans. If not, he will push on regardless, aided every step of the way by poodle Blair.
Israel’s Foreign Minster has been briefed by the US administration to expect the attack on Iraq to start between late November and mid-December.
All that remains is to build up the military forces in the Gulf, prepare the US public for war and choose which “provocation” will best serve as an excuse for launching the bombs and missiles.
The US is determined to have Saddam’s head on a plate.
Then US oil giants can get their hands on the country’s huge reserves. But more importantly Washington will have taken out one of the handful of governments that question the USA’s right to rule the world. After the Middle East, North Korea, South Asia? And beyond, Europe?
Overwhelming military superiority will be used to enforce compliance with “free markets” (US multinational domination of the economy) and “open government” (compliant pro-US regimes) throughout the world.
US imperialism backed by its UK junior partner in crime is on the march. In a world that is sceptical of, or openly hostile to, the USA’s warmongering Bush can count Tony Blair as his one true ally. As the chief executive of UK PLC which takes a quarter of all US foreign investment, Blair is little more than US Ambassador to the European Union.
He claims that in return for his slobbering obedience Bush listens to what he has to say. But when Blair presses for an international conference on Palestine to get at the source of Arab hostility to the US and Israel, Bush dismisses the idea out of hand. “It’s Iraq, stupid.”
The only thing that Bush or Blair will listen to is a mass, angry anti-war movement. One that takes to the streets and stays there. The demonstration on 28 September in London was utterly brilliant. More than 400,000, from all parts of the country from all parts of the community.
It was the biggest anti-war protest since the anti-Vietnam demonstrations of the late 1960s possibly the biggest ever in Britain and like that international movement it can force the USA to retreat in disarray.
On 31 October we have the chance to take the movement onto another level of militancy and visibility. The Stop The war Coalition has called a day of protest “Stop Your City, Stop The War”.
Local coalition meetings are taking place everywhere to discuss how to make the day of action a success. Get to these meetings.
Everyone who went on the London march should organise a meeting at work with anti-war speakers and a local march if possible. Colleges should be occupied and teach-ins held. In the evening all city centres should be brought to a halt with sit-downs. Public buildings should be occupied for the day. Pro-war newspapers should be picketed.
If possible we should get stoppages in the workplace, and if we can’t get stoppages we should at least try to get dinner time meetings and rallies.
The protest on 31 October needs to be so massive and so widespread that the media and politicians cannot ignore it. It needs to be militant to show Blair that our movement is determined.
The stronger we are on the streets the more backbone we can give to the Labour opponents of war in parliament, encouraging them to disrupt parliament unless and until a vote on whether war is declared is granted. And we must follow this up at the ESF in Florence, fighting to commit it to call European-wide action on the day the war starts.
Already a majority of people in Britain do not back the plans for war. They know the pretext of Iraq’s connection to al-Qaeda is a lie, that the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, is a thin excuse and that the dictator Saddam got into power in the first place with British and American help.
Blair is prepared to make the Iraqi people pay the “blood price” for the USA’s global ambitions. We must make him pay the political price for his support for Bush.
