Click on the headline to link to theLenin Internet Archives online copy of his The Tasks of Revolutionary Social-Democracy in the European War.(1914)
Markin comment:
Every once in a while I get thrown for a political loop and this is one of them, although as the headline hints at the resulting reflection on the question may have done some good. Here was the question (paraphrased) as it was posed to me by one of our recent contacts at an anti-war rally: Why, given all the social and economic issues in play in American and world politics is most of the propaganda that you guys (meaning the anti-imperialist committee that I am part of-Markin) centered on the fight against Obama’s Afghan (and Iraq, don’t forget) war policies? That question, or its substance brought forth a rather far-reaching recent discussion (still on-going) about our purpose, our political perspective and our orientation. It is in that sense that I meant the question did some good.
First things first though. A quick refresher on where we have been. Our local anti-imperialist political committee started out in October 2001 in order to consciously, and fervently, oppose the original Afghan invasion (yes, the one now in its ninth going on tenth year and under its second American president) as tough as that action was to protest on the streets of America in the wake of the criminal World Trade Center acts. Almost immediately after that we had to gear up for Bush II’s long running Iraq War and more recently, directly reflecting the contact’s point, Obama’s troop escalations for what amounts to Afghan War II. Along the way we have, of course, intervened in other social struggles like the local fight against home foreclosures, strike support work (none very recently unfortunately, except the local Shaw Supermarket warehouse workers lockout last spring), the struggle against budget cuts all levels of public education, including defense of teachers and professors unions, and the Palestinian struggle for statehood. However, in general, the contact’s point is on point.
Frankly, we made a conscious decision in the wake of the initial overwhelming (but apparently, apparent now that is) superficial Obama wave in his 2008 American presidential victory to concentrate on what we perceived to be his upcoming Achilles’ heel. His, upfront, clear-cut unmistakable promise to escalate the war in Afghanistan upon taking office. From the beginning, almost the very beginning of his term (remember that initial February 2009 20,000 troop escalation, yes, that one, the one that didn’t really count). And he did just as he promised (and then some) on this issue providing us with plenty of anti-imperialist, anti-militarist, anti-war propaganda. And continues to do so. But there has been a problem. There was an old expression that some people used to put on their posters at anti-war rallies- “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” Well, in the past year many political things have happened but the Afghan war, as a protest issue, if not as a news issue has fallen off the radar. In short our “slogan” today, sadly, would read “What If they gave an anti-war and nobody came?” That hard fact and the contact’s point come together around this political truth.
I will also admit here that I was one of the main, if not the main, driving forces behind the policy of centering on Obama’s Afghan War policy. I firmly believed early on (and still do) that Obama fully intended to stake his presidency on a successful Afghan war closure, come hell or high water. He probably, in some hidden recess of his mind, still does. Time, politics and other issues have got in his way. But let me lay out my reasoning then, and now, for continuing to focus of Afghanistan, although I am certainly more open to including other issues that previously.
First, the milieu we that work in here in Boston is overwhelming a college one, including graduate school hangers-on and yuppies. That means plenty (hopefully, if we can get their eyes off the ipod, iphone, i-whatever for five minutes, hell, two minutes) of best and brightest starry-eyed idealists (praise be) to try to rally around us. Just exactly the kind of people who, looking at their world, looking at their society and, most importantly, looking at their government can be won, with some patient and savvy, to an anti-war, anti-imperialist , and, hopefully, an anti-capitalist perspective. You may find this crowd out on Earth Day; you may find this crowd out at some Tech fair. You may find them at the myriad music concerts and festivals. You may find them checking the sun signs on May Day (not our red banner May Day, the other one, the maypole one). Hell, even an otherwise politically unemployable old windbag like Professor Noam Chomsky with no political program and no sense of organization can draw a circle of adoring students (and others) around him. What you will not see is them involved in labor struggles, home foreclosure struggles, or even, for that matter, in the struggle against higher public education budget cuts (unlike in other places, like California). From past experience the anti-imperialist propaganda thrust, however, has produced, although always with the caveat “not many recently”, some good militants.
Secondly, we are painfully aware of the economic doldrums of the past few years. Hell, those are our people out there on the unemployment lines: those are our people being foreclosed on; these are our people being pushed out into the mean streets, and not the voluntary streets of the youthful 1960s hippie lark. But here is the hard truth on this. Right this minute, and to a certain extent not unnaturally in a deep recession/depression, the level of class struggle is de minimis. Moreover, unlike in the 1930s that I have been looking at recently for some models, there are no mass leftist parties around to lead rent strikes, eviction parties, unemployed councils, trade union organizing and a whole range of activities to bring some relief, gain some precious political capital, and make the anti-capitalist aspect of the overall anti-imperialist struggle jump. The Afghan war, it effects on the economy through the obscene war budgets, and to the greater overall obscene military budgets is a trigger for action right now, right this minute.
Lastly, politics is above all about timing, bourgeois politics and radical politics alike. I remain convinced, especially giving the general apathy and weariness on the war question among the public, that the short way home for us, for we anti-imperialist fighters to end the war on our terms, not Obama’s is to get to the soldiers fighting these wars as well as recruiting civilian supporters. With the shortage of our supporters out on the mean streets right now that means getting to the veterans and active duty soldiers who are in the front lines fighting the damn thing, just this minute. And pronto. That effort alone, and given the experience from the Vietnam era when the soldiers started turning against that war, conscript and volunteer both, once they get “religion” is worth keeping our eyes on the anti-war struggle. That is roughly my position in this on-going political discussion about how to, small forces, on the defensive and all, to change the course of history. More later.
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