On
The Parliamentary Front Against The American Middle East Wars
Presentation by Marilyn
Levin, Co-Coordinator United National Antiwar Coalition
(UNAC) at United for Justice
with Peace Forum on ISIS, Iraq and Syria, What Should be the Response of the
Left?, December 8, 2014, Cambridge, MA. Panelists included Elaine Hagopian,
historian, Professor Emerita Simmons College, and Cole Harrison, Executive
Director, Massachusetts Peace Action. (Links to video
below.)
People have been asking why
there was a significant worldwide protest against a war on Syria last year, with
barely a noise now. The U.S. always has to create a justification for its
military action and people have been burned by the fantasy WMD’s in Iraq. The
issue of chemical weapons in Syria smelled too much like Iraq and people were
heartily sick of wars that accomplish nothing, or at least not the war-makers
stated goals. (They never say we’re fighting this war to control and steal the
resources of the rest of the world.)
This year, the drama of ISIS,
an unknown group, swarming through the Middle East and beheading Americans, was
intensified by the bought media, and scared more people. Even people in the
peace movement got scared and felt threatened. Part of this is American
exceptionalism. We are civilized; we don’t behead people. No; we blow them to
smithereens with drones and rockets, we send countries back to the dark ages, we
torture people by unspeakable means, we are close allies with Saudi Arabia who
also beheads people (non-Americans of course), and we finance Israel’s
horrendous siege and genocidal destruction of Gaza. Much better!
In fact, in many arenas, we
are the best in the world – the best polluters, the biggest economy and
military, the largest criminal pariah state, the best propaganda machine, the
country with the biggest prison system in the world, a massive intelligence
apparatus that spies on everyone, and the biggest, most mighty imperialist
power.
We have a country that after 13
years has caused destabilization, death and destruction to many parts of the
world with no end in sight – that has bases all over the world and engages in
wars in all its forms, overt and covert, from boots on the ground, drones and
rockets, proxy wars, special ops and mercenary wars, counterinsurgency
struggles, bought national armies, cyberwars and more.
Ed Snowden did a great service
to the world in exposing the extent of the surveillance state. For his truth
telling, his life is in danger and he is unable to leave Russia. The man who
blew the whistle on CIA torture is in jail, while the torturers are home
free.
Well, according to all the
polls, people are still sick of war but simultaneously, they are sick of a
bipartisan single War Party government representing corporate/financial/and
military interests that lies, manipulates, spies on them and the world, spends
trillions on endless wars while implementing punishing austerity measures at
home that targets working people, particularly people of color, and the poor, a
racist, undemocratic government that brutalizes, incarcerates and
disenfranchises millions of black and brown citizens while the discrepancy
between the obscenely rich and the 99% has never been greater.
How do we know this – look at
the mid-term elections – where the winner was “none of the above.” The 34%
turnout was the lowest in 72 years, with the under 30 vote down from 19% to 13%
and voting by Blacks and Latinos much reduced from before. We saw Congressional
approval ratings of 14% or lower. A Gallop poll in 2013 showed that 60% of
Americans thought the Democrats and Republicans do such a poor job that a third
party is needed.
We have witnessed a massive
transfer of wealth to the corporate rich, the banks, and the war machine. They
are trying to privatize everything that we assumed belonged to the public. Even
water is no longer a basic human right. They spent trillions of our money to
bail out the banks and no one went to jail for defrauding us and plunging the
world into worldwide depression. The capitalist system has one over-abiding
imperative – expand and profit or die. This is accomplished by competition,
financial bubbles, austerity programs, and war. Social justice and
environmental concerns plays no part. Periodic crises are “resolved” through
austerity programs that cut essential services and by waging wars.
Putting our faith or energy on
elections and influencing Congress is not only a waste of time but it is harmful
to building a movement to end war, privation, and injustice, and to curb, now
inevitable, global warming.
The cost of running in
elections, Supreme Court rulings, and restricted media access ensures bought
politicians who must cater to their handlers or be booted out. Once elected,
they ensure that laws benefit the ruling rich. We can’t talk about the “rule of
Law” in the abstract. Whose law? The law that benefits the power elite does
not work for the rest of us. The entire criminal justice system is rigged –
prisons are places of torture and slave labor and run by privatized
profit-makers on a large scale. Poverty is now a crime. When people can’t pay
even minor fines, they accrue more and are jailed repeatedly. The grand jury
system works for them. People are coerced to plead guilty and plea bargain to
avoid lengthy sentences, and then, as convicted felons, are disempowered for
life. We must not forget that what the Nazis did was legal. They just passed
laws that allowed them to act with impunity. Wars with no limits are authorized
and reauthorized by Congress or just acted on by the “Commander in
Chief.”
The organized left and labor,
mostly co-opted by the Democratic Party and lesser-evilism, has been so weakened
that it has not been effective in struggling against the actions of the major
imperialist power on earth. In fact, the left, particularly the antiwar
movement, has not recovered from the first Obama election in 2008.
The same left will not learn
from this and they will invariably support the Democratic Party, while
demonizing the Republicans. If Hillary Clinton is the candidate, her record as
a war-hawk and staunch friend of Israel, will be expunged and she will be
extolled as the climate change champion, the anti-racist, the advocate for
women’s rights, while hiding her true colors as the mouthpiece for the
military/industrial/financial complex.
What is hopeful is that
we see mass responses to the injustices and repression. Look at recent
uprisings and campaigns that have won some victories – the massive march on
climate change, the rise of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Gaza
protests, the campaigns for immigrant rights, the Occupy movement, marriage
equality, the $15/hour campaign, and the election in Seattle of socialist
candidate Kshama Sawant.
Of course, the most exciting is
the uprising, initially over the non-indictment of the police murderer in
Ferguson, that is now reawakening the new stage of the civil rights movement
that says “Black Lives Matter.” The struggle is not over desegregation and
voting rights. Today, it is tackling the systemic racism and oppression of
Black people in this country – police brutality and racial profiling, mass
incarceration, poverty, poor education, the war on drugs – and building a new,
young, fighting leadership, independent from the major parties. They are making
demands for what is needed. They are not asking people to call their
Congressional representatives and beg for support. Because of this, they are
getting the President, Hillary Clinton, and other politicians to speak out and
take minimal action. Where were they when the thousands of other victims were
brutalized and even murdered by a militarized police force?
These struggles are inevitable
because the abysmal conditions we face drives people to fight back. The
corporate powers are well aware of this and they are preparing for it. It is
not an accident that the police force has been militarized, that the NSA spies
on all of us, especially the dissidents and potential leaders of struggles, now
here and coming, and that the Patriot Act and many other laws and executive
orders to stifle opposition have been put in place.
Our role is to do the same –
not rely on Congress or the UN (which the U.S. and other major powers use to do
their bidding when convenient and ignore it when it is not) – to join with every
social movement in the streets in mass protests and to connect the issues to
their source – the imperialist drive for expanding profit and dominance.
We need to stay in the streets
and make demands for what we want and do not want. We don’t need to tell
them how to run their system more efficiently and what percent of the military
budget is acceptable to us. None of it is!
This rotten system needs to be
brought down and replaced by one that meets the needs of the majority of the
world and the planet itself.
We won’t get there by voting
for the war-makers. We won’t get there by incremental reforms. We won’t get
there by relying on the Supreme Court, or the UN, or their so-called
diplomacy.
We need a real independent mass
third party in this country. We need to unite the movements that are fragmented
and separated. We need to educate ourselves and others and continually point
the finger at those who are responsible. We need to keep our groups and
coalitions going and expand them, especially working with the radicalized youth
of today.
I encourage you to attend the
national UNAC conference next May 10-12 in Seacaucus, New Jersey and to join
with activists engaged in struggles around the globe to strategize and organize
to build a united movement that is powerful enough to make the fundamental
changes that are necessary to sustain and nourish human life on this
planet.
Forum recorded
by Stanley Heller for cable program, “The Struggle.”
Playlist
of the Three Talks
Elaine
Hagopian http://youtu.be/MQsVBH4BkJ4
Cole
Harrison http://youtu.be/nYJEUqIT754
Marilyn
Levin http://youtu.be/gpE6aqe1Xl4
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