For the international working class, the moves by Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin to rid Syria of chemical weapons ring hollow. Neither capitalist front man honestly seeks to end the slaughter of our sisters and brothers there. Even if chemical weapons were to be eliminated — a dubious outcome — the war in Syria will not end. Many more workers will still die. Already, two million people have been forced to flee their homes. More than two million live in extreme poverty, on less than $2 per person per day.
Obama and Putin do not care about these workers or about the 1,400 who reportedly were killed in last month’s gas attacks. Both of these imperialist stooges are exploiting the attacks to gain leverage in a rivalry headed towards a far more deadly global war. Obama tried to use the gas attacks as an opportunity to launch sophisticated missiles and kill still more workers while proving yet again that the U.S. can unleash massive military force anywhere on earth. An unmatched capacity for killing underpins the U.S. global empire. It assures protection to allies and clients and destruction to enemies.
But Putin outfoxed Obama. He exploited the U.S. president’s difficulties —notably a divided U.S. ruling class — in mounting a strike on Russian (and Chinese) ally Syria. As a result, Putin comes across as the “the good guy.” (Can a Nobel Peace Prize be far off?) He succeeded in brokering a deal that halted U.S. action, at least for the time being. But Putin is no less hypocritical than Obama. He hopes to use the situation to increase Russia’s power in the battle for control of the region’s oil and gas reserves and pipelines.
Broader Regional War Looming
Reasserting Moscow’s influence, Putin has called into question the ability of U.S. imperialism to defend its interests with lethal force. If he gets away with it, he could enable others to develop their own nuclear capabilities. Far from establishing peace, the Obama-Putin bargain over Syria brings broader regional conflict even closer than before.
Weeks before Putin’s coup, Stratfor (8/27/13), an outfit that provides geostrategic intelligence to U.S. corporations, declared, “This is no longer simply about Syria. The United States has stated a condition that commits it to an intervention. If it does not act when there is a clear violation of the condition, Obama increases the chance of war with other countries like North Korea and Iran.”
Obama didn’t blunder when he drew his “redline” on Syria’s chemical arms a year ago. U.S. imperialism needs to establish these tripwires to justify its use of military force. But now that he has failed to follow through, the credibility of the U.S. war machine stands at risk. This sequence of events can only embolden other U.S. foes building weapons against Washington’s wishes.
U.S. allies, too, have cause for concern. Saudi Arabia and Israel, the cornerstones of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, were counting on the military umbrella that Obama aimed to open in Syria. Similar fears are shared by the twelve former Soviet bloc nations that belong to NATO but lie on or near Russia’s borders. In the Pacific, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines must now be wondering about how far they can count on unconditional U.S. protection against aggression from China’s bosses.
Back in 2008, Putin made clear his anti-U.S. imperialist intentions by invading what was formerly Soviet Georgia. The world saw “Russian tanks entering a U.S. client state, defeating its army and remaining there until they were ready to leave” (Stratfor, 9/10/13). At the time, the U.S. was bogged down in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But even as they have withdrawn and wound down from wars in those countries, it has taken a toll on the U.S. rulers’ home front.
Masses Oppose Obama’s War
While George W. Bush’s “shock-and-awe” invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq gained a measure of popular support in the U.S. (though not without mass demonstrations in opposition), this is no longer the case. Polls show nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population opposed to Obama’s strike in Syria. Students and faculty at the City University of New York are campaigning to kick out former CIA director and war criminal general David Petraeus from his new post as honors professor. Mass popular resistance to Obama’s proposed war strikes in Syria has grown in Britain, Germany and the rest of the European Union. In France, President Francois Hollande’s backing of Obama has met with widespread protests. Polls show a majority of the population in opposition to Hollande’s Syria policy.
Obama tried to share the responsibility for a U.S. strike in Syria by seeking Congressional approval, on the premise that Congress represents the “will of the American people.” Hogwash. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives routinely endorse policies that oppress the working class. While cutting all manner of social services, they repeatedly approve war budgets in the hundreds of billions to fund more than a thousand military bases in 130 countries. This spending has been sanctioned by every president since World War II.
Obama has tried to weaken working-class opposition to his war plans with the claim that conditions are “improving” in the U.S. In fact, unemployment and underemployment remains well above 20 million. One of five children lives in poverty. Racist murders by the rulers’ cops are regular events. And 95 percent of the recovery from the Great Recession has landed in the pockets of the top 1 percent (NY Times, 7/10/13).
The liberals who say they oppose Obama’s war adventures claim that Putin’s deal will yield a “peace dividend” to fund social services for the working class. But capitalism does not function that way. Workers have yet to see a dividend from the end of the Vietnam War or from any conflict since then. Wages have stagnated for the last 50 years. The purchasing power of today’s minimum wage is less than what it was in the 1970s. Bosses always drive for maximum profits and always will, as long as capitalism exists. That is the nature of the beast.
Workers Fight Back
Now as always, however, the working class is fighting back against this profit-mad system.  Workers in the fast food industry, among the lowest-paid in the country, have engaged in a thousand strikes in 60 cities to demand that their minimum wage rates be doubled. In Mexico, 80,000 teachers have struck and demonstrated in cities across the country, fighting the rulers’ cops in their struggle against anti-worker government reforms. In France, 80 percent of the working class opposes another pension reform that would lower their standard of living even more. Many of them are fighting back in mass street demonstrations.
Striking subway motormen have stormed train stations in Buenos Aires to win their annual bonus. Sanitation workers have joined them. Teachers in Uganda have struck for a 40 percent wage hike.
Demonstrations, strikes and mass protests are a good start. But they cannot overcome the fact that the bosses control the means of production and also hold state power through their laws, courts, cops and military. They use this power to enforce their system and control the mass media. Their politicians attempt to divert our class into dead-end reforms.
This is why the Progressive Labor Party is organizing for a communist revolution to wipe out the bosses’ system and its wars, unemployment, poverty, racism and sexism. This can be achieved only in a society that eliminates bosses and profits and puts the working class in control. Building a mass PLP to smash the bosses’ dictatorship is our goal. Join us!