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U.S. War Machine’s Phony ‘Anti-Terror’ Masks Obama’s Wider War
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- 11 June 2010 682 hits
The U.S. war machine kills workers openly to control Iraqi oil fields and a projected Afghanistan pipeline. While Obama’s brass claims to be aiming at Islamic extremists and drug traffickers, their main objective is guarding U.S. imperialism, especially its control of global energy supplies. Under liberal “peace candidate” Obama, secret assassinations, torture, and intimidation by terror surpass atrocities ordered by avowed warmonger Bush. “Obama, one senior military official said, has allowed ‘things that the previous administration did not.’” (Washington Post, 6/4)
But Obama is also promoting less obvious forms of murder for profit. “[T]he Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other ‘radical’ groups, according to senior military and administration officials. Special Operations forces...are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.” (WP article)
To win U.S. workers to back this war operation, Obama & Co. are using various prosecutions of alleged terrorist “bombers” to foment mass racist terror against Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. They also propagandize U.S. troops with anti-Arab/Muslim racism to demonize the “enemy” as less than human.
Their purpose is to divert workers’ anger over racist unemployment, foreclosures and racist budget cuts which affect the entire working class while falling heaviest on black and Latino workers. The money saved from these cuts and mass layoffs can then be used to fund their imperialist wars. Given the ruling class’s many-sided operation, it behooves PLP’ers to go on a war footing ourselves to meet these attacks.
Major Oil Sources and Routes
Focus of U.S. ‘Anti-Terror’
Clandestine Violence
Somalia’s Horn of Africa — second only to the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz as a strategic chokepoint for exports of Mid-East crude — draws special attention from the Pentagon’s clandestine wing. “Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa.” (WP article)
To help sway public opinion against a Somali “terrorist menace,” on June 5 the FBI and NYPD arrested two men they said were headed to a “jihadist” training camp in Somalia. Yemen lies across from Somalia on the eastern side of the shipping lane. U.S. rulers justify intervention there by alleging ties between a fundamentalist Yemeni cleric and the incompetent “Christmas underwear” and Times Square bombers as well as the deadly, deranged Ft. Hood shooter.
“Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.” (WP article) Widespread hatred of U.S. imperialism, largely misguided into Islamic sects, gives Obama & Co. plausible, secret targets, aimed at protecting oil and gas supplies and pipelines.
An earlier leak to the NY Times (5/24) revealed that top U.S. general Petraeus “has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region.” Saudi royalty control the world’s greatest oil reserves and make a huge part of them available to Exxon Mobil in a sweetheart deal. Since Bin Laden and other non-royal Saudis were shut out of the scheme, it motivated these competing capitalists to organize al Qaeda and the resulting 9/11 attacks. U.S. enemy Iran also has both oil and nuclear dreams of dominating the Mid-East.
Obama/Gates Attack on Military Industrial Profiteers Aims at More Lethal Conventional Forces
U.S. rulers, meanwhile, are striving for greater killing power under the guise of saving taxpayers’ money. A key feature of the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closing Program, which is supposed to save billions, is building a new 8,000-strong Navy/Marine base on the Pacific island of Guam. U.S. strategists hope expanding the outpost, which will have a pier for aircraft carriers, will give them an extra edge in confronting the challenge of China’s growing blue-water fleet which can patrol the world’s oceans to secure its own energy supplies.
The NY Times (6/3) reported that, “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the military and the Pentagon’s civilian bureaucracy to find tens of billions of dollars in annual savings to pay for war-fighting operations....The goal is...3 percent real growth each year, beyond inflation, in the accounts that pay for combat operations.” Gates wants to rein in costly, dubiously useful, weapons programs to shift expenditures to projects expanding deadly U.S. force. This deadliness-enhancing, “more-bang-for-the-buck” program also involves basing forces where they are most likely to fight.
The purpose of the coming U.S. offensive for Kandahar is to ensure U.S. presence in that city, a strategic point along the projected TAPI pipeline to run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.
Finally, the U.S. military is, in fact, prolonging the occupation it pretends to be winding down in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. (see page 8) As U.S. ground troops leave, the USS Iwo Jima is scheduled to arrive. The Iwo Jima is not a hospital ship but an amphibious assault vessel with 2,000 heavily-armed Marines aboard.
Their continued military presence encircling Haiti aims at exploiting the vast oil and gas reserves under the Caribbean Sea which Russia and China are already eyeing. Both countries sent their presidents to Cuba to negotiate financing of projects whereby they could beat U.S. Big Oil to the punch here.
Yet despite their seeming ability to kill anywhere at any time with vastly superior weapons, U.S. rulers face a perilous future militarily. Shaky “ally” Israel, unstable foe North Korea and/or strategic adversaries Iran, China and Russia could in a flash provoke a global conflict causing more casualties — on all sides — than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
We, as revolutionary communists, should expose the bosses’ aggressive militarizing, like Obama’s burgeoning death squads, and put ourselves on a wartime footing.
GARY, IN, March 31 — No question about it; the racist U.S. court system does not serve the working class. Levi Randolph, a Gary cop, was acquitted of reckless homicide charges by the Lake Superior Court. In January 2006, Randolph murdered Vincent Smith Jr., a 16-year-old black youth, by shooting him in the back of the head as the teen fled his cousin’s house.
Randolph claimed he was shooting in self-defense, but as stated, Smith was running away and only had a cell phone in his possession. The truth is that the working class must always be on the defensive when dealing with police. Cops are the bosses’ thugs carrying out their dirty work, terrorizing black and Latino neighborhoods. This is done to keep workers scared as racist attacks on the working class worsen.
Following Smith’s murder, PLP and community groups led protests, speeches, and vigils, demanding that Randolph be taken off the streets and charged with murder. In March 2007, when Randolph was finally indicted for “reckless homicide,” many people who were involved in this battle felt relieved that “something was finally being done” in this struggle. Unfortunately they believed the liberal lie that the bosses’ courts will solve the workers’ problems. However, Vincent Smith’s murder was not a “reckless homicide.” It was the callous execution of an unarmed young black man, which is common for police.
The trial was scheduled for November 2008. PLP led protesters gathered around the courthouse calling for Randolph’s head. The judge then declared a mistrial, saying that jurors had been compromised by the action outside.
In March 2010, Randolph’s trial finally took place. Randolph was defended in court by Scott King, the crooked former mayor of Gary. He charmed the jury and perpetuated the lie that Randolph shot Smith in self-defense. The prosecuting attorney made little effort to argue her case, even referring to Smith as the “figure in the black hoodie.” It is not a surprise that the prosecutor would throw away a case that involved the police murder of a black youth.
Throughout the four-year campaign there were many lessons learned from this struggle. But none rang louder than the fact that the cops and courts work hand-in-fist to oppress the working class. Justice cannot be found in the bosses’ courts, and the cops are their thugs.
Racism cannot be fought by relying on the bosses. Yet, the best thing to come out of the campaign was the anti-racist, working-class unity that brought people together to fight against this police murder.
Only through this unity and communist politics from Progressive Labor Party can we end the bosses’ rule and the police terror they use to oppress the whole working class. J
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PL’er Exposes U.S. Racism, DREAM Act Scam at Prayer Vigil
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- 11 June 2010 790 hits
CHICAGO, May 15 — Today, a multi-racial group of workers converged on the office of a national politician in an effort to expose and protest his indifference to the plight of workers currently suffering racist terror in Arizona. The reform group we have been working in planned a prayer vigil and press conference in the parking lot just outside his doors. While we, as members of the PLP, know that electoral politics and faith in religion ultimately betray the working class, we attended this demonstration and supported our friends who organized it. In addition, we saw this as an opportunity to inject a communist analysis to the event.
While many spoke of reform and the power of prayer, some gave strong historical, economic and working-class analyses. They spoke about how racism is at the core of SB-1070, the new Arizona law, and how black, Latino and white workers need to unite instead of letting superficial differences keep us divided.
While a lot of the day was good, it had its weaknesses. The purpose of the event was to “pray” for a reform. The leadership’s goal is to further the DREAM Act and have Obama pass comprehensive immigration reform. This faith in the system and Obama is a death sentence for the working class. The DREAM Act would use the promise of “legalization” to trick these youth into giving eight years and maybe their lives to the military. Any reform passed will not have our best interest at heart; rather, it would be a vehicle for perpetuating our exploitation.
A Party member spoke and exposed the racist history of the United States. She also spoke to the importance of having faith in our fellow workers, and not politicians or even a “god.” She also exposed the racist link between the current financial crisis and the scapegoating of Latino workers, falsely blaming them for “taking away” the jobs of citizens. Lastly she stressed the importance of militant political action. Her analysis was well-received, and many wanted to hear more.
The purpose of working in these groups is not to win the reform; but to grow as communists and build ties with other workers. This is the only way to build the fight for communism, an anti-racist society where all workers would work together for our common needs. Lenin once said, “Unions are schools for communism.” Groups like this are similar to unions, because they give us the opportunity to fight the bosses, meet other workers, and share communism with them. We look forward to further struggle with these new friends. J
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Communist Revolution Will Smash Racist Police Terror
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- 11 June 2010 740 hits
DETROIT, MI, June 6 — “They killed my baby and I want someone to tell the truth.” That’s what Charles Jones, the father of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones said after she was murdered by Detroit police when they raided the wrong apartment on May 16. Aiyana was shot in the head as she slept in her East Side home.
The trigger-happy cowards of the Special Response Team threw a flash grenade through the window and shot Aiyana from outside the house around 12:45 am before charging in with guns drawn. The racist murderers were executing a “no-knock” search warrant for a homicide suspect and claim the gun went off after “some level of physical contact” with Aiyana’s grandmother.
Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, was arrested and released. She said, “They blew my granddaughter’s brains out. They killed her right before my eyes… the Detroit police killed my granddaughter.”
While anger about the racist murder runs deep, reaction has been mild. People have left flowers and balloons at Aiyana’s home, and there have been a few rallies against the cops. Big-name attorney, and possible candidate for Governor, Jeffrey Feiger has taken on the case, moving the focus from the streets to the bosses’ courts, from justice to getting paid. It is dangerous for workers to rely on this — big checks from the city won’t stop racist police terror.
If auto workers and youth walked out of the factories and schools and surrounded city hall and police headquarters, shutting the city down and taking on the racist killers, we would be better positioned to build a mass revolutionary movement that can end racist police terror forever.
After decades of plant closings and mass layoffs, Detroit is suffering more than New Orleans after Katrina. Workers are the victims of the decline of the U.S. auto industry and the inter-imperialist rivalries shaping world events. Racist unemployment is at 50 percent for black males. Schools are closing by the dozens. Workers and youth face a daily struggle for survival, including utility shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures. The Democratic Party and United Auto Workers (UAW) have bailed out the auto bosses with untold billions in tax breaks and concessions for the past 50 years but have nothing for the 90% black population of workers and youth.
The bosses want the cops to terrorize us into accepting a future of poverty and war. The 1967 Detroit Rebellion against racism and the 1973 PLP-led Mack Avenue Sit-Down Strike continue to haunt the racist bosses and their flunkies. Our task is to build a mass, anti-racist PLP and make their worst fears come true. J
The UAW’s Constitutional Convention will be June 14-17 in Detroit. Union leaders based their future on the success of U.S. auto bosses for the past 50 years. They grew when GM, Ford and Chrysler were top dogs, and have been hammered as U.S. bosses have been hit hard by European and Asian competitors.
Whoever emerges from the convention with leadership of the union is guaranteed to continue the policies of the old leadership: billions in concessions to auto bosses, tens of thousands of jobs sacrificed, wages and benefits for new workers slashed by more than half, retiree health care benefits that were “guaranteed for life” cut, and a failure to organize a foreign-owned factory. Looking to them for change is a waste of time. And after seeing how all the reform victories were washed away, trying to repeat the past would be worse.
U.S. Social Forum: Who Does it Serve?
The following week, June 22-26, Detroit will host more than 15,000 people at the U.S. Social Forum (USSF). USSF is funded largely by NGO’s and non-profits — the money trail heading right back to the ruling class — and supported by many of the same politicians and union leaders who are committed to saving U.S. imperialism.
The same racist ruling class that brutalizes black workers and youth on a daily basis, that murdered 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones in her sleep, has given the keys to the city to the UAW and USSF. Obviously they feel no threat from either.
But the many participants view them as an opportunity to exchange ideas, strategies, and experiences with people from different movements and social groups that are fighting to transform society. PLP will be active in both events, slowly paving the long road to communist revolution. Our main goal is to meet new friends, and win the people that participate to build a stronger PLP in Detroit.
