Haywood and Alder were members of the Youth Socialists in Britain, the youth group of the sister organisation of the American SWP. The American SWP were centrally involved in building opposition to the Vietnam war, but today this organisation and its international co-thinkers have abandoned that approach and have played no role in building opposition to the new wars of Bush and his allies. Alder and Haywood had been trying to get them to change course. The leadership of the Young Socialists and its parent organisation stifled any discussion, and on August 4, Alder and Haywood were informed that their position, unheard and unread, had been rejected as 'petty-bourgeois'. They then submitted the following declaration together with their resignation from the Young Socialists. In publishing this document for information, Socialist Resistance is not endorsing all of the ideas argued in it. Katan Alder and James Haywood THE WAR waged by the British, U.S. and other foreign forces on Iraq, an oppressed nation, is an imperialist war.
This war has to be understood in a broader context of heightened imperialist threats abroad, the occupation of Afghanistan, the recent attack on Lebanon by Israel, the "long war' promised by senior bourgeois politicians both at home and abroad, and the further introduction of 'antimeasures directed against the fighting capacity of working people. The ruling class has staked its authority on being able to successfully prosecute these wars, without being challenged.
Imperialist wars occur, not because of the wills of certain politicians, but because capitalism, in its highest stage, imperialism, is driven to constantly wage wars of plunder, conquest and national oppresSTON.
This analysis applies to the Iraq war - a war waged to:
i) Guarantee that Iraq's oil reserves come under imperialist control, and reorganise Iraq's economy for the benefit of participating imperialist powers, opening up markets for both commodities and capital investment, and thus their competitors.
ii) Stage a vital lesson to governments, oppressed people, and workers and farmers, that those who oppose the dictates of monopoly capital can expect the 'Iraq' treatLICHU
iii) Oppress the Iraqi people, deny their sovereignty and their right to a nation through direct political and economic control.
iv Gain a stable launch pad for further military intervenincluding against Iran Syria.
The war abroad in Iraq is directly linked to the war at home - to 'our' rulers' declining profit rates and crisisridden world system, coupled with their inability to move working people to their political agenda. This forces them to attack us and our living
The war at home also takes an ideological form - constant disinformation by the big business press, growing censorship, and the intimidation of journalists who publish critical articles on the occupation..
Through struggles against imperialism and wars of national oppression a communist method of action has been forged, starting from:
i) Our complete opposition to imperialist wars. We view the fight of the Iraqi people against imperialism as progressive, and support them against 'our' imperialists. Our support for the Iraqi people is independent of the struggle's political leadership.
il) Our scientific understanding of their cause and historically reactionary chariii) The need for an organised class-struggle response,
iv) The understanding that class struggle, of which the movement against imperialist wars is a vital part, taken to its logical conclusion, is a struggle for power.
v) The necessity of forging a party of the Leninist type, recruited from the most advanced workers, capable of leading working people and
Communists and Young Socialists should be aiming to lead the struggle against 'their' imperialists, including imperialist war drives. We orient to the workers organised both in and out of trade unions, and to all those who are appalled by the war -including working class Muslims and youth, who have been especially outraged by the war.
In conflicts between imperialism and oppressed nations, communists unconditionally side with the oppressed nation, independent of the oppressed country's political leadership. Putting this policy in practice, Fidel Castro supported Argentina (a semi-colonial nation) in its 1982 war with Britain over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, despite Argentina's brutal dictatorship.
Communists unconditionally support the right of oppressed nations to selfdetermination. We don't put conditions on our support for the struggle against imperialism. We view the fight of the Iraqi people against imperialism as progressive, and support tnem against 'our' imperialists. Our support for the Iraqi people is independent of the struggle's political leadership. It is unconditional support for their right to selfdetermination. This is especially true since it is 'our nation which is oppressing the Iraqi people. We therefore have an urgent duty to support the struggle against 'our' imperialist troops.
Every aspect of the struggle against British imperialism in Irag is progressive, regardless of its leadership; this includes those led by the Baathists. Our support for this struggle is DalL of our consistent unconditional support for the Iraqi people's right to selfdetermination. Withholding support to those struggling Iraq fails to understand: Iraqi people is unconditional, not based upon the character of their government or leadership, but upon the fact that the struggle of an oppressed people against Imperialism is historically progressive, and the counter-struggle waged by imperialism is historically Icacuonaly
ii) That every defeat suffered by imperialism in Iraq is a victory for the Iraqi people, as it will weaken their oppressoI, leading to further openings in political space, vital for the formation of genuine
liberation moveiii) That growing difficulties for the British ruling class in Iraq weakens that class which exploits workers and their allies in this country, allowing breathing space for workers in conflict with imperialism across the world, for instance in Venezuela.
iv) That the Iraqi people have every right to struggle under a leadership of their choosing.
This does not stop communists from taking a firm stance against instances where the national bourgeois forces move against the working class. This was Lenin's meaning was when he wrote "Insofar as the bourgeois of the oppressed nation fights the oppressor, we are always,
every case. more strongly then anyone else, in favour.... But insofar as the bourgeois of the oppressed nation fights for its own bourgeois nationalism, we are against." ("Rights of Nations to Self-determination," in VI Lenin, Selected Works [1977], vol. 1, p. 581)
"If in our political agitation, we fail to advance and advocate the slogan of the right to secession, we shall play into the hands of the bourgeois." (Lenin, as before) munists can set up tent in. We are either with the unconditional right to self-determination 1n the imperialist camp.
By being the most consistent builders of the protests, and their most conscious section, communists and Young Socialists are able to mobilise and lead the movement on an anti-imperialist course of action, making it increasingly difficult for the ruling class to continue its war against the i) That our support for the Iraqi people. Communists and youth should blaze the way in:
i) Organizing broad united fronts against the war.
ii) Mobilising the masses in the streets against our common enemy.
iii) Calling for Troops Out Now, and self-determination for the Iraqi people.
iv) Supporting action that is organizationally and politically independent of the capitalist parties and politicians.
In areas where these united fronts already exist already, communists and young socialists should consider joining these coalitions in order to help build the protests. Through this mass WOIK, our units will be brought into contact with radical youth and workers, and it is from here that we can recruit and build.
In protests and actions which do not call for troops out now, we should follow the Militant's analysis, which has urged participation in peace marches and other actions, where communist views can be advanced, even if the event organisers do not agree with them. (Feb 2004)
We must expose the lies and distortions inside the anti-war movement by liberal and petit-bourgeois forces, but we should also work with them to organize mass protests like the ones we have already witnessed over the Iraq war.
Since the initial anti war demonstration of over one million in February 2003, anti-war activity has declined, but not disappeared. They are now rising again with the imperialist slaughter Lebanon and Palestine.
Communists can still do Important work in these groups
UK and All Imperialist Troops Out of Iraq Now! Self-Determination for the Iraqi People! • This is an edited version of a statement that first appeared in Socialist Voice. To see the original see: www.socialistvoice.com