Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 21:56:29 +0000
From: Iain McKay <iain.mckay-AT-zetnet.co.uk>
Subject: Stopping the "coalition of the killing"


Stopping the "coalition of the killing"

Yet again those who will not have to face the evils of 
war have ordered young, mostly working class, men and 
women into combat. Their task is to kill or be killed. 
Given the opposition, the former seems the most likely. 
And who are they to kill? Other working class people 
whose misfortune is to be subjects of a "strong leader" 
once supported and armed by those states now seeking his 
end. 

Yet again we are asked to applaud the "bravery" of 
politicians who send others to fight the wars they start. 
We are urged to "support" leaders whom not only failed to 
support our wishes, they treated us as children who 
simply could not understand the issues involved. The 
possibility that we had listened to their assertions, 
understood them and rejected them is not considered a 
possibility. 

Fuck them and fuck their war.

But Blair got one thing right. This conflict will 
"determine the pattern of international politics for the 
next generation." The "development of the UN" is clear. 
It will either become a fig leaf for US imperialism or it 
will be ignored. The same for "the relationship between 
Europe and the US." The message is clear. What the US 
says goes. This is a war about the absolute authority of 
US power and the ability of one superpower to use it 
military might as and when required. Saddam Hussein is a 
convenient excuse and an even more convenient example of 
what to expect if you question US power. The Bush Junta 
contemptuously rejects any international order that 
restricts its power and freedom to act. 

The conflict in Iraq will strengthen US imperialism, 
ensuring that force will be its first call of port 
against any regime or population that acts in ways it 
dislikes. Who will be next? Iran? North Korea? Venezuela? 
Protesters at home? Rebels workers everywhere? 

Weapons of Mass Distraction
But this crisis has its successes. It has, for example, 
managed to successfully distract the population from the 
war at home, the war of capital against labour, of state 
against subjects. The war between the classes, a war 
which has sadly been very one-sided of late.

Its outcomes can easily be seen. Job insecurity, 
worsening working conditions, social atomisation, anti-
social crime, erosion of community, unemployment and 
under employment, over work, environmental degradation, 
restrictions of civil liberties and human rights, yet 
more centralisation of power, increasing inequality, 
decreasing quality public services. The list is long.

This is an old story. It was in 1976 when economic growth 
stopped narrowing the gap between rich and poor. One in 
five families with children had no earner by the mid-
1990s, four times the level in 1968. The 9 per cent of 
people who lived in poverty when Thatcher came to power 
rose to 25 per cent. 

Two-thirds of the workforce are now earning less than the 
average wage as a result of soaraway pay deals for 
executives and directors. Executive pay rose by 17% in 
2002 alone. And the pay gap has widened since New Labour 
got into office. Inequality today is worse than under the 
Tories. Three quarters of UK workers work overtime but 
only a third are paid extra. This is the worst in Europe. 
Now one in six UK employees work more than 60 hours a 
week. The number of women working a 60 hours week has 
doubled in the last two years. 

Child poverty rate of 21% for the UK in 2000-01 
(deducting housing costs from disposable income this 
rises to 31%). Taking account of housing costs, 41% of 
children in Greater London are in poverty, compared with 
31% nationally and 37% in the north-east of England. This 
is largely due to unparalleled levels of poverty in inner 
London: 53% of children in inner London are living in 
income poverty. This means that more than half the 
600,000 children living in inner London are being brought 
up below the government's official poverty line. In outer 
London 33% of children are being brought up in poverty. 

Poverty rates for pensioners and working-age adults are 
also high, with 36% of pensioners in inner London are in 
poverty and 28% in the north-east. In inner London 30% of 
the 1.8 million working age adults are in poverty. It is 
23% in the north-east. These are the highest proportions 
in Britain. 

No war but the class war!
Decades of letting the bosses and politicians get away 
with it have proven to be a disaster, as would be 
expected. It is time we acted, time we fought back to 
improve the quality of our lives. This is what anarchists 
mean when we talk about "No war but the class war." 
Imperialism abroad can best be fought by fighting against 
the bosses and politicians here. Solidarity is strength. 
If we support each other in our struggles for justice 
here we can create a movement capable of expressing 
effective strength to stop oppression at home and abroad 
and ultimately end all forms of oppression once and for 
all.

We need to clearly relate Blair's and Bush's overseas 
agenda to their elitist class war against working class 
people at home. We must see and act upon the connections 
between imperial projects and domestic power structures. 
We must show how fighting imperialism and capitalism 
cannot be divorced, that rebellion challenging the 
legitimacy US/UK foreign policy must also question 
domestic inequality (both wealth and power), 
authoritarianism, racism, sexism, state bureaucracy, 
corporate power, civil liberties, environmental damage, 
ideology, how the media works and how we educate 
ourselves (and this is just for starters). That imperial 
adventures are related to domestic problems and have 
nothing to do with the high-minded ideals used to justify 
them.

Without protest now, Blair and Bush will be emboldened to 
continue to implement their neo-liberal policies at home. 
So to fight against imperialism will help the struggle 
for liberty and justice at home. And only be intensifying 
that struggle at home can we give a real blow to 
imperialism. And by weakening imperialism, we can ensure 
that the US/UK will be in no position to back 
authoritarian regimes (like Saddam's before 1991) across 
the world.

Regime change starts at home
Anarchism is based on self-liberation. No one else can 
free you, you must free yourself. Stirner put it well: 
"the man who is set free is nothing but a freed man. .
. a dog dragging a piece of chain with him."

This means that bombing the Iraqi people will not set 
them free. It will merely change their masters. It may 
result in nicer masters (although doubtful, given the 
USA's track record), but the Iraqi people will still not 
be free. 

So, as regards Iraq, anarchists would argue that there is 
only one way that Saddam can be got rid of and that is by 
a popular uprising. The only role that other countries 
can play is to encourage that process with material and 
moral support. Needless to say, such a popular revolt is 
the last thing the US wants. This can be seen from 1991, 
when they stood back and watched Saddam slaughter the 
rebels (needless to say, Saddam's actions then are now 
used by the US now to justify their bombing of the Iraqi 
people). It can be seen from their support for Saddam 
during the worse of his atrocities and their continued 
support for murderous regimes globally now. It will also 
be seen by US support for the "strong leadership" they 
hoist into power in Iraq, if and when their troops leave.

This is why we must resist war now. Popular pressure on 
the US and UK governments could result in the Iraqi 
people can get help to overthrow Saddam in ways that do 
not threaten their lives by "Allied" weapons. Providing 
training, weapons and intelligence to the resistance, for 
example, and using the UN to disarm Saddam. If British 
troops can help Pol Pot's troops, why not fighters in 
Iraq? But, of course, a popular revolt is the last thing 
the US and UK elites want. It would result in popular 
power. And so Iraqis will not be helped to help 
themselves. Instead they will be bombed and given a US 
approved regime that, like Saddam's in the past, will use 
an iron fist to maintain "stability" in Iraq and in the 
region.

To help others we have to start by helping ourselves. You 
cannot give to others that which you do not have. This 
applies to liberty and democracy. This crisis has proved 
how little of both capitalism allows. And it points the 
way to defeating both local tyrannies like Saddam's and 
imperialist powers like the USA. For only direct action, 
the natural expression of liberty, can stop the state's 
war machine and help the Iraqi people free themselves. 
Only by expressing our power at home can we make the 
wider world a better place. Only by fighting here can we 
be in a position to show effective solidarity with our 
fellow working class people across the globe.

You have the power to stop the war!
If individuals acted as the state does, we would have no 
qualms about seeing them in jail. Yet the state expects 
its crimes to be supported by its subjects. 

The priorities of capitalism are clear. $900 billion plus 
a year is the world military budget. These resources 
could be used to make the world a better place. Just one 
example: The 2002 Johannesburg summit set a target to 
halve, by 2015, the millions living without fresh water. 
The cost is estimated at £20bn. At home, Gordon Brown can 
find any amount of money to fund the destruction of war, 
but not to maintain decent public services or pay public 
service workers (unless, of course, they happen to be 
bosses or politicians). Any system that spends more on 
death than on living is a system whose days are numbered.

There is one question every sane person must ask. How can 
we stop this war and the system that produces it? By the 
one thing all states hate, by its subjects practising 
their liberty, by their revolt. He has lied and 
manipulated in order to foist the Bush Junta's war onto 
us. This is a wake-up call for all those who mistakenly 
think that the state exists to represent the governed and 
that we can elect "better" leaders to ensure change. 

This crisis will only be resolved by applying the liberty 
that every state denies in practice. Only our direct 
action and solidarity, our proclamation of disobedience 
and our fitness to govern ourselves will stop this war. 
We have to do it ourselves.