Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 04:51:30 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Scott=20Hamilton?= <s_h_hamilton-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Re: Fwd: US Labour Against War website




The IWW appeals to the US to change its game and act
responsibly as a force for peace in the Middle East
etc
Pretty much the Kautskyist line of the WSF left
reformist mainstream. The revolutionary line is that
the US cannot act progressively, that its foreign
policy cannot be reformed because it is an expression
of the needs of capital, and that workers have to take
direct action to stop wars. We don't want to trade
peacekeepers for an invasion force. USLAW is to be
praised for refraining from calling on the US govt to
adopt a progressive foreign policy. It doesn't pretend
that the US govt can be a force for peace and
stability, even if it doesn't go so far as to say that
US capitalism has to be overthrown for peace and
stability to be achieved. Nowhere in its statement
does the IWW call for workers' action to stop the
machine - anti-war strikes, blockade etc Workers are
supposed to lobby the US ruling class to clean up its
act (it does to its credit call for a refusal to
serve). The statement harks back to the First World
War, when the IWW refused to take a revolutionary
defeatist position and tried focus instead on waging
microstruggles over wages and conditions in the USA. A
lot of IWWers actually succumbed to social imperialism
and went off to the trenches. 



 

===="Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

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