LOS ANGELES — “There is no ‘we’ that includes the U.S. government and working people.” A member of the political action committee of our organization spoke in favor of a resolution for the U.S. to withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.  She continued:

“The politicians who make decisions represent U.S. corporations who are fighting to control the resources, markets, and investment opportunities necessary to make profits. Workers in the U.S. are losing their homes, their medical insurance, their jobs, their civil liberties. Do you really believe the same corporate interests that are screwing us will bring peace and prosperity to Iraq and Afghanistan? They haven’t brought it to New Orleans.”

The resolution stated that the U.S. is in the Middle East and Central Asia to compete with other capitalist powers for control of oil, gas, and pipeline routes, and not to build infrastructure, establish human rights or build schools for girls.

More than 30 people participated in a lively discussion of the resolution. Some of it went like this:

Against: Obama has so many opponents, we need to support him.

For: Why should we support Obama when he is doing what we attacked Bush for doing? Obama has given hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall St. banks and little or nothing to working people. Obama’s Secretary of Defense is Robert Gates, who was Bush’s Secretary of Defense.

Against: If the U.S. withdraws without defeating the Taliban, it will encourage terrorists all over the world. And other countries, such as Iran and China, will move in.

For: We are equally opposed to all imperialists, but as working people living in the U.S. we have a special responsibility to fight against “our own” imperialists. U.S. bosses try to suck us into blaming Iran and China for our problems. We should do everything we can to encourage our fellow workers in those countries to attack “their own” imperialists. As for terrorists, the biggest terrorist in the world is the U.S. military, which kills, wounds, and terrorizes Iraqi and Afghan civilians every day.

The resolution passed by a large majority, and the committee also decided to start a weekly protest against the wars. Those who voted for the resolution have compassion for the ordinary Iraqis and Afghans who are suffering and dying under U.S. occupation, and they want the men and women in the U.S. military to return to their families and a better future.

Many who voted for it did not fully agree with our class analysis of society. Some argued, for example, that the U.S. should follow Greg Mortenson’s (author of Three Cups of Tea) model of promoting peace by building schools. Others suggested the U.S. was in Iraq and Afghanistan mainly to support the “military-industrial complex,” and the solution was instead to build schools, hospitals and infrastructure at home.

This fight will be expanded as we try to pass the resolution at the full local meeting and at the national meeting of our organization. We will continue the struggle by working to educate people about the imperialist nature of these wars. Our plan is to win people to go to the weekly protests on the basis of agreement with aspects of our political line, including opposing racist unemployment.

Since the meeting, we won several friends to participate in the rally against Nazis at city hall, although the members of the mass organization were not ready for that step. We hope that we will be able to win these friends to more militant action as we build stronger friendships and expand our monthly CHALLENGE readers’ group. Our goal is to win these readers to join PLP in the fight for communism. J