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U.S. Rulers’ Strategy: Workers’ Blood for Bosses’ Oil
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- 18 September 2014 65 hits
The U.S. bosses’ widening campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL or IS, represents their latest move to control Middle East oil and dominate their imperialist rivals in the heart of their global empire. Oil is the lifeblood of capitalism. The loss of the world’s most profitable reserves would devastate energy giants like ExxonMobil and send the U.S. into its worst depression in history (see box, page 2). The bosses will continue to defend their interests at all costs. Twenty-three years of invasions, bombings and sanctions have killed more than three million working-class Iraqis and tens of thousands more in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. For U.S. rulers, the most violent terrorists in the history of the world, eliminating ISIS terrorists would represent a drop in the bucket.
When Barack Obama said, “We don’t have a strategy yet” in the face of ISIS’s grab of oilfields and refineries in Iraq and Syria, he was lying. His capitalist handlers have had an explicit, petroleum-based, Middle East war strategy for decades. In his 1980 inaugural address, two months after profit-hungry Iranian rulers seized the vast assets of Exxon and other Western firms, President Jimmy Carter said: “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
When U.S. presidents cite “vital American interests,” they hide the fact that these are the bosses’ interests, directly antagonistic to the needs of the international working class. Workers gain nothing from Exxon’s business. To the contrary, we are the ones who die in imperialist wars to protect the oil companies’ profits. This vicious cycle will end only when the bosses’ capitalist system is smashed by communist revolution and replaced with a society run by and for workers, who create everything of value. That’s the goal of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party.
Obama Wedded to Oil War Doctrine
Obama’s anti-ISIS policy, outlined in his speech on September 10, is an extension of the Carter Doctrine and the pledge by President Franklin Roosevelt to Saudi Arabia during World War II: that the U.S. would defend the region’s oilfields at all costs. The same strategy triggered the Gulf War in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush. It drove the sanctions under President Bill Clinton that strangled Iraq from 1993 to 2001. It set off President George W. Bush’s “shock and awe” invasion of 2003 and the eight-year Iraq War that followed. Obama is as tightly tied to this strategy as the Republicans and Democrats before him.
The president’s plan for now is to attack ISIS through air strikes and major ground deployments by regional allies. But since this approach will inevitably fail, the U.S. rulers’ growing hydrocarbon rivalry with China promises a deeper, wider and deadlier Middle East conflict (“NATO Foresees Three Years of War in Iraq,” Le Canard Enchaine, 9/10/14). On September 16, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said he might recommend “the use of U.S. military ground forces” in Iraq.
It’s not just Iraqi oil that’s at stake. Given ISIS’s expansionist program, the U.S. bosses have to worry about the longtime linchpin to their Big Oil world order: Saudi Arabia.
Racism: U.S. Bosses’ Dilemma
ExxonMobil and the finance capitalists who own it are openly steering U.S. policy on ISIS. Their problem is that Obama, hindered by a fractured Congress and a war-weary public, can’t provide the billionaires all the firepower they want. Meanwhile, the rulers’ racist attacks on black and Latin youth — a key part of their effort to divide and pacify the working class — pose a dilemma for them. The same young people murdered by cops in U.S. cities and apartheid towns like Ferguson, Missouri, the same ones who are imprisoned by the millions by the racist criminal justice system, are also the bosses’ leading source of cannon fodder for their perpetual imperialist wars. By alienating these youth, the capitalists undermine their case for their needed military draft. Alienated workers also contribute to the unreliability of the present U.S. military, which will once again be counted on to shore up U.S. control of the Middle East.
Obama Gets His Marching Orders
Two days before his ISIS speech, Obama hosted a White House dinner for a handful of former top-level war planners to hear “their views on a range of national security and foreign policy issues” (New York Times, 9/9/14).
The mass-murdering guest list united Democrats and Republicans. All had tight connections to Exxon itself or its founding Rockefeller family, which bankrolls hundreds of “philanthropies” to advance U.S. imperialism. In sum, the group represented U.S. capitalists’ “central committee,” the tight circle that gives Obama his orders. They included:
• Stephen Hadley, national security advisor for George W. Bush. He helped lead the deadly 2007 troop surge in Iraq and now works directly for Exxon;
• Condoleezza Rice, another Bush national security advisor, also hired by Exxon. According to Iraq Oil Report (2/8/13): “Rice and Hadley have been consulting Exxon on Iraq and on the broader region as well since at least 2011”;
• Richard Haass, the Director of Policy Planning under the Bush State Department, helped prepare the 2003 Iraq invasion. Haass currently heads the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the finance capital think tank that counts Exxon as a “founding member”;
• Samuel R. Berger, who advised Clinton to bomb Bosnia and Kosovo and sits on the boards of imperialist foundations like the Rockefeller- and Soros-funded International Crisis Group;
• Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution policy factory, which lists the ExxonMobil Foundation as a top donor;
• Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to Jimmy Carter and the author of the Carter Doctrine. Together, Brzezinski and David Rockefeller founded the Trilateral Commission, which seeks to unite pro-U.S. forces from North America, Europe, and Asia in a potential World War III alliance.
Obama’s ISIS manifesto, in which he compared the new fight to U.S. air campaigns in Yemen and Somalia, failed to satisfy this oil-driven oligarchy. Kenneth Pollack, a Brookings scholar, suggested that Obama “should have reminded the American people that this is ultimately about oil and our economy....we need to acknowledge that that is where our ultimate interest in the Arab states lies” (Brookings website, 9/11/14).
Haass, meanwhile, wrote that the capitalist bosses “need to set a scale of effort on our part far larger than anything that is being undertaken or contemplated in Yemen or Somalia.” As Haass lamented, “What air power cannot do is take and hold territory. You need a ground component, and we are not in a position to provide that” (CFR, 9/11/14).
Building PLP Under Rising Fascism
Aggravating the bosses’ problems is the need for more military funding for their relentless oil wars. This can come only from intensified exploitation of the U.S. working class, from higher taxes to cutbacks in wages and social services. Workers will suffer greatly from these attacks. From Ferguson to France to Palestine, workers will also respond as they always have in the face of capitalist oppression: with greater opposition and fightback (see pages 4, 5, 6).
Despite Obama’s caution and their reluctant and inept regional allies, U.S. capitalists cannot walk away from the Middle East. They will do what they feel they must to sustain their brutal system of exploitation. Expect more workers’ blood to be spent for bosses’ oil. But as Karl Marx declared, capitalism generates the seeds of its own destruction by creating a working class. The job of Progressive Labor Party is to lead that class to communist revolution and to end imperialist war for all time.
Newark, August 20 — A multiracial group of 250 workers, students, community activists and others, marched today to condemn the racist cop murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Abdul Kamal (an unarmed black man shot and killed by cops in Irvington, N.J. last year). The event was called by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), an activist community group. The protesters continuously chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” while marching down Market Street to the center of Newark. Many onlookers responded favorably to the militant tone of the march. A total of 240 Challenges were distributed.
Progressive Labor Party members mobilized people from mass organizations to attend this event. The class struggle in this area has been increasing, and a few more of our friends are involving themselves in larger political events than in the past. This presents PLP with more opportunities for growth, but also important challenges.
Liberal Rulers Mislead Workers Away from Fightback
In the wake of the militant antiracist rebellion of black workers and students in Ferguson, Mo. against the murder of Michael Brown by cop Darren Wilson, the liberal sector of the ruling class is pulling out all the stops to squelch this fightback. These bosses want to mislead workers into supporting any solution other than communist revolution to the systematic killings of young black and Latin workers by racist cops. The contradiction between what masses of workers really need and what various activists and community leaders are saying was on full display in the speeches given.
Various speakers couched the demand for “justice” for these three and others killed in calls for investigations by the U.S. Justice Department, or beefed-up local Civilian Complaint Review Boards (CCRB). But New York City has a CCRB already. Only 14.4 percent of the complaints filed with the CCRB last year resulted in any recommendation for action against the cop. And, of those complaints that were substantiated, only half resulted in any discipline, for an overall rate of 7.2 percent. In fact, NYPD chief cop Bratton recently complained that the CCRB was “overcharging” NYPD cops as he ignored many findings of misconduct (NY Times, 8/26/14).
The call at the rally for intervention by Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Kamal’s shooting will lead to a similar dead end. The liberal rulers consciously use Holder to try and cool angry workers. Promising Justice Department “investigations” is guaranteed to lead to something less than “justice” for murdered black workers and students. Many past shootings, like those of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell (a total of 91 bullets fired), never even led to charges against the killer cops. In the few cases that have actually led to a conviction of the cops involved (as in the 1999 torture-murder of Earl Faison by the cops in Orange, N.J.), the cops are only jailed on “violation of civil rights” charges, which leads to much shorter sentences than murder or even manslaughter convictions.
One speaker at the rally pointed out the connection between mass racist unemployment in places like Ferguson and the police terror needed to keep angry black and Latin workers under control. That speaker also pointed out that it is the rulers’ fear of domestic rebellions, not the “fight against terrorism,” that motivated their distributing out tanks, armored vehicles and advanced weaponry to local police departments. The speaker told the crowd that neither bullets nor tear gas would stop the fight to smash racism. He was warmly applauded.
PLP knows that police reform will never stop racist cop murders. Hiring more black cops, taking away military weaponry and more government “investigations” are just masks to cover up the cops carrying out the bosses’ real agenda — terrorizing and murdering restive and angry workers, many of them black and Latin. Only a communist revolution will bring the true justice that workers want and need.
Members and friends of PLP in Colombia condemn the despicable murder of our class brother Michael Brown, whose name must sadly be added to the list of workers murdered in the U.S. and the world by the miserable capitalist system. Capitalism has shed the blood of our friends and comrades since its inception.
The racist policy of this criminal system will not end there and will continue adding to the choking of Eric Garner, the shooting of Kimani Gray, the bleeding-asking-for-help of Kyam Livingston, the racist police murder of Shantel Davis by black detective Phillip Atkins, and thousands more.
Colombia is no different. As the backyard of U.S. capitalism, Colombia’s fascist presidents such as Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos have followed the genocidal policies of U.S. imperialism. They order the daily murder and disappearance of workers, peasants and teachers who fight for the interests of the working class.
We admire and support the rebellion and struggle of youth and workers in Ferguson. We know that these just rebellions will continue because they are a necessity and an example for the international proletariat to follow. Ferguson counters the bourgeois norm of believing in capitalist justice and its criminal and racist courts, that are accomplices to the murders. We workers of the world must destroy the bosses’ borders by uniting in our international Party, developing our theory and political organization and combining these forms of struggle to reach our goal of communist revolution.
For these reasons, we encourage your protests, rebellions, takeovers, and strikes. There shouldn’t be a minute of peace for our class enemies! We must be clear that the oppression of the working class will only end with the dictatorship of the proletariat and the forging of a new communist society.
Comrades in Colombia
FERGUSON, Sept 16 — In August, the first team, three students and a teacher, of Progressive Labor Party members went to Ferguson, Missouri, to fight alongside local residents against racist police terror and murder. As soon as we got into the crowd, we could feel the tension between community members and the St. Louis County police. The cops had formed a line with assault rifles, clubs, shields, and armored trucks to block protesters from marching down the street. We responded with chants like “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” or “Who Shot Mike Brown, You Shot Mike Brown!” The crowd of mostly black youth was fearless in confronting the hyper-militarized police force.
As black nationalists and local ministers tried their best to pacify the crowd, militant workers and youth shouted them down and chased them off. Police used megaphones to order protesters to keep moving, and the ministers said the same thing. But the protesters sat down in defiance. When a pastor told people to follow him down the street to continue the ”peaceful” march, a protester replied, “You can walk down the street, but we’re not leaving.”
The famous rapper Nelly, also fronting for the ruling class, tried to calm the angry crowd by saying, “We don’t need to be on out here protesting and causing havoc in the streets because we have options now.”
He was interrupted by a protester who shouted, “You have options — you’re rich!”
Workers in Ferguson saw right through the misleaders who wanted to stop the rebellion.
For five hours, protesters congregated by a Quick Trip gas station that had been burned down a couple of days earlier. The PLP team distributed 300 CHALLENGEs, made contacts with community members, and had conversations about capitalism and how fighting back against racist oppression cannot end in Ferguson. Many workers were receptive to our ideas about capitalism and its direct link to the murder of black youth by police.
During the protest, the fascist cops would point their assault rifles at the crowd from atop their armored vehicles. Led by PL members, the crowd responded by chanting even louder: “They Say Get Back, We Say Fight Back!”
In the midst of this confrontation, community members looked out for one another by sharing water and food; we caught a glimpse of what communism would look like.
Solidarity Against Fascist Cops
As it got darker, the atmosphere grew tense. We knew the cops would go on the offensive at any moment. Younger protesters told older people to return to their homes for their safety. One woman who looked close to 80 sharply responded, “Do you think we are going to leave you all to face these racists by yourselves?”
That statement reflected our solidarity and strength. Fifteen minutes later, the cops attacked us with tear gas. They shot rubber bullets into a crowd with elders and little children. When one comrade got separated from the PLP team, and we ran back for him, we saw a gruesome scene. People were limping out of the clouds of tear gas. Some had trouble breathing; others were passing out. Most were running for their lives as the fascist police marched forward, assault rifles drawn, arresting anyone they could. Even the bosses’ media journalists weren’t safe, as cops attacked and arrested them as well. Some protesters had to be carried and dragged to safety. But with chants still echoing in the background, we recovered our comrade and helped others. Some people from the crowd did shoot back at police, rejecting the misleaders’ pacifist message. They demonstrated that black workers are not afraid of violence and are willing to fight back.
The cops’ murder of Mike Brown shows us that racist attacks on black youth will continue until we smash capitalism. The capitalist courts encourage cops who murder black, Latin and immigrant workers. The bosses are preparing for urban rebellion, but so are we. Workers are ready to fight back to smash this system. We need more rebellion, but rebellion is not enough. We need a revolutionary communist society, where the working class has the power to rid the world of killer cops. The growth of the Progressive Labor Party is the only way to stop the bosses’ racist police murders. No matter how long it takes, PLP will eventually lead the working class from Ferguson to Gaza to smash the bosses’ cops and courts and establish a communist society free from racist and sexist exploitation.
WEST BANK, Sept 17 — As if Israel had not already inflicted enough pain by murdering over 2,100 Gazans, mostly civilians and children, they have now grabbed almost 1,000 acres of cultivated Palestinian land near Bethlehem. This is said to be further punishment for the killing of three Israeli teens in July. In reality, it is just part of the plan to gradually take over all of historic Palestine through illegal Israeli settlements and land grabs. Palestinians now live on only 20 percent of this land.
On a recent visit to the West Bank, some U.S. comrades learned that many Palestinians have given up on the idea of a two-state solution (separate Israeli and Palestinian states) in favor of one state. Although the number of our contacts was limited, they all seemed to agree. Firstly, so much land has already been illegally “settled” by Israel, that not enough remains to make up a viable contiguous state.
More importantly, many have realized that Israel has never had any intention of allowing a Palestinian state. The entire 25-year negotiating process is seen as simply a ploy to obscure the true Zionist intention, first espoused in 1948, of taking everything for themselves, killing as many Palestinians as possible, and forcing them to leave by creating unbearable living conditions. However, the Palestinians have survived, and the population of the whole area is now about half Arab and half Jewish.
During our visit we were invited to a conference in Ramallah to discuss “One Democratic State,” an attempt to unite many small groups desiring this end. The attendees were almost all older Palestinian men, with only a few students or women, two Israelis, and some internationals present.
Ilan Pappe, a prominent Israeli historian who has been forced into exile for telling the truth about Israeli history, was one of the speakers. He said that the whole two-state solution was only a charade to pretend that the occupation is temporary. He wanted to change the term to colonization (the suppression of natives by settlers) which may continue with or without a military occupation. The struggle must be for a single just state.
Unfortunately, no one talked about how that single state should be structured. A PL’er attempted to make the point that in the U.S. or South Africa, inequality and racism remain rampant because they are capitalist states, but she was not permitted to finish her remarks. Also, no one discussed what means of struggle are needed to promote the fight. Only the international boycott of Israel, a petition, and pressure on Palestinian politicians were mentioned. Clearly a mass campaign of civil disobedience would be needed to move forward. All agreed, though, that Fatah and Hamas will never lead an effective struggle, they will only sabotage it.
One man who has led a winning grass roots movement is Ayed Morrar, who organized the people of his village, Budrus, to fight an Israeli land grab in 2004. Every resident, including women, was encouraged to participate and take leadership. They confronted the soldiers and bulldozers seven days a week, suffering two deaths, until they won back over 90 percent of their land and saved 3,000 olive trees. They allowed no interference or funding from politicians and united all factions in the town.
Unfortunately, this model has not been replicated. Ayed hosted us in his home for a day and described the sad state of current village protests. As in the best known, B’ilin, the fight occurs only once a week, the day the Israelis are not working, and is geared to attract media attention, outside visitors, and government and NGO support. Consequently, not much has been won. There is no existing organization, from the so-called communist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), that is organizing grass roots struggle.
One encouraging sign we saw was a lack of anti-Semitism. Most Palestinians clearly separate hatred of Zionism from hatred of Jews. They have met supportive Israelis and international Jews who come to support their struggle and hope to expand these ties and live together peaceably. This is in sharp contrast to the pervasive anti-Arab racism espoused by 90 percent of Israelis, to the extent that they celebrate the deaths of thousands of Gazan civilians. This racism results from inculcation with paranoid and racist ideas from earliest childhood.
Our comrades and the 10 percent or so of Israelis who reject this idea face a difficult path, but they do organize demonstrations and refuse to fight. Now the task is for anti-racist Jews and Palestinians to join together and fight not just for a single state but for a communist state. Only when workers rule can racism and exploitations be ended.
