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war and the anti-globalization movement
On September 29th, anti-globalization activists called for a mass
demonstration against the IMF and the World Bank in response to these
institutions horrific policies toward colonial and neo-colonial countries
throughout the world. Activists, and even the big business press, expected
some 100,000 people to attend. This all changed on September 11th.
First the AFL-CIO bureaucrats canceled their participation in the protests,
which was crucial for mobilizing workers for the event. John Sweeny, the
AFL-CIO president explained the labor federations’ cancellation because it
was their patriotic duty. The Labor tops didn’t want to provoke disunity
among Americans in “this time of crisis.”
The International Action Center,
one of the participants in the anti-globalization events, changed a planned
demonstration connected with the IMF/World Bank meetings into an anti-war
rally. Some 10,000 attended the rally in D.C., and thousands more attended
rallies in Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere on the same date.
While these actions were positive, showing that there is a layer of
Americans who oppose U.S. War on Afghanistan, the march fell far short of
the expected 100,000 for the IMF/World Bank rallies.
Part of the reason for
the low turnout was a result the labor bureaucrats refusal to endorse the
anti-war mobilization. The AFL-CIO leadership has come out in full support
of the U.S. slaughter of innocent Afghanis.
Most of the young radicalizing youth who have filled the ranks of recent
anti-globalization demonstrations are against this imperialist war, and many
are taking place in the anti-war movement. This split between the
bureaucracy on the one hand, and the radicalizing youth on the other, over
the war exposes a tension in the movement that has existed since it
beginning.
The radicalizing youth, while often lacking in clarity in terms of goals and
program represent a healthy current in the movement that genuinely seeks
real change. The labor bureaucrats are only concerned with protecting their
privileged positions, which depends on a cozy relationship with their
members’ bosses and their “friends” in the Democratic Party.
Young people who have been the backbone of all of the major
anti-globalization mobilzations who have continued their efforts to stop the
war against Afghanistan must proceed without the help of the labor tops.
Activist must reach out to the rank and file of the labor movement, who
themselves must organize against their reactionary labor misleaders to build
an anti-war movement in the unions themselves. The working class and its
institutions are crucial for the building of a mass independent movement
against the war. In order to build mass working class participation in the
anti-war movement, the working class themselves must kick out the corrupt
officialdom of the AFL-CIO. The same holds true of building a mass movement
to end the miserable conditions of workers the world over. Only the workers
themselves, through their own institutions, and with the assistance of their
allies, can overthrow the system of capitalist barbarism. This movement
against capitalism must begin by opposing the current war on Afghanistan.
This article above was written by Chicago YSAer David Bernt.
