So goes one of the verses of an old union anthem, "Solidarity Forever"
Those words ring as true today as they ever did before.
| Those who can end terror and war are those who are forced to die in it and produce it, the working class, both here in the U.S. and in the "enemy" countries. Let Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell and their friends have to load the bombs, drive the trucks, fly the planes while the working people fold their arms and refuse to cooperate, and see how far they get with their war with Iraq. | |
Let the cringing members of Congress who kowtow and give the warmakers what they want follow along with them, lugging the ammunition and washing the uniforms. Let the media moguls like Murdoch, who beat the war drums for Bush, have to clean the latrines after them, and maybe give them a brush if they do a good job.
But it seems clearer and clearer that the unions we have today cannot accomplish this. They themselves are too timid, too concerned with currying favor with politicians and corporate leaders to wage the kind of fight that workers would need to wage to stop this insane war drive. It is not a question of whether or not there are good people in power in the unions, but the way the unions are organized, the ideology that they work under that limits them so.
What we need is a labor movement that is built from the ground up, based on an uncompromising militancy that does not swallow the patriotic lies that have pitted workers in one country against workers in another for so long. It needs to be a movement without a huge cadre of paid officials and bureaucrats, who become so invested in preserving their positions that they sell us out materially and politically as well. It must be based on direct democracy, so we call all talk together as equals and work out our views and perspectives on issues like the possible war in Iraq without interference from above. And it must be truly international in scope, so that we all know wherever we are that we gain nothing in the long run by killing our brothers and sisters who live in an "enemy" country.
But the burden is not just on working people but on those who make up the peace movement today. Building on the recent sentiments against corporate abuse, activists serious about blocking further killing must reach out to, and more importantly, listen to working people. The real war for us must be class war, not military conflict. As body bags begin to pile up, it is time for workers and anti-militarists to talk with each other work together in an effort to end the mad rush to destruction.
We of the Workers Solidarity Alliance are men and women like yourselves, not numerous or powerful as such, but ready and willing to work to stop the drive toward war and build the kind of labor movement that we are talking about. We call our perspective anarcho-syndicalism and we share it with other groups here and around the world. If you would like to work with us, to know more about what wešre about or jut to talk out your ideas on this issue or anything else, please get in touch.
Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette Street - Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel: 1-212-979-8353
e-mail:
wsany@hotmail.com