Increased Threat of War, Increased Urgency of Communism
September 16 – Two days ago, drones or missiles crippled the world’s largest oil refinery. Oil markets are in disarray. Saudi rulers’ plans for Aramco, their cash cow, are going up in smoke. It remains to be seen how the Saudi rulers and their US enablers will respond.
But the broad outlines of this developing crisis are clear. Like the Balkan crisis in 1914, it could easily explode into a far broader war.
Such a pre-World War period can become a revolutionary situation, though it’s not one yet. That can only happen when and where a growing communist party, based among industrial workers and soldiers, emerges to give mass leadership.
What matters most in the present crisis is how we respond. Whoever we are, wherever we live, now is the time to step up.
We must end capitalism with its cycle of ever-deadlier imperialist wars. We must start building communist social relations now. With these, we will weave together a world without borders or nations, money or markets. A communist world organized through cooperation, comradeship and sharing.
Stepping up means joining the International Communist Workers’ Party, if you are not already a member. For all of us, it means recruiting others to party collectives. That’s how we can coordinate the work of spreading communist ideas through Red Flag and every means possible.
These collectives, sooner rather than later, must become a Red Army that fights the only war that serves the interest of the international working class: communist revolution.
Regional Wars and Imperialist Powers
Three regional conflicts are fueling the immediate crisis.
First, the Iran/Saudi proxy war in Yemen (2014-present). The Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose a serious threat to the remains of the Saudi-backed Yemen government. The pro-Saudi forces are armed and supplied by the USA, and supported by the Emirates.
War crimes on both sides, but especially the Saudi blockade, have created the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis with mass starvation and a cholera epidemic. Many, many people have good reason to hate the Saudi regime.
Second, the continuing civil war in Syria (2011-present). About thirteen million Syrians have fled their homes as refugees, internal and external — over 60% of the 2011 population. Syrian people have suffered from war crimes committed both by Iranian- and Russian-backed government forces and by US-backed rebel groups.
Turkey’s rulers originally sided with the US and Saudi Arabia. Now they have joined with Russia and Iran to “guarantee” a cease-fire, though bombs and bullets continue to fly. Rulers of these three countries have now agreed on a plan to reconstruct the Syrian government.
Third, the US government (encouraged by the Israeli fascists) escalated tensions with the Iranian rulers by withdrawing from the multilateral Iran nuclear arms treaty in May 2018. Since then, almost continual military and diplomatic skirmishes have resulted in “relations between the United States and Iran [being] as tense as they have ever been.” (US Council on Foreign Relations)
In recent weeks, unidentified warplanes – at least some of them certainly Israeli — have targeted Iranian-backed fighters in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The US rulers condoned these deadly attacks.
It doesn’t really matter whose weapons took down Saudi Aramco.
What matters is this:
No worker anywhere has anything at all to gain by supporting any capitalist rulers, ever.
In wartime, especially, we must wage an all-out ideological struggle against patriotism and nationalism – a struggle for communist internationalism.
The US is a declining power. Trump is both a result and a cause. His deference to the Saudi Kingdom exposes the weakness of the US position. Netanyahu’s failure to win the Israeli special election is another blow.
Iran and especially Russia are the biggest victors – so far. The masses everywhere are the biggest losers.
But the masses can win. We can win by mobilizing for communism.
Many of us don’t live in a war zone – yet. That can change almost overnight. Let’s not wait.
Now is the time to step up. Now is the time to join and build the International Communist Workers’ Party.
US veterans against the war in Iraq mobilizing against future imperialist wars
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