International Socialists

So far the size and international scale of the movement opposing this war has been truly inspiring. The global protests from February 15-16 constitute one of the single greatest mobilisations against war in human history. World-wide well over 10 million marched, with at least 20,000 taking part in this country. It is clear that we need to build on our early success and make this movement even bigger and more effective. But this raises the questions: How can we build the movement? And what kind of movement do we need to stop this war?

Brian Roper answers these questions.

Mass militant protest
It might seem obvious that there is no substitute for mass militant protest but there are currents within the anti-war movement who don’t necessarily accept this. Some Christians, but certainly not all, think that we should do little more than pray to god for divine intervention. Pacifists think that we should march passively and silently and many oppose anything more militant than this. They have also argued that, “people are sick of protesting” and would rather attend “peace picnics” than participate in noisy demonstrations (which is why there was no march in Christchurch on February 15). And some anarchists, but not all, think that small groups of people should undertake militant actions.

In light of these very different views about how we should oppose this war and what kind of movement we should be building, it is vitally important to recognise that there is no better way of proceeding than to work in our localities to build a growing movement, that can stage even bigger protests, and to argue for these large protests to undertake mass civil disobedience. This is not to deny that small protests can also be effective, nor that small scale civil disobedience may also be appropriate on particular occasions. But in general the bigger the protests the better, even if this does mean that these protests undertake slightly less “militant action” than smaller actions.

Furthermore, these protests need to be loud, vibrant and visually striking. On the anti-war demonstrations in Dunedin some of the pacifists have argued that we should march silently. Our response to these people is: “If you want to march silently, then please do so. But don’t try to impose your silence on us.” The reality is that our rulers, whether George W. Bush, John Howard, or Helen Clark, love it when we are silent and hate it when we make so much noise that we can no longer be ignored. Good chants both get the message across to people on the street and to a wider audience via the media, and just as importantly create a sense of solidarity within the march itself. For similar reasons, we need lots of placards and banners.

As the size of the protests grow, as more and more people are drawn into the movement, the influence of the movement within society and over the government will grow. The Vietnam War, or “the American War” as the Vietnamese people refer to it, was brought to an end both by the heroic national liberation struggle of the Vietnamese people and by a mass world-wide anti-war movement. It is this kind of movement that we have to build.

United we can stop this war
It’s an old saying that unity is strength, but it is as true as ever. In order to stop this war we need to build broad anti-war coalitions that bring together the unions, church groups, political parties such as the Alliance and the Greens, socialists, feminists, anarchists, student activists, Mäori activists, and others. We will not agree on every or even most issues, but this doesn’t matter as long as we all do agree that this war is unjustified, murderous, and must be stopped. In our diversity there is strength since it means that we can mobilise much larger numbers of people than any of us could acting alone.

But at the same time, there should be no requirement for the groups participating in the movement to disguise their politics and nor to deny that serious political differences exist within it. When the International Socialist Organisation in Dunedin campaigned on the basis of the slogan “Don’t turn tragedy into war” in the wake of September 11 2001, some anarchists and pacifists in the peace movement argued that we should not sell our magazine or distribute leaflets bearing our name, and that our placards should not have “International Socialists” on them at anti-war demonstrations because “they put people off.”

Quite why we should give up what few democratic rights we have in this country was beyond us. Further, the argument that the visible presence of socialists puts people off participating in anti-war demonstrations has been graphically shown to be false by the recent global mobilisation against war – socialists played key roles in organising the protests in the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries.

So what we need is a “rainbow coalition” in which all participating organisations retain their political independence, while at the same time coordinating our efforts to build a united mass anti-war movement. By honestly acknowledging and debating our political differences, we will ultimately be able to build a much more effective and inclusive movement. Far from the visible presence of political groups putting people off, the broader the movement appears, the more likely it is that masses of people will join it.

Democracy
Unity is best sustained through democracy. Democracy also ensures that those new to the movement, who have been radicalised by it, and who want to get involved in organising anti-war action, can immediately feel part of the movement. Decision-making should be undertaken openly and honestly in campaign organising meetings where, if a consensus is not reached, votes are taken.

Once made, decisions that have been made democratically should be adhered to by all of those groups participating in the movement. Without this kind of democracy, it will be very difficult to sustain unity within the movement.

Students are important, but unions are the key
Universities bring large numbers of young people together in big institutions. It is important that we do everything we can to mobilise students against the war. But at the same time we must do what we can to mobilise the much greater number of people who are workers and who oppose this war.

Many do not see the importance of getting unions involved in the anti-war movement. But it is vital that we do everything possible to maximise the involvement of organised workers.

There are at least three major reasons for this. First, unions are genuinely mass organisations. In December 2000, 318,519 people belonged to trade unions. If we are serious about mobilising massive numbers of people in opposition to this war, then we need to ensure that the anti-war organising groups do everything they can to get union members and officials involved. And those of us who belong to unions need to use all means possible to mobilise our fellow members against the war.

Second, the organisation of work in both the public and private sectors brings workers together in large numbers, whether in factories, hospitals, supermarkets, call centres, or universities. This creates opportunities both to get the word around about what this war is really about, and also to mobilise large blocks of people against the war.

Third, workers, because they produce the wealth in society and keep the wheels of industry turning, potentially have the power to stop this war with mass industrial action. Clearly we are some way from this becoming a reality, but we should argue for our unions to take more effective measures to oppose this war than merely circulating petitions, talking to Labour MPs, and making the odd public statement opposing the war.

While the CTU’s opposition to the war is welcome, it is disappointing that it is has so far followed the Labour Party line. That is, it is opposed to Bush’s war unless the UN endorses it. We need to organise within our unions to put pressure on our officials to oppose this war regardless of whether or not it is endorsed by the UN.

National and international solidarity
One of the wonderful things about this new anti-war movement is the fact that it has already become a genuinely global movement. Globalisation does not simply increase the power of the rich and our rulers. It also provides us with vastly improved means of communication and transportation through which we can establish international solidarity and coordination of our efforts in opposing war and supporting global justice. We need to maintain the international solidarity that has already emerged, and do what we can to coordinate our efforts nationally as well.

Enlarging the small cog that turns the big wheel
Finally, it is vital that we try to make the organising core of the movement bigger. If 20-30 people can do enough work to build a protest of two or three thousand, many more are required to build protests on the scale of the anti-racist movement against the 1981 Springbok Tour for example. So it is important that we do everything we can to encourage new people to get involved in actually organising the protests rather than simply turning up to them on the day.

If you want to oppose this war, then the best place to be is with the socialists

In order to oppose a war effectively it really helps to understand why it is happening, what forces we have at our disposal in order to stop it, and how we can mobilise these forces most effectively. It also helps if you have a clear sense of what the alternative is.

As the other articles in this issue of Socialist Review show, as socialists we have an analysis of the underlying causes of war, we have a clear conception of how we can mobilise against war, and we also have a well thought out alternative to a world of war, inequality, famine, environmental devastation, and undemocratic top-down rule.

Wars in general – and this war in particular – are caused by the competition between capitalist nation-states for markets, resources and territory. The US has become the world’s dominant imperialist power, like Britain was in the nineteenth century. It is invading Iraq for oil – not only for oil – but that is one of the major reasons. This is not about the stupidity or madness of Bush, it is about the logic of capitalist competition on a global scale and the determination of a major section of the US ruling class to make sure that US capitalism remains top dog.

The way to stop war is to mobilise massive numbers of people, but in particular the world’s working classes. We are the overwhelming majority – Bush, Howard, Blair, Clark and their big business backers are a tiny minority. United we cannot only stop this war – we can make a better world.

We argue for a democratic and socialist alternative, a society that is run democratically by the overwhelming majority, in the interests of the majority. We are very small. We need to become much, much larger – both in order to be better able to oppose wars like this one, but also to keep the vision of a better world alive. That’s why we want you to join us. Alone we can just sit around and get depressed about the world, together we can change it.