Saturday, February 19, 2005

Peace now!

The Socialist Party unequivocally opposed the war in Iraq. We drafted a clear statement on our position when the war began:
War is completely unnecessary. We are living in a world that has enough resources to provide plenty for all, to eliminate world poverty, ignorance and disease, to provide an adequate and comfortable life for everyone on the planet. Yet under capitalism resources are squandered on armaments, of individual as well as of mass destruction, and, as now, in actual war....

We place on record our horror that capitalism has once again provoked the orgy of death and destruction known as war; We extend the hand of friendship to our fellow workers in Iraq who our political masters have designated as targets for destruction; We pledge to do all within our means to bring the slaughter to an immediate end ; We pledge ourselves to continue to work for the establishment of a world socialist society of peace and cooperation ; We call upon fellow workers everywhere to join in the struggle for World Socialism.
(There are more articles in the saame issue of the Socialist Standard).

We beleive that we can peacefully and democratically build a world of common ownership, and oppose all wars in capitalism as against the interest of the working class. Unlike the leftists in the Stop the War Coalition we do not cheer on the resistance who are continuing the war, slaughtering about 20 Iraqi workers per day - as in this most recent example. The constant fighting only weakens the workers there. All the resistance will do is replace one set of rulers with a new set. We are against all rulers, all national boundaries, and are for a world co-operative commonwealth.

You have the choice of supporting these aims, or supporting the slaughter of capitalism's wars.

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