RW ONLINE: Confronting the Warmakers, Visioning a Different Future\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLetter from a young revolutionary communist\r\nConfronting the Warmakers, Visioning a Different Future\r\n<\/p>
by Sunsara<\/p>\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1188, February 23, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
\"There will be no safe place in Baghdad.\" The words of U.S. military \r\nstrategists haunt me as I drift to sleep. Images of unfathomable wreckage and \r\ndestruction force themselves on me. Of the millions who will be trapped in a \r\ncity under siege. Of families buried alive in their own homes--or listening to \r\nthe screech of cruise missiles not knowing if they will be the target. Of the \r\nthousands who will survive the bombs only to suffer a slower death as their city \r\nis cut off from water, food, communication and medicine.<\/p>\r\n
The empire has locked its sites on Iraq and the world is told to fall in step \r\nor risk being next.<\/p>\r\n
On their side is the weight of a brutal history, the blood of millions from \r\nIndonesia to Iraq, from Nicaragua to the Philippines. There are Black Hawks, \r\nbunker-busters, smartbombs, tens of thousands trained to kill and die for empire \r\nand conquest. There is the scream of bombs, the combined lying power of CNN, \r\nNBC, ABC, and a whole medley of hourly war-hungry propaganda and distortion. \r\nThere are military tribunals, \"disappearances,\" torture islands in international \r\nwaters, wiretaps, profiling and shredding of basic rights. These are the tools \r\nof a global power fiend trying to extend their grip--the tools of world-class \r\ngangsters trying to ensure that no one is ever in a position to challenge them \r\nagain.<\/p>\r\n
Their arrogance, their cruel glee at their own butchery, their lying \r\nhypocrisy, their seeming disregard of the people's heroic struggles is part \r\nof their game <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
We have to stop them.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
*****<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
And even as we can see their nightmarish world shaping up around us--of \r\nApocalypse Now around the world and Minority Report here at home--another side \r\nis shaping up as well.<\/p>\r\n
Think about it: The nation's most beloved poets are disinvited from the White \r\nHouse and instead lend their poetry to the struggle against the war. Rebel kids \r\nseize their five minutes in the ring with prime- time reactionaries and, in the \r\neyes of millions, make them into fools.<\/p>\r\n
We give notice that there is a new, see-you-in-the-streets generation that \r\nwill not turn over the future of the planet to murdering cowboys. Those who \r\ndwell in America are taking off the blinders--beginning to see the rest of the 6 \r\nbillion people on the planet, acknowledging their humanity and acting on the \r\nunderstanding that our futures are bound together. People who only a few months \r\nago were going about their own business are leading tens of thousands to take on \r\nthe biggest bully on the planet.<\/p>\r\n
Society's voices of conscience have been relentless in breaking ranks and \r\nmaking their moral opposition a force that inspires millions. Whole towns and \r\ncities are rejecting reactionary laws like the Patriot Act. Veterans from the \r\nimperialists' own military machine have reached inside themselves and found the \r\nstrength to tell the truth to the new recruits about the horrors of unjust wars. \r\nWe have the best poets and the bravest fighters.<\/p>\r\n
Hundreds of thousands fill the streets again and again and again. Our voices \r\nare joined with millions of people around the world, taking the streets in \r\nopposition to this war.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
*****<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
But more is needed. Much more. First there is the urgency to do \r\neverything we possibly can to stop this war. Using all our imagination, \r\ndefiance, skills and unity to speak to and mobilize millions. Behind their \r\nfronting and force is the fear of a bully. Dubya and his gang need <\/i>a \r\npassive and cowed population because they are entering a high-stakes and very \r\nuncertain situation.<\/p>\r\n
What we do now will powerfully echo around the world, letting people hear \r\nfrom people in this country who oppose the global oppressors and sparking \r\nfurther resistance in other countries--which in turn will re-echo back here.<\/p>\r\n
We need to make our resistance so strong that it makes it impossible for Bush \r\nto pretend that he represents the will of the American people. We need to \r\nsupport outbreaks everywhere, and we also need to build for a leap in the \r\nintensity, strength and broadness of the resistance for the Moratorium on March \r\n5. <\/b>We need to make the Moratorium a powerful unified day <\/b>that \r\ndramatically exposes the utter illegitimacy of what Bush is doing--a gigantic \r\nstatement that we don't want this war. We need to galvanize those ready to act, \r\nand go as far as we can in transforming tens of millions who are questioning \r\nthings, or even going along for now, into active resisters.<\/p>\r\n
But what if, after 90% of the planet has made it known that they do not want \r\nwar, the U.S. goes to war anyway?<\/p>\r\n
An unjust war is a terrible thing. It is also full of uncertainty. But wars \r\nthat begin between governments can end as a result of the action of the \r\npeople.... <\/b>Especially if and as the bombs fall, it will be more important \r\nthan ever that the whole world see that there are people, with a whole new \r\ngeneration at their head, who totally reject this war and are determined \r\n<\/i>to end it. They have to see people in the U.S. reaching out and making \r\ncommon cause with them. They will draw encouragement from our actions, just as \r\nwe will take heart from theirs.<\/p>\r\n
And if the imperialists go ahead with this brutal assault on Iraq, what does \r\nit really say about them? To me, it is further proof that their profit-over-all \r\nsystem is totally bankrupt and empty and will never bring about anything but \r\ngreater suffering for people all across the planet. It proves that we cannot \r\nmake peace with the future they are trying so desperately to nail in place. It \r\nproves that we have to look elsewhere for a future worth fighting for.<\/p>\r\n
Well, I have a vision of a different world, and I can see it emerging right \r\nnow, in the heart of the struggles of today. A future worth living and fighting \r\nand dying for.<\/p>\r\n
When I see women and men challenging and learning from each other on the \r\nfront lines--I picture a world where the abuse and domination of women is total \r\nhistory, where women and men are truly <\/i>equal in every way. When I see \r\nnative-born people joining in the struggles against the attacks on immigrants I \r\npicture a world without borders, where one nation doesn't dominate the globe, \r\nand where white people don't dominate and oppress people of color.<\/p>\r\n
When I see hundreds of thousands, learning to move together, how to struggle \r\nover differences and how to unite when it really matters, I imagine a whole \r\nsociety--like the vision in the RCP Draft Programme--governed by the people, \r\nstruggling over priorities, with a revolutionary new power to come together and \r\nsolve the problems we face.<\/p>\r\n
When I see the youth take to the streets and face off riot cops for people \r\nhalfway around the globe they have never even met--I see proof that \"me-first\" \r\nisn't some law of nature, and that people are capable of great determination and \r\nself-sacrifice for something much bigger than themselves! When I see religious \r\npacifists, and anarchists, and democrats, and revolutionary communists go into \r\nbattle together, even as we discuss our differences, I see that we can have a \r\nsociety that thrives on and fosters diversity and debate. And when I hear the \r\nsongs and poems from the new people's artists--I get a taste of what humanity \r\ncould be.<\/p>\r\n
When I see young people joining with veterans of the '60s to get into \r\nrevolution and raise the banner of MLM I see a growing force taking \r\nresponsibility and mastering the ideological tools to lead this new world into \r\nbeing. When I see this new world coming into being in the revolutionary base \r\nareas of the Himalayas I know that a better world is more than just a dream.<\/p>\r\n
It may seem weird, for me to be talking so much about a better world even as \r\nblood and fire loom on the horizon. We didn't ask for this war, with all the \r\nhorror that it entails. We didn't ask for this world, with all the misery that \r\nkeeps it going, even in the \"peaceful\" times. But when we face reality as it is, \r\nwe see the need to wrench something beautiful out of the muck and madness. RCP \r\nChairman Bob Avakian has taught us that the chance at a better world does not \r\nemerge without confronting its opposite. And I know it will take a great \r\nrevolutionary struggle to bring about a whole new society.<\/p>\r\n
But what we do today has everything to do with what will be possible \r\ntomorrow. And the clearer our vision of tomorrow, the more powerful will be our \r\nstruggle today.<\/p>\r\n
As they line up their forces for invasion, we have to develop a dynamic \r\nresistance. Not just keeping on in the face of adversity, but seeing the \r\npotential in a changing line-up, in millions of allies emerging from unexpected \r\ncorners of society. Not simply persevering, but stepping it up, finding daring \r\nnew ways to inspire those still on the sidelines and send a message of love to \r\nthe people of the world. Definitely not buying their arrogant bully's stance, \r\nmeant to intimidate, but resisting and ridiculing these bloodstained \r\n\"evil-doers\" for daring to lay claim to our beautiful planet. Exposing them for \r\nthe global power fiends they are. Now is a time for heroes. For self-sacrifice \r\nand determination to bring to bear all the fighting strength, accumulated \r\nunderstanding, love and passion of millions.<\/p>\r\n
Now is also a time for clarity. A time not to be thrown or lose sight of the \r\nglimmer of a different future, even as they bring down heavy destruction and try \r\nto break our fighting spirit. We will keep our heads up, because we can see a \r\nbetter world emerging within our struggles--because we know who really \r\nrepresents the future, and who is just clawing madly to extend and tighten their \r\nbrutal grip.<\/p>\r\n
Another World Is Possible! And We Pledge To Make It Real!<\/p>\r\n
\r\n<\/p>
\r\n<\/p>
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, \r\nMerchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: \r\n773-227-4497
<\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.rwor.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Even as we can see their nightmarish world shaping up around us--of Apocalypse Now around the world and Minority Report here at home--another side is shaping up as well.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2003\/02\/rw_online_confronting_the_warmakers__visioning_a_different_future.htm","filesize":"10.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2003\/02\/30698.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}