Defeat the Imperialist War Drive Against Oppressed Iraq and Its People
Statement of the Movement for the Refoundation of the IV International

The American government plans to use once again its overwhelming military force—mass assassinations, air raids on cities and civilian population, new high-tech weaponry and even a possible invasion and long-term occupation—against the people of Iraq.

This decision reflects not only George W. Bush's determination to control the Iraqi oil. Its strategic objective is to impose a complete political reorganization of the entire Middle East in the interest of the American monopolist corporations. That requires as a precondition the crushing of the heroic Palestinian national rebellion against the Zionist state.

Bush is delaying the war only to secure support from Congress and the US allies. First on this list is the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the leader of the reformist Labour Party. Whenever America does not want to act alone, it asks for the support of British imperialism. This shows that the reformists are the enemies of the working class within the labor movement.

An undisputed American control of the Middle East and Central Asia, of its oil and gas resources and the ways of access to them, would exert an unbearable pressure on Europe. Within the European Union there are widespread fears that the US will use its control of the region in order to impose its own interests in the commercial war already raging among them, or that the offensive will give rise to a revolutionary uprising and topple their puppet regimes in the Middle East. But under American pressure, and in order to protect their own interests, the European imperialists are already preparing to intervene in the war of aggression against Iraq.

Russia and China will also in the end give way to the American pressure and line up against Iraq, as they did in during the war against Afghanistan. In that war, the Putin regime played a decisive role by authorizing the deployment of American troops and the establishment of American military bases in the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The Russian state will also use the opportunity to advance its own reactionary agenda: Putin has already announced that he plans to attack Georgia with the excuse of fighting against the “Chechen terrorists."

Bush is demagogically repeating that his war is not against the Iraqi people, country or army—only against Saddam and his regime. The one million Iraqi children who died because of the American boycott during the last ten years refute this lie. Bush claims without a shred of proof that Saddam possesses chemical weapons, and that if he gets his hands on weapons of mass destruction—missiles with nuclear warheads—he will eventually use them. No weapons inspection has taken place in Iraq for four years. The American UN inspector Scott Riter stated that Iraq does not have such weapons of mass destruction. Saddam in turn declared that he does not have any objection to reinstate the inspectors. But Bush refuses to accept this offer, for he wants a war and soon.

The grotesque claim that the US will launch this war out of concern about the safety of the world population is all the more amazing coming from the only state in the world that has used atomic bombs—and against civilian population at that—in Japan during the Second World War, and that since then has murdered more than 25 million workers and peasants to secure the profits of its monopolies. The Israeli government’s declaration that it is ready to use weapons of mass destruction in a preemptive strike is another proof that the real interest of the US is to control the Iraqi oil, even at the price of massive destruction in the entire region.

Contrary to the expectations of those in the left who supported the Oslo Agreements with the argument that a two-states “solution” is in the interest of the US, Bush is backing Sharon, who wants to use such this war to transfer a large portion of the Palestinians to Jordan or may be even to Iraq. The Arab rulers and some of the European ones are warning Bush that such this will lead to the Arab regimes losing control over the masses. The interest of the masses is indeed to oppose imperialism by overthrowing its servants—above all, in the Middle East, the Zionist state—through a socialist revolution.

The Iraqi regime is undoubtedly an oppressive regime. It oppresses the Kurds. It came to power with the blessing of the US that provided Saddam Hussein with a list of 5000 Communists to be killed. It stood behind him in the terrible Iran-Iraq War that cost the lives of millions of people. However the worst enemy of humanity is not Saddam but the imperialist system led by the US. This system has pushed out of production more than one billion people, condemning them to die of starvation and disease. The ultimate tendency of imperialism, if the workers and the masses don’t bring it down first, is either to destroy humanity in a Third World War or at least do away with the conquests of 5000 years of civilization and push humankind back into barbarism.

For all of these reasons, the interest of the working class and its allies is to prevent this war through a political struggle against imperialism. If however the war does break out, their interest, a well as that of all the rank-and-file members of the parties and groups that claim to be on the left, is to defend Iraq against the imperialist slaughter and bring about the revolutionary defeat of the imperialist monster.

The unconditional defense of the Iraqi nation against the imperialist aggression does not mean giving any political support to the Saddam regime. In order to defeat US imperialism, a revolutionary leadership is required, able to mobilize the masses of the Middle East. In Iraq, the revolutionaries will be the best soldiers in the army, without however providing any political support for the regime.

The struggle against the imperialist aggression on Iraq and the peoples of the Middle East represents a major a historical test for the program and the strategy of all the parties which want to provide a revolutionary leadership for the exploited and oppressed masses. The Movement for the Refoundation of the Fourth International raises the following slogans as a guide to action in the present situation:

- For the unconditional defense of Iraq against the imperialist aggression. For the defeat of imperialism.
- For a united international mobilization against imperialism and the war of aggression on Iraq.
- For a military united front for the defeat of imperialism. No political support for the Saddam leadership.
- For the arming of the Iraqi people to face the imperialist aggression.
- Hands off the oppressed peoples of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- For the expulsion of the imperialist troops and bases, including the allegedly “peacekeeping” NATO and UN forces.
- End the Zionist occupation of Palestine. For the right of return of all the Palestinian refugees to the places from which they were expelled.
- Victory to the Intifada. For a democratic, secular and socialist Palestine, where Arabs and Jews will live together, free from their exploiters and oppressors. For a Socialist Federation of the Middle East.
- No to the police state in the US, the EU and the rest of the world.
- No to the Colombia Plan. For the union of the mass struggles against imperialism all over the world. For a Socialist Federation of Latin America.
- No to the attacks against the social and democratic rights of the masses in the United States.
- No to the racist attacks against the Arabs, Muslims and other minorities in the United States.
- For a revolutionary working-class leadership in the fight against imperialism.
- For a workers and peasants’ government.
- For the world socialist revolution.
- For the refoundation of the Fourth International.