WORKERS MOBILIZE AGAINST THE WAR
By Andy McInerney
With millions around the world in the streets against the U.S. war against Afghanistan, State Department spokespeople have been working overtime to minimize the extent of the protests. The war propagandists and their paid pundits are intent on presenting the image that the world is behind the new U.S. slaughter, and that protests are confined to "militant Islamic" groups and sympathizers.
Nothing could be further from the truth. From North America to Europe to Asia, the anti-war movement has a firm footing in the working-class movement.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is joining a growing coalition that is calling for an end to Canada's participation in the war against Afghanistan. The September 11 Peace Coalition is organizing demonstrations across Canada on Nov. 17 calling for an end to Canadian troops' participation in the war and against corporate globalization.
"The alternative to war is to begin rebuilding the world's infrastructures and to provide the things that working people need, like food, shelter, medical care, education, jobs and justice," CUPW leader Deborah Bourque, co-chair of the September 11 Coalition, said on Oct. 22.
The Nov. 17 demonstrations will coincide with the G-20 Finance Ministerial meetings in Ottawa. "The government must use the upcoming meetings of the G20, IMF and World Bank in Ottawa to assess current agreements and policies of institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank against Canadian values of promoting peace, social justice and security for all people," said Steven Staples of the Council for Canadians.
Canada is not the only country where anti-globalization forces have turned their attention to the U.S. war. In Germany and France, the ATTAC coalition announced on Oct. 21 that it would turn its attention and mobilizations toward fighting the U.S. war in Afghanistan. "We oppose this war with all our determination," ATTAC leaders Freya Pausewang and Sven Giegold announced.
"Anyone who wants to oppose war and terrorism cannot stay silent about poverty and humiliation," they said. "Our movement against neoliberal globalization is now also an anti-war movement."
ATTAC was a leading organization in the anti-globalization protests in Genoa in July.
Greece has been the site of some of the most massive protests in Europe against the U.S. war drive. On Oct. 25, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), the largest labor federation in Greece, announced that it would mobilize against the war. An Oct. 25 French Press Agency report announced that the GSEE "called for workers to protest the U.S. strikes against Afghanistan."
The GSEE is a social democratic trade union, traditionally allied with the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Party (PASOK). The Greek Prime Minister is also the president of PASOK, and has supported the U.S. war. So the GSEE's call for opposition to the war marks a clear break with its traditional political allies.
In India, U.S. corporation Coca Cola came under attack because of the war in Afghanistan. On Oct. 21, a unit of the People's War Group, a Marxist insurgency in the southern state of Andra Pradesh, caused extensive damage to a Coca Cola plant.
"We have found a note in the Telugu language which said the attacks were against American imperialism and the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan," cops told AFP.
"It was very unfair for the rebels to target us," complained Coke representatives on Oct. 25. "Contrary to some skewed perceptions, we are not a big, bad multinational."
Wide sectors of Indian society beg to differ. In western Mumbai, small restaurant owners announced a boycott of Coca Cola products to protest the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. The boycott provoked a sharp reaction from Coke that the boycott was an "unfair trade practice."
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