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WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

Oppose the occupation of Iraq! No to war against Iran!

International Students for Social Equality and SEP to hold emergency conference against war

12 February 2007

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The International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) and the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) announce an emergency conference against the US occupation of Iraq and preparations for a military assault on Iran. The conference will be held on March 31 and April 1, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.

The purpose of this conference is to develop and implement a program for the mass mobilization of student youth and the working class within the United States and internationally against imperialist war and colonialism.

Only the independent political action of the working class, in opposition to the financial and corporate establishment and the political parties they control, will end the occupation of Iraq and prevent the launching of a new war against Iran.

In the three months since the elections of November 2006, it has become absolutely clear that the Democratic Party will not end the occupation of Iraq. The American people voted for an end to the war last November. Instead, the war is being escalated.

The Democrats have proven incapable, not only of ending the war, but of preventing Bush from sending tens of thousands of additional troops to Iraq, and openly preparing for extending the war into Iran. The “debate” over the war within the US political establishment is a farce, with the US Senate unable even to vote on a meekly worded non-binding resolution criticizing the Bush escalation plan.

The Democratic Party’s disagreements with the Bush administration are entirely at the level of tactics. They fault Bush not for launching an illegal war of aggression and maintaining a semi-colonial occupation of Iraq, but for doing so incompetently and unsuccessfully. They offer various alternative methods for defending the position of US imperialism in the Middle East—pulling US forces out of Iraqi cities and into protected bases, redeploying to neighboring countries, or shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Those who genuinely oppose the war in Iraq and its extension into Iran must draw far-reaching political conclusions from the experience of the past five years. In the United States, it is time to break with the Democrats and build a new political party opposed to the bipartisan program of imperialist war and social reaction.

This new political movement must be based on a program that defends the interests of working people internationally against the corporate elite of every country. The eruption of American imperialism poses an extreme threat to the entire population of the world, and the struggle against war requires an international mobilization. The resources of the world must be placed in the hands of the population, directed toward the alleviation of pressing social problems—health care, education, housing, and poverty—rather than plunder in the interests of big business.

The ISSE and SEP call for a mobilization of working people and youth all around the world, based on a socialist and Marxist perspective that challenges the war and the capitalist system that created it.

Make plans now to attend the conference:

March 31 and April 1, 2007
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Angell Hall, Auditorium B
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

To register for the conference or request further information, click here.

The ISSE urges students at universities, colleges and high schools around the world to build student groups at your campus. Click here to get involved in building the ISSE.

For the full statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International on the Iraq war, read “For an international mobilization of workers and youth against the war in Iraq”