Please note that the date and venue of the Sydney meeting has been changed.

The collapse of the American-trained Iraqi Army and the seizure of large areas of the country by the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a debacle for US imperialism of its own making. US foreign policy is collapsing under the weight of the contradictions that have built up over decades of bloody wars across Middle East.

The sectarian divisions that are fuelling civil war in Iraq are the direct outcome of the illegal 2003 invasion and the ruthless divide-and-rule policies pursued by the US occupation forces that cost as many as one million Iraqi lives. Having recklessly turned since 2011 to arming Al Qaeda-linked militia like ISIS in an attempt to topple the Syrian government, Washington was blindsided when they changed targets and attacked Washington’s Shiite-based puppet regime in Baghdad. As surrounding countries get drawn into the conflict, the entire Middle East hovers on brink of a catastrophic region-wide war.

Everywhere, US foreign policy consists of intrigues and violence, with “terrorism” or “human rights” invoked as the increasingly discredited justification for actions that are solely in the interests of a parasitic and ultra-rich ruling elite. Even as the Middle East plunges toward disaster, the crisis in Ukraine and the stoking of tensions in the South China and East China Seas pose the danger of devastating conflicts with nuclear-armed states, Russia and China. The Australian government and ruling class serve as unconditional allies of Washington, giving military and diplomatic backing to all its crimes and conspiracies.

There is an urgent need to build a new mass international movement against imperialism and war. A renewed antiwar movement can only succeed, however, to the extent that it is based on the socialist and internationalist perspective to unite workers around the world in a common struggle to end the profit system—the source of war, social inequality and exploitation.

We encourage all WSWS readers to attend the public meetings called by the SEP and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) to discuss this perspective.

Melbourne
Sunday, July 13, 2.30 p.m.
Coburg Court House
1A Main Street, Coburg
Tickets: $3/$2 concession

Sydney
Sunday, July 20, 3p.m.
University of Sydney
Carslaw Lecture Theatre 173
Tickets: $3/$2 concession

Brisbane
Sunday, July 20, 2.00 p.m.
South Brisbane Croquet Club
91 Cordelia St, South Brisbane
(In Musgrave Park)
Tickets: $3/$2 concession

Details of meetings in Newcastle and Perth will be announced soon