Vietnam War
1984 1984-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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Mously intended to divert mass opposition to U.S. imperialist policy into safe channels—mainly toward supporting the Democratic Party wing of American imperialism.
The pattern emerging is all too reminiscent of the "referendum against war" strategy employed in the 1964 presidential election that successfully diverted opposition to U.S. intervention in Vietnam into support for President Lyndon B. Johnson, the "peace" candidate. (Even before being elected, Johnson launched a major escalation of imperialist intervention in Vietnam. This was carried out under the legal authority of his "Tonkin Bay" resolution adopted almost unanimously by both houses of Congress and silently ignored by advocates of the election of "peace candidate" Johnson.)
The question is not whether or not sectors of the ruling class genuinely disagree with current policy. Divisions within the ruling classes certainly exist. It is not simply a game acted out to fool those who are opposed to imperialist policies. But these divisions are allowed to surface-and at times are even given conscious encouragement-so long as the millions who are opposed to these policies can be contained within the bounds of support for overall U.S. capidoran capitalists.
The Democratic Party "opposition" quietly, but meaningfully, offers no resistance to the "temporary" transfer of $35 million from Pentagon "contingency" funds toward the same end as originally proposed. And aside from the dubious effect of the grandstand opposition to Reagan's supplementary aid to the Salvadoran junta, no voice is raised from any pro-capitalist sector against the general financial support provided to the Salvadoran government, without which the dictatorship there would collapse in short order. This includes all three Democratic Party presidential candidates, as well as all the loyal opposition to the current imperialist policies among the two parties of big business.
The capitalists can be divided. But not by supporting one faction against the other. This puts real opponents of U.S. imperialism within the straitjacket of general support for "American" domestic and foreign interests. The capitalist class is divided only by effective anti-capitalist action!
The military and political successes of the revolutionary forces in Central America divides the capitalists-both within the belly of the monster, and between the U.S. imperialist master and their colonial vassals in Latin America mass action can push the ruling class into a corner, where real divisions among them will certainly emerge.
It will not require tens of thousands of deaths of our sons and brothers, as in Vietnam, to impel masses of American people into opposition to capitalist murder for profit in Central America. The experience of Vietnam has created a lasting antiwar sentiment in this country. Moreover, the capacity of U.S. capitalism to grant crumbs off the table of imperialist plunder to buy the active support of the union bureaucracy and a layer of the working class for its imperialist policy has been seriously reduced, if not virtually ended.
In today's context an unrelenting pport ify its anti-working class and imperialist policies. The demonstrations are part and parcel of the utopian effort to reform the Democratic Party, transforming it into an instrument to be used against the class interests of the capitalist rulers.
Such an appeal to the Democratic Party convention furthers the illusion that this political instrument of capitalism can be meaningfully altered by the adoption of progressive planks in the party platform. Such lobbying of the Democratic Party differs qualitatively from a demonstration against the government and its institutions.
In the former case, a promise is solicited from a contender for governmental power; in the latter, an action is demanded from the government in power. The appeal to the Democrats is the ill-disguised road to supporting their candidates in the elections. Such electoral support to the Democrats gives political cover to these imperialist wolves dressed in sheep's clothing, and helps pave the way for their counterrevolutionary intervention in Central America.
POLITICAL COMMITTEE
SOCIALIST ACTION
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IN CENTRAL AMERICA