Twin Cities speak-out condemns U.S. war moves in Persian Gulf

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Now! WAR .. Marine refuses deployment SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1990 3 MINNEAPOLIS-On Aug. 23 over 175 people gathered here to protest the U.S. military deployment in the Persian Gulf.

The Speak-Out/Teach-In, held at the Minnesota Church Center, produced a virtually unanimous opinion calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. A fax message expressing that demand was sent to the White House.

Alan Dale, a member of the Emergency Committee on the Persian Gulf, said, "People are already asking how we can get our troops out. We have to make it quite clear that the U.S. can get out of the region the same way they got in-by boats and by planes."

Dominic Najjar, a member of an ArabAmerican anti-discrimination group and a Palestinian who was raised in Israel, asked why there was not a call for international sanctions and a blockade when Israel invaded Lebanon.

Mary Sheppard, of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), blasted the news media for providing one-sided information about the crisis, therefore leaving the impression that there is broad support for Bush's military moves in the Middle East.

Wendy Lyons, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor, said she remembered the early days of the Vietnam protests. "This is a lot bigger than those early meetings," she said.

Lynn Henderson, speaking on behalf of Socialist Action, pointed out that the U.S. ruling class is deploying U.S. troops to "act as cannon fodder for oil profits." [See accompanying text of his remarks.] One of the most moving moments of the meeting was when Minneapolis-based truck driver Carol Overland described a recent trip through Nebraska in which she noticed vehicles carrying closely shorn young men accompanied by sullen-looking companions obviously reporting for military service. Overland also said Nebraska radio stations were repeatedly playing Bruce Springsteen's antiwar song "Born in the USA."

Sponsors of the Speak-Out/Teach-In included Women Against Military Madness, the Emergency Committee on the Persian Gulf, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Socialist Action, Progressive Student Organization, Twin Cities CISPES, and the U.S.-Cuba Friendship Committee.

Future meetings of the sponsoring groups are being projected to organize campus teach-ins when school opens as well as a picketline against President Bush, who is scheduled to be in the Twin Cities on Sept. 27.

The following remarks were presented by Lynn Henderson to the Minneapolis Speak### NAME Out/Teach-In to protest the U.S. war moves in the Persian Gulf.

As has already been explained, virtually all the borders in the Middle East were, and continue to be, artificially established by the imperialist countries for their own interests.

These artificial boundaries were drawn on the basis of two criteria: One, in a conscious divide-and-rule strategy, to as much as possible fracture the Arab peoples with borders that deliberately cut across common languages and cultures. And two, to separate the known major oil deposits from the major Arab population centers.

For what purpose? To assure that the wealth from the oil natural resources of the Arab lands accrued not to the Arab peoples but to the imperialist oil companies. And that has largely been achieved. Despite tremendous natural resource wealth, the mass of Arab peoples live in abject poverty while the bulk of the oil wealth accrues directly and indirectly to a handful of imperialist corWITHDRAW THE FLEET NO WAR For Ou PROFITS!

Women Against Military Madness porations.

It is this arrangement that Bush is moving to preserve. That's what is behind this massive troop deployment. That's what Bush means when he says "Our American way of life" is at stake. Our only stake in this policy is to act as cannon fodder for oil profits.

How can this policy be resisted and reversed? I think it would be a mistake to think the United Nations is going to do it. With the recent further evolution and degeneration of the Soviet bureaucracy, we have entered a new historic era in which more than ever that bureaucracy is willing to collaborate with U.S. imperialism in suppressing so-called "regional disputes."

We are not, unfortunately, moving into an era of "peace dividends." Left unchecked, U.S. imperialism feels freer today than ever before to intervene militarily and massively throughout most of the world. That's what Grenada, Panama, Liberia, and the Saudi Arabia deployment reflect.

There are two forces capable of reversing IN THE PERSIAN Gues this policy, and Bush and his friends are watching both with considerable caution and even fear. One is the Arab peoples, who could explode and sweep away the present puppet regimes as quickly as the Shah was swept away not long ago.

The other is the American people, who, drawing on the lessons of the Vietnam war experience, are capable of organizing a mass antiwar movement which can veto all of Bush's Mid-East war plans.

The right of national self-determination in the Middle East, which the imperialists denied in the past, will not be affirmed by them today. This right belongs only to the Arab people, who must be free to settle their differences without the "assistance" of those who have oppressed them for more than 80 years.

We must begin building a movement here which says loud and clear: "U.S. Out of the Middle East!" — "Bring the Troops Home Now!" opinion, to make the following choice: Impose harsh austerity measures on his people and face the downfall of his regime, or, with a little military maneuvering, take Kuwait and in one fell swoop double the amount of oil produced by Iraq.

Although there are great differences in this interventionist policy and that of U.S. support for the death-squad regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala, there is an underlying motive of corporate profit throughout. Unfortunately the American people have fallen for a Big Lie-that corporate interests are always in the best interest of the people. This is rarely true.

What is the equation that balances human lives and corporate profits?

In my opinion, no such equation exists, except in the minds of the those who are preparing to fight this war.

The United States has no moral ground to stand on in the Persian Gulf. We created this monster and pointed him in this direction.

We pour millions into the coffers of Israel's military to wage a war against stonethrowing youth seeking a country to call their own once again.

I cannot and will not be a pawn in America's power plays for profits and oil in the Middle East. I will resist my scheduled departure, tentatively Sunday [Aug. 19], by immediately filing for conscientious objector status, and physically refusing to board the plane. And of course, if I am dragged out into the Saudi desert, I will refuse to fight.

Thanks and have a nice day.

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