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Are Marxists for peace?
For
photos & text on the Texas peace demo 10/5/02, click here
For
others of my many peace photos, click here
In our 4/26/02 discussion titled "A Marxist Look at the
War," we said that:
1. Truth is objective and comes
from material reality
2. The dominant economic form
today on Earth today is capitalism
3. The built-in nature of
capitalist systems causes them to be forced to expand
4. As capitalists are forced to
seek new resources, markets, and investment centers, they come into conflict
with others who hold or are seeking the same things. This has been true of
capitalism since it began in the 17th century.
5. Capitalist systems' drives
for political control characterizes modern imperialism.
6. War is one of the ways that
such political control comes about
7. Henry Ford said, "Show
me who is making the profit, and I will show you how to stop the war."
We discussed several possible readings. At the front of the list
was Lenin's booklet, "Imperialism," especially the last chapter. A
lot of older Marxist writing is on-line at www.marxists.org.
I didn't take notes as I should have, but I remember some of the
suggestions for further investigation that really struck me:
What aspects of our culture support war making?
What is the relationship between war and globalization? How do
the IMF, WTO, and World Bank fit in?
What is the relationship between attacks against rights and
living standards within the U.S. and foreign wars?
What commonalities exist between the different countries that
have been targeted: Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Iraq,
Philippines, and Colombia?
What commonalities exist between the likely future targets:
Iraq, Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Aregentina, and Venezuela?
It is the height of cynism for us to become knowledgeable about
war unless we use our knowledge to take an active part in anti-war struggle.
The North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace, www.northtexaspeace.org, is an
important group that meets at 7PM on the 1st and 3rd Mondays in Peace Center,
Bryan & Peak. Please consider carefully the importance of unity in the
anti-war effort
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