August 13, 2005
2:00 P.M.
Capitol Hill Library (Upstairs)
425 Harvard Ave. E.

While seeking to unite with other anti-war activists who have not yet been won to an anti-imperialist position, we feel it is crucial to put our energies into building the anti-war movement along anti-imperialist lines. We need an anti-war movement that stands with the masses of people around the world while telling the masses the truth about the economic system of imperialism (monopoly capitalism) which is the source of one war after another.

If we want such a movement, then we ourselves need to work to build it. The liberals and their opportunist friends will never do it. It is simply impossible to defeat imperialism without understanding what it is and how it needs to be fought--through the independent political action of the masses, particularly the workers, oppressed nationalities and youth. It is not enough to say this, only to turn around and objectively promote lesser-evil politics or let liberal imperialists address anti-war rallies without being criticized.

This does not mean that anti-imperialists should isolate ourselves from the broader anti-war movement. Just the opposite. While uniting with the broader movement in our opposition to the war in Iraq and other crimes of imperialism, anti-imperialists must bring forward our own political line through publications, mass meetings and demonstrations (independent actions, feeder marches and participation in anti-war events organized by other political trends). We must consistently expose bourgeois misleaders who seek to channel the anti-war movement into electoral politics, letter-writing and even support for a "kinder, gentler" imperialist occupation, such as one administered by the United Nations.

For anti-imperialists, it is of crucial importance to support the legitimate Iraqi resistance (including armed struggle) while at the same time opposing the Ba'athist and Islamic fundamentalist elements who have sadly come to dominate much of the resistance. Our unity is with the efforts of the exploited and oppressed Iraqi masses to build up a revolutionary-democratic current in the struggle against U.S. imperialism and its Iraqi allies. Moreover, successes in putting the anti-war movement in this country on a firm anti-imperialist foundation contributes to fostering and encouraging movement in this direction among the Iraqi toilers.

Groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and Workers World Party (WWP) of A.N.S.W.E.R. fully support the struggle of the out-of-power Ba'athists and clerical reactionaries and call this anti-imperialism. Furthermore, while they denounce the imperialist Democratic Party in their papers and magazines, they're famous for watering down their rhetoric at mass A.N.S.W.E.R. demonstrations---where the speakers platform is generally packed with liberals such as hand-picked "community leaders", labor union bureaucrats and Democratic politicians who promote imperialist politics and seek to turn anti-war activists into election fodder.

Seattle anti-imperialists cannot effectively develop and defend the anti-war movement against imperialism, opportunism and the wrecking influence of the Democratic Party without putting our heads together to plan and organize. This is the objective for August 13.