[Peace-discuss] Fw: "A Demonic Destructive Suction Tube"

[unionyes]

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From: <moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG>
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Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 8:26 PM
Subject: War: "A Demonic Destructive Suction Tube"


> War: "A Demonic Destructive Suction Tube"
> 
> By Max Elbaum,
> War Times/Tiempo de Guerras
> January 31, 2010
> 
> http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=21410
> 
> As antiwar and progressive activists take stock at the
> end of a dismal month, two speeches by leaders of U.S.
> social movements offer valuable food for thought. It is
> more than worth an evening's time to read and ponder
> the remarks of AFL-CIO head Rich Trumka at the National
> Press Club January 10, and the "Beyond Vietnam" address
> given by Dr. Martin Luther King during an earlier time
> of war and nationwide polarization. These can found at:
> http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/sp01112010.cfm
> and
> http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobrea
> ksilence.htm
> 
> The agonies of January carry over into February as open
> wounds. Suffering in post-earthquake Haiti continues.
> Though fast-reacting radical analysts have written
> penetrating critiques of how colonialism, racism and
> U.S. policy are responsible for the scale of the
> disaster, the U.S. progressive movement has not been
> able to substantially impact the national conversation
> or the government response.
> 
> Casualties and costs rise daily in the wrong and
> hopeless Afghan war. A cocky Israeli government boasts
> louder than ever this month that it will keep more and
> more Palestinian land as an "eternal part of Israel."
> 
> Domestically, to the extent there is an "economic
> recovery," it is jobless and only benefits the already
> well-to-do. Right-wing populists have grabbed the
> initiative in harnessing popular anger and gaining
> traction for their mythological narrative about "hard
> working Americans losing their country" to an unholy
> alliance of liberal, America-hating elites and
> unproductive dark-skinned "others." The sentiment for
> progressive change that a year ago set the tone of
> national political debate, and which most expected to
> translate, albeit unevenly, into actual policy, has
> nowhere near its previous momentum. Indeed, ideologues
> of the right as well as some who are demoralized on the
> left declare it dead altogether.
> 
> This is the kind of moment when it is useful to take a
> deep breath and try to regain historical perspective,
> strategic clarity and moral inspiration. In that regard
> the words of Rich Trumka this month and Dr. Martin
> Luther King in 1967 are excellent starting places for
> serious reflection.
> 
> Ringing Call For Jobs, Green Jobs And Justice
> 
> Rich Trumka's remarks are important not only because of
> their substance, but because of the position he holds.
> As the new president of AFL-CIO he is head of the
> largest explicitly working class membership
> organization in the country. Even with all the losses
> organized labor has suffered over the last several
> decades, trade unions remain the left-of-center popular
> organizations with the most resources and clout. Trumka
> himself comes out of a reform movement within the
> Mineworkers, and has remained engaged to a significant
> degree with labor's grassroots membership as well as
> broader layers of working people. His words carry
> weight and - while he doesn't claim to speak for other
> movements - his approach parallels that of many leading
> figures in the community organizing world, the
> progressive blogosphere, electoral campaigns, think-
> tanks, the academic community and beyond. See for
> example the assessment by Center for Community Change
> Executive Director Deepak Bhargava at:
> 
> http://www.communitychange.org/blog/where-do-we-go-from-here/view
> 
> Trumka's speech is hard-hitting. It pillories vested
> financial interests and the dominant economic policies
> of the last 30 years. Trumka calls for a program of
> far-reaching reform that would address the pressing
> economic and social needs of working families. The
> combative flavor is clear:
> 
> "Our elected leaders must choose between continuing the
> policies of the past or striking out on a new economic
> course - a course that will reverse the damaging trend
> toward greater inequality that is crippling our
> nation.. A generation ago, our nation's policymakers
> embarked on a campaign of radical deregulation and
> corporate empowerment - one that celebrated private
> greed over public service."
> 
> Trumka locates his perspective in the tradition of
> several valiant U.S. progressive movements. He embraces
> the legacy of Civil Rights and talks explicitly about
> the battles of African American and immigrant workers.
> Taking a position that would have been anathema for an
> AFL-CIO leader 15 years ago Trumka declared: "We are
> very proud of our alliance with the workers' center
> movement that links the unions of the AFL-CIO with
> hundreds of grassroots organizations."
> 
> He offered warnings for Democrats along with his harsh
> indictment of the Republican right: "The reality is
> that when unemployment is 10% and rising, working
> people will not stand for tokenism. We will not vote
> for politicians who think they can push a few crumbs
> our way and then continue the failed economic policies
> of the last 30 years."
> 
> Trumka closed with a paragraph restating his essential
> framework and message:
> 
> "Our political leaders have a choice. They can work
> with us for a future where the middle class is secure
> and growing, where inequality is on the decline and
> where jobs provide ladders out of poverty. Or they can
> work for a future where the profits of insurance
> companies, speculators and outsourcers are secure.
> There is no middle ground. Working America is waiting
> for an answer."
> 
> PEACE AND THE MILITARY BUDGET?
> 
> All good as far as it goes. If the trade unions were
> able to rally their own membership and build a fighting
> coalition with other movements on such a program, the
> political landscape would be much changed for the
> better.
> 
> But there remains a problem. Peace is not mentioned in
> Trumka's remarks. Neither is the phrase "military
> budget" or any variant thereof. The word "war" does
> appear once - in a phrase saying that one of the things
> Obama inherited from Bush was "dishonest wars."
> 
> It won't work. Without addressing the impact
> Washington's wars and militarism, even the most
> combative force addressing economic hardship cannot
> accomplish its goals. It's not a question of effort,
> intention, or lack of militancy - it has to do the
> structure of economics and politics in U.S. society. As
> long as the bloated military budget remains a sacred
> cow it is simply not possible to adequately fund the
> programs that could meet human needs at home. As long
> as U.S. wars are unchallengeable tests of "true
> patriotism," every progressive social movement is
> vulnerable to political and ideological attack for
> "undermining national security" and "giving comfort to
> the enemy." Until the heavyweights whose power is
> rooted in the military-industrial complex (from
> "defense" industry corporations to private mercenary
> "contractors) are hit hard and set back, the power of
> right-wing fear-mongers in U.S. society cannot be
> broken. And on the other end of the power spectrum, for
> sustaining a strategically savvy progressive movement -
> especially in the era of globalization, inter-
> dependence and environmental threat - a perspective is
> needed that goes beyond rebuilding the U.S. middle
> class to encompass international solidarity and a
> universal moral vision.
> 
> To remind ourselves of what that can look like, we can
> turn to Dr. King.
> 
> "A REVOLUTION OF VALUES"
> 
> Martin Luther King's remarks in an earlier era parallel
> and reinforce everything Rich Trumka said. But King
> encased his call for economic justice at home within a
> broader framework. In a speech that reads almost as if
> it could have been given last week if only the word
> "Afghanistan" was substituted for "Vietnam," King
> tackled head-on the way war abroad undermines an
> economic justice agenda at home:
> 
> "A few years ago there was a shining moment. It seemed
> as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -
> both black and white - through the poverty program.
> There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then
> came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program
> broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle
> political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I
> knew that America would never invest the necessary
> funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long
> as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and
> skills and money like some demonic destructive suction
> tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war
> as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such."
> 
> King did not stop there. He repudiated all demonization
> and dehumanization of "the enemy" (communists then;
> "terrorists", Taliban, and "Islamic Radicals" today).
> He instead called on U.S. leaders and the population in
> general to take seriously their point of view:
> 
> "Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and
> nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point
> of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment
> of ourselves.. For from his view we may indeed see the
> basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are
> mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the
> wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition."
> 
> King did not romanticize Washington's opponents. But he
> did include in his remarks an in-depth recounting of
> why Vietnamese patriots - communist and not - had good
> reasons not to trust the foreign government with
> thousands of troops on Vietnamese soil. A speaker
> following in his footsteps today would find no shortage
> of similar historical facts explaining why an Iraqi or
> Palestinian displaced from his or her home, an Iranian
> remembering the 1953 U.S.-sponsored coup, or an Afghan
> whose family was killed in a NATO bombing raid might
> have a view of the U.S. role in the Middle East well
> worth taking into account.
> 
> Rebuking those who counter-pose love of this country
> against solidarity with inhabitants of other lands - a
> common weapon used against labor and every other social
> movement in 1967 and 2010 alike - King stressed the
> common interests of all humanity:
> 
> "I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering
> poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being
> laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose
> culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of
> America who are paying the double price of smashed
> hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I
> speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it
> stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one
> who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation:
> The great initiative in this war is ours; the
> initiative to stop it must be ours."
> 
> Attuned to the deep structural and ideological roots of
> war in U.S. society and their long-term consequences,
> King was eerily far-sighted about dangers ahead:
> 
> "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper
> malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore
> this sobering reality... we will find ourselves
> organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for
> the next generation. They will be concerned about
> Guatemala and Peru.. Mozambique and South Africa. We
> will be marching for these and a dozen other names and
> attending rallies without end, unless there is a
> significant and profound change in American life and
> policy.
> 
> "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side
> of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a
> radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the
> shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-
> oriented society. When machines and computers, profit
> motives and property rights, are considered more
> important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
> extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of
> being conquered."
> 
> TRANSFORMING JERICHO ROAD
> 
> Today jobs, housing, health care, financial/bank policy
> and other "domestic-economic" issues - perhaps along
> with environmental/climate change - are the centerpiece
> and pivot of political conflict in this country.
> Organizing labor, community groups, workers centers,
> immigrant rights organizations, new kinds of grassroots
> and coalitional forms are in the thick of those fights.
> Most are focused, for a mixture of reasons, on their
> immediate specific issue and the immense challenges
> right in front of them. At the same time, most of the
> activists and leaders in these formations are
> personally skeptical of, or downright opposed to,
> Washington's current wars (though regarding U.S.
> backing for Israel we have a longer way to go,
> especially among labor officialdom). Huge portions of
> their base are open to an antiwar, anti-militarist
> critique.
> 
> Here is where the peace movement as such has a key role
> to play. Bringing the links between war, militarism and
> injustice at home to fore. Not mainly by appealing to
> those struggling around other issues to "come to us,"
> but by getting in behind their struggles, showing
> support, and consistently bringing with us the
> perspective that the fights against "racism, extreme
> materialism, and militarism" rise or fall together.
> 
> In doing so, we combine reaching out broadly with
> upholding our moral and political foundation. Thinking
> of Haiti, thinking of Afghanistan, thinking of New
> Orleans and Detroit and so many other U.S. cities and
> towns afflicted by human-made disasters, again Dr. King
> has wisdom to offer:
> 
> "A true revolution of values will soon cause us to
> question the fairness and justice of many of our past
> and present policies. We are called to play the Good
> Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an
> initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole
> Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women
> will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make
> their journey on life's highway. True compassion is
> more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see
> that an edifice which produces beggars needs
> restructuring.
> 
> "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on
> the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With
> righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and
> see individual capitalists of the West investing huge
> sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only
> to take the profits out with no concern for the social
> betterment of the countries, and say, 'This is not
> just.' It will look at our alliance with the landed
> gentry of South America and say, 'This is not just.'
> The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything
> to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not
> just."
> 
> Amen.
> _____________
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