Working People and Others Need to Oppose
Aggressive U.S. Wars Abroad and
Government Attacks on the People Here at Home
Statement of the Chicago Anti-War Coalition
It is working people who pay for the U.S. government’s aggression around the world, and attacks on the working and health conditions of workers and others here at home.
The attacks on the people include the lack of preparedness for a new pandemic that many knew for years was bound to be coming. The government’s actions benefit banks and corporations—not us, who may get $1200 each.
What we need to demand, and organize to fight for, includes:
--pay for those who are sick so they can stay home from work and not
infect others.
-- allowing all to get care, whether they have insurance or not.
-- having the necessary hospital rooms, trained staff, health aids such as
masks, ventilators.
The government, instead of helping people, spends trillions on the military to try to dominate countries around the globe and beat back competition. They are representing the big banks’ and corporations’ aim to squeeze maximum profits out of natural resources, labor power, and markets. We need to oppose this.
The government of the rich in the last weeks has agreed, without serious dissent in Congress, to rob trillions of our tax money to bail out the big banks and corporations. These are corporations which have not kept enough reserves on hand to weather a storm such as this pandemic. One example is Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, which began to sink in the wake of cutting safety corners in building planes in order to increase its profits.
Meanwhile the government is throwing small amounts of money to the working class and other people, such as owners of small businesses. Most of these people live from pay check to pay check because of how the banks and corporations treat them. There is no provision in the bailout bill to mandate keeping current workers on the payroll or to pay the unemployed enough money to pay for rent or mortgage, for food and health care. This what we must demand as a minimum.
This crisis has further exposed the gaping holes in the U.S. healthcare system. Tens of millions are uninsured or are under-insured by substandard plans they cannot afford to use. Millions are losing their employer-based healthcare coverage. Healthcare workers and patients and other people are at great risk because of the shortages of test kits, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and hospital beds. Privatized hospitals and insurance plans are a big part of the problem we face.
The pandemic is being used as an excuse in many parts of the U.S., and in other parts of the world, for governments of the ruling class to concentrate more power in a government that is not of, by, and for the people. It is being used as an excuse to increase surveillance, squelch dissent, and crack down on people in all kinds of harsh and unjust ways.
The U.S. government is taking maximum advantage of the corona virus pandemic to ramp up attacks on Iran and Venezuela. The government refuses to lift sanctions so that medical supplies can get in, and has set the stage for a military assault on Venezuela, including the overthrow of President Maduro and leading members of the government.
What the U.S. government is doing in attacking other countries is in violation of international law, the right of self-determination by other governments, and the kinds of humanitarian concerns we should all be having in the face of the pandemic. (See the United Nations Charter, Chapter 1, which the U.S. government has signed onto.) But the government is mounting attacks on other countries anyway. Their war-making for further profit-making of the banks and corporations has a higher priority than assuring the health and well-being of the people in the U.S. or anywhere else.
This crisis further exposes the dehumanization and insecurity caused by the capitalist system. The “solutions” offered by the government further expose the class nature of U.S. society, with a ruling class holding most of the wealth in the country and working hard to grow richer. Meanwhile the rest of us grow poorer and are in greater danger from viruses, from the economy, from the threat of global warming/climate change, from U.S. wars.
It’s our youth who are recruited into the military when they see no job future. Then they are trained to kill people who have done them no harm.
It’s also we who pay high taxes to pay for wars. These wars bring in high profits for the rich when the U.S. government steals oil and other resources from countries such as Venezuela, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria, etc.
62% of federal discretionary tax money goes to the military—while social programs are cut.
Working people in general don’t want to be involved in this immoral aggression-- a lot of it going on under the radar. We are not bullies who take advantage of others.
So we have to think for ourselves and see through the lies that the media—the largest ones of which are owned by big corporations—try to feed us. The government fears that if we find out what’s really going on, we might rise up to challenge the criminal decisions by the ruling elite.
Let’s keep in mind: We are not the ones who decide to threaten and attack countries which have not attacked the U.S. or to attack people here at home. It is the politicians—whose election campaigns are funded by the rich-- who make decisions without public debate that presents all sides of issues.
International Workers’ Day is a good time for us to have our own discussions and plan what to do. We must oppose the unjust and illegal U.S. wars abroad and the attacks on working people here at home, which is part of the way the ruling class operates every day. And so we express solidarity with all the workers here at home struggling for their rights, and other people in struggle against U.S. interference and threats against countries abroad—that is, against U.S. imperialism.
Chicago Anti-War Coalition
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