Are Anti-War Protestors Anti-American?

What to make of the "anti-war" protests this past weekend? Curiously, the same people who were against the start of the war are now against the end of the war. We heard the anti-war contingent insist for months that they were not pro-Saddam, merely pro-peace. Now, with an opportunity for the people of Iraq to create a peaceful, prosperous country for the first time in generations, the anti-war crowd would have us drop everything and leave the country to what would surely be a bloody civil war between Baathists, Islamists, Kurds, Terrorists, Iranians, al-Qaeda, and anyone else that wandered in. Clearly, demanding the US Military be removed from Iraq is not pro-peace, since war would surely ensue.

If not pro-peace, what then? The answer can be found at the protest sponsor's web site. These protests were sponsored and organized by a group called International ANSWER, which stands for "Act Now to Stop War & End Racism!" A noble thought, but who are they? ANSWER was created shortly after September 11, 2001 by the International Action Center, and is closely allied with both that organization and the Worker's World Party. These are communist organizations, folks. Brian Becker, member of the secretariat of the World Workers Party, national co-director for the IAC and a member of the national ANSWER steering committee, has been invited to speak in Pyongyang, North Korea.

These people are unabashed Marxists, pure and simple. They are not opposed to war. Rather, they see discontent centered around the war and the Bush administration as an "opportunity to open up a new chapter in the struggle for worldwide socialism. There is a relatively large political movement that has been radicalized and mobilized by the war. There have been huge demonstrations like the ones last spring. This movement needs a worldwide revolutionary socialist perspective. Armed with such a perspective, the movement will be far better prepared to uphold real internationalism in the struggle."

Does this sound like a pro-peace sentiment? Not to me. It sounds like an cynical plan to hijack a youthful movement, full of energy and naivete, and redirect it into all-out class warfare. The entire text of that discussion, as presented by Larry Holmes at a Worker's World Party meeting can be found here, and it's worth reading.

In short, ANSWER, a front for two communist organizations joined at the hip to each other, is using anti-war sentiment as a cover to revive the communist revolution. And that is what these protests were designed to advance. So, although not all the protestors were anti-American, the protest organizers certainly were, and I will happily label them so.