RevolutionSeptember 2007 No. 4 25¢ Bush, Democrats: Mass Murder, Inc. CUNY and the Imperialist War By Fred Bergen and Charlie Morán These days, it’s easy to find people who Immigrants, Minorities Under the Gun say that they’re against the war in Iraq, but opposition to the war and actually ending it are two different things. To end the criminal Oscar Durant/El Diario-La Prensa slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan, you have to understand what this war really is, and how to fight it. What is the conflict about? Be- neath all the rhetoric about terrorism and de- mocracy, the “war on terror” is an imperialist war, a war to oppress and enslave the people of Iraq and Afghanistan for profit and to nail down U.S. world domination. The ruling class of the United States wants to force Iraq to sell its oil to Exxon and buy its power plants from Bechtel. But above all, it seeks to strengthen the United States’ position against other world powers by locking them out of the strategic Persian Gulf region. Imperialist war is class war waged by the capitalists, the parasites who live off profit, against the oppressed peoples that they must enslave to get it, and against the workers and oppressed “at home.” Imperial- ist war cannot be opposed apart from the capitalist state and the social order that gives rise to it. It cannot be ended without over- turning the capitalist system itself. CUNY students and staff are highly sen- sitive to the war stealing the all-too-slim chances of education from working-class and minority youth. Reformist antiwar groups want to line up this outrage behind one or another Democratic politician with calls to “bring our troops home” and to re- Imperialist war brings racism, repression “at home.” Front page of El Diario-La Prensa (10 April) featured photo of factor government budgets to provide Internationalist Clubs at NYU protest against Minuteman vigilantes (see p. 3). “money for education, not for war.” When mobilize the workers internationally in sharp fense” Department for a se- leftists appeal to patriotic sentiments (“so- class struggle – including strikes against the ries of projects. Since killing Internationalist photo cial-patriotism”), they reinforce the ideology war – to defeat the imperialist occupation is big business, the private that the ruling class uses to subjugate the forces who have laid waste to Afghanistan sector has gotten in on the oppressed. and Iraq! act: CUNY-CAT notes it has And imperialist war has always been Military Recruiters and “partnered with” Lockheed accompanied by racism, anti-immigrant at- Research Out! Martin and Northrop tacks, and assaults on the rights and living Grumman, some of the most standards of working people “at home.” Al- The government uses campuses not only notorious arms manufactur- though troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan as a source of soldiers but – literally – as labs ers around. are drawn largely from the working class, for the horrors of war. Back in 2004, the CUNY Meanwhile, military re- they are not “our” troops. They have been Internationalist Clubs blew the whistle on a cruiters stalk the halls of signed up and shipped out to fight for our “Homeland Security” program at BMCC with CUNY, while high-school enemy, the ruling class whose armed thugs links to Central American death squads and and college students’ names bomb wedding parties in Afghanistan and the Guantánamo torture camp (“Abu Ghraib and addresses are fed to gun down Sean Bell in Queens with 50 shots 101 at BMCC? ‘Fatherland Security’ Hits these vultures. Many work- on his wedding day. As Internationalist CUNY,” Revolution No. 2, October 2004). This ing-class and minority stu- Group (IG) contingents have chanted in an- sparked student and faculty protests that dents realize this is a rich tiwar marches: “Washington, Wall Street – stopped the sinister program. man’s war: “I’m not really The enemy’s at home!” But this was far from the only link to the into going overseas with Imperialism is not a matter of confused imperialist war machine. On the guns and fighting other “priorities.” War is built into the system, no cunyphotonics.com website, the administra- people’s wars,” said matter which of the twin capitalist parties – tion boasts that the Center for Advanced Adeyefa Finch of the Bronx Democrats or Republicans – is in power in Technology in Photonics Applications to the New York Times (22 Washington. Even the tiny Greens only want (CUNY-CAT), located at City College, re- August), explaining why he to avoid a U.S. defeat in the losing imperial- ceived $600,000 from the Navy for “Under- ignores the recruiters who ist war in Iraq. The IG and Internationalist water Target Detection,” $6 million from swarm around inner-city August 18 protest pauses at 181st St. building Clubs at City University, in contrast, call to NASA (including for “imaging targets”), high schools. housing CUNY office and armed forces recruiters. break with all the capitalist parties and to w!ith millions more pouring in from the “De- continued on page 2 to increasingly desperate recruiters.” So im- CUNY and War... migrant youth are supposed to choose be- continued from page 1 tween racist persecution by the migra (im- photo Internationalist So the military tries to deafen us with migration) Gestapo or maybe getting a green hype. A recent report detailed students’ com- card by helping the U.S. military be cops of plaints of recruiters harassing them in school the world. One of the political points here is hallways, setting up camp in school gymna- the very real link between fighting against siums, rolling up to inner-city high schools the imperialist war and fighting for full citi- in tricked-out SUV’s, music blaring “like drug zenship rights for all immigrants. dealers” (“The Re-Militarized Zone,” pub- The Internationalist Clubs fight to drive lished in the usually reactionary New York military recruiters off campus – not one per- Press, 27 June). “Recruiting is a $4 billion son, not one penny for the war machine. At industry,” the article reveals, “working furi- Bronx Community College our comrades or- ously to find willing bodies to fill empty ganized protests that made recruiters for the boots on the ground.” The military “spent Army, Marines, and Air Force flee the cam- an average of $16,199 for each of its 73,373 pus, as students and campus workers re- individual recruits” in 2005, “nearly $5,000 sponded to leaflets that said “We Won’t Kill more than what the city spent on education or Torture for the Ruling Class – Drive Mili- per student in 2004.” tary Recruiters Out of BCC!” Speakers told Despite its frenzied efforts, the Penta- how they had lost co-workers and family in gon is failing to recruit enough bodies for the Iraq war, and compared military recruiters its killing machine. Some soldiers already to the slave-catchers who were paid to do the sent to Iraq will go to any lengths to avoid masters’ dirty work (see “Bronx Community Internationalist Clubs joined TWU strikers on picket lines and leafletted CUNY going back, like twenty-year-old Jonathan College Students Drive Out Military Recruit- campuses to build student support for December 2005 transit strike. Aponte from the Bronx, who paid a hit-man ers,” Revolution No. 3, November 2005). The CUNY Internationalist Clubs were Hunter, heated opposition broke out on the $500 to shoot him in the leg. “I have night- CUNY Tops Take Aim born from this struggle, which forced the faculty senate (normally a pretty staid institu- mares all the time. I hear people screaming, with New Guns... administration to back away from its plan. tion). If the powers that be try to ram this gunshots, explosions, and I can smell burn- But the bureaucrats at CUNY central through, they should be stopped by an out- ing flesh in my dreams,” he told the Daily The City University of New York keeps on 80th Street have a conditioned reflex: jump pouring of protest. However, the CUNY ad- News (July 14). showing what we mean when we say imperi- to use any new tragedy as a pretext for re- ministration (headed by Chancellor Matthew Six CUNY students who fell into the re- alist war abroad means racist repression “at pression. A tiny article in the New York Post Goldstein, who sits on the board of the J.P. cruiters’ trap have died in Iraq to date. Par- home.” In a recent article on young Mexican (7 May) reported: “Two days after the Vir- Morgan investment bank) will keep making ents, teachers, and fellow students are furi- immigrants, The New York Times (16 July) ginia Tech. massacre, the City University of trouble until it’s abolished and replaced by ous. The mother of Hai Ming Hsia, a BMCC wrote: “In 2002, immigrants successfully New York bought two dozen Glock 9mm pis- student-teacher-worker committees to demo- student who was the fifth from CUNY to die pushed for the City University system to tols to beef up security at five of its cam- cratically run the schools, tossing out the in Iraq, said: “Bush doesn’t care. It’s as if he preserve in-state tuition rates for students puses.” The guns went to the Lehman, bourgeoisie’s armed enforcers (cops) as well. killed my son himself.” Nigerian immigrant here illegally.” The real story is that there Brooklyn, Hostos, La Guardia and Graduate Segun F. Akintade, a City Tech student killed was a months-long struggle, launched by ...and New “Academic Standards” Center campuses.