Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

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60 markets, raw materials and sources of cheap labor at the expense of its capitalist rivals. This road leads inevitably to a bloody catastrophe for American capitalism and ultimately to a new imperialist war. There are vital political lessons for the American working class in the turn of events in Mogadishu. The criminal intervention in Somalia was carried out under the cover of a full-scale propaganda barrage in the capitalist media, promoting a colonial occupation as a humanitarian rescue operation. Like all US military interventions, it enjoyed the unqualified backing of the big business stooges in the trade union bureaucracy. These methods are not reserved solely for foreign interventions. The same elements are being brought into play in promoting the Clinton administration's deficit reduction plan, which is being sold by the media and the labor bureaucracy as a program to create jobs and improve the living standards of American workers. This is just as big a lie as the claim that US troops were sent to Somalia to feed the hungry. Both at home and abroad, it is the interests of profit, not of people, which determine the policy of the capitalist ruling class and its government. It is impossible to defend jobs, living standards and basic rights at home without rejecting the perspective of defending the "national interest" of American imperialism abroad. American workers must join with their class brothers and sisters in Somalia in demanding the immediate withdrawal of all US and other imperialist troops from that country. The only answer to the worldwide eruption of militarism and the attacks on the working class at home lies in forging the international unity of workers in every country in the struggle for socialism. This is the revolutionary program and perspective fought for by the Workers League and our co-thinkers in the International Committee of the Fourth International.
• Notes Why Is the US Invading Somalia? 1. battleship Maine — A US vessel blown up in Havana harbor February 15,1898. This was the pretext utilized by the US to provoke a war with Spain, which was blamed for the incident, in which 260 men died. President McKinley presented Spain with an ultimatum, some of the terms of which were actually being implemented when the US Congress declared war on April 25. The Treaty of Paris (December 10,1898) ended Spanish rule in Cuba and the US gained the islands of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The Return to Colonialism 1. Lenin, Vladimir Eyich (Ulyanov) (1870-1924) — The leader of the October 1917 Revolution and of the first workers state. Together with Trotsky, he was one of the two greatest revolutionary Marxist leaders of the twentieth century. He applied Marxism to the modern epoch in developing the theory of the revolutionary vanguard party, necessary for the proletariat to seize power. He fought for the understanding that scientific socialism had to be brought into the labor movement from outside the day-to-day, economic struggles in a conflict with the spontaneous consciousness of the working class. Lenin developed the Marxist analysis of imperialism as the final stage of capitalism, the epoch of wars and revolutions. An indefatigable opponent of opportunism in all forms, after the historic betrayal of the Second International in August 1914, Lenin set out to construct 61
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Contents Introduction 1 Why Is the
Page 5 and 6:
Introduction The US invasion of Som
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the thoughtful reader will find the
Page 10 and 11:
6 of the big business media and pol
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8 American military and economic he
Page 14 and 15: 10 Among the most enthusiastic supp
Page 16 and 17: 12 wounded in a hail of bullets fir
Page 18 and 19: 14 Somalia occupies, can see the ab
Page 21 and 22: Colonialism's Humanitarian Mask In
Page 23 and 24: anything about either Somalia's his
Page 25: Wars of Conscience," The New York T
Page 28 and 29: 24 and Somalia. Today, when half th
Page 30 and 31: 26 and financial monopolies which v
Page 32 and 33: 28 dence. In order to win the Ethio
Page 34 and 35: 30 obliged to report that hostility
Page 36 and 37: 32 become the King's First Minister
Page 38 and 39: 34 imperialism. Britain and France
Page 40 and 41: wrote to the United Nations: "We ha
Page 42 and 43: 38 residents of towns. In the first
Page 44 and 45: 40 system which was in fact a no-pa
Page 46 and 47: 42 intensifying. The US had closed
Page 48 and 49: 44 Security Council, the Bush admin
Page 51 and 52: The Ugly Face of US Colonialism It
Page 53: discussion of US military intervent
Page 56 and 57: 52 placed under foreign military ru
Page 59 and 60: U.S. Massacre In Mogadishu The mass
Page 61 and 62: ival militia leaders. As The New Yo
Page 63: carried out by the US in Iraq. Far
Page 67 and 68: was bloodily suppressed. Mussolini
Page 69 and 70: of Glimpses of World History, a col
Page 71: he began the process of privatizati
Page 75: The Horn of Africa today
Page 78 and 79: 74 Commissionaire, 26 Congo, 25, 52
Page 80 and 81: 76 Somali people, divided up by col
Page 82 and 83: The Heritage We Defend A Contributi
Page 84 and 85: The Mark Curtis Hoax How the Social
Page 86: Order Form Labor Publications, Inc.
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Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

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