15 January 2007

Imperialism Cause Of War


The announcement of war came on Christmas Day with the following headline: Ethiopia declares war on Somalia.

During the remainder of the Christmas silly season the lies were relentless. For the record, the
Communist University does not believe that falsehoods in the media have much effect on general public opinion. They may encourage the killers, but they don’t fool the normal people for long. In any case it is the action, not the rumour, of war that people must concern themselves with, plus the corresponding organised active popular movement for peace.

This is not what the City Press is doing, exactly (see below). It still feels the need to bend its knee towards the phoney war on terror, which is really a war of terror by the US Imperialists against the rest of humanity. Yet apart from its nods towards the US version, the City Press is a long way from supporting the US aggression.

Reality is reasserting itself. The actual sight of a new war by white forces against poor black people in Africa and so close to home is a shock to any South African.

The reality of Somalia’s nature and history is also reasserting itself in the face of the infantile comic-strip rubric of US invention called Al Qaeda, which we are supposed to imagine exists as a sort of rogue corporation, or as a new version of the Comintern complete with cells. Of course this is ridiculous.

And, of course, nobody has ever been able to suppress the Somalis for long. People know that, if nothing else. Somalia would be a death trap for any South African force. People are already brushing the propaganda aside and saying openly that South African forces must not go to Somalia. This is what the City Press was saying yesterday. The City Press claims to be a black newspaper. This was indeed one time when it did show more sensitivity than the other, even more white-dominated, rags of this country.

Our President could still send South African troops to Somalia, even if he knows they are going to die there. Our US-imposed fixed eight-year term limit of presidency has its own logic, which the US ruling class know very well. That is why they pushed this system upon us. The logic is this: Even if the President is a lame duck towards the end in terms of mass popular mobilisation, yet he can still do a lot of things. Especially, he can make war. And he does these things in secret.

Our job is to expose all such actions to the light of day.

The YCL is sharp enough and quick enough to understand what is going on. See their welcome statement of solidarity, linked below. Let us hope it is the first of many such statements from organisations at national and at local level.

Click on these links:

Outcry grows over US role in Somali attacks, D Thompson, City Press (416 words)

SA cannot join proxy war in Somalia, Editorial, City Press (489 words)

YCL condemns gruesome US intervention in Somalia (252 words)

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