Concessions from the ruling capitalist class are not gotten by pleading, pressuring, voting and rallying together with representatives of the ruling class. Class collaboration does not bring concessions, but defeat, for it demonstrates the unreadiness of the masses for serious struggle. Concessions are the by-product and result of class struggle. Concessions are most likely when the ruling capitalist class fears a potential for its overthrow, for revolution.
The anti-war movement, as it is currently constituted, is marked by class collaboration. We call for introducing class struggle into the anti-war movement. We call for transforming the anti-war movement into an anti-imperialist movement, opposed to all wings of the ruling class. We call on all organizations and individuals who recognize the need for fighting bourgeois influence within the anti-war movement to discuss means for resisting this influence, to work out a plan of action toward that end.
The demonstrations organized by ANSWER / Workers World Party featured as speakers, representatives of the ruling capitalist class. These include former Democratic Party candidate for president Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney Democratic Party congressperson, Democratic and Green Party celebrity supporers, Susan Sarandon and Patti Smith, and liberal capitalist Ben Cohen.
The opposition to the war drive by a section of the Democratic Party is more formal than real. That is why they do not mobilize their own machine, their support in the labor unions etc. in opposition to the war. Yet they seek to capitalize on anti-war sentiments, to translate such sentiments into votes for the Democrats, and above all, to ensure that they remain in a position of leadership within the movement, to ensure that it remains within the bounds of capitalist politics.
The “anit-war” Democrats resolve this conflict by using ANSWER / Workers World Party as a appendage of itself. ANSWER / WWP does the leg work, saving the Democratic Party from mobilizing its own forces, yet provides a vast audience for the Democratic Party speakers to promote Democratic Party politics and push for Democratic Party votes.
To move the anti-war movement forward, to make it an anti-imperialist movement, we must drive the representatives of the capitalist class from all positions of prominence!
You wouldn’t invite the bosses to be the featured speakers at a strike rally, so why invite political representatives of the ruling class to be featured speakers at a rally opposing the militarism of that same ruling class? The prominence given to Democratic and Green party politicians and their celebrity supporters, does not strengthen the anti-war movement, but weakens it, by reassuring those in power that the movement is safely corralled within the bounds of class collaboration.
Flag burning is one way to denounce, repudiate and oppose class collaboration!
During the 60s the anti-war movement took a decidedly anti-imperialist turn, and the liberal politicians decided to make themselves scarce at demonstrations. This, of course, did not damage demonstration attendance, since the main draw of demonstrations was the war, and not the Democratic Party politicians who spoke. While this division along class lines took place spontaneously in the 60s, we seek to bring it about intentionally today. The war in Viet Nam lasted years, while the ruling class believes a war in Iraq may last only a few weeks – too little time for serious class divisions to evolve without conscious effort.
The Democratic/Green party activists who have taken it to be their task to corral the anti-war movement, may not personally hold the flag sacred. But the Democratic/Green party machines, the wealthy capitalists who support these parties and the capitalist press upon whom these politicians depend certainly do. To them, flag burning is a sacrilege and some even want to make it a crime. Can the Cynthia McKinneys, the Jesse Jacksons, countenance flag burning yet maintain their respectability within the ruling class? Perhaps. But with flags burning, it is more likely that the ruling class will give these, their representatives, the signal to pull out of demonstrations.
The ruling class may go into conniptions over flag burning, but we want to explain to the working class why we are burning flags, that it is a tactic aimed not at the sincerely patriotic worker, whom we would like to win over, but aimed at the bosses representatives within the anti-war movement. We believe that the working class can understand the explanation, and give its assent to our actions. We ask all those who have access to labor organizations, all those who have press, to help us, by explaining the meaning of our actions, something the capitalist media will not do.