We must stop Howard's war!

On March 20, Australian fighter planes assisted in a US air strike on Baghdad, marking the beginning of the war against the Iraqi people.

Prime Minister John Howard’s decision to send Australians overseas to kill Iraqis is unjustifiable. No amount of rhetoric condemning Saddam Hussein’s human rights record can disguise the fact that the massive bombing of Baghdad is causing untold devastation and horror. Nor can it disguise Washington's intention to install a regime scarcely better, but US-friendly.

Even the most conservative opinion opolls show that a majority of Australians are opposed to Australian participation in this war. The 2000 Australian military personnel now in the Persian Gulf have been sent without the endorsement, or the support, of the majority of Australians. Our job is to bring them home, as soon as possible.

The worst thing we could do now would be to accept Australia's participation in this war as a fait accompli. Howard and his gutless Coalition colleagues have committed Australia to an unjust war, to an unprovoked invasion of an impoverished Third world country. We should not go along with it.

We need to exercise the power that we do have — the power of collective action of the majority — if we are going to stop this war. Mass street marches, student strikes and occupations, workers' strikes, union bans on the movement of military supplies or on any companies associated with the war drive, and other forms of mass action can show that we will not allow murder in our name.

If we are to be successful, it will be with the unions' support and involvement. The anti-war strikes organised on March 20 and 21 in Western Australia and Victoria point the way forward. The collectively organised determination of workers has immense power — without us, nothing can be built, processed or transported.

Not just in Australia, but around the world, many of those who mobilised on March 20 were high school students who refuse to “go back to normal” while the Iraqi people cannot. The student strike in Australia planned for March 26 will be the next step in organising a student movement, high-school and tertiary, whose determination and energy is providing inspiration to trade unionists and other workers.

As the bombs were beginning to fall on Baghdad, the Senate amended the government’s motion supporting war, to one that condemned it. The Senate also supported a motion moved by Greens Senator Bob Brown calling for the recall of the troops from the Gulf. These motions were supported by all non-government political parties (One Nation’s Len Harris was absent from the chamber).

The ALP’s decision to oppose the war, and call for the return of troops, was welcome. After months of attempting to define what sort of war Labor would support, it was a step forward that the party has taken a clear stance of opposition now the war is upon us.

However, the ALP's March 23 decision to withdraw its support the "Bring the troops home" demand means it again supports this barabaric war. Those who voted for the ALP in the NSW election the day before, believeing it to be an anti-war party should be outraged.

The amti-war movement must apply pressure to the Senate opposition parties to block the budget when it comes down in May. Blocking supply by refusing to vote to release funds for the government will force Howard to an early election — and give the public the chance to chuck him and his warmongering party out of office.

Howard and his party are not fit to govern this country. It is not undemocratic to force them to be accountable to the population whose wishes they have so contemptuously ignored.

Since early March, when the Socialist Alliance called on all opposition parties to block supply, many others have been taken up the same call. Labor parliamentarians have received so many letters and phone calls on the subject, that their party has prepared a standard response.

Federal Labor leader Simon Crean ruled out blocking supply, on two main arguments — it would be “undemocratic” and it might harm Australian troops.

There are many arguments as to why blocking supply right now is democratic — it’s perfectly constitutional for a start, and it is Howard who is acting without full parliamentary support — but the most fundamental is that the vast majority of Australians passionately oppose the war. How can this be “rule by the people” when “our” elected represenatives simply ignore the clear will of the majority of the people?

Crean’s second argument, like the ALP's decision to not call for the recall of Australian troops, buys into the media- and government-created patriotic “consensus” that the Australian Defence Force is acting for “all” Australians.

Those who oppose war have done nothing to “harm” the 2000 ADF personnel in the Gulf. It is Howard and his government that have sent them to risk their lives from the depleted uranium used by the US military, while attempting to kill people who have done nothing to them — or to us.

The ADF is not in the Gulf carrying out some kind of leadership training exercise. It is there to kill and maim Iraqis and destroy their country's infrastructure. To argue against blocking supply because it might deny the ADF the funds it needs to continue engaging in a war that even Crean describes as “wrong” and “unjust” is perverse.

We need to bring the troops home, and we need to kick out this murderous government — as soon as possible!

From Green Left Weekly, March 26, 2003.
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