Actualité - U.S. Fears Growing Resistance, Organizes to Criminalize Ideology

In recent speeches outlining the government’s strategy for “the global war on terror,” President George W. Bush has emphasized that “The war we fight today is more than a military conflict; it is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.” He said, “On one side are those who believe in the values of freedom and moderation — the right of all people to speak, and worship, and live in liberty. And on the other side are those driven by the values of tyranny and extremism — the right of a self-appointed few to impose their fanatical views on all the rest. As veterans you have seen this kind of enemy before. They’re successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century,” (speaking to the American Legion Convention, 8/31/06). He more generally referred to the need to combat “radical extremism,” and what he calls “absolute hostility towards America.”

Making clear that he is speaking not only as the defender of U.S. imperialism but as the defender of the world system of imperialism, Bush said, “The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq. So the United States of America will not leave until victory is achieved.” He elaborated this further when speaking to the Military Officers Association. He presented the vision of the “terrorists” as a “unified totalitarian Islamic state,” stretching from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. He then emphasized, “These violent extremists know that to realize this vision, they must first drive out the main obstacle that stands in their way — the United States of America,” (9/5/06). Again speaking to the need to win the ideological struggle, he added, “All civilized nations are bound together in this struggle between moderation and extremism. By coming together, we will roll back this grave threat to our way of life.” It is this imperialist way of life Bush is defending, against all those who oppose it, including Americans.

The enemies, for the U.S. rulers, are the resistance movements, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon, countries like Iran, and the resistance here in the U.S. The government is organizing to attack resistance, including targeting people and organizations for their views and words alone.

Bush spent most of his speech to the Military Officers Association quoting the words of those he has branded “terrorists,” like Hizbollah and the president of Iran. The White House released an entire “fact sheet,” titled “In Their Own Words,” with quotes of various kinds. Bush sites, for example, the stand by Hizbollah in support of the Palestinians and against U.S. imperialism. This is expressed in the slogan “Death to America.” The president of Iran is quoted as saying, “I am telling you [major powers], if you do not abandon the path of falsehood and return to the path of justice, your doomed destiny will be annihilation, misfortune and abjectness.” These quotes are included in a section labeled “The Terrorists On Their Absolute Hostility Towards America.”

It does not take much to see that very similar words and banners by Americans, rejecting Bush’s lies, saying “Down with U.S. Imperialism” and similar content, can equally be branded as that of the enemy. The imperialists are recognizing the growing anti-imperialist stand within the U.S. movement and seeks to block it by branding it as “terrorist” and the “ideology of radical extremists.” They recognize the danger to their system of Americans taking their stand with the world’s peoples and opposing U.S. aggression and the entire system of imperialist oppression and exploitation.

The government is attempting to discredit the resistance movement inside the U.S. by branding it as the product of a propaganda and media campaign by Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida. They are preparing the ground to criminalize simply the expression of anti-government and anti-imperialist views.

Bush, and the White House fact sheet, emphasized that Bin Laden has organized a media campaign “to create a wedge between the American people and their government,” and to “create pressure from the American people on the American government to stop their campaign against Afghanistan.” The campaign includes putting forward that Americans are being sacrificed for the interests of big business and will suffer losses, financially and in casualties.

In this manner, the government is trying to make it appear that much of the content being raised by a wide range of fighting forces — such as opposing the military budget, opposing the massacres of Iraqis and demanding that all troops be brought home, exposing and condemning the role of the military monopolies pushing war — are all the work of Osama Bin Laden. The notion is being pushed that anyone who is against the government, or reflects these views, are dupes of foreigners, whether it be Bin Laden, the Iranians or Hizbollah.

For the U.S. rulers, resistance to imperialism can only be foreign, not American made. For them, even to think is to be un-American. Instead, Americans are to submit and, as Bush suggested after September 11, go shopping. Anything else is hostile to the U.S.

Bush also specifically attempts to target leading forces, especially the revolutionary and communist forces, in the U.S. and worldwide. He does this with the tried and true method of the imperialists, to attempt to equate communism with fascism, just as there is the attempt to brand the resistance by the Islamic countries and forces as “Islamofascism.”

In addition to comments such as that above, that the resistance movements represent the “successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century,” Bush specifically emphasizes, referring to the “terrorists,” that “we need to take their words seriously.” After the referring to various quotes, such as those about Bin Laden’s media campaign, Bush refers to Lenin, leader of the proletarian revolution in Russia. He specifically refers to Lenin’s work “What is to Be Done?” Two main features of this work are the need for a communist party of the working class and the need for the independent press of the working class as a critical part of its organizing for revolution. Bush next refers to Hitler and the Nazis. He then says, “We’re taking the words of the enemy seriously. We’re on the offensive, and we will not rest, we will not retreat, and we will not withdraw from the fight, until this threat to civilization has been removed.”

It is no accident that Bush targets revolution and the need for a revolutionary press as an integral part of this ideological struggle of the 21 century. The ruling circles are preparing the grounds to openly attack and eliminate the work going forward to develop an independent press serving the interests of the working class and peoples — work that includes websites, newspapers, radio shows and more.

The effort to criminalize ideology shows that U.S. imperialism is desperate to prevent its own defeat. There is a fierce ideological struggle being waged by the working class and peoples against imperialism and the imperialist world outlook, which says the world’s peoples are nothing, which says there is no alternative to the present chaos, destruction and war, which says there is no future. And this struggle is being led by the communist and revolutionary forces guided by their proletarian world outlook.

(Voice of Revolution)