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UNAC‘s
answer to an attack on our anti-imperialism that was printed in the Nation. Recently, there have been increased attacks on the peace
movement from “progressives” for our consistent opposition to U.S.
intervention in other countries. A
recent sign-on letter was produced with hundreds of signatures attacking our
opposition to outside intervention in Syria.
UNAC answered that letter with our own sign-on letter explaining our
position on Syria. Our letter got over
1300 individual and organizational co-signers from 50 different
countries. That letter can be seen here. Now, the Nation has published an attack piece by Professor
Gilbert Achcar, who considers himself a socialist. Achcar's article singles out 3
organizations, the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and the US Peace
Council from the United States and the Stop the War Coalition from
Britain. Below is a statement from
UNAC answering this attack. These attacks do not happen in a vacuum. Since the Biden election, there has been
increased activity on the part of the US administration in Syria, increased
propaganda aimed at China and Russia and a continuation of Trump’s policies
against Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and other countries as well as unconditional
support for Israel and its horrific attacks on the Palestinian people. The article in the Nation and other outlets
give left cover to the imperialists.
It is in the interest of the new Democratic administration to silence
the peace movement. But, we have no intention of being silent. We
are the Camp of Peace and Anti-Imperialism By the United
National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) Gilbert Achcar’s article in The Nation entitled, “How to Avoid the
‘Anti-Imperialism’ of Fools,” argues that the anti-imperialism of the peace
movement has changed over time. During the time of the Vietnam War, he
contends, we all opposed U.S. imperialism’s involvement, but today is
different. The peace movement today is wrong to oppose U.S. imperialist
interventions in Syria, Libya and other countries,
in Achcar’s opinion. In his attack piece, he specifically condemns
three organizations, the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and the
U.S. Peace Council, both based in the United States, and the Stop the Wars
Coalition from Britain. All three include leaders who have been active
in the peace movement from the Vietnam War era to the present. All three have
remained consistent in condemning U.S. imperialism’s wars around the world,
including its drone wars, sanction wars, CIA Special Operation wars,
privatized mercenary army wars and embargo/blockade wars.
It is not the trajectory of the anti-imperialists that has
been inconsistent and needs to be examined but the journey of Achcar himself,
from his opposition to the Vietnam War to his support to U.S. and British
imperialism, which even includes training British military personnel. (1)(2) Supporting UN/U.S. “No Fly Zones” Achcar believes that “defense
of democratic rights” should be the “paramount principle of the left,” not
the struggle against imperialism. In this pursuit of “democratic
rights,” he believes imperialist powers such as the United State and Britain
can play a positive role through “humanitarian” interventions such as No Fly
Zones. For example, Achcar supported the UN Security Council “No Fly
Zone” resolution on Libya that helped destroy that nation. Achcar, proudly
asserted that “It took very few days for NATO to deprive [President Muammar] Gadhafi of much of his air
force and tanks.” Tragically, the
U.S. “humanitarian” pretext for the saturation bombing of Libya, as
with the “weapons of mass destruction” pretext employed to devastate Iraq,
proved to be a CIA invention. Achcar correctly stated that much of the anti-imperialist
left opposed the UN Security Council No Fly Zone resolution that paved the
way for Libya’s destruction. Today, Libya has been reduced to a failed state
with the U.S. military backing the faction of a local dictator intent on
securing control of Libya’s oil for imperialist exploitation. U.S. pretext in defending “democratic rights” When Achcar talks about “defense of democratic rights,” he
is using the same rational that the imperialist countries always employ when
they bomb, invade, sanction or organize coups
against poor nations, whether they be Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
Yemen, Libya or Syria. If the imperialists succeed, the governments that
follow are never democratic. Instead, they are installed to serve the
interest of Washington and Wall Street. We in the antiwar movement believe that whenever the U.S.
intervenes to overthrow the government of a poor and oppressed nation it is a
violation of that nation’s fundamental right of self-determination. We
reject the reactionary notion of U.S. imperialism as the world cop. We state
this unequivocally, whether we agree or disagree with the policies of the
country under U.S. attack. The right to self-determination Our support to the right of poor and oppressed nations to
self-determination, that is, to be free from U.S. imperialist war and
intervention is unconditional. When Syria is attacked and devastated by the
combined forces engaged in a U.S./NATO orchestrated war including Israel, Turkey and the Gulf State monarchies, who finance and
deploy tens of thousands of mercenaries, we stand 100 percent opposed. We
demand U.S. Out Now! U.S., Hands Off! And we support Syria’s right to defend
itself, including to seek help from its allies, Iran
and Russia. U.S. troops and their proxies now occupy the
Northeast oil producing area of Syria and Syrian oil is being sold by
them. They have destroyed and occupied much the grain producing area
and they have imposed harsh sanctions. U.S. weapons are in the hands of
terrorist forces in Syria, including the Al Nusra Front which was the Al
Qaeda affiliate in that country. The U.S. has been involved in the
training of anti-Assad forces; they and their allies like Israel and NATO
countries have bombed Syria and have facilitated tens of thousands of foreign
mercenaries entering the country to bring down the Syrian government. Yet
Achcar contends the U.S. role in Syria is minor. No to all U.S. imperialist wars! The
U.S. today is by far the main imperialist power in the world. At $1
trillion annually, its military budget comes close to equaling the total of
all other nations combined. It has the most nuclear weapons. It has
started a new arena for war by creating the multi-billion-dollar Space
Force. The U.S. has troops in some 172 countries(3)
and about 20 times the number of foreign military bases as all other
countries combined. Therefore, we in the United States, in the belly of the
beast, have a special obligation to build a strong anti-imperialist, antiwar
movement and oppose all U.S. military interventions. Gilbert Achcar and The Nation seem to take us to task for
that. The role of Gilbert Achcar and others who call themselves socialists
but support U.S. and Western intervention around the world, is to weaken and
undermines our movement. They lend “left cover” to U.S. interventions;
their arguments bolster the false idea that the U.S. intervenes anywhere for
humanitarian reasons. We
call upon our movement to reject the arguments of Gilbert Achcar and others
like him and to continue to oppose U.S. interventions around the world. United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) |
