Since the end of the Second World War, when the US forced the Italian government to discharge its Communist Party cabinet members as a prerequisite for aid, to its support for the coup attempt in Venezuela in 2003, the US has been regularly subverting elections around the globe for the benefit of its own corporate elite.

Ever fearful that foreign governments might, among other things, introduce labour and environmental legislation detrimental to US investments, Washington has opposed the principle of democracy on almost every continent, even helping to overthrow democratically elected governments whenever it felt its interests threatened (e.g. Iran in 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1960, Ecuador 1961, Bolivia 1964. Greece 1967, Fiji 1987).

While you might not be surprised to learn that it’s customary at Holocaust commemorative events for German politicians to remain silent [“Leaders mark Auschwitz liberation,” Boston Globe, 28 January 2005], you might find it interesting to know who else shows up at them.

Remember the folks who brought 100,000 dead Iraqis shock and awe? Well, one of the survivors, U.S. strongman Dick Cheney (temporarily out of the loop at Halliburton), galvanized an audience in Krakow, Poland, the day before the Auschwitz event with some poignantly immortal prose. “Gathered in this place,” he pontificated, “we are reminded that such immense cruelty did not happen in a faraway, uncivilized corner of the world, but rather in the very heart of the civilized world.” Baghdad, in one of its more ancient incarnations, was once on the site of what historians assure us was the cradle of civilization (Mesopotamia); it has always been “in the very heart of the civilized world.”

Since the end of the Second World War, when the US forced the Italian government to discharge its Communist Party cabinet members as a prerequisite for aid, to its support for the coup attempt in Venezuela in 2003, the US has been regularly subverting elections around the globe for the benefit of its own corporate elite.

Ever fearful that foreign governments might, among other things, introduce labour and environmental legislation detrimental to US investments, Washington has opposed the principle of democracy on almost every continent, even helping to overthrow democratically elected governments whenever it felt its interests threatened (e.g. Iran in 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1960, Ecuador 1961, Bolivia 1964. Greece 1967, Fiji 1987).

Since the end of the Second World War, when the US forced the Italian government to discharge its Communist Party cabinet members as a prerequisite for aid, to its support for the coup attempt in Venezuela in 2003, the US has been regularly subverting elections around the globe for the benefit of its own corporate elite.

Ever fearful that foreign governments might, among other things, introduce labour and environmental legislation detrimental to US investments, Washington has opposed the principle of democracy on almost every continent, even helping to overthrow democratically elected governments whenever it felt its interests threatened (e.g. Iran in 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1960, Ecuador 1961, Bolivia 1964. Greece 1967, Fiji 1987).

More workers were killed in Iraq today, with dozens more reported killed and injured earlier in the week. The dead Iraqi workers were evidently attempting to get along with their lives. Unwanted in the global market, they mistakenly came into conflict with profits, which are always most important. American workers were also killed in Iraq while trying to get a start in life via college loans, etc.

No capitalists were killed in Iraq this week. Although several were injured when the rich dinner they were eating gave them indigestion. Several others complained of injuries resulting from profits not being as high as promised.

US Air Force planes bombed the newly freed city of Fullujah today. The bombings were launched after 8 Marines died in a Iraqi insurgency attack.

The Fallujah insurgency, if you remember correctly, was destroyed last month.

US Military spokespeople gave no estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths or causualties caused by US bombing. That’s because the dead would only be Iraqi workers- they don’t count- as the rich got to run off. Besides, you may have sympathy with the workers if you actually got the information and that would be bad for your rulers.

A series of photos from Iraq of dead working people, most shot dead in their beds by US forces. One exception is of a young boy clutching a white flag.

As always, wars for “freedom” are not about liberating working people like these victims, it is for the freedom to exploit markets effectively. Images From The War in Iraq

Socialists appreciate that the war over Iraq has drawn many workers into a political arena hitherto seen as boring and as impossible to influence from the outside. Workers once apolitical have been stirred into action by the lies, the tricks to curtail the democratic process, and the acts of violence, murder and destruction from their leaders. Where before, whether at breakfast, in the workplace, in a caf at lunchtime or over dinner in the pub in an evening, we discussed our work, sport, TV, pop music, sex and the weather or our personal pursuits, over and above our everyday troubles in life, lately we’ve seen the war over Iraq come to figure in these discussions. Not satisfied with these usual outlets for our feelings, many have been attending the numerous anti-war rallies around the world and writing into newspapers, radio and television. Socialists expressed pleasure in seeing so many of our fellow workers in anti-war mood, and in such numbers.

But socialists are aware that in the workplace workers, anti-war campaigners and not, are soldiers in an economic war on behalf of the generals who own the businesses where we work. We thought it ironic that workers should be so strongly united in an anti-war outlook on a Saturday, and then, back at work on the Monday, would go to war with each other, united only in an effort to win the battle for production, sales or work over their anti-war friends engaged in a similar process for other generals. A common lament from the weary and dismayed proletarian soldiers in the American Civil War of the 19th century was, We are all Americans! We socialists have a similar cry to workers in both the commercial and military wars of today - We are all fellow workers! If non-socialist anti-war campaigners only knew it, the wars of commerce lie at the root of all the military wars.