At the January 5, 2020 meeting of the Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America, the following statement was read aloud to members and guests. Members in attendance at the meeting voted to formally adopt this statement.
Oppose the U.S.-led Imperialist Foreign Policy in the Middle East!
Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America (CLTMDSA) emphatically opposes a U.S. war with Iran. In light of the U.S.’s act of war against Iran, putting the two nations close to the brink of war, DSA calls on all members and chapters to mobilize against yet another U.S. war in the Middle East.
On January 2, 2020, the U.S. military assassinated, on Iraqi soil, Iranian General Qassim Suleimani. Such a move is an act of war, and unnecessarily escalates an already tense military situation in Iraq and Iran. In addition to recklessly endangering millions of lives throughout the Middle East, the aggressive military strike of January 2nd violates the War Powers Act, the U.S. Constitution, and international law.
As Democratic Socialists, we reject the jingoism, nationalism, xenophobia, and war profiteering endemic in all capitalist countries who pursue their imperialist policies to the detriment of the working class of all countries.
The Charlotte Metro chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America calls upon all workers to oppose the aggression of the U.S. government in the Middle East and around the world, and to oppose all attempts to split the working class along national lines.
Workers of the World, Unite!
Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America
“And here let me emphasize the fact — and it cannot be repeated too often — that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.”
- Eugene V. Debs, Anti-War Speech given in Canton, Ohio (1918)
“Modern monopolist capitalism on a world-wide scale — imperialist wars are absolutely inevitable under such an economic system, as long as private property in the means of production exists.”
- V.I. Lenin, Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism