Boisterous 500 rally in Boston rain

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS--500 people rallied in light rain in
Copley Square, Boston, October 14th, to oppose the U.$.
war in Afghanistan. MIM handed out 200 copies of the November 1
edition of MIM Notes and a comrade also handed out flyers to
support reading MIM Notes during the intensification of war.

The rally had a professional sound system taken advantage of
by performing artists including Muslim singers. From the first
speaker, it was clear that this was going to be a high-energy 
rally.

It was a good turnout and one young womyn speaker pointed to it
and said not to believe the polls that 90% support the war.
MIM would warn the reader not to believe the speakers's wishful
thinking. It is quite possible to have a large rally in a country
of more than a quarter billion people without having more than 10%
support.

On the other hand, it is true that internationally, the U.$.
imperialists and their labor aristocracy allies are the 10% or 20%
and not the other way around. For this reason, MIM has strategic
confidence. It's just that fighting inside the United $tates, we must
not believe the myths generated by people on our own side. The 
"workers" in this country are not exploited and that is why they
have supported wars against the Third World including
unceasing war for oil--bombing Libya, war in 
Iraq and now war in Afghanistan. These so-called workers do not
learn from the u.$. wars, or even the failed example of Israel using
terror to achieve its ends, and these so-called workers do not "learn" proletarian
consciousness in the midst of war, because they are in fact not workers 
at all but a hardened, bought-off labor aristocrat petty-bourgeoisie 
profiting from war and imperialism.

People who do not keep a grip on reality themselves will inevitably
make tactical and strategic mistakes. To obtain the support of the 90%
supporting the U.$. war today, some organizations will find themselves
tempted to take up imperialist ideology themselves.

Despite our disagreements with the speakers and other organizers,
attendance at this rally was definitely in the interests of the
international proletariat. If Bush and Rumsfeld are correct, this
war will grind on for years, and so at this time, anyone for whatever
reasons attracting support or attention to rallies such as these deserves
support.

MIM's competitor the "Progressive Labor Party" showed up
in force and offered the slogan "No war but class
war to end imperialism." The "Revolutionary Communist Party-USA" 
also made an excellent showing in attendance and said, "our grief
is not a cry for war/global oppression can't deliver justice." These
slogans show that the sentiments against U.$. war cannot be monopolized
by any one organization. It is MIM's hope that in the long-run, the
people will see the truth of the MIM line, but for now, we want
to be part of a "growth-industry" opposing the intensification of 
World War III against the Third World that Bush, Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld
have unleashed.

A contingent of 20 black-dressed anarchists came bearing their banners
reading "fight the state, not its wars." We believe the anarchists
are on the right side this time, but like the bourgeois u.$. public believing
bombing solves terrorism, the anarchists need to look scientifically
at the sources of the "state" they denounce.

Just as it is unreasonable and unscientific to believe that war will end
as long as Zionists occupy Palestinian territory, it is unscientific to
believe that there is some way of eradicating the state without addressing
the causes of its existence first. In fact, the state is organized terrorism.
Hence, the anarchist position is in some ways the mirror-image of Bush's position.
Both positions believe it is possible to eliminate terrorism organized or 
individual without addressing its causation first.

We followers of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao believe the sources of
economic coercion have to be eliminated before the state can disappear.
As long as it is possible to profit from arms sales and oil sales in countries
run by U.$. puppets, we cannot expect the state to disappear. The capitalists
will simply hire private armies and make another state.

There were only two or three counter-demonstrators. They carried signs saying
"no excuse for terrorism!" MIM agrees: that's why there is no excuse for bombing
civilians in Afghanistan. There is also no excuse for the oil-government of Bush Sr.,
Bush Jr. and Cheney which armed and trained bin Laden and then
supported the Taliban in the first place. These people
should be removed from power in the most-powerful government in the world for
causing this terrorism to happen.

Another sign read: "This is not the summer of '68." This is about as advanced
as the supporters of war get. They noticed that the World Trade Center attack
came on U.$. soil while the Vietnamese never carried off such an operation
during the U.$. genocide in Vietnam.

On the other hand, there are some similarities with Vietnam. In both cases,
the United $tates caused the problem and then invented a reason to justify 
bombing civilians. In Vietnam it was supposedly right to kill over 3 million
citizens according to Secretary of "Defense" McNamara to fight "communism."
Today the war is necessary to fight "radical Islamic terrorism," as one of
the rally speakers also pointed out.

Finally, we have to report one last sad statement of opposition to the rally.
In passing, an apparently homeless womyn stated that it was good to go to war
for oil. "What would you do without oil?" Like a lot of Amerikan nationalists
tainted by parasitism, she said, "you have to take care of yourselves first."
She said that was why she said "God Bless America" and not "God Bless the World"
or "God bless everbody everywhere." So parasitically entrenched is Amerikkka,
that even homeless wimmin are consciously in favor of God blessing Amerikkka in 
its oil wars.