March 21, 2003: Day X: Millions unite in opposition to US-aggression!

1. On the first day of the war the US-military was unsuccessful in its attempt to wipe out Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership in a single operation using precisely targeted missile attacks. On the second day of the war American and British tank divisions are approaching the capital Baghdad. At the same time tank divisions are trying to gain control of the Southern oil wells around Basra. The USA has hesitated until now to put into action its planned massive bombardments due to international outrage and their isolated position.

2. There were worldwide protests on day one by several million people in schools, churches, companies and on the streets. These took the form of public meetings, strikes, demonstrations and blockades. In Italy there was a two-hour general strike, in Athens 200,000 people took part in a demonstration in front of the American Embassy, in London 5,000 school children formed a blockade of Parliament. Even in the USA tens of thousands of people took to the streets, mainly in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Especially in the USA and in Latin America the police took action against demonstrators, in some places on a massive scale. In the USA at least 1,300 antiwar protesters were arrested. In Germany young people formed the front-line of protests against the start of the war who organized boycotts of lessons in the morning - despite of facing punishment by their headmasters in many cases. The largest demonstrations took place in Berlin, with 70,000 pupils in the morning and then 150,000 people at the gathering at 5 p.m.. Throughout the German Republic 350,000 people took part in protests.

3. The use of psychological warfare is on the increase. Since the masses worldwide couldn’t be persuaded to support the war, they are now being forced to accept or at least to tolerate it. The German Chancellor Schroeder is begging the Peace Movement to come to terms with the fact that war has broken out. "This is not the time to put the blame on anyone." But there is nothing more important to the Peace Movement than to research in depth the reasons and driving forces behind this war of aggression. They are trying to bring a mood of demoralization and despair into the movement and to limit their goal of total rejection of this war to "a fastest possible conclusion". Particularly in view of the widespread open-mindedness towards the MLPD in the masses and in the Peace Movement various petty-bourgeois leaders in the Peace Movement tried on Day One, some of them with increased pressure, to undermine equal rights and democracy in the Peace Movement, with anti-Communist attacks and bans on Marxist-Leninists. On the other hand they curry favor with government parties. Instead of going along with a general acceptance of the war and solidarity with the government, what is urgently needed is to conserve and increase the independence of the Peace Movement. We must go over to internationally active resistance by the masses, if we want to halt and end this imperialistic aggression.

The leader of the PDS, Gabi Zimmer, writes a whining letter to Chancellor Schroeder, complaining about the disorder which has arisen in the present world order and its major institutions like the UNO "which were in effect created to secure world peace" ("Neues Deutschland" 21. 03. 03.). In reality the imperialistic world system has become fundamentally destabilized – and this rightly so!

For the militant opposition and the international Peace Movement there cannot be a return to the stabilization of this ailing world order, but only a movement forward towards a really new socialist world order. The book "Goetterdaemmerung (twilight of the gods) for the new world order" is exactly that clear orienteering guide which the Peace Movement needs in the present situation where the course is being set for the future.

5. As a platform for the orientation and development of an effective mass resistance the weekly Monday Demonstrations are proving to be an appropriate forum for discussion in the masses. These must be strengthened everywhere and taken onto a further level throughout the Peace Movement.