Barack Obama, in a victory over racism, will be the first Black president in the White House. State-monopoly capitalism and Wall Street imperialism have not been smashed. Nor has racism and white chauvinism been eliminated in the U.S.A. The struggle continues. Hours after the election, anti-war activists in the Twin Cities, Minnesota responded with a protest on November 5 demanding that U.S. imperialism get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and opposing war against Iran. The rally was initiated by Women Against Military Madness. Roger Cuthbertson, a long time activist, hit the nail on the head when he said "we have to hold the fire under Obama’s feet!"
Fighting sprinkling rain, wind and U.S. imperialism, leaders and activists in the peace, union and Communist movements stood boldly with anti-war signs on "the peace bridge" crossing the Mississippi River. Hundreds of cars passed by and members of ATU 1005 waved while driving buses. One young sister at the rally passionately said that U.S. troops need to be pulled out of Iraq because "Enough is enough!!" And her friend, a Latina woman, added in a quiet but determined voice, "Troops out NOW! The struggle continues."
A Black member of the Gus Hall Action Club clenched his fist in the air as he held a Communist sign with the slogan "Say No To Imperialism!"
The system of state-monopoly capitalism and imperialism breeds wars for maximum corporate profit. Imperialism is the breeder of crises and war. Imperialism is, as V.I. Lenin taught, "the monopoly stage of capitalism."
"Imperialism," Gus Hall, the Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party USA said, "cannot be separated from capitalism." Hall continued: "Imperialism is an ugly monster, spawned and bred in the incubator of capitalism, nurtured by the greed for private profits, fattened on the exploitation of the millions, gorged on the blood, sweat and tears of millions of people in all the continents." (Gus Hall, Imperialism Today, 1973, International Publishers)
The struggle continues and Wall Street imperialism can be fought! We must forge a militant anti-monopoly coalition, with the working class at its core. And we have to, as Roger Cuthbertson said, "hold the fire under Obama’s feet!"
A new social system must be built out of the capitalist welter of war, crises and exploitation of the working class. Only socialism will finally end war forever. And William Z. Foster, a former leader of the Communist Party USA, is right that "the time will come when the victorious toilers will build a monument to Lenin in New York." (William Z. Foster, Toward Soviet America, 1932, International Publishers)
