A Small Crack

By David Sole

The United States war machine is a colossal force at the service of the capitalist class, often called “Wall Street.” It consists of troops and tanks, ships and planes, conventional and nuclear bombs. They are all ready to target, surround and invade any nation that threatens the profit-making ability of the U.S. banks and corporations. They are aided by covert spy agencies like the CIA as well as the powerful reach of the State Department and banks over allies, neo-colonies and all nations trying to oppose U.S. domination.

Critical to the mobilization of this force is the need to control the minds of the population of the United States so that they support the plans and actions of the imperialist war makers. A vast propaganda machine stands in place to shape and direct the thinking of the people. In especially critical situations it is most important that the media, the politicians and the “experts” get behind a unified and consistent “official story “ to line up the public for any and all contingencies.

So when the armed forces of the Russian Federation intervened on February 24 in Ukraine to stop the expansion of the U.S. dominated NATO alliance into this nation on its border, the U.S. propaganda machine went into overdrive.

A few voices spoke up against the narrative but they have been ignored and drowned out.  On February 26, however, a small crack appeared that has greatly concerned the ruling class in the United States. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), part of the Democratic Party, issued a statement that dared point out and criticize NATO as a contributor to the war in Ukraine.

Of course the DSA dutifully opposed the Russian intervention. But they went on to say “DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict.” This puts the blame for the crisis on the relentless U.S. expansion of NATO eastward to surround Russia that has been going on since 1990. DSA also calls on anti-war activists in the U.S. “to oppose violent escalation, [and] demand a lasting diplomatic solution,” something the Russian Federation was denied leading up to the military intervention.

The DSA statement also targeted the U.S. ruling class for “trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war.”

The DSA perspective quickly was attacked by much of the bourgeois media and drew criticism from the White House.

But Kristin Richardson Jordan, a city council member in New York City from Harlem and a DSA member, tweeted a stronger message. She said “In 2014, the U.S. helped overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected leader in an illegal coup, helped install a fascist government and empowered a far right military all with the goal of destabilizing Russia.” She accused the U.S. and the European Union of “provoking Russia with NATO expansion.”

The New York Times, the N.Y. Post and many other mass media outlets have covered these voices from DSA. A small crack in the united pro-war bloc, perhaps, but cracks often can deepen and widen to undermine the entire edifice of pro-imperialist public opinion.

Activists need to do all they can to educate the public and help to enlarge every small crack.