The worry for US/UK imperialism is not so much as to whether the military assault on
Afghanistan will lead to a fall in electoral support. The primary worry is the danger
of growing opposition to the bombings and the war, itself, leading to the
mobilisation of the working class. The mobilisation of the working class against the
war implies the development of class consciousness and corresponding class
organisation. Such developments in class relations can lead to the increasing
organisation of the working class as a class and its break away from the structures
and ideologies that have obstructed its existence as a class. This means the
replacement of the bourgeois trade union and social democratic structures by
proletarian forms of organisation. The war against Afghanistan by the imperialist
bourgeoisie (for both natural resources and geopolitical gain) contains the
possibility of the working class challenging imperialist capital.

It is this potential and deadly challenge that explains the extraordinary reluctance
by the US/UK states to deploy its land armies in Afghanistan. These imperialist
states acutely fear that increasing fatalities suffered by US/UK land forces will
provide the catalyst that leads to the mobilisation of the working class against the
imperialist war. Such a proletarian challenge to imperialist militarism will
ultimately transform itself into a challenge by labour against capitalist
exploitation of the working class in general. Under these conditions the balance of
forces will have significantly swung against the imperialist bourgeoisie. This
development of the class struggle will lead to a direct challenge to state power. In
short US imperialism is so weak that it is unable to exploit one of the most powerful
land armies in the world because of the potential threat from the working class.

The Western working class has been in a quiescent state for many years now. This
condition of the working class is the result of the massive indoctrination of
bourgeois ideology into the working class; the prevention of communism by the
existence social democracy and the trade union movement. The provision of relatively
better living conditions foro much of the Western working class has been another
condition necessary for the pacification of workers. The imperialist bourgeoisie
expend much of their resources to ensure that the working class is maintained in a
comatose condition. The fear among the bourgeoisie is that this war against
Afghanistan for oil, gas and geo-political advantage may lead to the political
awakening of the working class and the consequent challenge to capital's existence
that this development entails.

The present acquiescent state of the working class is not the fault of the working
class. It is not as if the political apathy of the working class is due to the
subjective character of individual workers -an inherent selfishness wilfully chosen
by them because they just don't care. It is the product of a massively resourced
strategy to maintain the working class in this condition. Neither is the conservatism
of the Western working class a product of what Trotskyism calls the reactionary
character of the leadership of the working class movement. The problem is much deeper
than the subjectivist notion of the trotksyist " crisis of leadership". It is the
product of the existence of inherent political character of the trade unions
themselves and social democratic political organisations. These bourgeois
institutions institute and sustain the fragmentation of the working class rendering
it impossible for workers to organise themselves into a class against capital. The
working class must replace these bourgeois institutions with appropriate proletarian
organisations if it to successfully challenge capital.

Karl Carlile
Be free to visit the web site of the Communist Global Group at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/