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Vol. 81/No. 17 May 1, 2017
(lead article, Socialist Workers Party statement)
Socialist Workers Party: ‘US hands off Korea!’
All US troops, warships, fighter bombers out now!
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kurtis A. Hatcher
USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, center, and other U.S. warships March
28 in joint exercise with Japanese Navy. The Vinson Carrier Strike Group
is on its way to Korean waters as part of escalation of U.S. threats
against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The following statement was issued April 15 by Osborne Hart, Socialist
Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York.
I call on fellow working people to join the Socialist Workers Party in
speaking out against Washington’s threats against the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea. Hands off Korea! U.S. troops, warplanes and
gunboats out of Korea’s waters!
Washington’s deployment of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier-led
“armada,” as President Donald Trump called it, is a threat to both the
Korean people and the People’s Republic of China.
This fleet includes a combined crew of some 7,500 troops, more than 60
warplanes, a cruiser armed with Tomahawk missiles, and two destroyers
equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. At the same
time, one of the largest U.S.-South Korean joint war maneuvers ever held
is underway. And to send a message, Washington included the notorious
imperialist hit squad SEAL Team Six — which assassinated Osama bin Laden
— in exercises that include simulations of “decapitation” of the North
Korean leadership.
Washington claims it has the right to target North Korea because the
government there carried out a handful of missile tests and has been
developing nuclear weapons. The White House says they have the right to
take preemptive military action against Pyongyang. Like the recent U.S.
Tomahawk attack on Syria, the White House’s provocative threats against
the Korean people and Korea’s sovereignty are bipartisan, backed by
Democratic and Republican politicians alike.
The devastating use of the 21,000 pound “mother of all bombs” -— a
weapon designed for terror and intimidation — dropped in Afghanistan
April 15, adds teeth to U.S. threats of military action against North
Korea.
It is U.S. imperialism that has amassed a massive and deadly military
force in Asia. Washington has the most deadly nuclear arsenal in the
world. Sixty percent of the U.S. Navy’s 69 submarines are now based in
the Pacific, many equipped with nuclear missiles. More than 28,000 U.S.
troops are stationed in South Korea, and some 50,000 more in Japan are
ready to back them up.
The Pentagon, despite objections from Pyongyang, Beijing and tens of
thousands in South Korea, has begun installing Terminal High Altitude
Area Defense, or THAAD, missile batteries and espionage station in South
Korea, a threat to workers and farmers throughout Asia.
The U.S. ruling capitalist class has a long record of brutal assaults on
the people of Korea. As part of seizing the fruits of their victory in
the second imperialist world war, Washington forcibly intervened against
popular mobilizations of the Korean people seeking an end to colonial
rule, divided the Korean Peninsula and installed a brutal dictatorship
in the south.
More than 4 million people were killed, including at least 2 million
civilians, as a result of the 1950-53 Korean War, carried out by
Washington, its imperialist allies and its client regime in South Korea
— under the banner of the United Nations.
Washington dropped more than 635,000 tons of bombs, 32,557 tons of
napalm and leveled the vast majority of homes, hospitals, schools and
factories across northern Korea, and in large parts of the South as
well. Ultimately, they were fought to a standstill, unable to defeat
North Korea.
Today the U.S. government has imposed draconian sanctions on the North,
seeking to sabotage its economic development and make working people
there pay for refusing to do Washington’s bidding. They are pressing the
Chinese government to tighten the screws on North Korea even more.
The Socialist Workers Party has a proud history fighting against
Washington’s intervention in Korea. We campaigned against the U.S.
rulers’ forced division of Korea in 1945 when U.S. troops landed and,
together with the regime Washington put in place, killed, beat, tortured
or jailed those who stood up to the U.S. occupation.
We opposed the U.S.-led Korean War, where Washington sought to reimpose
capitalist rule on the entire peninsula. And we continue to back the
demand of the Korean people for reunification. Korea is one!
Working people in the U.S. are battered by the deepening capitalist
economic crisis today and by the attempts of the bosses and their
government to make us pay to boost their declining profit rates. More
workers in the U.S. are dying on the job as the bosses enforce speedup
and attack our unions. Millions are unable to find work. Medicaid,
Medicare, Social Security and other social rights workers have won in
struggle face the ax. And our political rights are under attack.
The same wealthy families who are responsible for Washington’s war moves
against working people around the world are assaulting our rights and
living conditions here at home. And for the same reason.
We say: End Washington’s economic and financial sanctions against the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! U.S. troops, ships, planes and
THAAD out of Korea! For a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons!
Related articles:
US armada heads to Korea, Washington threatens to act
US THAAD anti-missile battery out of Korea!
SWP in 1950: ‘Stop US Korea War! US troops out now!’
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