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"We can now finally establish a fairer and juster order in the Arab-Islamic world that will benefit everyone." This was the message of Western governments and capitalists at the end of the Gulf War, but the paradise that they have created is in front of all of our eyes: in Algeria, where the fundamentalist policy of the .... international financial world has led to the exploited being crushed in the vice-like grip of a military dictatorship; or in Palestine, where the Oslo "peace" agreement opened the way - as was intended - to the intensification of the war and the oppression of the Palestinian working masses. But the magic wand of the USA and the West has left no area untouched, to the extent that even the exploited part of the Jewish population of Israel finds itself being pushed downwards and now has no alternative but to strike against the "treatment" imposed by international finance.

What has happened in the Arab-Islamic world over the last seven years has revealed the fundamental objective of the "Massacre in the Desert" to even the blindest observer: the repression of the anti-imperialist rebellion of the Arab-Islamic masses. The invasion of Kuwait had in fact catalysed their mobilisation and extended it beyond the borders of Iran and Palestine within which it had previously begun to kindle. The exemplary punishment of the Iraqi people was the means by which the West tried to terrorise the exploited in the area in order to be able to return to plundering it at will.

That is why Iraq was placed in the grip of the embargo when the war came to an end. It was not simply an act of gratuitous ferocity. It is not that the real dictators of the Earth did not realise that the blockade would lead to thousands of people dying every month, destroy the physical and mental health of the new generation, and leave the country in the pre-industrial state to which it had been reduced by the butcher Schwarzkopf. The embargo was maintained precisely in order to produce these consequences and issue a warning to the entire Arab-Islamic world: "This what you can expect if you fail to accept our legality, if you even dream of using your oil in any way other than that established by us - to ensure profits for Western enterprises!"

That is why the UN introduced new sanctions against Iraq last November when, in the midst of popular enthusiasm, Saddam dared to call for the relaxation or revocation of the embargo. The Arab-Islamic working masses did not see Saddam’s gesture as the provocation it was unfortunately deemed to be by the white proletariat of Europe. They rightly welcomed it with a cheer precisely because they have learnt that the embargo against Iraq is the symbol of the fate reserved for them by the West and its Yankee gang leader. And given that this was how it was, is it likely that the capitalist powers would just let things slide?

They immediately unleashed their punishment, accompanying it here in the metropoli with a new dose of chauvinism and anti-Arab and anti-Islam racism. And the reason for this? To gain the consensus of the white proletariat in the West in favour of this new chapter in the history of aggression against Iraq. To pack them behind the defences of white civilisation in readiness for the new anti-Arab and anti-Islam war that imperialism is preparing.

It is driven along this road precisely because of the fragility of the victory that it has momentarily won in the area. But if it is true that it has temporarily driven back and disoriented the struggle of the poor and exploited Arab-Islamic masses, it is equally true that it is creating a situation of growing political and social instability in the Middle East, where every day sees the strengthening of the determination to relaunch the anti-imperialist battle and to set it in a revolutionary direction. The West can continue to dictate the law only at the cost of new massacres and (even nuclear) devastation - and it is this that it is preparing to do (by itself or by means of its Israeli bastion); this is what the Iraqi crisis of last autumn gave us a glimpse of.

What the white workers of the "rich countries" can expect to gain by supporting a prospect of this kind can be predicted by considering what their own destiny has been over the last seven years. Their respective governments told them that the Gulf War would have also helped to defend their own well-being but, after the slaughter of 1990-91, their living conditions and political strength have taken a frighteningly backward turn of a kind that has not been seen since the end of the Second World War. This is further confirmation of the historical fact that the export of imperialist order to the periphery of the world goes hand in hand with the establishment of a heavier and tighter chain around the neck of the metropolitan proletariat. The fate of the latter - and it hardly matters whether they like it or not - is inextricably bound to that of the working Arab-Islamic masses. Either they march together against their mutual oppressors (however different the form of oppression), or they will both be subjugated.

In order to prevent its own enslavement, the Western proletariat must shake itself out of its political torpor. Denounce those who are really responsible for the under-development of the Middle East. Fight against UN aggression in Iraq. Unconditionally support the poor and exploited in the area. Beginning with their vanguard of immigrants in the metropoli, weave the thread of a common class front against the common bourgeois-imperialist enemy.

It is for this that we, as members of OCI, are doing everything we can - following the line of authentic proletarian internationalism.

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