Commentary

The "War Against Terrorism" and the Neo-Liberal Agenda

Utilizing the "you are either with us or with the terrorists" blackmail of George W. Bush, the Bush administration is attempting to push its entire neo-liberal agenda through the U.S. Congress without debate. The chief example of this is the inclusion of "fast-track" provisions on free trade within the administration's national unity and anti-terrorism package. "Fast tracking" gives the administration the power to negotiate trade deals in secret and then simply present them to Congress for approval as a finished package, with no debate on the details of the agreements.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has gone so far as to claim that "fast tracking" is an essential tool in the war on terrorism. Any members of Congress who question this rationale and oppose the demands of the administration open themselves up to charges of being unpatriotic. The bill is expected to receive speedy approval within the next few weeks.

However, while the Bush administration may succeed in using the September 11th events to gain some temporary advantage in pushing through their neo-liberal agenda, the real opposition to that agenda, both within the U.S. and abroad, will not disappear. In addition to those who oppose neo-liberalism because it leads to further impoverishment of working people, there are powerful sections of the U.S. capitalist class whose interests are jeopardized by trade liberalization. Steamrolling over this opposition will only result in the exacerbation of all the existing contradictions and their re-emergence in the future with even greater intensity.

The naked opportunism of the Bush administration in the wake of September 11th and its attempts to push through its trade agenda under the banner of the "war on terrorism" has actually served to expose its motives on both issues. It has made it very clear that the real agenda behind the U.S. "war on terrorism", as well as its pursuit of neo-liberal trade policies, is to extend the economic and political domination of U.S. imperialism over the entire globe.