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Bailing out Wall Street with over $700 billion from workers and taxpayers in 2008 was an outrage to 99% of the population. Yet our government spends that and more every year on the military.

Jobs, the fumbling economy and reining in Wall Street are appropriate focal points for the Communist Party over the next period.

Yet we must not view these issues outside the context of the militarization of our economy and the utter necessity of reversing it.

Every year the enormous resources that are poured into the military industrial complex for weapons without enemies to target and guaranteed corporate profits could instead be building and rebuilding our country’s infrastructure, greening our economy and paying reparations to nations our military and financial barons have devastated.

Aside from the danger and waste in military spending, we know that far more well-paying jobs are created in the health, education, construction and other civilian sectors than in the military industries with the same amount of funding.

Economic and military conversion, a long-term effort, must become a priority in the everyday strategy and activities of the Party for peace and in the interests of the working class.

A critical part of the military economy is establishing and maintaining over 700 foreign military bases. These bases are fundamental to projecting imperialist control over the world’s populations. Hundreds of bases surround Russia and China, infiltrate the oil rich region of the Middle East, surround Iran and pockmark the globe. These bases threaten local and neighboring governments, intimidate and assault nearby populations and pollute the environment.

There exists an International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. Crucial to the goals of the Party for reducing the danger of military bases and for increasing pressure on imperialism is participating in the work of this network.

Abolishing the foreign bases is an act of international solidarity with the millions waging ongoing battles against these bases and demanding their closure.

International solidarity itself must be a significant part of the peace agenda of the Communist Party. With Cubans to return Guantanamo and free the Cuban 5; with Okinawans and the residents of Guam to rid existing and prevent new U.S. military bases; with Puerto Ricans to clean up Vieques; with Native Americans who suffer the waste products of uranium mining; with South Americans to prevent the U.S. using 7 Colombian military bases; with Europeans to abolish NATO and remove U.S. bases and nuclear weapons from their continent. With Palestinians and Israelis to end the occupation and Israeli military and nuclear threats. And of course with the Iraqis and Afghanis to end U.S. and NATO occupations and close hundreds of bases. With people around the world to end the destructive capitalist exploitation of humans and natural resources.

The working class in the U.S. has a vested interest in peace and good jobs, in stopping wars and military threats and in supporting its brothers and sisters around the world who desire the same. Solidarity among workers in the U.S. and those abroad, in both directions, is where the rubber in the statement “Workers of the world unite” meets the road.

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