It is a hollow victory for the American forces in Afghanistan. In place of the fallen Taliban government, an assortment of Northern Alliance thugs battle each other for ascendancy, while they dicker with delegates from former king Zahir Shah and other Pashtun exiles in Bonn. We do not know the devastation caused by six weeks of bombing, how many prisoners of war and civilians have been - or will be - massacred, or the magnitude of the starvation in this time of drought.

The Bush Administration tells us the war is not over. As the US ponders the next target on its long list of so-called "terrorist" countries, civilians in Afghanistan fear the Northern Alliance will return to the raping and looting of the past. The American "victory" has breathed new life into an old civil war.

Paralleling this indeterminate international war, which US Vice-President Dick Cheney warns "may not end in our lifetimes," is a vicious economic and political war at home. The tragic events of September 11 are being cynically used by governments as a pretext for major cutbacks on social spending and by both governments and industry as an excuse for mass layoffs. In fact, a deepening recession is exposing the failure of the neo-liberal agenda - in the last quarter, the global economy shrank for the first time in 20 years.

The hotspots for cutbacks in Canada are British Columbia and Ontario. The BC government plans to cut its social service budget by 35 percent, and to chop its civil service by one-third. In Ontario, the Tories will cut a whopping $5 billion from their upcoming budget, slashing five percent from an already underfunded education system. Federal cutbacks are imminent, with Paul Martin's December budget.

Lest we protest, the government has rushed passage of Bill C-36 as a tool for curbing dissent and expanding police and state powers. We see the future of state suppression in the brutality of police at the November 17 protest against the G20 summit in Ottawa - the use of dogs as weapons, the unprovoked arrests of numerous peaceful protesters. Erosion of immigrant and refugee rights and increased legitimacy for racial profiling accompany Bill C-36.

Now is the time to mobilize a united and vocal opposition to the war at home and abroad. But most official labour leaderships have shown shameful inaction on both fronts. The Canadian Labour Congress has failed to take an official position on the war, and shown ongoing passivity in the face of domestic attacks on social services, civil rights, and labour standards.

But resistance is possible. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has taken a public stand against the war. In Toronto, Trade Unionists Against the War is courageously working to build opposition to the war in the labour movement. In Montreal, teachers went on a three-day illegal work stoppage in late November. The Ontario Common Front action on October 16 in Toronto showed that people in large numbers can still be mobilized against attacks on the poor.

Yes, the war continues, abroad and at home - war on freedom and social justice. While it does, opposition can, and must, continue as well.