After the attack to the Usa sept. 2001
The
devastating suicide attacks on key symbols of US capitalism's financial and
military might may have shaken the complacency of the most powerful state in the
world but in no sense is it a victory for the exploited working class.
Not only are ordinary wage workers amongst the thousands killed, but the
assaults are being used to legitimise heightened state repression. The 'war
against terrorism' will be used within the metropolitan countries as a weapon
against internal oppositions and particularly against the working class, and any
emerging proletarian political organisations.
In
that sense, organised state terror had already preceded September 11th's events,
with its police attacks on anti-globalisation protestors.
However,
the events of September 11th have
increased the prospect of humanity being thrown back into barbarism.
This
is not a rhetorical flourish or a question of mysterious 'forces of evil'
leading the planet to Armageddon. On
the contrary, it is the concrete, calculated policies stemming from the rivalry
between the very material interests of the capitalist powers which makes the
21st century just as dangerous and warlike as the last. Underlying and
exacerbating the imperialist struggle is capitalism's long-running profitability
crisis and the ruthless struggle by the US to maintain its control of oil and
the parasitic financial revenues which guarantee its dominant position in the
world: a position which, despite the collapse of the Russian bloc and the
apparent solidity of NATO, does not go uncontested by its imperialist rivals.
All this is disguised by rushing a resolution through the UN Security Council and invoking Clause 5 of the NATO Charter which declares that “an attack on one is an attack on all” and which the US is using to dragoon its rivals who are not ready for an open rift with the world's single remaining 'super power'. Make no mistake. Behind Bush's "battle of freedom loving peoples" are the same interests which made the US engage in undeclared genocidal wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, which enabled its Israeli ally to allow the cold-blooded massacre in Chattilla and Sabra refugee camps (1982), invade Grenada (1983), bomb Tripoli (using bases in Britain, 1986) and, a decade ago, bring down a 'Desert Storm' against Saddam Hussein, its one-time ally whose regime they had armed to the teeth but whose falling out of favour cost hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. So when Bush and Blair tell us that this new war is "against those who have no respect for the sanctity of human life" we should ask who he means, given that an estimated 500,000 children have died as a result of the economic sanctions that still apply against Iraq and given that the British air force continues to join the US in regular bombing raids over Iraq.
In
true imperialist language the “civilised world” is ready to teach the
uncivilised world a lesson it will not forget.
The US-led coalition has declared an open-ended war on an unidentified
enemy with no promise of when or how the struggle will be ended.
Nationalism
and Religion Are No Solution for the Working Class
It
goes without saying that we are opposed to all forms of religious
fundamentalism. The idea that Islam offers “a third way” to capitalism and
communism is absurd since Islam is not only NOT a different mode of production
but sits comfortably with capitalism. The
mushrooming of 'Islamic' terrorism is an expression of the despair of the petty
capitalist classes in the countries most bitterly oppressed by imperialism.
But
the answer to capitalist imperialism is not the nationalism espoused by many in
capitalism's peripheral countries. Nationalism,
as has been demonstrated in every national liberation struggle, is no friend of
the working class. The bourgeoisie
who control the nationalist movements (however “socialist” they claim to be)
either become the cats paw of one or other imperialism (and we should not forget
that both Saddam and Osama Bin Laden were one time clients of the US Central
Intelligence Agency) or when they get into power they oppress and exploit the
workers just as before (look no further than Mugabe’s Zimbabwe or ANC ruled
South Africa).
Let
us say too that it is not just the final aim of these terrorists we object to.
Our aim of overthrowing the obscenely rotten world of present-day capitalism
cannot be achieved by acts of individual terrorism.
For the action of a whole class terrorism substitutes the elitist idea
that a handful of people can change society in a single act.
This is pernicious nonsense. Capitalism
and the exploitation, poverty, misery and war which go with it, can only be
defeated when the bulk of the working class are ready to fight for socialism.
And it is only through the collective resistance of the world's workers
as they battle against capitalism's attacks that they will develop the practical
organisational means to implement not the sham democracy of Blair and Bush, but
working class democracy of workers' councils.
These organs of mass democracy of the exploited will organise and
generalise working class defence against the capitalist class leading to the
overthrow of the old order and the
organisation of production for the
direct fulfilment of human need. The party of Internationalist Communists will
play a vital role in helping the class understand and reach that goal.
Socialism
will not be achieved without a violent response from the property owners (who,
as history demonstrates will resort to any measure to hold on to what they have)
but the working class will resist this as a class, not through individual acts.
The terrorist act is anathema to the collective actions of the working class.
New innocent victims of US terror will be the justification for further
terrorist attacks from the Middle East and the spiral will continue.
At the same time the “democracies”, with much hypocrisy will tighten
control over the working class in the metropoles. Already some real working
class revolutionaries who condemn terrorism have been pulled in
for “questioning” in an attempt to stifle their opposition.
And whilst it is obvious that gangsters like Putin of Russia and Sharon
in Israel will use the attacks on the USA to cover their own crimes in Chechnya
and Palestine more subtle campaigns will be used to limit freedom and resistance
in the Western countries. More
brutality is in preparation. Wesley
Clark, the former supreme NATO commander in Europe has already stated that only
“decisive force” can solve the problem of the terrorists (without a single
word about the causes of terrorism). In
short, growing barbarism is all the imperialist world has to offer.
The
decay of capitalist 'civilisation' has been evident for the best part of a
century. The unspeakable horrors of the First and Second World Wars, the
organised brutality of concentration and other death camps, the bloody regional
wars fought with the highest technology at the expense of the most impoverished
workers, the fire bombing of Dresden, the carpet bombing of Cambodia and, of
course, the use of the atomic bombs were all part of imperialist barbarism
before these most recent abominations. It
is a naïve illusion to believe that such a system can bring peace and
prosperity to the world.
Only
the international working class, once aware of its own interests, is capable of
changing the world. We have no interest in supporting either side in this “new
war” — if the ruling class has its way our only role will be as victims and
cannon-fodder. All the bourgeois factions whether US-led, national
liberationist or Islamist are equally against the working class. Only by paralysing these forces and politically defeating all
the irrational ruling class ideologies will we be able to create a world without
war, exploitation and terror. Socialism or Barbarism. There is no third road.
Down
with Nationalism
Down With Terrorism
Down With Imperialism
For Working Class Struggle Against All Capitalist Wars
International
Bureau for the Revolutionary Party,
September 2001