Following are two progressive news items of interest which were included the current issue of the biweekly Mid-Hudson (N.Y.) Action Newsletter/Calendar of Sept. 15, 2001--number 49. We have eliminated all the calendar items and other material. It is published in the town of New Paltz, N.Y., by the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign and the local branch of the International Action Center.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFTER THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
By Jack A. Smith
All progressive people grieve for the dead and injured in this week’s terrible terror attacks and sympathize with their families and loved ones. And we all strongly oppose the use of terror methods against innocent civilians anywhere in the world, whether in the form of small-group terrorism experienced in New York City and Washington, or state terrorism against civilians as practiced with appalling frequency in recent years.
At the same time, we totally oppose President Bush’s plans to exploit this moment of national trauma by launching, in his words Sept. 14, “the first war of the 21st century.” On the same day, the Defense Department prepared the American people to accept a massive military retaliation in coming days or weeks against targets not yet revealed. “We will use all our resources,” emphasized Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. “It’s not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, [and] ending states who sponsor terrorism.” In other words, all-out war against a variety of targets, probably including the blameless--a tragedy that will without question provoke further episodes in the U.S. similar to those of Sept. 11.
In addition to the pain and suffering of the victims and their families, a reprehensible byproduct of this week’s events is the eruption of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hostility in our country, too frequently leading to verbal and physical abuse. We expect that all progressive people will strongly denounce this form of vicious racism. We must stand with our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters in this moment of travail, just as we stand with innocent civilians victimized in New York and Washington. At this writing, several incidents have also taken place where authorities have generated headlines by arresting innocent Arab or Muslim people, then releasing them after hours of grilling. We must also demand an end to such arbitrary arrests.
Although some organizations have canceled their scheduled protest events in Washington later this month because of the World Trade Center catastrophe, the International Action Center is not only intent upon demonstrating against the Bush administration in the nation’s capital Saturday, Sept. 29, as planned, but it has refocused its protest to concentrate on the dangers of massive retaliation and racism. We urge all progressives in the Mid-Hudson region to join this most timely protest.
It was a travesty for the government and media to define the attacks in Washington and New York as “another Pearl Harbor,” in order to convince the American people to support a war. Pearl Harbor symbolizes an attack by a strong imperialist power, supported by an axis of powerful cohorts, with the intention of destroying the U.S. in a world war. This week’s terrorism, despite the loss of thousands of lives, was not an act of war by any rational interpretation of the term. Evidently, George Bush is out to start a war if an enemy can be located. Out of such a contrived perspective will issue clarion calls to increase our already bloated defense budget, a drumbeat of demands to expand and further project U.S. military prowess, commands to swiftly construct a provocative anti-missile network, myriad justifications for vastly increasing domestic surveillance, and legislative proposals for “anti-terrorist” laws that will significantly compromise our democratic freedoms and civil rights. The result of such maneuvers may well be an endless spiral of terror and counter-terror, abroad and at home.
Tuesday’s deplorable terror attacks did not occur in a political vacuum, despite the mass media’s effort to depict the events as simply the product of Middle Eastern “madmen” with “no regard for human life” driven by fundamentalist religious beliefs to hate the United States. In reality, Washington’s role in the Middle East, which it has dominated since the end of World War 2 to control the region’s vast petroleum resources, must be carefully examined to determine the roots of our present situation.
The award-winning British journalist and filmmaker John Pilger wrote an article for Znet Sept. 14 that summed up U.S.-Middle East relations. Arguing that the terror attacks took place only after a long history of grievances, he wrote in part: “An estimated 200,000 Iraqis... died during and in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter known as the Gulf War [where the U.S. lost a handful of soldiers]. This was never news that touched public consciousness in the West. At least a million civilians, half of them children, have since died in Iraq [in the last decade] as a result of a medieval embargo imposed by the United States and Britain. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Mujadeen, which gave birth to the fanatical Taliban, was largely the creation of the CIA [which used them against the USSR]. The terrorist training camps where Osama bin Laden, now ‘America's most wanted man,’ allegedly planned his attacks, were built with American money and backing. In Palestine, the enduring illegal occupation by Israel would have collapsed long ago were it not for U.S. backing. Far from being the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have been its victims....It is only a few years ago that the Islamic fundamentalist groups, willing to blow themselves up in Israel and New York, were formed, and only after Israel and the U.S. had rejected outright the hope of a Palestinian state, and justice for a people scarred by imperialism.”
Commenting in a similar vein, Professor Steve Breyman of New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, wrote Sept. 13 that “The best way to prevent similarly motivated future terrorist attacks on the U.S. is to rapidly reevaluate and strongly modify U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.... The most urgent, intelligent, economical, and humane measure to prevent terrorism is adoption of a just, fair, and balanced policy toward Israel and Palestine. This has been the right thing to do for many years. It is needed now more than ever.”
Another important part of the motivation for the attack stemmed from economic, social and political frustrations that exist throughout much of Asia, Africa and Latin America as a result of Washington’s international policies. The U.S. is the most powerful national security state in history, and dominates the globe militarily (with troops in over 50 countries), economically, politically and, in many places, culturally as well. Its enemies, especially since the implosion of the Soviet Union, routinely are crushed. Is Yugoslavia “acting up?” Let’s bomb ‘em for 78 days and then fix their elections till they get rid of Milosevic. Is Iraq’s Saddam Hussein “acting up?” Let’s starve the population and deprive them of medicine, clean drinking water and everything necessary for survival until they kick him out. Almost 1.5 million deaths later, an American secretary of state says, “it’s worth the price.” Is Cuba remaining socialist? Let’s blockade and subvert them for four decades. Is Nicaragua a problem? Or Guatemala or El Salvador or Grenada or Panama or Chile or Vietnam or Korea or Iran or Angola or, or....” The U.S., together with its subordinate allies from the industrialized nations, are masters of all they survey. But more than 80% of the people of the world are not members of this exclusive club. They are, for the most part, the powerless former colonized peoples whose labor and resources have been exploited for generations by this rich man’s club. In recent years, the globalizaiton of capital--which has created spectacular wealth for the relative few--has desperately impoverished billions of people. And then Washington is shocked, shocked to be informed of manifestations of antagonism toward its humanitarian, democratic presence in the world.
What should progressive people do about the current situation after paying their respects to this week’s victims of terrorism?
It seems to us that every effort must be made to stop the Bush administration from exacting bloody vengeance in a war or near-war with missile attacks, bombardments and possibly even invasions resulting in widespread casualties. Those responsible for the terror attacks should be tracked down, arrested, tried as criminals, and sentenced--but not used as pretexts for engaging in a violent muscle-flexing catharsis intended to demonstrate the futility of threatening the lion in his lair. Suicide bombers by definition will not be impressed by massive retaliation; it will in fact be an invitation to try again. It is also important to oppose providing the Pentagon and assorted policing authorities with billions of additional dollars for new weapons systems and the like. And we should be especially vigilant against proposals to exchange democratic rights for enhanced “anti-terrorist” security measures, keeping in mind Benjamin Franklin’s 1759 warning that, “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Lastly, genuine national security and freedom from terror depends primarily on a reevaluation of America's role in the world; on taking sincere steps to end global poverty and inequality; and on constructing a foreign policy based on generosity, respect and fairness toward all peoples. This won’t happen anytime soon, but it is worth fighting for all the same because it not only would genuinely protect our country against terrorism, but also serve as a splendid humanitarian memorial to the victims of Sept. 11, who will forever remain in our hearts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LET'S GO TO WASHINGTON!
A March on Washington and rally outside the White House will take place on Saturday, Sept. 29, focused on opposition to the new war threatened by the Bush administration in the aftermath of the terror attacks earlier this week and to growing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism.
The International Action Center (IAC) originally planned the Sept. 29 event as a rally primarily against President Bush’s foreign and domestic policies during a week of scheduled protests by scores of groups, largely in opposition to the policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The Bush administration’s war preparations plus the need to defend Arabs and Muslims have been pushed to the top of the agenda. Other aspects of Bush’s program will remain targets, of course.
Many of the organizations involved in the IMF/WB protests on other days may drop their plans because the two institutions of global capital are expected to cancel their joint meetings over the weekend of Sept. 29-30. Washington police, anticipating massive protests and civil disobedience, encouraged the two world bodies to postpone their meetings. The Latin American Solidarity Conference, a coalition of 40 groups, is meeting this weekend to determine whether or not to conduct their own Sept. 29 protests in view of the tragedy in New York and Washington. There is a fair chance the LASC will go ahead with the protest, probably joining up at some point with the IAC march and rally. Also being reevaluated this weekend as a result of the attacks is the Sunday, Sept. 30, rally against globalization organized by a number of progressive groups including the AFL-CIO.
We have no information about whether D.C. authorities will go ahead with earlier plans to erect a 9-foot fence around some 40-square blocks of downtown Washington, a plan devised when the IFM/WB meeting were expected to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators, including large contingents of people willing to offer civil disobedience. Since the attack on the Pentagon, however, it is expected the fence will be erected. The IAC has long secured march and rally permits, and the protest is set to be legal and peaceful, but the authorities want to shift the action to a point more distant from the White House. This is being worked out.
The Sept. 29 march and rally will emphasize the need for activists to oppose plans to launch massive military retaliation in response to the terror attacks this week, to stand with Arab and Muslim people in the U.S., and all people of color, against racism. In a statement Sept. 13, the IAC declared: “Now is the time for all people of conscience, and all people who oppose racism and war to come together. The government is attempting to limit our civil liberties and to create a climate in which it is impossible for progressive people to speak their mind. The Bush administration seeks to take advantage of this crisis to militarize U.S. society with an expansion of police powers that will restrict basic democratic rights. If you support civil liberties and oppose racism and war, join us Sept. 29 in front of the White House.” The action also insists “that the government pay for rebuilding New York City and compensate the victims of the Sept. 11 attack and their families, many of whom have lost not only loved ones but also jobs and healthcare benefits.”
In addition, of course, the protest will condemn the Bush administration’s general program because “It’s been eight months since George W. Bush assumed the presidency and it feels like eight years. Good-bye Kyoto global warming accords. Good-bye arms control treaties. Good-bye surpluses. Good-bye Alaska wildlife preserve. Good-bye affirmative action programs. And if the White House gets its way, good-bye abortion rights and Social Security as we know it. It doesn’t have to be ‘good-bye to all that.’ We have choices: We can do nothing but nurse our political grievances and hope to get a better deal in the next presidential election (lots of luck!). Or we can take action now to create sufficient mass political pressure to forestall further “good-byes” to social programs that the working people of our country fought for decades to attain. We’re for taking action now, in Washington on Saturday, Sept. 29.”