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Title/Description: Statement of Central Secretariat
of Inquilabi Communist Sangathan
Author/Source: {source}Inquilabi Communist Sangathan,
[Indian Section of Fourth International]
Date: September 14, 2001
Date: 14-09-2001
Statement of Central Secretariat of Inquilabi Communist Sangathan
[Indian Section of Fourth International]
101, Shree Krishna Apt. No. 2,
Opp. Kothi Police Parade Ground, Raopura,
Vadodara - 390 001, Phone No: 0265-412499
Revolutionary Marxists unequivocally condemn the September 11
terrorist attacks in the United States. The killing of thousands of
ordinary working people is absolutely criminal and has nothing
whatsoever to do with the struggle for human liberation in any form
in any part of the world. Indeed, this atrocity will undoubtedly make
this struggle more difficult and aid the forces of capitalist
reaction, something that progressive Indians have been seeing over
the years in Kashmir. There, too, the rise of extremely communal and
terrorist forces has weakened the progressive struggle for Kashmir's
national unity and self-determination.
Popular struggles throughout history have often involved the killing
of oppressors, tyrants, police torturers and the like. Such actions
may or may not be politically expedient. But such actions, for.
example by nationalist revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh , Surya Sen,
or others had targeted known oppressors. But the attack on the World
Trade Centre and the Pentagon was of a fundamentally different kind.
It was a deliberate act of mass murder. The perpetrators made no
political demands, they had no goal except to kill indiscriminately
and inflict pain, suffering and devastation. It showed an astonishing
callousness and brutality. Our sympathy and solidarity are completely
with the innocent victims of these terrorist acts not with their
perpetrators.
Hypocrisy
But our solidarity with the victims should not blind us to the
absolutely breathtaking hypocrisy of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and
other imperialist spokespeople, their camp-followers in lesser
capitalist powers, like Ariel Sharon or Ehud Barak, who have already
launched an attack on Arafat and on the Palestinians generally, or
Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is offering the Indian army as the
foot-soldier in imperialism's first 21st Century war, and their
lackeys in the always-accommodating capitalist media. The outrage in
the US can be described as the greatest act of terror of all time
only with severe reservations. While it is certainly the greatest act
of non-state terror, many acts of governmental terror have far
surpassed it.
At the end of World War II, for example, the US leaders
cold-bloodedly carried out the nuclear annihilation of the Japanese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for two reasons: to show that they
were capable of taking the bloodiest possible revenge for Pearl
Harbour, and in order to tell not only their enemies, but also their
war-time allies, notably the USSR, that they had the capacity to
smash any country they chose to. Hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children died so that this US assertion was heeded by the world.
During the long Cold War with the USSR, Washington propped up scores
of blood-soaked Third World dictatorships and helped them torture and
murder their opponents with impunity, and helped cover up their
crimes. In 1965, for instance, the US helped aspiring Indonesian
dictator Suharto organise a pogrom against the left and progressive
forces which massacred at least one million people. The long US
intervention in Vietnam against the liberation forces there killed
and maimed millions of people and inflicted massive material
devastation on the country. On 11th September, 1973, a military coup
in Chile, with full US backing, ousted the left-wing regime of
Salvador Allende, and murdered uncounted leftists and trade union
activists.
Saddam Hussein's murderous regime was another US client, being
particularly favoured during the Iran-Iraq war of the early 1980s.
Then the wheel turned and, for various reasons, he became a
liability. Since the Gulf War, US and British-backed sanctions
against Iraq have led to the deaths of more than a million Iraqis
through starvation, disease and even the use of low grade radioactive
material (in bomb casings) resulting in deaths due to radio-activity.
These have also politically strengthened Saddam's hold on power.
Afghanistan's brutal Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime is a
product of the US-backed war of the reactionary Mujahadeen "freedom
fighters" against the Soviet-installed People's Democratic Party
government. We, who had called for the pull-out of Soviet troops, had
also warned that this kind of a consequence was likely if the Soviet
invasion continued. But that indirect Soviet responsibility does not
obliterate the direct responsibility of the imperialist powers, who
at that point stoked up Islamic fundamentalism, which was also the
origin of Osama bin Laden, currently targeted by Washington as the
supposed global public enemy number one.
Ever since the 1959 Cuban Revolution removed Cuba from the US sphere
of influence, Washington has organised numerous terrorist attempts
to assassinate Fidel Castro. Furthermore, the US has imposed a
ruinous economic blockade on the island for over 40 years. And right
now, the US authorities are resisting Cuban calls for them to
extradite the CIA-linked counter-revolutionary terrorist responsible
for the 1976 mid-air bomb-destruction of a Cuban airliner off
Barbados in which 73 people died.
State-sponsored terrorism includes the US and NATO roles in the
Second Gulf War and the war against Yugoslavia. The systematic
destruction of economies, the bombing of civilian targets, what were
all these but terrorism carried out under a flag of war?
And if terrorism is the use of force in order to impose one's unjust
demands, what should the world call the economic policies imposed on
the peoples of the world by the imperialists and their lesser
capitalist lackeys, policies which result in the deaths and immense
miseries suffered by people across the world? To give a few examples:
tuberculosis continues to be a major killer, malaria has been making
a steady comeback, and all the while, in the name of cutting
subsidies to make the economies better, the public health systems
have been gutted.
Finally, practically all states, whether they are Pakistan, or
whether they are Israel, the USA or India, have utilized non-state
violent groups against neighboring states, or even in internal
policies. These have in almost all cases rebounded on the original
backers. The predicament of Pervez Musharraf today is no different
from India's predicament over the aid given at one stage to the LTTE
for foreign policy reasons or to Bhindranwale for internal political
goals.
The Appeal of Terrorism and the Marxist Opposition to Terrorism
It is still not clear who organised the terrorist operation in the
US. But where would any terror organisation recruit people who were
so embittered and without hope of the future that they could
contemplate such a pointless atrocity and be willing to sacrifice
themselves to implement it? The answer is no secret.
The massive misery which Western capitalism led by the United
States, the world's only superpower has imposed on the majority of
the world's people has created the seedbed for the very terrorism
which its leaders so piously condemn. Oppression breeds hatred,
desperation and despair. In such a climate, when the enemy seems so
powerful, carrying out suicide bombings against the population of the
oppressor country can seem to some like the only option. With the
defeats suffered by progressive and socialist movements from the
1980s, religious fundamentalism and terrorist politics often came to
be viewed as the only likely option.
In occupied Palestine, for instance, there is apparently no shortage
of young men willing to sacrifice themselves as human bombs against
the Israeli population. However, apart from being morally repugnant,
such indiscriminate acts are a complete political dead-end. Each
suicide bomber who carries out his or her mission in an Israeli town,
is actually weakening the Palestinian struggle and helping strengthen
the hand of the Israeli regime and its US backers. Such acts as
indiscriminate bomb blasts, the use of suicide bombers, etc., fail in
their objectives, because even when the event results in the death of
a few notorious oppressors, the ruling classes find replacements,
while they exploit cynically the event to draw attention away from
the far greater acts of terrorism their state-sanctioned, legitimate"
violence involves. Thus, were the mass action based intifada to be
replaced by such acts, the likely consequence would be, the death,
not only of a few hated figures, but also of innocent civilians,
which in turn would be powerful elements in driving the Israeli
masses towards the most reactionary responses and inhibit the
development of any radical opposition forces among them. In the same
way, even when the terrorists are actually of Kashmiri extraction,
(rather than being Pakistanis or Afghan mercenaries/ fundamentalists)
their acts tend to drive, in particular, the Hindus, in the arms of
the right-wing Hindu fundamentalists, and as a consequence, the
secular nationalist idea of Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri nationhood)
receives a jolt.
Throughout the history of the modern socialist movement,
revolutionary Marxists have carried out a fierce polemic against the
political strategy of "individual terrorism" that is, the killing of
hated figures of an oppressive regime. Our objection to this kind of
terrorism is not only based on morality but on the grounds that it
simply does not work. The ruling class can always replace
individuals. This is true even of authoritarian regimes. This is
therefore particularly the case in bourgeois democracies. However
devoid of real popular control be a bourgeois democracy, with the
great weakening of a genuine socialist democratic alternative, the
popular masses tend to identify substantially with it. To carry out
terrorist attacks in a bourgeois democracy creates a hostile
impression in the mind of significant sections of the masses about
even the best of causes.
Furthermore and most importantly, employed as a strategy, such
terrorist acts actually demobilise the mass movement. Only the
struggle of the masses can change society. The combat of a small band
of terrorist-avengers relegates the masses to the sidelines and makes
them mere spectators of a contest between the terrorists and the
regime, rather than participants in their own liberation. : Even
morally speaking, such acts are therefore repugnant, insofar as they
go against the self-emancipatory struggles
Moreover, the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon
represent a completely different kind of terrorism: the wanton and
indiscriminate killing of civilians is part of the methodology of
imperialism and its accomplices, not of the progressive forces
fighting for liberation from this inhuman system. Those who have
organised these attacks are no part of any progressive
anti-imperialist struggle. We differ totally from those like CPI(M)
leader Prakash Karat or others, who see in this terrorism an extreme
form of anti-imperialism. In a struggle between two extreme
reactionaries, both products of late capitalism, an age of political,
economic, moral degeneration of world capitalism, it is not the duty
of revolutionary Marxists to choose the lesser evil between them, but
to point out that the way ahead lies through fighting both of them.
It might be argued that even such terrorism is de facto
anti-imperialist. This is to confuse between the objective conditions
that gave rise to such political movements, and their actual
character. There is a need to distinguish between the anti-Shah
struggles of the Iranian masses in 1979, and the reactionary forces,
led and symbolized by Khomeini, who seized the leadership of that
struggle. In the same way, there is a need to distinguish between
progressive struggles, even when they take recourse to terror --
e.g., the IRA at various times, different national liberation
movements, Maoist political currents in different countries, and
clearly reactionary movements. It is easier to do so when such
currents exist in imperialist countries. The experience of "Third
Period" Stalinism apart, the left has tended to recognize that right
wing terrorism and violence cannot be treated even as a temporary
ally. The situation is more complex in non-imperialist countries,
where even right-wing forces, including those using terrorism, can
use anti-imperialist rhetoric. But in judging them, one has to
clearly understand the relationship between such forces and the
working class and other progressive forces of the countries
concerned. Several of the RSS-linked outfits in India are unhappy
with the Vajpayee Government's economic policy and use
anti-imperialist rhetoric. But only those who have learnt nothing
from the Stalinist support to the Nazi anti-SPD referendum and more
generally from Third Period Stalinist policies can conclude that in
the anti-globalisation struggles, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch can be
an ally. This applies, with the necessary specific situation in mind,
to every country. However, to oppose, or even to condemn, such right
wing terrorism, is not the same as supporting imperialism, even
indirectly through its most liberal or social democratic
camp-followers.
Reactionary agenda of the Ruling classes
The terror bombings are being used by Bush and the US ruling class to
create a more favourable political climate in which to implement
their reactionary agenda. This tragedy is a heaven-sent opportunity
for them and they will take it with both hands. They will push
forward their arms build-up and sabre-rattling foreign policy.
Under the guise of "fighting terrorism", civil liberties have begun
coming under increased pressure at home, with a campaign for more
police and increased police powers, and the previously growing
movement against the death penalty will operate in a much less
favourable environment. General Colin Powell, pushed by the bourgeois
media as the smart figure in the Bush administration, has openly
stated that every law in the US protecting the rights of the citizen
will be reviewed. With the US demanding that the entire world should
join the "war on terrorism" demands will be made on (often perfectly
willing) governments elsewhere to scrap laws protecting civil
liberties. Already in India, in the name of combating
Pakistan-sponsored Kashmiri terrorism, Union Home Minister L. K.
Advani has urged the restoration of a TADA like law ( that is, a law
which will allow the police to arrest and block bail for as long as
they want, a law that will avoid the normal legal protections given
to the accused, and provide for tougher punishments under procedures
designed to extract confessions and disregard civil liberties).
Xenophobia in the US is being strengthened; anti-Arab racism will
become stronger and it will be harder to build a movement of
solidarity with the Palestinian people. Indeed, reports suggest that
this has now been deepened to become an anti-Asian prejudice. Sikhs
have been attacked, and on occasion murdered, for wearing turbans and
carrying kirpans (short, ceremonial knives they have to wear as part
of a religious dress code) in a country where any white can virtually
walk into a gun shop and walk out with a modern pistol. The fact that
in self-defence Sikhs have advertised the fact that they are not
Muslims, if anything, serves to legitimise (though that was
"presumably" unintended on their part) attacks on Arabs and Muslims.
The heavy concentration of Arab-Americans in the Detroit-Dearborn
region have come under persistent low-level harassment along with
occasional cases of individuals shooting in Arab establishments etc.
Reports have come showing women from South Asia being compelled to
conceal their identities by changing dresses as they are being
threatened.
Revolutionary Marxists oppose any "war on terrorism". Military
attacks by the US and its imperialist allies on the alleged
terrorists and/or states that allegedly harbour them will not end
acts of terrorism. To the contrary, such a war will only result in
more loss of innocent lives, and deepen the nationalist hatred of
Americans that has provided a recruiting ground for the organisers of
terrorist acts of the World Trade Centre type. The fact that the
Vajpayee government in India and the Israeli government have been the
only two states : initially willing to support this war even without
the fig-leaf of a UN resolution, indicate that bin Laden and the
Taliban are being used as convenient pegs for a war against Pakistan
and the Palestinians willing to support this war even without the
fig-leaf of a UN resolution, indicate that bin Laden and the Taliban
are being used as convenient pegs for a war against Pakistan and the
Palestinians.
We condemn the diplomatic and military games being played by India
and Pakistan. Both sides are trying to turn the sudden
intensification of US gaze near South Asia to their advantage by
offering military aid to the US in return for US backing on Kashmir.
The India government has moved diplomatically so far to the right,
and is so willing to surrender its military independence in exchange
for support on Kashmir, that even sections of the ruling party (BJP)
have found a public disclaimer a necessary tactics , with elections
coming up.
Socialists are struggling for a world that is free of violence,
oppression and exploitation. This means struggling against
imperialism and capitalism which is looting and destroying our planet
and condemning the mass of its people to an increasingly miserable
and desperate existence and replacing it with a socialist society.
The only force which can accomplish this tremendous historic task is
the working class and oppressed masses of the world. Terrorism has no
part in this struggle. But nor can the toiling people line-up with
imperialism when, in the name of fighting terrorism, it seeks to
smash all resistance to its domination, and to destroy all vestiges
of civil liberties and democratic rights, thereby becoming the
biggest terrorist outfit itself.
* Condemn the terrorist attacks on ordinary people in the US
unconditionally
* Condemn the hypocrisy of the US rulers, who themselves create
terrorists and seek to terrorise all opponents
* Support the struggles of all peoples still fighting for
national self-determination
* Oppose religious communalism and fundamentalism of all
religions, not just one
* Oppose any attempt at the so-called global war on terrorism
* Oppose Indian involvement in any US war mongering in or near South
Asia
* Support secular, democratic forces, not any variety of
imperialist stooges, in struggles against fundamentalism