From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service)
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 03:30:23 -0400
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service)
Subject: wwnews Digest #316
WW News Service Digest #316
1) No to war frenzy!
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Our sisters and brothers in the World Trade Center
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) WTC workers: compensate victims and their families
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Palestinian groups deny responsibility
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 13. syyskuu 2001 10:25
Subject: [WW] No to war frenzy!
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 20, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NO TO WAR FRENZY!
Workers World Party statement
The massive and stunning attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon pose tremendous challenges to the
working class and the progressive movement in this country
and around the world. The U.S. capitalist ruling class and
its political establishment are now preparing a warlike
response that can only lead to more suffering and deaths.
In times of crisis like this, the workers individually
mobilize with great selflessness and sacrifice to save
lives, aid the wounded and distressed, and try to return
life to normal. People of many nationalities work shoulder-
to-shoulder in an admirable spirit of cooperation and
caring, in the same way they respond to natural disasters.
However, there is no politically independent, mass working-
class movement in the United States at this moment that can
make its own investigation and evaluation of what happened
and why. Even the corporate press and media are being
restricted more and more in where they can go and what they
can say. The people are left totally dependent on the
imperialist government for information, analysis and a
course of action.
Under these conditions, it would be irresponsible at this
time to jump to conclusions as to what political forces were
behind these attacks. Many, many times in the past, going
back to the battleship Maine in this country and the
Reichstag fire in Germany, bogus explanations have been
fabricated by the authorities in order to line up the
population behind a course of aggression.
It should be remembered that the 1964 congressional
resolution giving a blank check to the Johnson
administration for the Vietnam War was passed 98-2 after a
fabricated "attack" on U.S. warships in the Tonkin Gulf that
was later exposed in the Pentagon Papers.
On Sept. 12, a resolution passed the U.S. Senate 100-0 that
gives the present administration the same kind of
unrestrained authority to wage war and to finance the
Pentagon with whatever funds it requests. In the context of
the present capitalist economic downturn, everyone should
understand that this means with Social Security funds--the
trillions of dollars set aside from workers' earnings for
their retirement--more than anything else.
The pronouncements of U.S. leaders from President George W.
Bush on down make it clear that the government's priority is
to restore the image of unchallenged U.S. hegemony in the
world by unleashing its powerful military somewhere. There
can be no doubt that the targets will be peoples in
oppressed countries where the mass sentiment is already one
of anger at past U.S. aggression and extreme exploitation.
If this happens, it could unleash a witch-hunt against anti-
war forces in this country and against immigrants whose
national origins are similar to the peoples under attack.
The progressive movement must stand firm on its principles
in these trying times. It must fight for the right to seek
and tell the truth to the people and not be swept along in a
torrent of chauvinism and war frenzy.
The representatives of the military-banking-industrial
establishment have no answers. They can only make the
situation worse as the system they defend spreads poverty
and instability around the world.
The movement must seek to implement a program of class
solidarity among workers of all nationalities, religions,
genders and sexuality. It must continue to combat national
oppression, racism and bigotry of all kinds.
It must counter the reactionary vision of Fortress America,
with its inane but dangerous "missile shield" and rapid
militarization of society, with the struggle for a truly
humane, democratic, just and equitable world run by the
working people.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 13. syyskuu 2001 10:25
Subject: [WW] Our sisters and brothers in the World Trade Center
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 20, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Like millions of others who live in New York City, the staff
of Workers World newspaper has been directly affected by the
attack on the World Trade Center. Alongside our sisters and
brothers, the workers and oppressed people who make up the
vast majority of this city's population and who make this
city run, we are deeply pained by the magnitude of death and
suffering.
We are workers. We get up every morning, ride the subways,
clock in at jobs around the city, and when we finish working
for the bosses we volunteer our labor to produce this
newspaper. As New York workers, we have been touched by
these events.
One of Workers World's editors worked at the World Trade
Center. We are so glad that he left for his job late on
Sept. 11. He was relieved when he finally learned that his
co-workers had gotten out alive.
The niece of another of our editors worked on the 80th floor
of one of the twin towers. She ran down 80 flights with
hundreds of others, barely making it out of the building
before it collapsed.
Among Workers World Party's members and friends is a United
Airlines flight attendant whose union sisters and brothers
are among the dead.
Others of us are still waiting for word of missing friends
and relatives.
Along with all this, the events have caused logistical and
technological problems in producing the newspaper this week.
DSL Internet lines in lower Manhattan are not functioning.
Phone lines have worked intermittently. Transportation is
difficult.
We will get this newspaper out, as we do every week. We will
use our voices to resist the flood of chauvinist propaganda
and calls for military strikes against the people of
oppressed nations. But we do so not just as writers and
editors, activists and fighters. We do it as an authentic
part of the working class of New York City. We feel the
pain.
--Shelley Ettinger
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 13. syyskuu 2001 10:26
Subject: [WW] WTC workers: compensate victims and their families
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 20, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
World Trade Center workers
COMPENSATE VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES!
By John Catalinotto
New York
After the catastrophe that hit 50,000 workers at the World
Trade Center Sept. 11, killing perhaps thousands of them,
there has been much media repetition of the "need to pull
together."
Those working at the two World Trade Center buildings were a
cross-section of the U.S. working class. Black, white,
Latino, Asian, Arab, immigrant and born here, everyone could
be found enjoying the music at the summer lunchtime series
in the now non-existent plaza between the buildings.
The enormous infrastructure of the twin towers demanded a
full maintenance staff, from electricians to air-
conditioning experts, communication technicians, cafeteria
staffs, and janitors, along with an enormous clerical staff
receiving widely varying salaries.
One particularly diverse group was the staff of the Windows
on the World restaurant. They came from Bangladesh, Syria,
Iran, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Cuba,
Algeria, Ivory Coast. They worked on the top two floors of
World Trade Center Number 1.
Not that it was one happy relationship with management. In
the week before the tragedy, Port Authority electricians
were protesting that their wages were 27 percent lower than
the area average. And one of the major employers in the
building, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, had just announced
a half-hour increase in the workday without a pay increase.
The scenes shown on television of the burned and bloodied
people win the sympathy and solidarity of anyone who sees
them. For those who moved quickly in barely controlled panic
down dark stairwells for dozens of floors, perhaps fighting
sprinklers on the way down, then narrowly escaping the
collapsing building, such solidarity is well deserved.
For those who were even unluckier, who were trapped by fire
or tons of steel and concrete, deep sympathy is normal and
just.
The career politicians and corporate media, however, conceal
another agenda in their appeals for "pulling together." They
demand not so much solidarity as more powers and funds for
the military, police and secret services of the U.S.
If pulling together were really their goal, their first
objective would be support for the rights of the surviving
workers and meeting the needs of the dependents of those who
died.
Some of the more fortunate workers undoubtedly already have
job benefits and security. All should have it. The benefits
included below should be the basic minimum:
* For those who perished in the fire and collapse, a minimum
of $100,000 lump-sum payment to dependent survivors, plus
whatever Social Security is due.
* All emergency and continuing medical care covered by a
special fund set up by the federal government.
* Jobs guaranteed for two years by companies that continue
to exist, salaries guaranteed for two years for companies
destroyed by the fire, followed by an extended period of
unemployment insurance and retraining.
* Relocation expenses for those living far from any new
center of work.
In addition, this city should implement a massive hiring of
the unemployed to clear and rebuild the area.
At the site of the disaster and at the hospitals around
Manhattan, there was a wonderful display of spontaneous
solidarity with the victims. That solidarity was not always
repeated between boss and worker.
A worker in a building across the street from the twin
towers told Workers World she was forced to spend two hours
trapped in a cellar to escape the cloud of poisonous smoke
and rubble, then fled miles uptown on foot. She didn't
appreciate it when her boss asked her to report to a New
Jersey location for work the day following this ordeal.
Workers in 2 World Trade Center were evacuated when the
other tower was attacked, then were quickly ordered back to
their jobs. They were in the elevators when their building
was also hit. They were then evacuated a second time. Some
didn't get out of the building before it collapsed.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 13. syyskuu 2001 10:26
Subject: [WW] Palestinian groups deny responsibility
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 20, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Statements on the attacks
PALESTINIAN GROUPS DENY RESPONSIBILITY
By John Catalinotto
While the ruling-class media has been quick to blame
specific nationalities and religions for the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has done little to
publicize the statements of organizations under suspicion.
Four Palestinian groups--Hamas, the Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Islamic Jihad--deny
responsibility for the attacks. .
"Naturally the United States position regarding our conflict
with Israel is totally biased in favor of Israel, but we
have nothing to do with these aircraft attacks in the U.S.
because our military battle is against the Zionist enemy,''
Maher al-Taher, a PFLP politburo member, said.
"We, as nationalist Palestinian forces, are launching our
struggle on our land against the Zionist aggression."
There had been an Aug. 29 report that the PFLP was planning
attacks against the U.S. following the killing of the PFLP
leader Abu Ali Mustafa in an Israeli missile attack on his
office in the West Bank. Taher denied these reports.
The media gave wide publicity to an anonymous caller who
informed Abu Dhabi television the DFLP was behind the
attack. But Ali Badwan, a member of the central committee of
the DFLP, told Reuters his group opposed attacks on
civilians.
"Our policy calls for focusing the Palestinian efforts
against the Israeli occupation forces and the armed Zionist
settlers," he said.
"We are not concerned with any actions outside the
Palestinian territories. Our legitimate struggle is directed
against the Israeli enemy and the settler cliques," he said.
Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority, also
criticized the attacks and expressed his sympathy with the
U.S. population.
"We are completely shocked. It's unbelievable," Arafat said.
"We completely condemn this very dangerous attack, and I
convey my condolences to the American people, to the
American president and to the American administration, not
only in my name but on behalf of the Palestinian people."
CUBA OFFERS AID
In a Sept. 11 statement, the Cuban government went so far as
to offer assistance:
"The Government of the Republic of Cuba has received with
grief and sadness the news of violent surprise attacks which
took place, this morning, at civilian and official
facilities in New York City and Washington DC, and which
have caused many casualties.
"The position of Cuba against all kind of terrorist actions
is well known. We cannot forget that for over 40 years our
people has been victim of such actions, promoted from the
territory of the United States itself. Due to historical
reasons, as well as ethical principles, the Government of
our country fully rejects and condemns the attacks committed
against the above-mentioned facilities, and expresses its
sincerest condolences to the American people for the
distressing and unjustifiable loss of human lives caused by
such acts.
"In this bitter hour, our people is in solidarity with the
American people, and expresses its absolute willingness to
cooperate, to the extent of its modest resources, with
American health and humanitarian institutions in taking care
of, and rehabilitating the victims of today's events."
The South African Communist Party, the Portuguese Communist
Party, the Belgian Workers Party, the Philippine
organization Bayan, the Calcutta-based All India Anti-
imperialist Forum, Sinn Fein and many other liberation or
communist groups expressed condolences with the U.S.
population. Many of these groups also warned of the dangers
that the Bush administration would either embark on new
aggression against sovereign countries or would eliminate
protest rights within the U.S., or both.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
