WW News Service Digest #325
1) Bush, Capitalism, and the War Crisis
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Yemenis React to NYC Disaster
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Anti-War, Anti-Racism Movement Coming Together
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 27. syyskuu 2001 08:01
Subject: [WW] Bush, Capitalism, and the War Crisis
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 4, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BUSH, CAPITALISM, AND THE WAR CRISIS
By Fred Goldstein
As the people in the United States try to recover from the
horrendous destruction of thousands of lives in the Sept. 11
attacks, the Bush administration is working overtime. It is
using the suffering of the victims as a pretext to drum up
war fever and prepare the groundwork for thousands more
deaths in the Middle East--and probably among the workers in
this country.
Bush and the Pentagon are using so-called war powers to
mobilize aircraft carriers, cruise missile destroyers and B-
52 bombers and to call up thousands of reservists for
military intervention. Only Barbara Lee, a Black woman
representing the district that includes Oakland, Calif.,
cast a heroic "no" vote in Congress.
They are carrying out the war drive in the name of rooting
out terrorism and protecting the people of the U.S. But, in
truth, this leap toward militarism is doing precisely the
opposite.
Washington is preparing a civil war and air strikes in
Afghanistan that will kill untold numbers of civilians.
Already a million and a half impoverished Afghani people
have been converted into refugees, desperately fleeing the
anticipated U.S. air attacks.
The bombing of Afghanistan will not bring back the victims
of the Sept. 11 attack.
High officials in Washington and former government officials
regard this bombing as the first step in a much broader
military campaign. Those who prepare the public for what the
Pentagon may do talk about "getting" Iraq, Sudan and Syria.
It is likely that the vast majority of the people of the
Middle East were horrified by the Sept. 11 attack. Either
they opposed the death of so many innocent civilians, a fate
with which they are very familiar, or they could see that
the U.S. government would use this as a way to threaten all
Arab people, or both.
But as much as they may have opposed the attack, they are
even more opposed to the U.S., the British, the French and
all the NATO imperialist countries coming into the area and
causing even more death and suffering. These world powers
have dominated the countries of the region for over a
century, and it is already too long.
They know of the thousands of Palestinians who have been
killed resisting Israeli occupation. They know of the
million-plus Iraqis who have died because of U.S.-imposed UN
sanctions. They know Washington supported an Israeli
invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that killed 17,500 people in
Beirut alone.
Indeed, the history of the Middle East is one of being
tortured by Western powers. This slaughter goes all the way
back to the mid-19th Century, when 125,000 Egyptian workers
died building the Suez Canal under the whip of French
colonialism.
The people of the region may not endorse the Sept. 11
attack. But they will surely resist a new wave of Western
military intervention aimed at all the states in the region
that displease Washington, London, Paris and Berlin.
They will eventually oppose the local regimes imposed on
them, such as the feudal Saudi oil monarchy. This clique
sits on vast petroleum reserves tapped by U.S. oil companies
for super-profits. They have turned the land into an outpost
of the Pentagon.
The people will eventually resist the conservative pro-U.S.
Cairo regime that has protected Western corporations and
capitalism in Egypt. And they will continue the struggle
against the oppressive, colonial Israeli occupation.
OIL--THE PRIZE
Such a situation has the potential to lead to a vast war in
the Middle East. In such a war, workers from the U.S. will
eventually be called on to kill and be killed. This war will
not be against "terrorism" but to protect the financial
interests of the rich in the Western imperialist countries.
Bush's latest war moves are just the beginning of a process
that has no end.
There is only one way to secure peace and protect the
genuine interests of the U.S. workers. That is to withdraw
U.S. forces from the Middle East and let the peoples of the
region control their own resources and determine their own
destiny. The other way leads to endless war and death for
capitalist profit.
The Bush administration's response to the Sept. 11 attack
can only be understood in terms of the long-standing
interests and strategy of the U.S. and European corporate
oil and banking elite that dominates the region-Exxon/Mobil,
Texaco, British Petroleum, French oil companies and Royal
Dutch Shell.
Oil is not only the lifeblood of industrial society. It is
the source of super-profits and military strength. The oil
magnates have forced this situation upon society. They have
blocked all alternative forms of energy.
They cannot own the sun, the wind, nor the hydrogen in the
air-all technologically possible alternatives to fossil
fuels. But none of these alternative fuels lend themselves
to private ownership and super-profits. As long as they can
have a stranglehold on oil--until they are forced out--the
oil magnates will never let the Middle East be in peace.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal and World Oil, two
principal industry research organs, the proven oil reserves
in the world came to approximately 1 trillion barrels as of
Jan. 1, 2000. This doesn't include future discoveries that
are expected to be much larger. Of these 1 trillion barrels,
anywhere from 630 to 675 billion barrels are in the
Persian/Arabian Gulf.
Add to that the 30 billion barrels in Libya and the oil
reserves in this area of U.S. military, political and
economic domination come close to 70 percent of the world's
total.
In addition, the earth has 5 quadrillion cubic feet of
natural gas reserves, of which 2 quadrillion are in the same
region. This is significant because of technological leaps
made recently in the use of natural gas.
PENTAGON IN THE PERSIAN GULF
The frenzy of the Bush administration and the capitalist
establishment about a war on terrorism has to be seen in the
light of their historic political and military objectives.
Consider the military terror that the peoples in the Persian
Gulf have been under.
According to the New York Times, there were extensive U.S.
forces in the region prior to Sept. 11. The Navy had 20,000
personnel and two aircraft carrier battle groups with 70
aircraft. In Saudi Arabia there are 5,200 U.S. troops,
mainly from the Air Force, with Patriot missiles, F-15, F-16
and F-117 fighter planes, U-2 spy planes and AWACS flying
command posts.
In Kuwait there are 4,800 troops from the Army and Air Force
plus a prepositioned, reinforced brigade with two tank
battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion and an artillery
battalion.
Bahrain houses 1,000 personnel, mostly naval, and is the
headquarters of the Fifth Fleet.
In Turkey, 2,000 troops, mostly from the Air Force, are
stationed at a base used to fly over Iraq with F-15 and F-16
fighters.
Other U.S. forces are spread around the United Arab
Emirates, Oman, Qatar and, in the Indian Ocean, Diego
Garcia.
Altogether the U.S. has 30,000 troops, massive numbers of
aircraft, missiles, artillery and bases for rapid deployment
in the region.
These forces were already there before the current crisis.
They threatened the people on a 24-hour-a-day basis lest
anyone in the region did anything to jeopardize the vast
oil, financial and militarily strategic interests of the
U.S. Now they are being vastly increased.
KISSINGER ON RULING-CLASS AIMS
The dangers of the Bush adventure were made clear by Henry
Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of state, who appeared on a
special panel on Fox TV at 10 p.m. on Sept. 21, along with a
number of other former government officials.
Kissinger summed up his thinking about the present
situation. This "could be a turning point," he said,
comparable to the "defeat of communism in the Soviet Union,"
in that it held out the prospect of the "defeat of terrorism
on a global basis."
During the Vietnam War, Kissinger threatened the Vietnamese
numerous times with nuclear annihilation. He was the
architect of the Chilean military coup d'etat by General
Augusto Pinochet on Sept. 11, 1973. In that coup, thousands
of revolutionaries, progressives and liberals were summarily
killed or "disappeared."
To Kissinger, as to his colleagues in the capitalist
government hierarchy, "terror" and "anarchy" apply to any
force that resists the domination of the U.S. multinational
corporations and banks and the Pentagon.
Such a definition could easily be extended to the
Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. It could be
extended to the liberation fighters in Colombia trying to
rid the people of a reactionary government that countenances
death squads. It could be extended to the people of Puerto
Rico, should they escalate their struggle to get the U.S.
military out of Vieques or to gain national independence.
Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria,
Iran, Iraq and Libya are also included on the U.S.
government's official "terrorist" list.
All the claims of the Bush administration and the capitalist
establishment about fighting "a war against terrorism" must
be understood in the context of the multi-trillion-dollar
interests of the rich corporate ruling class in controlling
the world.
WHO WILL HELP THE WORKERS?
If the workers watch carefully what Washington is doing
instead of just what it is saying, they will get a truer
picture of how the bosses are handling the economic
dislocation that coincides with this capitalist war crisis.
The airline industry has announced 100,000 layoffs. What did
Congress do about it? It held a hearing on Sept. 18 where
the companies demanded $24 billion in direct aid and loan
guarantees. So Congress bailed out the airline bosses, not
the laid-off workers.
There was not a word about who is going to help the laid-off
workers pay their home and credit card loans, keep food on
the table, and maintain some semblance of normal economic
life. Congress has not yet decided how much to give, but the
latest number is $15 billion.
Many of these layoffs were planned before Sept. 11, as the
recession deepened. But the best the government will do for
the workers is to possibly speed up their unemployment
insurance. We'd like to see the bosses live on unemployment
insurance instead of the millions of dollars they all saved
up during this last boom.
In addition, no one in the capitalist establishment has
called for emergency aid to the untold hundreds of thousands
laid off in the wake of this crisis. Boeing alone has
announced 30,000 layoffs. Many thousands more worked in
medium and small businesses that were already in trouble and
went over the edge after Sept. 11.
In a $10-trillion economy, the government has found no room
for instant, massive emergency aid to the masses of people
to keep them afloat. But Alan Greenspan, chair of the
Federal Reserve Bank, stepped in within days to aid the
bankers and Wall Street traders.
According to the Oct. 1 edition of Business Week, "the Fed
pumped tens of billions into the money markets. ... The cash
deluge peaked on Sept. 14, when the Fed flooded the banking
system with $81.25 billion-many times the $5 billion or so
it normally adds."
Several hundred billion dollars were made available to the
bankers, but the more than 7 million people officially
unemployed as the result of the already existing recession
and those additional workers unemployed because of the
attack do not qualify for emergency aid.
MILITARY AWASH WITH FUNDS
According to the Sept. 22 New York Times, even as the
attacks have "sent the stock market plummeting and caused
havoc for much of American business, prospects for the
military industrial complex are looking stronger than ever.
"Overnight," continued the Times, "political opposition in
Congress to huge increases in Pentagon spending has
vanished, along with concerns about dipping into the surplus
of Social Security funds."
Congress gave the Pentagon a quick $33 billion with promises
of more. This clearly was aimed at grabbing funds from the
people's pensions to line the pockets of the military
contractors. "The service chiefs and senior lawmakers," said
the Times, "will probably want to spend those funds on
favored weapons programs, like Boeing's F-18 E and F
fighters, United Defense's Crusader artillery system, and
Northrop Grumman and General Dynamic's DD-21 stealth
destroyer. It will not matter if those systems are not
clearly useful in the war on terrorism."
Bush has said he is going to wage war to "save our way of
life." But this society is a divided society. It is divided
into oppressor and oppressed peoples. It is also divided
into classes--workers and bosses, exploiters and exploited.
NATIONAL, CLASS DIVISIONS PREVAIL
There is no one way of life. If you are Black, Latino,
Asian, Native or, especially now, Middle Eastern, you suffer
racism, police brutality, incarceration, discrimination of
all types. If you are one of the 50 million people who live
in poverty or at the near-poverty level, you have a way of
life that means just trying to survive.
But if you are one of the tiny minority of the super rich, a
Wall Street speculator, a banker or a major stockholder or
CEO, your hardships are different. You might have to
postpone buying another Mercedes or toning down a renovation
on a mansion. You might even have to sell a few million
shares of stock to cover your losses.
This crisis has brought out the capitalist nature of this
society. It has underlined capitalism's warlike nature
abroad and its cruelty at home. The people want and need
peace. Peace can only be won if U.S. forces get out of the
Middle East.
The workers and the oppressed communities need an immediate
end to their growing economic crisis at home. That can't be
done by using the vast wealth and resources at the disposal
of society to bail out the airline bosses. It can't be done
by handing over hundreds of billions behind closed doors to
the bankers and money managers, or by giving it to the
Pentagon and the military corporations for more profits and
more instruments of death.
The bosses will tell you that they must come first,
otherwise businesses will fail and no one will have a job.
But that is only true when the capitalist profit system is
forced on society. The profit system is what stands in the
way of keeping everyone on the job, working and producing
the wealth of society, and distributing the products to
those who need it. That is what the workers need, and it's
called socialism. Needless to say, the capitalists don't
like it.
- 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:
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 27. syyskuu 2001 08:01
Subject: [WW] Yemenis React to NYC Disaster
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 4, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
LETTER FROM YEMEN: PEOPLE REACT TO DISASTER IN NYC
People in Yemen [who watched the events on CNN Arabic and
English broadcasts over 12 hours] responded to the World
Trade Center disaster with horrified shock tempered by
compassion for the victims.
As U.S. citizens living, working and studying in Sana'a, the
capital city of Yemen, we have been repeatedly approached by
Yemeni friends, co-workers, and even strangers expressing
their condolences to us.
For instance, when the meter reader came and read our water
meter, upon learning that we were American his first
response was to inquire about the safety of our family
members in the U.S.
Knowing that the U.S. government had quickly pinned the
blame for the attack on "Arabs" and "Muslims," Yemenis
wanted to let us know that killing civilians is "Haraam" or
forbidden by Islam.
Above all, these thoughtful people expressed concern for the
safety of our families and friends, and hastened to make
sure we knew they welcomed us in their country through
handshakes, smiles and the sharing of food. It is well known
here that Yemeni immigrants to the U.S. are among the
missing or dead at the World Trade Center. A number of
Yemenis from Ibb province work in the service department of
the WTC.
A Yemeni businessman also had an office in one of the
towers, but he was on vacation in Yemen on the day of the
attack. It has been publicized here that Yemenis in New York
have designated Sept. 26 (Revolution Day, a national
holiday) as a day to donate blood for the victims.
However, compassion for the victims is accompanied by
concern for the safety of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S; fear
of the impact of any U.S. retaliation; and above all by a
profound awareness of the U.S. role in the Middle East.
The Yemen Times, an English-language weekly, conducted a
poll in three major Yemeni cities. They found that their
respondents overwhelmingly condemned the attack, but also
resolutely opposed any U.S. military action in response.
Others pointed out that the devastation in New York could
perhaps give people in the U.S. a taste of what the Iraqi
and Palestinian people have been suffering as a direct
result of U.S. policies. "The Americans, when mourning their
dead, must remember what happened to Iraqis at Al-Ameriya
Shelter and what is happening to the civilians in
Palestine," declared university student Adel Ali Mohammed
(Yemen Observer, Sept. 15).
Clerk Hanan Fawzi explained: "From a humane point of view,
this is a disaster and we must sympathize with the families
of the victims. But the American government must know that
the Palestinians are subject to such terrorism every day."
NO CELEBRATIONS
The day after Yemen received news of the attack, we saw no
celebrations on the street. Combined with sorrow at loss of
civilian life, some individuals did express the opinion that
the Pentagon, unlike the WTC, was a military target,
although attacking it with a commercial airplane full of
civilians was "'ayb" (shameful).
One old man in Tahrir Square proclaimed that the attack was
divine retribution on the U.S. for its crimes against the
peoples of the world. One of our co-workers told me he
believed that the U.S. had made many enemies around the
world, especially as a result of its support for Israel's
oppression of the Palestinians and the genocidal blockade
against Iraq. He expressed hope that U.S. policies would
change.
People here in Yemen make a clear distinction between the
American people and the policies of the American government.
People we have met are pleased to find out that there is an
active movement in the U.S. against war, sanctions and
globalization, and in support of the Palestinian people.
A few weeks before the attack, one of us was invited to
report on the work and perspectives of the International
Action Center at a "nadwa" (discussion session). This nadwa
is a regular gathering of men from various political
perspectives (nationalist, socialist, Islamicist). The men
chew qat (a mild stimulant leaf) while listening to a
prepared commentary on a topic of current interest and then
engage in discussion. ...
The participants had heard of former Attorney General Ramsey
Clark and his opposition to sanctions and war, but had been
unaware of the existence of the progressive movement in the
U.S. Yemenis are painfully aware that they cannot directly
oppose U.S. dictates in the region.
They also very strongly resent the U.S. right of veto in the
United Nations Security Council, which appears be used only
when the Security Council is on the verge of censuring
Israel for its war crimes in the Occupied Territories.
The Palestinian struggle is an issue of great immediacy and
importance to people here. During August, the Yemeni
parliament debated what action to take to support the
Palestinian people, and decided to raise money by collecting
one day's wages from all government employees, and
encouraging private citizens to donate to a fund to support
the Palestinians.
On Yemeni TV, there are daily broadcasts of pro-Palestinian
music videos. Yemenis are well aware of the potential costs
of taking a principled stand against U.S. foreign policy. In
1990, Yemen was on the UN Security Council and cast the sole
vote against Storm." To punish Yemen for its independence,
the U.S. cut off aid to Yemen.
Jane Cutter &
Andrew Freeman
Sana'a, Yemen
- 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 27. syyskuu 2001 08:01
Subject: [WW] Anti-War, Anti-Racism Movement Coming Together
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 4, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MOVEMENT COMING TOGETHER TO STOP THE WAR AND
CHANGE THE WORLD
Economic Justice, not Racism and Aggression
By John Catalinotto
New York
On Sept. 26, while the Pentagon was calling up another 2,000
reservists and Pakistani fishers reported a U.S. aircraft
carrier near that country's coastline, the peace movement
within the United States was preparing for its first
national action to stop the war drive.
The movement on both sides of the world follows the
catastrophic assault on and destruction of the Twin Towers
of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, with the
loss of lives now estimated at over 6,000.
Anti-war activists here and abroad are horrified not only at
the carnage but at the Bush administration's use of it to
mobilize for a new round of war in Central Asia described as
a long-term, open-ended campaign by President George W. Bush
himself.
Within the U.S., peace activists, progressives, trade
unionists, community organizers and others have formed
a new anti-war coalition named A.N.S.W.E.R.--Act Now to Stop
War & End Racism. This group made a call for national and
international actions on Sept. 29.
In the U.S., major demonstrations are planned Sept. 29 in
Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago,
and local actions are set in many others cities for those
who cannot reach the central protests.
Before Sept. 11, the International Action Center had planned
a demonstration at the White House as part of many anti-
globalization actions. Since that time,
the IAC turned its permits over to A.N.S.W.E.R. and changed
the focus of the protest.
Workers World interviewed organizers from A.N.S.W.E.R. in
three of the cities about their assessment of the current
state of the peace movement and the sentiment among the
population.
TO WIN THE HEARTS AND MINDS
In San Francisco, WW spoke with Gloria La Riva about the
goals of the coalition at a time when public opinion polls
show a majority of the U.S. population backing a war.
"There has been a wonderful feeling of unity and cooperation
among the progressive forces in this region," said La Riva.
"All the progressive organizations, those of the left,
religious and community groups, groups from the Black,
Latino, Asian and Arab communities see this demonstration as
a way to create a platform for peace.
"They know it is an opportunity to break the climate of fear
that the Bush administration and the media have imposed on
the population," she added.
"We in the peace movement are in a struggle with the Bush
administration for the hearts and minds of the population in
the United States. Bush and Company have the mainstream--
that is, the big-business--media at their beck and call. We
have the beginning of a groundswell for peace among the
people," La Riva said.
"We can see how strong this sentiment is from the statement
of the San Francisco Central Labor Council," La Riva added.
"They, of course, condemn the attack and express their
solidarity with their fellow workers who were victims, and
they ask that the perpetrators be brought to justice. But
they go on to condemn the moves toward war, to show complete
solidarity with Arab and Muslim or other Central Asian
people within the U.S., and to demand that there be no loss
of civil liberties and freedom of expression.
"They also go on to endorse the Sept. 29 demonstrations both
in Washington and here in California," she concluded.
BREAKING THROUGH TO THE MEDIA
>From the A.N.S.W.E.R. office in Washington, D.C., Dick
Becker said that already a major accomplishment of the
demonstration has been to break through to the media after
almost two weeks where only one opinion was heard. This
would not have been possible had there been no
demonstration, he said.
"The message with the strongest impact," he said, "is that
the course of the Bush administration is leading to
catastrophe. Anyone who believes a new war in the Middle
East or Asia will offer more safety and security to people
living in the U.S. is being seriously misled.
"No one can excuse what happened Sept. 11, and the horrific
casualties, Becker added. "But if the Bush war drive goes
forward, these casualties could be multiplied 10 times, 100
times, or more."
"To remove the threat, you have to address the fundamental
issues that have created the deep anger against the U.S. and
its policies, an anger now higher than ever before.
Unfortunately," Becker said, "the consequences of the anger
toward U.S. policies can come down on the people of the
U.S., who haven't played a role in formulating these
policies and in many cases don't even know what they are.
"They may not know, for example, that U.S. sanctions on Iraq
still kill 5,000 people a month. Or that the U.S. supplies
the rockets, planes and bullets the Israelis use against the
Palestinians. But the people of the Middle East are acutely
aware of all this.
"Then there is a vast deployment of U.S. military forces,
thousands of troops, scores of warships, hundreds of
warplanes, in the Gulf region. The people there see them,"
Becker said, "not as defending freedom and democracy, but as
protecting the financial interests of corporate America,
particularly the oil companies. It is an occupation force
and no one wants to be occupied."
Becker told of the breadth of support for the Sept. 29
demonstration, as shown by a news conference A.N.S.W.E.R.
held in Washington Sept. 24. Speakers included Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton of Detroit, Jessica Marques of the Mexico
Solidarity Network, Lina Fattom of the Union of Arab Student
Associations, Chuck Kaufman of the Nicaragua Network, Kathy
Boylan of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House and Korean-
American activist Rev. Kiyul Chung.
There was also a strong showing
of Washington-based organizers, espe cially from the Black
community. It included Vanessa Dixon of the D.C. Healthcare
Now Coalition, Rev. Graylan Hagler of the Plymouth Congre ga-
tional Church, and Eleiza Braun of the
George Washington University Action Coalition.
A TIME TO ACT--AND TO REFLECT
In New York, WW spoke with International Action Center co-
director Sara Flounders. She had just finished debating on
Fox News with three pro-war people.
"I told them college youths were organizing against the
war," she said, but all three made fun of the students. "I
then said that it was past U.S. policies that had put the
population, not only of the rest of the world but of the
United States itself, at risk. The past wars had aroused
enormous anger. And a new war would do the same."
She agreed with Becker about the main argument in these
debates. "People can call for retribution but it will not
begin to solve the crisis. Revenge doesn't offer a way out,
but just opens the door to a deepening cycle of death and
destruction.
"There is something else coming out of all this horror," she
said. "Because people are frightened, because they feel
threatened, they are reflecting on these questions of U.S.
foreign policy as they never have before. They are asking
themselves why it all happened. They know there must be a
reason and they don't trust the government and its answers.
"The task of the anti-war movement," she concluded, "is to
combine strong action against the war with the clearest
answers to the questions so many people are asking."
Organizers at the International A.N.S.W.E.R. office say that
many people called in after the Fox debate to order bus
tickets to Washington, causing the group to order additional
buses.
- END -
