Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Maoists around the world oppose US war
The following are excerpts from some statements by a number of different parties and organizations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) and other revolutionary forces internationally.
Revolutionary Worker #1132, December 23, 2001, posted at rwor.org
Revolutionary Worker #1132, December 23, 2001, posted at rwor.org
Before I post the communications, I would like to request that any comments pertain to the materials posted. This would be much more interesting that the usual knee-jerk anti-communist doggerel that passes for debate. Thanks.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From Maoist Communist Party [Italy]
Against Imperialist "Global War"--People's War Until Communism!
The wounded U.S. beast identifies itself--in an awful, chauvinistic, xenophobic and racist way--as the cradle of civilisation and democracy. The U.S. proclaims its symbols and cities to be untouchable, almost sacred. In order to assert their rule once again, they are cynically using the grief and anger of the American people for their victims in order to unleash, through the bombing of Afghanistan and their global war against so-called "terrorism", a war and a crusade against all the oppressed peoples, all those who are fighting for liberation, and all the nations not aligned with them. By means of their weaponry and violence they aim to impose their iron rule in the service of profit and the masters of finance and industry, the oil barons and warlords. All the imperialist states, whether guided by rightist or "leftist" governments, have joined this imperialist, war-mongering, fascist crusade....
The authors of the 11th September attacks, be they Osama bin Laden or someone else, are an expression of feudal lords, created, nurtured, financed and armed with anti-communist and anti-progressive tasks by the same imperialists they claim to fight. In the absence or weakness of genuine communist parties and anti-imperialist united fronts led by the proletariat, they are riding the tiger of the rebellion of the people, particularly in the Arab-Muslim countries. They represent fractions of comprador ruling classes who already live by exploiting their own people and underselling their resources, and, where they are in power, they set up obscurantist and reactionary regimes like in Afghanistan, Iran and generally in the Arab-Muslim countries. Where these forces are in power, the masses are oppressed and economic power is in the hands of the imperialists. The form of struggle they use, including in this case, even though it may produce devastation, will never help to strengthen the liberation war of the people or the unity between the oppressed peoples and the proletarians and the exploited, that is, the only winning global weapon against imperialism.
All the Western imperialist countries, as well as Japan, Russia and China, have declared their receptivity to this war, but behind this unanimous face there is fierce competition for economic, geo-strategic, commercial and financial interests, there is competition for control of raw materials, oil, etc. These interests, in the medium and long term, will not be sacrificed to the U.S. The imperialists are united in the same crusade against the peoples of the world, but deeply divided amongst themselves, and this strategically undermines their "fire power." Furthermore, the internal costs and consequences of this global war could and will become more and more explosive for the imperialist countries.
The Holy War of Mr. Bush is global imperialist aggression that, while seemingly targeted on "Islamic terrorism" and "rogue states," is really against people's wars, anti-imperialist armed struggles, the uprising of the Arab-Palestine-Muslim people who still lack the red, proletarian leadership that would lead them to victory, and against any government not aligned with imperialist rule. They are launching global war to suffocate the aspirations of the oppressed peoples and countries.
Within the Western imperialist countries, the Holy War is bringing about a war state, a police state, modern institutional fascism and nazism based on racial defence of the values and way of life built up on the hunger of most of humanity. They need a police state to make war against the anti-globalisation mass movements in which--from Seattle to Genoa--a new generation is entering the field of struggle, challenging the interests of the masters of the world, of the warlords and their values and way of life, the "civilisation" worshipped by Bush and Berlusconi. They need a war state to make war against the proletarians and oppressed masses in the metropolitan heartlands, the Afro-Americans, Hispanic, Turkish, Arab, Asian and African immigrants who, through riots and resistance--from the USA to the United Kingdom, France, etc.--are resisting exploitation, discrimination, racism and slavery....
To the imperialist global war we must reply by advancing global people's war, applied in different and distinct ways according to the kind of country--imperialist or oppressed--until the victory of the proletarians and the people, and the achievement of a world without imperialism and war: Communism.
8 October 2001
From Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA)
Condemn, Oppose and Resist U.S. War Efforts!
U.S. imperialism, the number one enemy of people across the world and main source of world terrorism, has turned to war after the unprecedented attacks on the World Trade Center, the symbol of imperialist financial might and on the Pentagon, the center for military brutality the world over. We emphasize the fact that it is ridiculous and unbecoming of American butchers to shed tears for the dead ones. It is U.S. imperialism which always trampled underfoot aspirations of democracy, equality and freedom for so many decades, and is now masquerading as saviour against terrorism. It has the ghastly record of dropping atom bombs on Japan, butchering thousands and thousands of freedom-loving Vietnamese, resorting to large-scale napalm bombing in Vietnam, unleashing frequent missile attacks on Iraq, killing lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of people in various parts of the world and so on....
We strongly condemn the warmonger U.S. trying to drag the World towards a massive war. We appeal to all peace-loving democratic people to oppose U.S. war efforts in every possible way. We condemn the servile role of the reactionary governments of this region, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who dance to the tune of U.S. imperialism in the name of countering terrorism.
Let us redouble our initiatives and effort to resist imperialism by rallying the people worldwide and specially those of South Asia. Let us build up a strong and mighty anti-imperialist movement in these regions and spread it throughout the world.
Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA):
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (People's War)
Maoist Communist Centre (MCC)
Revolutionary Communist Centre of India (MLM)
Revolutionary Communist Centre of India (Maoist)
Communist Party of India (ML) (Nakshalbari)
Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party (CC)
Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party (Maoist Punarghathan Kendra)
Bangladesh Samyabadi Party (ML)
Communist Party of Ceylon (Maoist)
24 September 2001
From the Revolutionary Communists (Germany)
Against the Racist War Hysteria of the Big Powers! Stop this War of Conquest! No to a Police State!
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2000 threw up a huge cloud of dust--dust that we need to wipe from our own eyes in order to understand what really happened here, and to understand and prevent what the powers here in Germany and in the U.S. are now planning....
Without wasting time, the rulers of the USA threw their war machine into motion. And now it is being said, "Whoever is not with America, is against us." As for their imperialist NATO allies of the western countries, the rulers of USA are quite clear that their allies have to bow down in order to keep getting a piece of the pie. Whoever wants to join in the feasting must first join in the killing.
Under the banner of "fighting terrorism," the U.S. is planning a new campaign of conquest, in order to impose their strategic interests in Central and South Asia, the Gulf and the Middle East, and in order to create at gun point a "new world order" that serves them. There are 50 or 60 countries on the list that is being threatened with attack by the U.S. The "Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" are being used as theme music for Might-Makes-Right. The flag-waving is used to create an atmosphere where anyone who steps out against these war plans can be portrayed as a traitor and a criminal.
The rulers here in Germany are also seizing the moment to expand their new "Fourth Reich." They want to strengthen their preeminent position within Europe. It is now supposed to be acceptable, once again, that German soldiers can be deployed anywhere in the world. One politician after another have been standing up and swearing their "unconditional solidarity with America"--which, in plain language, means that German imperialism wants to get in the action, to serve their own interests. What is needed is not "unconditional solidarity" with the U.S. imperialists--but the unity of people throughout this world who stand against the imperialists' criminal system of exploitation and against the new crimes that they are preparing....
And, in addition to all this, the situation is being used, to unleash an all-sided attack on the rights of the people here in Germany itself. A huge campaign has been unleashed under the banner of "internal security" restricting any rights people have to freedom of thought and speech, and to expand surveillance methods of the police. Any doubts about these measures are supposed to be silenced by the argument that they are necessary for the "fight against terrorism" and that we therefore have to accept them. A racist hysteria is taking place against Arab and Muslim people in order to justify further restrictions on the right of asylum in Germany and on the rights of immigrants generally. Privacy rights have been more or less suspended. Things that would seen as intolerable and anti-democratic measures in "normal times," are now being pushed through in the name of "protection against terrorism."...
This U.S.-led crusade, with its cynical name of "Limitless Justice," will mean more suffering and misery for many millions of people in the oppressed countries and also in the wealthier industrialized countries. There has never been a war by the exploiters that served the interests of the majority of humanity on the planet. No matter what they tell us, no matter how they try to hem us in and threaten us, we need to mobilize all our resistance in order to prevent further crimes against the people of the world, and to use this struggle to fight for a world where there will truly be "limitless justice."
20 September 2001
[translation by the RW]
From the Revolutionary Communist Party (Organizing Committees), Canada
No justice with imperialism: Down with the War of the Rich Against the Poor!
The war that the U.S. and its allies are carrying out against the Afghan people and its government, the Osama bin Laden network, "terrorism" and eventually against all those who stand in their way, is not a battle of good against evil, nor is it a struggle against obscurantism: it is a war waged by a handful of rich countries against the poor people of the world, people who suffer on a daily basis because of imperialism, a suffering that pushes them to desperation. This war can also be called one led by a superpower--the U.S.--that is seeking to spread and consolidate its power throughout the world. People of the world have nothing to gain in supporting this bombing of Afghanistan. We must on the contrary put a stop to this war and support the just struggles of oppressed people and nations. We must struggle as much as we can so that these imperialist forces be defeated! U.S., Britain, Canada: Out of Afghanistan! Victory to the people of Palestine--Down with the Zionist occupation! The blockade against Iraq must be lifted now!
No to Bourgeoisie's Crisis Measures!
The U.S. as well as the other imperialist countries involved in the current military crusade against Afghanistan (including Canada) are using those events to step up measures of repression against their own proletariat and masses. The September 11 attacks have been used to justify huge layoffs in many sectors of the economy, such as air transport, tourism and the hotel business. Soon, military spending and money needed for security will be invoked. This is how new cuts in social programs will be justified. On a general manner, the upper class will seize the occasion to step up its control on the population, giving more power to the police, having recourse to more security and surveillance devices, preventing people from moving about as freely--namely at the borders--and by reinforcing censorship (arguing that some levels of discourse play into the hands of our enemies).
Immigrants--especially from Arab nations--as well as refugees are the first ones that have fallen victims to the war hysteria entertained by the media: racist slurs and systematic harassment have already been witnessed as this can bring to eventually refuse them the right to house and grant them citizenship. We must say no to the bourgeoisie's crisis measures! Let's fight for absolute equality for all immigrants and refugees! No support whatsoever to the Canadian army, to the police and the government that have always acted against the working class!...
October 13, 2001
From Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman and general consultant, International League of Peoples' Struggles (ILPS) and Chairman, International Network for Philippine Studies
SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS AT WTC AND CONDEMNATION OF TERRORISM
In recent times, the U.S. officialdom and mass media have dished up as acts of humanitarianism and as audio-visual entertainment the mass destruction of human lives in Iraq and Yugoslavia through the use of U.S. high-tech air power and cruise missiles on the civilian population and their social infrastructure.
The U.S. and Israel have practically converted Palestine into a slaughterhouse for the Palestinian people. With overweening arrogance, U.S. President Bush has encouraged the Sharon regime to destroy Palestinian lives and property at will.
The U.S. has a long record of terrorism. It is responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands or nearly 10 percent of the Filipino people in the course of the Filipino-American war. It is also responsible for the massacre of more than a hundred thousand Japanese civilians in a matter of seconds in the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is further responsible for the massacre of millions of civilians in Korea, Indonesia, Indochina and elsewhere in the course of the Cold War....
As a consequence of the attack on the WTC towers and the Pentagon, the U.S. as a whole (the Bush regime with bipartisan support) is trying to push its own colossal kind of terrorism under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Bush has received from the U.S. Congress war-making powers similar to those given to Lyndon B. Johnson after the U.S.-fabricated Tonkin Gulf incident and has received an initial funding of 40 billion USD.
The U.S. has already identified the band of Osama bin Laden as the main suspect in the 11 September incident. And yet, U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell has declared that the U.S. will make a "global assault" on "terrorism in general" throughout the world. U.S. vice president Cheney and other high officials have called for the most unbridled kind of dirty tricks, such as the unlimited hiring of human rights violator and other unsavory characters and the lifting of the ban on assassination of leaders opposed to U.S. imperialism.
The U.S. is now using the incident as a pretext for expanding extraterritorial powers for the benefit of its military forces abroad and for launching all sorts of terrorism against the peoples that wage revolution, nations that fight for liberation and states that assert their independence. We can therefore expect more U.S. acts of aggression, intervention and other acts of terrorism from the U.S. and from its most servile allies and puppets.
In abject servility to the U.S., the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in the Philippines has volunteered the use of the Philippines again as a base for U.S. aggression and intervention as in the past in connection with the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and other armed conflicts. The Filipino people must resist such scheme of the U.S. and the puppet regime.
The people of the world, including progressive American forces, should forewarn the American people not to be carried away by jingoism, war hysteria and the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim drumbeat. The U.S. imperialists should not be allowed to run berserk with their own brand of terrorism and to obscure their responsibility for the worsening socioeconomic crisis, the reemergence of fascism and the growing danger of war....
Only the revolutionary mass movement can defeat U.S. imperialism and the local reactionaries and sweep away terrorism from any direction. As the crisis of the world capitalist system worsens and deepens, the revolutionary mass movement of the proletariat and the people in general is rising and carrying forward the anti-imperialist and socialist cause.
18 September 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From Maoist Communist Party [Italy]
Against Imperialist "Global War"--People's War Until Communism!
The wounded U.S. beast identifies itself--in an awful, chauvinistic, xenophobic and racist way--as the cradle of civilisation and democracy. The U.S. proclaims its symbols and cities to be untouchable, almost sacred. In order to assert their rule once again, they are cynically using the grief and anger of the American people for their victims in order to unleash, through the bombing of Afghanistan and their global war against so-called "terrorism", a war and a crusade against all the oppressed peoples, all those who are fighting for liberation, and all the nations not aligned with them. By means of their weaponry and violence they aim to impose their iron rule in the service of profit and the masters of finance and industry, the oil barons and warlords. All the imperialist states, whether guided by rightist or "leftist" governments, have joined this imperialist, war-mongering, fascist crusade....
The authors of the 11th September attacks, be they Osama bin Laden or someone else, are an expression of feudal lords, created, nurtured, financed and armed with anti-communist and anti-progressive tasks by the same imperialists they claim to fight. In the absence or weakness of genuine communist parties and anti-imperialist united fronts led by the proletariat, they are riding the tiger of the rebellion of the people, particularly in the Arab-Muslim countries. They represent fractions of comprador ruling classes who already live by exploiting their own people and underselling their resources, and, where they are in power, they set up obscurantist and reactionary regimes like in Afghanistan, Iran and generally in the Arab-Muslim countries. Where these forces are in power, the masses are oppressed and economic power is in the hands of the imperialists. The form of struggle they use, including in this case, even though it may produce devastation, will never help to strengthen the liberation war of the people or the unity between the oppressed peoples and the proletarians and the exploited, that is, the only winning global weapon against imperialism.
All the Western imperialist countries, as well as Japan, Russia and China, have declared their receptivity to this war, but behind this unanimous face there is fierce competition for economic, geo-strategic, commercial and financial interests, there is competition for control of raw materials, oil, etc. These interests, in the medium and long term, will not be sacrificed to the U.S. The imperialists are united in the same crusade against the peoples of the world, but deeply divided amongst themselves, and this strategically undermines their "fire power." Furthermore, the internal costs and consequences of this global war could and will become more and more explosive for the imperialist countries.
The Holy War of Mr. Bush is global imperialist aggression that, while seemingly targeted on "Islamic terrorism" and "rogue states," is really against people's wars, anti-imperialist armed struggles, the uprising of the Arab-Palestine-Muslim people who still lack the red, proletarian leadership that would lead them to victory, and against any government not aligned with imperialist rule. They are launching global war to suffocate the aspirations of the oppressed peoples and countries.
Within the Western imperialist countries, the Holy War is bringing about a war state, a police state, modern institutional fascism and nazism based on racial defence of the values and way of life built up on the hunger of most of humanity. They need a police state to make war against the anti-globalisation mass movements in which--from Seattle to Genoa--a new generation is entering the field of struggle, challenging the interests of the masters of the world, of the warlords and their values and way of life, the "civilisation" worshipped by Bush and Berlusconi. They need a war state to make war against the proletarians and oppressed masses in the metropolitan heartlands, the Afro-Americans, Hispanic, Turkish, Arab, Asian and African immigrants who, through riots and resistance--from the USA to the United Kingdom, France, etc.--are resisting exploitation, discrimination, racism and slavery....
To the imperialist global war we must reply by advancing global people's war, applied in different and distinct ways according to the kind of country--imperialist or oppressed--until the victory of the proletarians and the people, and the achievement of a world without imperialism and war: Communism.
8 October 2001
From Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA)
Condemn, Oppose and Resist U.S. War Efforts!
U.S. imperialism, the number one enemy of people across the world and main source of world terrorism, has turned to war after the unprecedented attacks on the World Trade Center, the symbol of imperialist financial might and on the Pentagon, the center for military brutality the world over. We emphasize the fact that it is ridiculous and unbecoming of American butchers to shed tears for the dead ones. It is U.S. imperialism which always trampled underfoot aspirations of democracy, equality and freedom for so many decades, and is now masquerading as saviour against terrorism. It has the ghastly record of dropping atom bombs on Japan, butchering thousands and thousands of freedom-loving Vietnamese, resorting to large-scale napalm bombing in Vietnam, unleashing frequent missile attacks on Iraq, killing lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of people in various parts of the world and so on....
We strongly condemn the warmonger U.S. trying to drag the World towards a massive war. We appeal to all peace-loving democratic people to oppose U.S. war efforts in every possible way. We condemn the servile role of the reactionary governments of this region, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who dance to the tune of U.S. imperialism in the name of countering terrorism.
Let us redouble our initiatives and effort to resist imperialism by rallying the people worldwide and specially those of South Asia. Let us build up a strong and mighty anti-imperialist movement in these regions and spread it throughout the world.
Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA):
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (People's War)
Maoist Communist Centre (MCC)
Revolutionary Communist Centre of India (MLM)
Revolutionary Communist Centre of India (Maoist)
Communist Party of India (ML) (Nakshalbari)
Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party (CC)
Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party (Maoist Punarghathan Kendra)
Bangladesh Samyabadi Party (ML)
Communist Party of Ceylon (Maoist)
24 September 2001
From the Revolutionary Communists (Germany)
Against the Racist War Hysteria of the Big Powers! Stop this War of Conquest! No to a Police State!
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2000 threw up a huge cloud of dust--dust that we need to wipe from our own eyes in order to understand what really happened here, and to understand and prevent what the powers here in Germany and in the U.S. are now planning....
Without wasting time, the rulers of the USA threw their war machine into motion. And now it is being said, "Whoever is not with America, is against us." As for their imperialist NATO allies of the western countries, the rulers of USA are quite clear that their allies have to bow down in order to keep getting a piece of the pie. Whoever wants to join in the feasting must first join in the killing.
Under the banner of "fighting terrorism," the U.S. is planning a new campaign of conquest, in order to impose their strategic interests in Central and South Asia, the Gulf and the Middle East, and in order to create at gun point a "new world order" that serves them. There are 50 or 60 countries on the list that is being threatened with attack by the U.S. The "Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" are being used as theme music for Might-Makes-Right. The flag-waving is used to create an atmosphere where anyone who steps out against these war plans can be portrayed as a traitor and a criminal.
The rulers here in Germany are also seizing the moment to expand their new "Fourth Reich." They want to strengthen their preeminent position within Europe. It is now supposed to be acceptable, once again, that German soldiers can be deployed anywhere in the world. One politician after another have been standing up and swearing their "unconditional solidarity with America"--which, in plain language, means that German imperialism wants to get in the action, to serve their own interests. What is needed is not "unconditional solidarity" with the U.S. imperialists--but the unity of people throughout this world who stand against the imperialists' criminal system of exploitation and against the new crimes that they are preparing....
And, in addition to all this, the situation is being used, to unleash an all-sided attack on the rights of the people here in Germany itself. A huge campaign has been unleashed under the banner of "internal security" restricting any rights people have to freedom of thought and speech, and to expand surveillance methods of the police. Any doubts about these measures are supposed to be silenced by the argument that they are necessary for the "fight against terrorism" and that we therefore have to accept them. A racist hysteria is taking place against Arab and Muslim people in order to justify further restrictions on the right of asylum in Germany and on the rights of immigrants generally. Privacy rights have been more or less suspended. Things that would seen as intolerable and anti-democratic measures in "normal times," are now being pushed through in the name of "protection against terrorism."...
This U.S.-led crusade, with its cynical name of "Limitless Justice," will mean more suffering and misery for many millions of people in the oppressed countries and also in the wealthier industrialized countries. There has never been a war by the exploiters that served the interests of the majority of humanity on the planet. No matter what they tell us, no matter how they try to hem us in and threaten us, we need to mobilize all our resistance in order to prevent further crimes against the people of the world, and to use this struggle to fight for a world where there will truly be "limitless justice."
20 September 2001
[translation by the RW]
From the Revolutionary Communist Party (Organizing Committees), Canada
No justice with imperialism: Down with the War of the Rich Against the Poor!
The war that the U.S. and its allies are carrying out against the Afghan people and its government, the Osama bin Laden network, "terrorism" and eventually against all those who stand in their way, is not a battle of good against evil, nor is it a struggle against obscurantism: it is a war waged by a handful of rich countries against the poor people of the world, people who suffer on a daily basis because of imperialism, a suffering that pushes them to desperation. This war can also be called one led by a superpower--the U.S.--that is seeking to spread and consolidate its power throughout the world. People of the world have nothing to gain in supporting this bombing of Afghanistan. We must on the contrary put a stop to this war and support the just struggles of oppressed people and nations. We must struggle as much as we can so that these imperialist forces be defeated! U.S., Britain, Canada: Out of Afghanistan! Victory to the people of Palestine--Down with the Zionist occupation! The blockade against Iraq must be lifted now!
No to Bourgeoisie's Crisis Measures!
The U.S. as well as the other imperialist countries involved in the current military crusade against Afghanistan (including Canada) are using those events to step up measures of repression against their own proletariat and masses. The September 11 attacks have been used to justify huge layoffs in many sectors of the economy, such as air transport, tourism and the hotel business. Soon, military spending and money needed for security will be invoked. This is how new cuts in social programs will be justified. On a general manner, the upper class will seize the occasion to step up its control on the population, giving more power to the police, having recourse to more security and surveillance devices, preventing people from moving about as freely--namely at the borders--and by reinforcing censorship (arguing that some levels of discourse play into the hands of our enemies).
Immigrants--especially from Arab nations--as well as refugees are the first ones that have fallen victims to the war hysteria entertained by the media: racist slurs and systematic harassment have already been witnessed as this can bring to eventually refuse them the right to house and grant them citizenship. We must say no to the bourgeoisie's crisis measures! Let's fight for absolute equality for all immigrants and refugees! No support whatsoever to the Canadian army, to the police and the government that have always acted against the working class!...
October 13, 2001
From Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman and general consultant, International League of Peoples' Struggles (ILPS) and Chairman, International Network for Philippine Studies
SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS AT WTC AND CONDEMNATION OF TERRORISM
In recent times, the U.S. officialdom and mass media have dished up as acts of humanitarianism and as audio-visual entertainment the mass destruction of human lives in Iraq and Yugoslavia through the use of U.S. high-tech air power and cruise missiles on the civilian population and their social infrastructure.
The U.S. and Israel have practically converted Palestine into a slaughterhouse for the Palestinian people. With overweening arrogance, U.S. President Bush has encouraged the Sharon regime to destroy Palestinian lives and property at will.
The U.S. has a long record of terrorism. It is responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands or nearly 10 percent of the Filipino people in the course of the Filipino-American war. It is also responsible for the massacre of more than a hundred thousand Japanese civilians in a matter of seconds in the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is further responsible for the massacre of millions of civilians in Korea, Indonesia, Indochina and elsewhere in the course of the Cold War....
As a consequence of the attack on the WTC towers and the Pentagon, the U.S. as a whole (the Bush regime with bipartisan support) is trying to push its own colossal kind of terrorism under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Bush has received from the U.S. Congress war-making powers similar to those given to Lyndon B. Johnson after the U.S.-fabricated Tonkin Gulf incident and has received an initial funding of 40 billion USD.
The U.S. has already identified the band of Osama bin Laden as the main suspect in the 11 September incident. And yet, U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell has declared that the U.S. will make a "global assault" on "terrorism in general" throughout the world. U.S. vice president Cheney and other high officials have called for the most unbridled kind of dirty tricks, such as the unlimited hiring of human rights violator and other unsavory characters and the lifting of the ban on assassination of leaders opposed to U.S. imperialism.
The U.S. is now using the incident as a pretext for expanding extraterritorial powers for the benefit of its military forces abroad and for launching all sorts of terrorism against the peoples that wage revolution, nations that fight for liberation and states that assert their independence. We can therefore expect more U.S. acts of aggression, intervention and other acts of terrorism from the U.S. and from its most servile allies and puppets.
In abject servility to the U.S., the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in the Philippines has volunteered the use of the Philippines again as a base for U.S. aggression and intervention as in the past in connection with the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and other armed conflicts. The Filipino people must resist such scheme of the U.S. and the puppet regime.
The people of the world, including progressive American forces, should forewarn the American people not to be carried away by jingoism, war hysteria and the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim drumbeat. The U.S. imperialists should not be allowed to run berserk with their own brand of terrorism and to obscure their responsibility for the worsening socioeconomic crisis, the reemergence of fascism and the growing danger of war....
Only the revolutionary mass movement can defeat U.S. imperialism and the local reactionaries and sweep away terrorism from any direction. As the crisis of the world capitalist system worsens and deepens, the revolutionary mass movement of the proletariat and the people in general is rising and carrying forward the anti-imperialist and socialist cause.
18 September 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)
For more information:
http://www.rwor.org
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$210.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
Nepal is an inspiration. I hope our comrades in South Asia pick up the struggle on a higher level.
Imagine how one revolutionary country would change the power dynamics in the whole world! Just one!
Who's going to be first to issue more than communiques? Who's going to through the first victory party of the future?
Most of the Asian people I've met in the Bay are from families that fled Communist regimes and they are no fans of Mao whether they are Chinese, Lao, Korean or Hmung.
Look at the few existing Maoist movments left in the world like the Shining Path. What kind of model is that for a future society?
You display an overly romatic conception of revolution when you write "Imagine how one revolutionary country would change the power dynamics in the whole world! Just one!" Well, if you are Refering to Nepal, it is a landlocked country and one of the poorest countries in the world. I doubt it would change much. It would become another basket case like North Korea and hardly a model for any nation to emulate. I fail to see how it would "change the power dynamics in the whole world."
Look, Nepal is poor. They are in dire need of capital for basic supplies to purify their water, build roads, sanitation facilities, etc. I understand that a Maoist revolution would (forcibly) mobilize large numbers of labor but how would the capital issue be solved?
While organizations around the world fight for a new society, you backbite and attack seeing no difference between socialism and monarchy. Fools.
The rebels in Nepal, by all acounts, are a mass movement of peasants against a puppet monarchy. The indian maoists are the revolutionary left. You can try to make this equivelant all day long - but I work for the day when the working people of the world actually make a change. I don't want to be a permanent critic and dissident. And that's all your moralistic anarchy is good for. I read history too.
Calling support for revolutionaries apology for dictators is culled straight from the crude, superficial anti-communist education you've received. Equating, as one idiot above did, the Tienamen Square massacre with Maoism is so ass-backwards it's obvious the person knows NOTHING about Chinese history. But you guys aren't interested in reality. You are interested in feeling self-righteous.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices your knee-jerk responses to anybody trying to put forward a plan for changing the world. You are happy being marginalized.
And regarding talking to the Chinese in the Bay Area, it's funny you should say that. I was in a Chinese and Fillipino house when I wrote my last piece. And I have to tell you, THEY LOVE MAO as much as they hate what's happened to China since he died. I just take anti-communist exiles with a grain of salt. I've met many, many Cubans and Russians and Vietnamese exiles who moan about communist repression until you find out they used to run plantations. Idiot.
Socialism is the beginning of the revolution, not the end. One day I hope we can learn that first hand.
Historically, Maoists have killed and butchered just as bad as any capitalist or drug cartel gang. Any Maoist who doesnt agree with me on that doesnt have my trust.
Historically, anarchists havent really accomplished shit.
Take the two and put them together and what do you have? Maoists and other communist/socialist fronts *must* respect the non-hierchal-ness of anarchists and everyday people. And anarchists must respect that their are good-hearted and worthy efforts for socialist or communist revolution.
Whether we like it or not, the enemy of our enemy can *sometimes* be our friend. Really, all I ask is that Maoists support the right of free travel. Then after the revolution anarchist societies and Maoist societies can "compete" for populations and the currency will be happiness and fulfillment. Wouldnt that be nice?
Wouldn't that be great, your proposal I mean. I think we're all working towards the day the state is gone and classes aren't the way we relate to each other as human beings.
Of course communist states have repressed some rights and some people. Just as the anarchists in Spain felt pretty comfortable shooting priests who collaborated with France, so any revolutionary will have to deal with those who fight progress.
The thing I like about Maoists is that they realize the establishment of socialism is just the beginning of the communist revolution. That, in fact, the communist party itself is in large part what the revolution must be directed against. Some people think "the revolution" will just take care of everything. It doesn't seem to have worked like that.
Hopefully, we'll overcome those from every faction who think factionalism is the way of progress. Let's all get our swerve on, so to speak, and see where we get to. Rhetoric will never decide the question.
Maoism is distinct from other branches of Marxism primarily for:
1) The belief that "peaceful coexistence" with capitalists is impossible. There is no compromise over the power of common, working people to control the desitny of the world. The issue is not so much the particular policies of government than the very nature of which social class consents to and supports the state. That is, who the state is working for.
Some belive that all governments are EQUALLY flawed. That is there right. However, it misreads (and more often simply ignores) the history of the 20th Century. Ho Chi Minh was not equivelant to Nixon. Not by a longshot. Mao is not equivalent to Li Peng. They work for different people. One group supports revolution and the other opposes it.
2) The belief that "the revolution" is merely the first stage towards communism. Classes and their interests don't disappear just because of a few months of intense struggle. In socialist countries this battle has often been primarily waged by competing factions within the communist party. Maoists believe this is inevitable and that we shouldn't be so idealistic as to toss out political science. We should fight. Mao urged the chinese to fight the capitalists WITHIN the communist party under the slogan "bombard the headquarters." He didn't rely on firing squads and secret police, but mass struggle and popular debate and mobilization. I've yet to encounter any other governing figure who gambled so severly and accomplished so much.
3) The belief that Marxism is not the provence of European 19th century intellectuals. Socialism will have local characteristics and isn't just "workers' councils plus electrification," as Lenin said. Maoists urge the development of countries in the rural areas and not just the mega-cities that plague the third world. They believe it is the basic people who make revolution.
Maybe that is awful to some of you fixated on authority like a bunch of spoiled kids. But for millions around the world, it is a recipe for struggle.
I understand many people's frustrations with dogmatic organizations that claim the mantle of ideology. I don't confuse these fools with the deeper issues at stake.
And I thank the above organizations for resolutely standing against US hegemony at a time when such voices are rare indeed.
Thank you.
And I don't think it's my limited imagination.
Don't you think that holding your select wisdom and the means of determining friends from allies will hold you back? That maybe the "masses" or "infinite autonomous individuals" will fight over particular gains, but never your flags.
I don't mean to comment on a comment and avoid the article. Maybe Maoism has some deeper cultural resonance in South Asia that it does here. But can someone answer this for me?
Rather, I think the argument lies in the methods of attaining popular resistance. Do we build organizations of revolutionaries who in turn build resistance organizations (Leninism) or do we construct a counter culture around resistance (anarchism)? While both sides will probably dispute my short description, I think it does some justice.
There was a great Irish socialist who said something to the effect that a revolutionary idea only come to life when the people have songs for them. We clearly aren't to that point yet. I think we should try everything and then compare experiences. That's why I posted the Maoists statements, so the predominantly anti-authoritarian crowd who follows sf-imc could read what others are doing.
The flamers are like an anarchist tax for posting here. Don't let the bastards get you down.
And I also suspect you know that when that comes into competition with this state and it's dictatorship, you will lose. Say you try to fix up housing that's been abandoned and facilitate homeless people into moving in. The squats in New York City have been devestated by the state and local speculators and capitalists. But many of them already sufferred from dry rot. Anarchists fought against housing rules in many of the squats turning them into junkie havens. Because who's to say heroin use is wrong? The fucking junkies blocked "consensus."
Your model works great for what it works for: small groups of likeminded people who want to accomplish an agreed upon goal. I love it to. But when it comes to politics, we aren't all like-minded and in fact the current rulers of the world will use any horror to maintain their control (and fight to regain it where they've lost).
By reducing any attempt to re-formulate society into something that's the same as capitalism and the dicatatorship of capitalists, you sap any revolutionary alternative as "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." And this sells short the true history of socialism.
An example of this is how you are posting your ideological attacks rather than disagreeing with a single word posted in the orignial story above. For you it's sufficient to hold your beliefs and assert them programatically without engaging in those who disagree. What's wrong with what the Maoists are saying? You disagree? They're trying to do the same thing as Bush? Bin Laden? I don't think so. I don't think they are "living like ants." They are roaring like lions.
Imagine if we talked to each other. I wonder if Helga and company really believe that we "want to live like ants." Nessie reduced the liberation of 1/4 of humanity from colonialism to that desire. He said there was nothing more to it than the desire to worship authority and what have you. Strange. Maybe they think that, but if you go to the posts themselves, I don't think that's what they are advocating.
They urge North Americans to stand up strong right now. To oppose racism and empire. To moblize common people (that is, us) to oppose the whole system and not just the particulars of the moment. Seems like they are urging good things:
Fundamental opposition to empire and fundamentalism.
If only we could debate that instead of half-assed diatribes of anti-communism. Que sera.
Save it for the John Birch Society and the rest of your "libertarian" friends.
(And if you think that's a far-off comment, you would be amazed how much you sound like them. "And then the STATE made local communities integrate their school against the democratic wishes of the community..." Your anti-communism is so half-assed and crude that anyone with an even passing familiarity can see the successful effect of government propaganda on your mind.)
"Mao sucked." Gee thanks, I think I got that in high school.
And millions died? Really? I don't think so. Stalin is his own creature and that's another topic. But China was remarkable in that they never used wholesale terror to keep people in line. There were those types in the Chinese government, but they were in general the opponents of Mao. There is no Chinese Trotsky. They learned from the Russians as we hopefully will learn from them. But your wholesale denunciations leave no room for figuring out why things happened as they did.
You want the omlette without breaking the eggs. I want to learn how to cook. And to be free.
Agitation and Propaganda Division Daily Diatribe; all grapes hand-picked by anti-revolutionary inmates of the People's Commune for Political Rectification, Pol Pot Memorial Brigade. Donations Accepted.
That Mao dude was outa sight. I remember one night, we were up drinking late while reports were filtering in of mass starvation at a peasant commune, and Mao said: "Oh, well, you can't have a revolution without breaking a few omelletes. By the way, have you gotten into hedge funds? I'm long IBM but short against the box on ITT. I'll have to raise the wheat requisition to cover my losses. Cigarette?"
I lit up a Chesterfield and we swapped stories of the good old days, while below Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution chopped the heads off reactionary imperial scum. Kids!!!
I said Ho Chi Minh really needs to get down to the gym to bulk up so he can score with all those cute Viet Cong chicks. Mao said the best part of being a revolutionary communist dictator was the babes; it was the main reason he got into this line of work. Anyway, I helped him diversify his portfolio over a box of Twinkies, and then roared off into the red sunset (get it?) in the new Benz he got me for my birthday. Good times!!!
Do other anarchists like this kind of shit or is it just that the loud-mouthed, dogmatic and opinionated among you cow the others into submission?
If maybe for a second you acknowleged what was accomplished in an even half-way balanced way we could debate, but as it is, you guys just try to bully anyone who puts out ideas beyond your extremely narrow orthodoxies.
I can't imagine how you view the world. Your vision of the future, if it's in any way hinted at by your constant tantrums, intellectual dishonesty and narrowness is frightening. In fact, your extremism was one of the problems with China during the Cultural Revolution. Those young rebels had absolutist ideas and often acted really shitty to people just because of their ideas or class background. You would fit right in.
But their strength was something you have yet to come to grips with, the ability of committed activists to engage hundreds of millions of people in seizing authority over their own lives. In taking control of the land, universities and industries of a whole nation and making production happen for human needs instead of the profits of a small capitalist elite. You couldn't organize your neighborhood to have a potluck.
Because anarchists don't just hate communists. They hate most people. They hate, philosophically the great bulk of working people. Because we dont spend our time creating identities around our beliefs. You look down on us for having children, for working and for having tolerance for different beliefs.
And if I'm speaking too generally, I'm waiting for the decent anarchist to speak up. All I see are flaming assholes with nothing constructive to add, except in some smarmy was to justify a later shitty comment.
If all the arguments about what has happened, what coulda been, what shoulda been, etc ... if all those arguments were instead discussions on tactics and strategies for making a change in today's society, right now today, well. Just think where we'd be.
The central question what has to be done in our countries is in this discussion avoided.
What happens in the Third World is important but they will never be free when the richest and most powerful countries do not change. We can leave the situation in poor countries to the people who live there. When we do not change nothing is going to change.
I try to develop methods of action in which common citizens can be active within the situation in our countries. A guerrilla as in Nepal is here not possible. I propose direct pression on the private life of leaders, of the elite, just as they pressure us by intruding in our private life.
And I have some ideas about a revolution, what I call a catastrophe. The actions needed for that do not include for example demonstrations that only ask the leaders to behave different.
See my site for further information.
I'm not posting pictures of Chairman Mao, I've never gone in for the cult of personality. But, the serious intention of that man to remake the world along more egalitarian and participatory lines in undeniable.
For more information, I would urge browsing the RCP's well done site for (overly biased) pro-revolutionary accounts of China's history.
For balanced and thoughtful reports, I would check out some of the books I mentioned above.
..there is a hell, and it's run by Trotskyites! Who would have thought Leon could be such a hard-ass? All I hear all day long is nag, nag, nag about me and Stalin. What do they expect? You can't make an iron rice bowl without snorting a few omelletes. Worse than that, they've got me in a cell with a couple RCP cadres from the U.S. Sheesh, these clowns bought my line! How tiresome!
..anyway, keep up the good work, comrades! Remember, the best part of being a Maoist is all the hierarchy! There is a vanguard and, what a coincidence, we're part of it! It's funny how things work out. Bummer about the Shining Path but it's looking good in Nepal!!
Well, gotta go. Pol Pot's following me around like a wounded puppy, and I gotta look busy! Later!