Days
Like These
In a macabre co-incidence, at the same time as officials in New
York announced the death toll in the destruction of the World Trade
Center towers had dipped below 3,000, news sources around the world
were announcing that casualties in Afghanistan had exceeded 4,000.
For those who had invoked the rational of "an eye for an eye," the
score ought to have been settled and then some.
Capitalist war and capitalist peace. Largely unnoticed though are
the thousands who die daily through starvation, from preventable
diseases, from the indifference of governments large and small.
With the installation of Hamid Karzai as the interim leader of
Afghanistan, the cycle which began so spectacularly on September 11,
2001 begins a new phase. It remains to be seen how quickly
Afghanistan will be forgotten by the US-led coalition as its
attention shifts back to Iraq, Somalia and other so-called rogue
states. Doubtless, the oil pipeline so desired by the US will now be
built. Yet, despite the glorious crusade , it should be remembered
that the atrocity of September 11 was not the unique occurrence which
many commentators have portrayed it as being. The names of cities
such as Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and My Lai, not to mention
the death camps and gulags of totalitarianism litter the political
landscape of recent memory. Whether carried out by states under the
"justifications" of war or national self- defence, by national
liberation or other armed organizations, the use of terror against
civilian populations has an all too common feel to it.
What was new in the events of September 11 is that this terror
took place in the heart of the United Stares, signaling that the
world's leading imperialist nation and only remaining superpower will
no longer be excluded from the horror that has been a reality for so
many other nations for so long.
In the domain of media opinion it has become unfashionable to
point to the US' record, and the implication is that any attempt to
explain the background to the bombings is somehow blaming the
victim.' But it is? As capital has pushed across the globe, its
social policies have been responsible for creating global shanty
towns of hopelessness; themselves spawning grounds for the politics
of desperation and hatred displayed on September 11.
The growth of anti-Americanism in Pakistan, long a US client state
in the region, is attributed by many to the US abandonment of
Pakistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union lessened its
importance as a regional power.
In the case of Bin Laden, there is a certain grim irony: It has
become common knowledge that he was the creation of the US proxy war
against the USSR in Afghanistan in the 1980's. Allegedly Pakistani
intelligence services hit upon the idea of a member of the Saudi
Royal family leading the jihad against the Soviets. However, when no
prince saw fit to volunteer, Bin Laden, a friend of the Royals,
stepped up to the plate. Likewise the Taliban militia. Although
partially the creature of Pakistan to forward their interests in the
region, the Taliban was initially supported by the US against the
Northern Alliance, as they were seen as being more likely to support
US interests. But like Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega, the Bin
Laden puppet and his Taliban protectors learned to walk without
strings.
So instead of asking the forbidden "why," the actions of September
11 have been attributed to "evil" men who must be made to pay. The
natural outpourings of grief and sympathy for the victims of
September 11 has been pushed into a sinister direction. Shortly after
September 11, US President Bush announced "You're either for us, or
you're for the terrorists."
Across North America the cry was not whether civil liberties would
be curtailed in the "war against terrorism," but by how much.
Although "terrorist groups" are allegedly the focus of the Patriot
Bill and its blander Canadian cousin C-36, states will not waste time
turning their suspicious eyes toward any organizations deemed
insufficiently patriotic or sufficiently troublesome.
In Ontario, even before September 11, the state and cops publicly
referred to the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty as a terrorist group; meanwhile the Canadian
government has recently bestowed on one time "terrorist" and former
South African President Nelson Mandela honourary Canadian
citizenship. Terrorism it seems is only a matter of dates. Although a
symbol of capitalism was destroyed, life has gone on. Not a day has
gone by when a firm laying off thousands of workers has not solemnly
declared "everything has changed since September 11 . . . " and
that's why we're firing you. Shortly before Christmas, the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce, despite making huge profits, announced a
round of savage lay-offs. Remaining employees were summoned to a pep
rally to explain the new reality: During the rally workers were
treated to speeches peppered with references to September 11, while
the theme from the movie Rocky filled the room.
Despite the rhetoric of recession, reality shows otherwise. Retail
merchants reported an increase in sales (charges on VISA set new
records in December), the real estate market continued to grow and
despite the cries from the airlines, it was still difficult to find a
seat during the holiday season: Oil prices jump, the airline industry
sheds massive numbers of workers, banks show record profits.
Capitalism continues.
The war against terrorism in Afghanistan was, by all accounts,
incredibly successful. While nay-sayers looked to the failure of the
British and the Soviets in subduing Afghanistan, the US has had no
such trouble. While many expected a repeat of Viet Name, what they
got was a repeat of the Gulf War.
A high tech war, with little in the way of ground troops and a
highly controlled media campaign; the most noticeable from the Gulf
War being that the US network CNN had switched from being someone
independent to becoming the most fawning supporter of the US-war
effort.
True, there were demonstrations in opposition, but in comparison
to the opposition to the Gulf War, by and large the protesters were
drawn from the broad left milieu.
Opposition to the war in Afghanistan fell largely into two
reciprocal groups. The most popular approach was to argue that "war
is not the answer." In other words the tired old slogan of
negotiation and sanctions. Many who argued that bombing Iraq was not
the answer to the invasion of Kuwait readily agreed to support
sanctions. Sanctions, that are still in place and have cost hundreds
of thousands of lives.
Ironically some of those who call for "peace" are secretly
revolutionaries. In the US, the Workers
World Party (WWP) formed its own anti-war coalition, Act Now to
Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) which, at a demonstration in San
Francisco carried signs proclaiming "save American Lives [!]
by stopping US Aggression abroad." Similar sentiments were found in
Canada. The October 24 issue of Socialist Worker, the newspaper of
the
International Socialists in Canada, reported as Canadian troops
sailed to the Middle East members of the IS joined a protest carrying
peace signs. They wrote "we were a presence both in solidarity
[!] with the troops themselves and against Canadian
involvement in the war.".
The other position taken by some on the left has been to say
"Defend Afghanistan against Imperialist Attack." The Spartacist
League and the International
Bolshevik Tendency have quite rightly criticized other leftist
groups for their back- handed support of the CIA-backed Mujahadeen
fighters in the 80's, who today include both sections of the Taliban
and the Northern Alliance. Ironically, in the name of a curious
"anti-imperialism" they have switched sides in the conflict; even
though few groups have been willing to call the Taliban "anti-
imperialist" who can deny they were fighting an imperialist
power?
Despite the apparent difference between these two positions they
are in reality merely a reflection of the same world view A
re-division of the world according to a new imperialist balance of
power. Yet capital is not a system that plays favourites. Capitalism
is a global system. It will not alter the balance of forces to
support larger or smaller imperialist powers. Yesterday's "anti-
imperialist nations" are today's exploiters, breakers of strikes, and
corrupt dictatorships.
Global exploitation, crisis and war are not unpleasant features of
capitalism that can be removed by electing different officials, by
supporting different policies or by choosing sides in wars. These are
features of capitalism and can only be ended by uprooting the system
itself. Since September 11, much of the world has argued everything
has changed; unfortunately, this is not true. Everything is still the
same. And only by making that change can there be hope for the
future.
Published in Red & Black Notes #14, Janaury
2002
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