[Reader-list] Reactions to Workers' Solidarity leaflet

[Jo and Tarun]

 Reaction to Workers' Solidarity pamphlet and some general comments
I, like most of our comrades on the left side of the political divide, have been critical of Amerika and its imperial antics. The tragedy of September 11 has not yet shaken my belief in the inequities of Pax-American. I am not going to thus celebrate the present American response. But I am not also going to indulge in spurious argumentation like that offered by Workers' Solidarity. To quote
  
 "We condemn the attack that took place on 11 September 2001 in the US
 Nothing justifies the killing of ordinary people in such attacks. But 
 if anybody is responsible for the deaths of over 6,000(bigger number) people, it is the
 successive US governments and their foreign policies that have killed
 millions over the years and have now made the American public so 
 vulnerable to violence within the US itself..."
This is explanation masquerading as justification. The initial condemnation which the pamphlet offers is reduced to just words, because this 'USpolicyresponsibleetc'   is just legitimising the attacks. That is to say, that those 'unlucky' victims of Sep 11 deserved what they got because of what their govt. did to people around the world over the years. I can think of similar arguments for justifying Hiroshima bombing. For example:
" We condemn the attack that took place on 11 September 2001(REPLACE BY HIROSHIMA BOMBING  DATE) in the US (JAPAN). Nothing justifies the killing of ordinary people in such   attacks. But if anybody is responsible for the deaths of over 6,000(BIGGER NUMBER)   people, it is the successive US (JAPANESE) governments and their foreign policies that   have killed millions over the years and have now made the American(JAPANESE) public so 
 vulnerable to violence within the US itself. We cannot arrive at a sane, balanced   response to these attacks without understanding the context in which they have taken   place. There exists a widespread feeling of resentment and hatred of the way in which the  US(JAPANESE)- its ideology, policies, and interventions - has over the years harmed 
 people of the Third World(ASIA), riding roughshod over any opposition.
 AND THEN A LIST OF JAPANESE ATROCITIES"
As progressives we have to arrive at a 'sane' response which takes into account both the perpetrators of this tragedy and the context of  Pax Americana. Just the plain old anti-Americanism wont do. I can understand, the OLD LEFT longings of a red  & white world, but I don't think such a world exists. It did not exist even when the other empire, namely Soviet Union was in existence.  And comrades when have we progressives shirked away from confronting a complex world? 
 So apart from America we have to also face up to the ideologies of hate being manufactured in our poor third world backyards, Hindutva, Taliban etc. Only because, they are handcrafted in our  world doesn't make them familiar and friendly. It is we who have to create  distinctions between variants of Islam, not USofA. It is we who have to defend the victims of obscurantism. The quick response which USofA's actions evokes in us has to also happen when the third-worldist tyrants oppress their own people. And we have to have, also an internationalist perspective on interventions against tyranny. 
As leftists we should not have a history of double standards. Our historians condemn Britain and allies for not intervening in favour of Spanish Republicans and appeasing Hitler, but would we now appeal to USofA and its allies to intervene in Afghanistan? I will obviously not want an American led intervention, but internationalist intervention -should we condemn it? Let us not just express empty solidarity like Worker's Solidarity... 
 " We express our solidarity with the people of Afghanistan who, already
suffering under the oppressive regime of the fundamentalist Taliban, 
are facing the horror of an imminent war. Let us join our voices to oppose 
this war that threatens democracy and people's rights the world over.  "


We should use this opportunity to go beyond our own left-wing clichés, and fashion a new language of hope rooted in a politics of honest consistency. 

 
 



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