[Marxism] Re: Bombs in Madrid

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The terrorist bombings which occurred yesterday in Madrid
should remind thinking people, especially people who call
themselves Marxists, of a few very important things today. 
One place to begin might be recall September 11, 2001.

Some people cheered when the World Trade Center and Pentagon
were hit and thousands were killed in a series of terrorist 
attacks on September 11, 2001. That was a stupid reaction.

In that view, it was good that the United States learned 
that it was not exempt from experiencing what happened to
others throughout the world, frequently under US auspices. 

This was the "chickens come home to roost" viewpoint but
absolutely NOTHING good came out of those awful attacks.
While it's understandable that some people would say that
"what goes around, comes around", it was totally false.

This doesn't seem to be the response anywhere yet, and 
perhaps some serious thinking will come out of this most
recent experience with such terrorist criminality. 

Unfortunately, that cannot be expected from those like
the Spanish government, which will surely try to use these 
monstrous events as a basis Nor can it be expected from the 
US government, where the Bush administration has begun its
orgy of spending in its campaign to win the election in
November. (I don't call it a "re-election" since Bush was
not legitimately elected in the first place.) Spanish
political parties have cancelled their campaigning and
so the attacks are likely to help Aznar and his party.

Here in the US, a "dance of the millions" is underway in
which the government and the supporters of the predatory
capitalist system will do what it can to take advantage
of this horrible events for their own reactionary ends.

George W. Bush and his campaign are again trying to 
wrap themselves in the flag of September 11th and all 
of that which was engendered in its aftermath. 

The ONLY thing which might be of value that could come
out of such tragedies is some reflection on the sources
of such attacks, and the need to eliminate terrorism as
a method of solving social and political problems. 

In Cuba, there's all too much experience with terrorist
attacks where over THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE have been
killed in terrorist attacks since the Revolution came
to power in 1959. An excellent new book has recently
been published on this topic, CUBA, THE UNTOLD STORY
(Havana, Editorial Captain San Luis, 2003, available
in both English and Spanish editions in hard covers.)

Cuba's Fidel Castro tried to explain some of this in a 
talk he gave the day after the September 11th crimes,
from which I've selected a few relevant excerpts.


Walter Lippmann, Moderator, CubaNews list
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ 
=========================================

FIDEL CASTRO ON THE SEPTEMBER 11th ATTACKS 
speech given September 12, 2001 (excerpts)

Obviously, the country had fallen victim to a violent
surprise attack, unexpected, unimaginable, something truly
unheard of. And the scenes that ensued were appalling,
especially when the two towers were burning, and foremost
when they both collapsed, all 100 floors, spilling over
onto neighboring buildings, when it was known that there
were tens of thousands of people working there, in offices
representing many companies from various countries.

It was only logical that this would be a shock for the
United States and the rest of the world. The stock markets
started to collapse, and because of the political, economic
and technological importance and the power of the United
States, the whole world was shaken up today by those
events. So, we had to follow the events throughout the day,
but at the same time, we also had to continue thinking
about the conditions and circumstances in which this
ceremony would take place.
-------------------------------------------------------

Today is a day of tragedy for the United States. You know
very well that hatred against the American people has never
been sown here. Perhaps, precisely because of its culture,
its lack of prejudice, its sense of full freedom -with a
homeland and without a master-- Cuba is the country where
Americans are treated with the greatest respect. We have
never preached any kind of national hatred, or anything
similar to fanaticism, and that is the reason for our
strength, because our conduct is based on principles and
ideas. We treat all Americans who visit us with great
respect, and they have noticed this and said so themselves.

Furthermore, we cannot forget the American people who put
an end to the Vietnam War with their overwhelming
opposition to that genocidal war. We cannot forget the
American people who -in numbers that exceeded 80% of the
population-- supported the return of Elián González to his
homeland. (APPLAUSE) We cannot forget their idealism,
although it is often undermined by deception, because -as
we have said often times- in order to mislead Americans to
support an unjust cause, or an unjust war, they must first
be deceived. The classic method used by that huge country
in international politics is that of deceiving the people
first, to count on their support later. When it is the
other way around, and the people realize that something is
unjust, then based on their traditional idealism they
oppose what they have been supporting. Often these are
extremely unjust causes, which they had supported convinced
that they were doing the right thing.
----------------------------------------------------

Today is a day of tragedy for the United States. You know
very well that hatred against the American people has never
been sown here. Perhaps, precisely because of its culture,
its lack of prejudice, its sense of full freedom -with a
homeland and without a master-- Cuba is the country where
Americans are treated with the greatest respect. We have
never preached any kind of national hatred, or anything
similar to fanaticism, and that is the reason for our
strength, because our conduct is based on principles and
ideas. We treat all Americans who visit us with great
respect, and they have noticed this and said so themselves.

Furthermore, we cannot forget the American people who put
an end to the Vietnam War with their overwhelming
opposition to that genocidal war. We cannot forget the
American people who -in numbers that exceeded 80% of the
population-- supported the return of Elián González to his
homeland. (APPLAUSE) We cannot forget their idealism,
although it is often undermined by deception, because -as
we have said often times- in order to mislead Americans to
support an unjust cause, or an unjust war, they must first
be deceived. The classic method used by that huge country
in international politics is that of deceiving the people
first, to count on their support later. When it is the
other way around, and the people realize that something is
unjust, then based on their traditional idealism they
oppose what they have been supporting. Often these are
extremely unjust causes, which they had supported convinced
that they were doing the right thing.
-------------------------------------------------

Actually, given the special characteristics of this event,
it is now necessary to look for clues. That is the reason
why I believe the most important duty of American leaders
is to fight terrorism, and these tragedies are partly the
result of the use of terrorist methods against other
countries, like in the case of Cuba and other countries for
a number of years. The idea of terrorism has been
disseminated, and there is no power in the world today,
regardless its size, that can avoid events of this nature
because bigots, people who are totally indifferent to
death, carry them out. Thus, the struggle against such
methods is difficult.

A lesson can be drawn from that: none of the problems
affecting today's world can be solved with the use of
force, there is no global, technological or military power
that can guarantee total immunity against such acts,
because they can be organized by small groups, difficult to
detect, and what is more complicated, carried out by
suicidal people. Therefore, the general effort of the
international community must be to put an end to a number
of conflicts affecting the world, at least in this area. It
is indispensable to put an end to world terrorism
(APPLAUSE) and build a worldwide awareness against
terrorism. I speak on behalf of a country, which has lived
through more than 40 years of Revolution, and has gained
much experience, a unified country with a high cultural
level. It is not a country of bigots. Here, it is not
fanaticism that has been cultivated but ideas, convictions
and principles.
-----------------------------------------------------

In the political arena, there are absolutist ideas, and
attempts to impose a single way of thinking on the world;
this fosters rebellious attitudes and irritation
everywhere.

This world cannot be saved -and this does not have anything
to do with terrorism-- if this unfair economic and social
order continues to be developed and applied; an order that
is leading the world to disaster, along a path from which
there is no escape for the 6.2 billion people living today
and the future inhabitants of this planet, suffering ever
greater destruction and plunged further into poverty,
unemployment, hunger and despair. This has been proven by
the masses in places that have already gone down in
history, like Seattle, Quebec, Washington and Genoa.

The world's most powerful economic and political leaders
now find it almost impossible to meet; everywhere we can
see that people are less and less afraid, and are rising
up. I was recently in Durban and there I saw thousands and
thousands of people members of non-governmental organizations; 
discontent is spreading like wildfire around the globe.

COMPLETE TEXT (There's much more):
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2001/ing/f110901i.html 

SPANISH BOMBINGS ON THE FRONT PAGES IN CUBA TODAY:

GRANMA:
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2004/03/12/plana.jpg 
JUVENTUD REBELDE:
http://www.jrebelde.cu/2004/enero-marzo/mar-12/portadab.html 
FIDEL'S CONDOLENCES TO SPANISH KING:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/marzo/juev11/12rey-i.html 



_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism