Now is the time to speak out

Dear MIM:
I found "Violence reaches home for Amerikans" [MIM 
Notes 244] to be very illuminating. I especially 
liked the fact that MIM found this as a reason to 
strengthen your resolve. In this atmosphere of 
heightened fear and patriotism I've found many 
groups/organizations are very wary of speaking out 
"too loudly." You are absolutely correct these 
actions of September 11 are a clear indicator of 
the U.S. failure to address fucked-up policies (I 
can't think of any better way to describe it). And 
the direction the reactionaries are taking is 
truly scary. To me, the question is not "will the 
new laws be abused?" but "when?" The level of 
abuse will set new standards! 

--A Pennsylvania prisoner

MIM more righteous than an army of preachers

Dear MIM, 

I know some people who read the Bible 
read MIM Notes and I would like to say the 
following: Tell me, you readers of MIM Notes who 
believe the Bible, how can you really continue to 
follow Falwell, Graham, Copeland, etc. etc.? 
These preachers are not real preachers; they are 
only in a this hustle for riches, fame and 
control. They serve the government to keep the 
masses in control and manipulated to have fire in 
their eyes against the Arabs so the government can 
accomplish whatever goal they have in mind and to 
continue their warmongering. Jesse Jackson is the 
same and Al Sharpton -they are serve the 
government to keep the Black masses in control.
 
Notice that when something happens and the Black 
masses revolt they immediately call Jackson so he 
can pacify them. As far as I'm concerned the 
people who are acting as real shepherds of God are 
the MIM Notes staff, even though they may not 
believe in God, they are more compassionate 
towards the people, for educating them about the 
evil government so that they can perfect 
themselves. This is what a real preacher of God 
would do. But does Falwell and Graham do this? No. 

All they do is lie to us and point out scapegoats 
to fool us. Beware false preachers! 

--A prisoner in Texas.

What should Amerikans do about the World Trade 
Center attacks?

Dear MIM: 

So what do you think we, as Americans 
should do? What is the answer as far as you are 
concerned? Your words will hold so much more 
weight with me when you write to me on some papaya 
leaf from some third world country that you have 
chosen to live in, instead of writing to me/us on 
the greatest manifestation of capitalism that 
exists today...the internet, writing to me/us, no 
doubt from a warm sheltered location, perhaps 
after eating a meal or two or twelve, perhaps 
getting paid, maybe even blessed enough to have 
health insurance, if you're really lucky. Most of 
us can't get it to save our lives. I just want to 
know what to think, what to do, I want to be proud 
of the Good in what I am seeing. Being ashamed 
isn't working, and frankly, there's more to be 
proud of. And more to nurture than hate. Hate 
makes me fucking tired. Peace, 

--A reader in the West, September 2001

MIM responds (written 22 Sep 2001): Be proud of 
our efforts -- and yours, we're assuming -- to 
educate the public about the real causes of these 
sorrowful incidents, so that in the future the 
public will act to make them impossible. 

We mourn the loss of civilian life in the WTC and Pentagon 
attacks, just as we mourn the tens of thousands of 
children who die from malnutrition and preventable 
disease every day -- most under capitalist regimes 
which enjoy u.$. support or in conditions created 
by u.$ economic and military policy. It's up to 
us, wherever we live, to struggle so that their 
deaths are not meaningless. We need to draw the 
correct conclusions from recent events so that we 
can abolish the conditions which made them 
possible. So, for example, we need to oppose the 
u.$. government's attempts to turn the sorrow and 
concern which followed the attacks into 
justification for its own, much larger, much more 
devastating terror campaign. Already even the 
threat of u.$. strikes in Afghanistan created 
thousands of refugees and exacerbated a famine 
affecting millions. Already Bush and Rumsfeld have 
said 60 countries are possible targets, and Colin 
Powell just admitted once Bin laden is out of the 
way they will move on to other "terrorists"... as 
defined by the CIA and Department of Defense. We 
need to struggle against the hundreds of millions 
of Amerikans who are using these attacks as 
justification for their own terror campaign 
against Asians living here (e.g. the 49% who favor 
forcing Arabs, citizen or not, to carry special 
I.D. cards, according the LA Times). There are 
people living in Amerika going out and struggling 
against oppression. That's something to be proud 
of. Many who were not committed to activism are 
now getting off their butts and hitting the 
streets. That's good. And many Amerikans -- who 
frankly were wrapped up in nakednews.com, 
searching for porn on the internet, and football, 
who couldn't even find Pakistan on a map -- those 
Amerikans are now devouring reports from 
Afghanistan and Pakistan, learning about u.$. 
covert support for the very people it now wages 
war against, and so on. You can even be proud of 
that -- although it should be a bitter pride, 
considering that it took the onset of open war 
within u.$. borders to wake them up to the war 
raging around the world. But we should also not be 
naive. Along with these good effects have come 
many bad, and it will get worse before it gets 
better. More than 90% of Amerikans supported 
Bush's speech, which was essentially a declaration 
of war on any country which does not do Amerikan 
bidding. 

Within the first two days after the 
bombing, the u.$. senate unanimously passed a 
number of "anti-terrorism" measures ITAL which 
many senators admit they had not even read END (LA 
Times 9/21/2001, p A14). It is fine to be proud of 
the good, but that requires hating the bad. 

The economic/political/social system of imperialism 
kills 12 million children a year, makes attacks 
like those on 11 Sep essentially inevitable, and 
may wipe out the humyn race in a nuclear 
Armageddon. The correct response to this system is 
anger and hatred for those who defend it. Maybe 
this is unpleasant, maybe this takes its "psychic 
toll" -- but if you can live a peaceful, 
untroubled and happy life in this fucked-up world, 
there is something wrong with you. Finally, it 
shouldn't matter where somebody is or isn't not 
living, what color their skin is, whether they 
have a car or not, or prefer Carl's Junior to pho. 

Two times two is four, regardless of who says it. 
And anyway, you'll find plenty of people from the 
Third World saying what we are saying; many of 
them (such as the Communist Party of the 
Philippines, which is waging a revolutionary 
people's war from the countryside and jungles) are 
on-line. Capitalism may have created the Internet, 
but that doesn't mean anti-capitalists can't use 
it. People in the Third World can wage their own 
struggles, based primarily on their own strengths 
and resources. People in the First World who 
sympathize with their struggles can be more 
effective here, in the belly of the beast.