[mim3@mim.org comments: Immigrants throughout 
North Amerika are beginning to see clearly the 
nature of the Amerikan people and their political 
problems. The aftermath of people calling for 
nukes on the Middle East and killing of all Arabs 
has sharpened the political understanding of many. 
One persyn feeling harassed in the United $tates 
whose letter we will not publish recently wrote 
MIM to say: "I uphold the whole MIM line."]

SLAALA comments on the September 11th aftermath

by Studies for the Liberation of Aztlan and Latin America 
(SLALA)

In light of Bush's comments this morning 
(http://www.msnbc.com/news/627028.asp), and the 
bloodthirsty rhetoric of amerikan chauvinism since 
the retaliatory attack on the World Trade Center 
and the Pentagon there should be a slogan opposing 
imperialist war along with a slogan to combat the 
racist attacks against immigrants from the Middle 
East and elsewhere.

I've heard many self-proclaimed "Arab-Americans" 
say that they do not understand the violence 
(attempted arson, beatings, vandalism...)against 
them --that they've been "model citizens" and 
never doing things to "appear not American."

I've also seen processions of Chicanos and Latin 
American immigrants carrying candles and waving 
amerikan flags.  This disappoints me profoundly 
and reminds me of something we said when we 
founded SLALA: "For Chicanos, imperialist 
superprofits are the material base for support of 
amerikan imperialism and war."

MIM says often during its coverage of the attack 
against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 
"GET REAL."  Its time for immigrants in the u.$. 
to get real about amerikan imperialism and about 
the political consequences of "amerikan 
patriotism"  here and abroad.

Here, amerikan patriotism translates into the most 
vicious form of settler violence --the same that 
annihilated nations during the conquest and 
"western expansion," the same that upheld Jim-crow 
and destroyed the Black, Latino and First Nation 
struggles for self-determination in the 60's and 
70's.

Abroad amerikan patriotism takes the form of 
military agression against governments and nations 
that refuse the amerikan model of how the world 
should work.  I am not saying that the governments 
of Saddam Hussein or the Taliban government in 
Afghanistan are "for the people" --not even 
Toledo's government nor Castro's, and that is 
because I believe in proletarian dictatorship. But 
I also oppose imperialist war --and understand 
that imperialism brings conflicts between nations 
that are not always decidable on the side of any 
of the major players for the  *sake* of the 
players, --like in WWI when one imperialism 
battled another. Lenin sought to create civil war 
in the midst of imperialist war.

The revolutionary movement in the u.$. is weak --
but at this time our "civil war" (without armed 
struggle at this time--mim3@mim.org) consists of 
opposing imperialist war and getting disillusioned 
immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to 
recognize that the claim --made by a bullshit 
scholar from the University of Chicago-- that 
"Patriotism is a force for good" is false in 
amerika.  Amerikan patriotism is evil.

We want to see processions of chicanos opposing 
attacks on Afghanistan. We  want to see MIM Notes 
out-selling the amerikan flag.  We want to see 
candle-light vigils for the children of Iraq and 
the children of Palestine.  That is why MIM and 
SLALA are going out today with MIM's special 
edition flyer to build opposition to imperialism 
here --to support our "civil war."