Draft SLALA Statement on the Reaction in Amerika 
to the Sept. 11th Attacks on the World Trade 
Center and the Pentagon

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

Since the collapse of the World Trade Center and 
the blasting of the Pentagon immigrants in the 
u.$. have experienced:  (1) Racist Attacks (2) 
Border Lockdowns and an indefinite "hold" on 
immigration "reform."  (3) Proposals for restricted 
visas and increased surveillance for non-amerikan 
students and undocumented immigrants.

SLALA thinks that these reaction clearly outline 
the path that Latin American immigrants and 
Chicanos in the u.$. should take.

(1) Our first priority is to oppose the war 
against Afghanistan and any of the other 60 
countries that Amerika  wants to attack.  

Latin American immigrants and Chicanos do about as 
much flag-waving as the yankees do.  There is a 
thought out in the streets that immigrants wave 
the u.$. flag to ward off racist attacks by 
bloodthirsty settlers.  While Sikhs in the u.$. 
and people whom amerikans profile as Arabs have 
gone to great lengths –like putting stickers of 
the amerikan flag on their children-- to avoid 
terrorist settler attacks, many Latin American 
immigrants and Chicanos think that the u.$. has 
been “wronged” by the September 11.  

SLALA thinks that being in the u.$. is a privilege 
that corrupts.  Many Latin American immigrants 
seek to become “middle-class” and think that 
“middle- class” amerikans are somehow decent, and 
even “hard-working” people.  But the wealth that 
the u.$. has to throw around behind its 
militarized border is a result of the oppression 
and exploitation that amerikans support and 
encourage of the people of the world, including 
the native populations of  the Americas and of 
contemporary Latin America.

Latin American immigrants worry what opposing u.$. 
imperialism may mean for the status of their 
families because they are here fleeing the 
problems poverty and joblessness created by 
imperialism in the Third World. But there is no 
justice in our benefiting from the wealth of the 
imperialist country if we do not fight the system 
of imperialism that created refugees, that created 
the border and the distinction between "legal" and 
"illegal" workers –and that created terrorism. 
Latin American immigrants and Chicanos cannot 
support this war because it is the same war that 
has ravaged the economies of our countries and has 
set up deadly borders between our families. 


(2) We must unite against racist attacks and 
attacks on political liberties because it is clear 
that amerikans think of everyone that is not them 
as an enemy.  

The way amerikans reacted with violence against 
immigrants after September 11th very clearly shows 
where they stand in relation to Chicanos and Latin 
Amerikan immigrants.  We know that amerikans think 
of Latin American immigrants and Chicanos as 
enemies because harassment by police and 
immigration officials at all airports, public 
buildings, at work, at school and at home is 
routine for us.  When the towers of the World 
Trade Center still stood, Operation Gatekeeper and 
its offshoots killed more than 600 Latin American 
immigrants along the militarized u.$.-Mexico 
border.

Imperialism has competition and war built into it 
and the type of terrorism that brought down the 
World Trade Center and punched a hole in the 
Pentagon is an inevitable consequence of the 
ongoing political and economic bullying that the 
u.$. and its allies carry out throughout the 
world.  This is the price of imperialist wealth, 
and of imperialist "safety."  Only a sustained 
struggle to resist the wars of conquest and resist 
imperialist intervention in the Third World can 
solve the problems of war and terrorism.  We must 
oppose settler terror attacks and attacks on 
political liberties because increased police 
powers and more restrictions on political 
liberties will only make it easier for the 
settlers and their government to crack down on 
organizations in the u.$. that oppose this 
country’s role in world war and poverty and will 
intensify the always-present amerikan anti-
immigrant hysteria.

(3) The basis of unity between Chicanos and Latin 
American immigrants with anti-imperialists should 
be opposition to the war-mongering settlers that 
would split people who have a stake in fighting 
against imperialism over social disputes that can 
be used to steal any and all civil liberties, 
intensify the war against the political enemies of 
fascism under the pretext of "fighting terrorism" 
and continue their war on the Third World.