Alliance Marxist-Leninist, Canadian Class Struggle & finally International Struggle Marxist-Leninist unequivocally have condemned in the past the actions of the USA imperialists and their UK lackies, in their cynical claims to Adefend the Iraqi people.@ It was they who installed Hussein, and they who have raised the infant mortality rate in Iraq to astronomical proportions by their sanctions. Let us call Asanctions@ by their real name - Amurder@. Somehow Asanctions@ that did not touch the South African dictators or the Chilean dictators - Can be suddenly effective when applied against the Iraqi people! Be clear that neither Alliance Marxist-Leninist, Canadian Class Struggle & finally International Struggle Marxist-Leninist - support the fascist Saddam Hussein. BUT all three organisations condemn the cynical manipulation of imperialist power against the Iraqi people in the name of AThe United Nations@. We are forced to ask why the name of the Aunited Nations@ was never used in curbing - let alone destroying the Israeli AWMD@ - Weapons of Mass Destruction - when the UN condemned the genocidal actions of Israel against the Palestinian peoples?
We have not yet had time to adequately record the convolutions of the charades of the overtly provocative UNSCOM inspectors and their attempts to goad a situation with which the USA and UK imperialists could achieve their goal of military action. Comrades will have to wait for that full record. Nonetheless it is clear that thus far the USA and UK imperialists have been foiled by the resistance of their imperialist rivals who Are eat the core of the major imperialist rivals of the EEC- the French and the Germans. The aim of the USA and UK imperialists are several fold in their launch of AOperation Desert Fox@. These can be briefly summarized as follows:
1) To gain hegemony of the world markets and political control in the ever increasingly tense battle for world markets, which will inevitably lead to an inter-imperialist war far eclipsing the scale of World War Two;
2) To divert the world attention from the re-newed undermining of the Palestinian struggle for evan a Areasonable@ settlement (If Wye Plantation Accord can be so described for a completely dispossessed peoples);
3) As almost a side issue- is the continuing attempt of the factions of USA capitalist around Clinton, to avert their political demise in the home base of the USA - by impeachment proceedings.
In the absence of a full and detailed report of the maneuvers in the Middle East over the last 3 years, we re-print below two statements. One is that of Canadian Class Struggle, from September 1998. This pointed out the reactionary role of Islamic Fundamentalism as represented by Osama in Laden. But we nonetheless pointed out that USA imperialism had placed this petty villain (just as they had done Saddam Hussein, Pinochet, Marcos, etc....) in a leading role themselves for their own ends initially. We condemned the cynical timing of Clinton=s bombing of Sudanese drugs factories to distract from Monica=s skirts.
We also re-print the resolution on the USA attacks upon the Iraqi people of the London Conference of the International Struggle Marxist-Leninists, held in December 1997.
Down With USA and All Imperialisms! Long Live The People of Iraq!
Canadian Class Struggle. Evening of
16.12.98. ______________________________________________________________________________
From Issue Number 4: Price : $2.50 September 1998
Clinton Changes Talk From Monica-
Bombs Of Imperial Arrogance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
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CLINTON CHANGES TALK FROM MONICA- BOMBS OF IMPERIAL ARROGANCE
On 20th August, just a few days after his embarrassing admission of perjury regarding adultery, and possibly suborning of a junior intern to adultery - President Clinton seized on a way to restore his image. Two weeks earlier there had been the bombing of the USA embassies in both Nairobi Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania. The bombings had taken mainly the lives of poor unknown local people rather than USA citizens. Responsibility for these had been accepted by the group centered on Osama Bin Laden. The slightly belated USA response was devastating, consisting of A75 Tomahawk cruise missiles.. the largest ever American military assault against a private sponsor of terrorism. The attacks - left 21 dead and 30 injured in Afghanistan and at least 10 injured in Sudan@ (We are in a new ball game, says Pentagon@ By Gary Younge in Washington Guardian; Saturday August 22, 1998 ). That the USA has taken a new strategy, one even less regulated by international law than its previous strategies, was made clear by General Shelton Chairman of the joint chief of staffs, who said: @We are in a different ball game today. We=re going against a terrorist organisation, and that calls for.. different techniques.@' Two targets were chosen by the USA. One was in Khartoum, Sudan: AThe US claims that the Al-Shifa Pharmaceuticals Industries plant was producing the ingredients for the deadly VX nerve. But Sudan=s assertion that it produced 50 per cent of the country=s drug requirements is much closer to the truth.@ (Ibid). The other site was in Afghanistan where Bin Ladin himself was encamped.
Bombs or Medicines in Sudan? Clinton Knew No Evidence Existed of Sudan Nerve Gas:
Evidence printed in the Guardian (UK) makes it clear that: APresident Bill Clinton knew he was bombing a civilian target when he ordered the United States attack on a Sudan chemical plant.@(AClinton knew target was civilian.@ By Ed Vulliamy, Henry McDonald, Shyam Bhatia &Martin Bright, Guardian, Sunday August 23, 1998). It was not secret & produced antibiotics, medicines for malaria, rheumatism, TB etc ( The 'secret' chemical factory@ Ibid; Guardian; Sunday August 23, 1998). The evidence for this includes:
1. US forces flew a pre-bombing reconnaissance mission to test for traces of gas and reported none. Nevertheless Clinton authorized the attack. He was also told that the absence of gas would avoid the horrifying spectacle of civilian casualties. Sudan has said 10 people were injured, five seriously.
2. Irish film-maker Irwin Armstrong, visited the plant last year, to make a film & said: AThe Americans have got this completely wrong..I was allowed to wander about quite freely. This is a perfectly normal chemical factory with the things you would expect - steel vats and technicians.@
3. Tom Carnaffin, of Britain worked as a technical manager from 1992 to 1996 for the Baaboud family, who own the plant. "I have intimate knowledge of that factory.. it just isn't equipped to cope with the demands of chemical weapon manufacturing.@ (AClinton knew target was civilian A, Ibid, Guardian, Sunday August 23, 1998).
This evidence, makes the bombing clearly cynical and blatant sabre rattling. The Sudanese Government has insisted upon an independent UN enquiry, but the arrogant USA certainly controls the UN to a great extent. They have made their intention to stone-wall clear: AIn New York, the US deputy ambassador to the United Nations brushed aside demands for an international investigation into US claims that the bombed pharmaceutical factory was a chemical plant linked to terrorist groups. "We don't see any point to it," said Peter Burleigh, who declined to elaborate. (AClinton knew target was civilian A, Ibid, Guardian, Sunday August 23, 1998).
Who Is Osama bin Laden? Bin Laden, is an exiled Saudi millionaire worth $300 million, inherited from his family of engineering magnates. He was AOnce hailed by the CIA as a freedom fighter.. for his role as a fighter, financier and recruiter of the Mojahedin guerrillas who fought the Soviet army occupying Afghanistan during the 1980's. His forces were supplied with weapons by the CIA, and with British-made blowpipe anti-aircraft missiles by MI6.@ (Terrorist made by the USA:The man who is now an enemy had an earlier incarnation as friend of the West@ Richard Norton-Taylor: Guardian; Saturday August 22, 1998). But after the USSR social-imperialists were ejected from Afghanistan, Bin Laden turned against the USA, operating out of Sudan. (Terrorist made by the USA@; Ibid; Guardian; Saturday August 22, 1998). ABin Laden arrived in Afghanistan in 1982 ...He built a following of between 4,000 and 5,000 Arab devotees, who stayed behind after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.@ (America's No 1 target: Osama bin Laden- Attack: the Saudi Arabian millionaire, hero of the Taliban, escaped unharmed from the camps,@ Suzanne Goldenberg; Guardian; Friday August 21, 1998).
There can be no doubt that bin-Laden is a terrorist, with no progressive role. Bin Laden has been involved in several terrorist attacks: AMr Bin Laden and his followers have since been implicated in a series of terrorist attacks, according to Western intelligence. These include the bombings of a Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh in 1995 and of a military barracks near Dhahran a year later - in which 19 Americans died. He described the Dhahran attack as >a laudable kind of terrorism= though denying responsibility. He has been linked to Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center; and his followers have been linked to the massacre of tourists in Luxor, Egypt, last November. A (Terrorist made by the USA@; Ibid; Guardian; Saturday August 22, 1998).
When the USA pressured Sudan, in 1996 by a threat of US sanctions, Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, where the Taliban Islamicists have protected him proclaiming: AEven if all the countries of the world unite, we would defend Osama by our blood,@ said supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.@. (America's No 1 target: Osama bin Laden@; Ibid; Suzanne Goldenberg; Guardian; Friday August 21, 1998). Among the latest goals of Mr Bin Laden is the reactionary February statement of the Islamic International Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders : AWe - with God=s help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God=s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it,= it said. This dictat was signed by Islamic militant leaders in Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.@( Terrorist made by the USA@; Ibid; Guardian; Saturday August 22, 1998).
Especially noxious and reactionary about this AFatwa@ is the licence contained to attack any USA citizen - whether military or not. If Joe Hill was next to Teddy Roosevelt - both would be legitimate targets for bin-Ladin: AThe Front united militants throughout the Muslim world, including two of fundamentalist Islam=s most dangerous groupings - the Egyptian Gam='a al-Islamiya, and Islamic Jihad, responsible for attacks on government officials and foreign tourists & ... issued a Afatwa@..(which) asserts that no distinction should be made between American civilians and servicemen. It is a licence for carnage..@ (AIslam terror plot sparked a global war@; Guardian; Saturday 22 August ByM. Joffe, M. Bright & A. Kemp).
The Heart Of The Problem - USA & Israel Attempted Genocide of the Palestinian People
The climate in the Middle East is certainly anti-American, as it is seen in the light of the Israeli refusal to honor Oslo. The USA is rightly seen as the power behind Israel: AThe impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.. In the Arab and Islamic world, Israel is blamed for the collapse of the Oslo process and the US is accused of allowing it to happen by failing to put effective pressure on the Jewish state.@ (Pax Americana: US seen through prism of relationship Israel By Julian Borger, Guardian, August 21, 1998). Until at the least, a state of Palestine that accords to the Oslo Agreement is allowed, hostility to the USA-Israeli axis will continue. The only Middle Eastern states that are pro-USA states, & in some way support the anti-Bin-laden affair are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. For Egypt, recent warfare with Sudan and territorial disputes fueled its approval of the USA sanction. (Pax Americana: Ibid, Guardian, Friday August 21, 1998). As for Saudi Arabia, they are against bin-Laden but support the Taliban. (Pax Americana: Ibid, Guardian, Friday August 21, 1998). But Iran is: Aon the other hand, is bitterly hostile to the Taliban militia, who were providing protection for Mr Bin Laden. Iranian newspapers even helpfully published geographical details of his camps.@ (Pax Americana: Ibid, Guardian, Friday August 21, 1998). The recent rapprochement between Iran and the USA makes sense of these later developments.
What Is The Progressive Position Here?
Marxist-Leninists have long repudiated individual terrorist acts. Following Lenin they argue that such acts facilitate the capitalist and imperialist suppression of basic democratic freedoms. Under these basic freedoms, it is far easier to organise mass political activity, indeed mass class actions that far surpass the value of individual terror. Individual terror, committed in secrecy and by a few Aelite@ insulated individual heroes and heroines, cannot serve to foster class consciousness; especially when individual workers and peasants are killed or maimed by these actions. Clearly American imperialism, assisted by its stooges in the Middle East - primarily Israel, but also including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and possibly Iran - must be brought down. The USA cynical war-mongering must be stopped. But, again it must be repeated that individual terror is counter-productive to the aspirations of the workers and peasants. What is needed is a Marxist-Leninist party and mass movement in both the Middle Eastern countries and the Western Imperialist home countries. This puts an especial responsibility upon the advanced workers of the USA. It also puts workers in Canada, so close both geographically and politically to the USA. Down With American Imperialism! Down With Israeli Fascism!
Down With Reactionary Islamic Obfuscation!