The real face of 'A.N.S.W.E.R'

Your statement "'ANSWER' the front group for the Stalinist Worker's World Party, shows that it doesn't want peace, but in fact a Taliban victory." is a misrepresentation. The quote, "And, just as anyone who opposed colonialism had to sympathize with the Afghans against the British invaders of the 19th century, regardless of the class character of Afghanistan's leaders, so today all around the world who know that imperialist rule brings only oppression, poverty and humiliation of the masses want the Afghans to succeed in their resistance to the U.S.-British war.", states that people around the world want such and such ... This quote DOES NOT SAY that the WWP wants such and such ... This quote that you provided is just a statement of world opinion which is intended to counter the false implication by the corporate press that world opinion is behind the current carpet bombing/slaughter in Afghanistan.

What is the left doing? Well, first off there is a much larger coalition here in New York called "Not in Our Name." While its marches are not bigger, the number of activists and different organizations certainly is. Workers World excels at postering. They do almost nothing but mobilize around international issues and promote their front groups. When an issue is captivating, they are able to moblize mass support around the issue effectively, while avoiding a clear discussion of their politics.Other groups are torn because they have different responsibilities and can't just decide to become anti-war groups. WWP uses this dynamic to seize the initiative, at least in the early moments of an international conflict.

Regarding covering them: they get coverage when they have events. Just as the liberals do and the conservatives. Their misguided, and ultimately dangerous politics, are not the issue. News is news. Just because the mainstream press is censoring them doesn't mean Indymedia should as well. Anyone can post just like you did to at least try and set the record straight.

Sidenotes: They are actually followers of Leon Trotsky, not Stalin.

Regarding their "support" of the Taliban as culled from the following quote:

" And, just as anyone who opposed colonialism had to sympathize with the Afghans against the British invaders of the 19th century, regardless of the class character of Afghanistan's leaders, so today all around the world who know that imperialist rule brings only oppression, poverty and humiliation of the masses want the Afghans to succeed in their resistance to the U.S.-British war."

This is not support of the Taliban. In fact, I believe they supported the Soviet invasion of Afganistan back in the late 70s and through the 80s constantly talked about CIA collusion with the Mujahadeen. While this may seem wildly inconsistant, it follows from their "Global Class War Thesis."

Global Class War argues that the fact of imperialism, particularly Western imperialism is the key issue of the day. They oppose all US efforts internationally, whether military, social, political or economic. Another way of putting it is that they view the US as the "main danger."

Obviously this is some crude thinking. It has led them to actively champion Milosevic, Saddam Hussein's regime and the Tienamen Square massacre. On the latter, they actually held public meetings in New York in "solidarity" with the Chinese regime. Truly their ideology is a sickness.

I agree that US imperialism is the biggest problem in the world today. The US is not, however, singularly "evil." That's the same kind of stupid thinking Bush is encouraging and is a major departure from the Marxist roots that WWP claims.

Nations are not classes and reactionary third world forces, such as Hussein, the Iranian mullahs and the Taliban, are not our allies, friends or ugly cousins. They are servants of international capitalism at best, of feudal horror at worst.

We have a responsibility to oppose all US wars on principle: the empire has got to fall. But not at the price of ignoring reality, soft-pedaling the crimes of third world dictators and selling out our comrades in those countries.

If you think there is a 'dime's worth of difference' between your beliefs and those of the WWP, please let me know the name of your crack dealer.

Both you and they see 'US imperialism as the world's biggest problem'.

As Christopher Hitchens recently said of Oliver Stone, you are both a moral, and an intellectual idiot.

PK

Kincaid -

Make a coherent argument based on facts if you can!!! Tell us what you stand for and why based on reasoned analysis and your moral virtues. I doubt that you can actually do that.

Actually, I think the 'affirmative' side carries the burden of proof.

First off, as an anarchist volunteering for the ANSWER coalition, it's unfair to point out that ANSWER is just some silly front group. There are several other extremely large organizations who are members of ANSWER and it doesnt mean that groups like Jews Against the Occupation, Bohemian Grove Action Network, Bay Area CISPES and Green Party USA are necessarily Trots.

Pat Kincaid is pro-capitalist and doesnt believe Mumia should be free.

Pat, if the affirmative side has the burden of proof then I guess it's on you as a supporter of the war. I'm against the war and have yet to get:

1) proof Bin-Laden or al Queda did it.

2) evidence that US wars improve third world countries

3) a date this war really started

Here's the rub, friend. It's so simple really. I believe that all human life has equivelant value. Arab, Jew, American, German. I abhor the nazis and the US firebombing of Dresden. Civilians were murdered in their masses by many.

I don't think the US is the problem, I think Imperialism is. Imperialism means permanent war and I won't fight it. Unfortunately, it has come to me. Unlike you (or the orther ideologues posting here) I was personally pushed out of my house by the attack on the WTC. I lived in downtown Manhattan about 6 blocks from the Center. I watched people fall out of the burning building for 40 minutes before they all came down. I wept in the streets with my lover and neighbors and now live in fucking Queens because I can't afford an apartment anywhere else.

But my suffering is not special or different that some Afgani in a camp in its essential nature. I was just born in Rome, they in provinces. We are both victims of a war we didn't ask for. I opposed funding the Mujahadeed in the 1980s because it's just not our business. Now it is my business and I'm not holding my tongue because some imperial courtier like Hitchens hates Muslims.

Regarding the clear difference between someone like me and WWP, it's pretty simple: I believe in the power of people to make history, not be props in some dictators rally. I belive dignity is a prereqisite for freedom, as well as the other way around. I'm not an opportunist who reduces history to simple ideas that by their nature distort the problem, as well as the solution. I don't want a Russian empire instead of an american one or a british one or whatever. I want us to live in the commons of the world, free from the tyranny of capitalists and governments that manipulate our solidarity into jingoism so they can continue their investments and other assorted garbage.

WWP believes in their great satan theory and that's their business. But I'm not a liar, an opportunist or a crank. I'm one young man, in love, in New York at the start of the 21st century.

I shouldn't have to prove my credibility, but since you flanut yours:

1) I live in Brooklyn Heights, and the first 2 nights after Sept. 11, I had to get up twice to puke, the smoke was so acrid.

2) I work downtown and used to work in WFC. I used to walk through the lobby of WTC every working day, and some weekends too. Right about the time the planes struck.

3) I don't appreciate the slight at Queens, as it's where I grew up.

1) proof Bin-Laden or al Queda did it.
Osama's own statments convict him, aside from any other proof. It's funny - the people who 'deny Bin-Laden did it', simultaneously celebrate him. It's kind of like the Nazi revisionists, who while denying the Holocaust, have as their most fervent wish that it had only been more successful.


2) evidence that US wars improve third world countries
I suppose it depens how you define 'Third World', but South Korea is a good example. Needless to say, the U.S., through its victories in WWII, Korea, and the Cold War has liberated more people around the world than any government in history. Ask the Lithuanians, French, Dutch, Czechs, Estonians, Phillipinos, Mongols, Uzbeks, Italians, the list goes on.

3) a date this war really started
I'm not sure what that means.

Lastly, if all life is equivalent, there is no different between attacker and victim, raper and rapist, murderer and killed. It is a morally bankrupt vision.