One Worker’s Perspective on The September 11th 2001 Attacks : 
Observations & Warnings
--------------------------------------------------------------------

2001

People :
----------------------------------

Author : David Van Deusen

Text :
----------------------------------



From Somewhere in the United States of America, September, 2001[1] –One
the morning of September 11th 2001, four commercial airliners were hijacked
and used to destroy popularly perceived centers of U.S. military and
economic power. The outcome of these attacks were, in part, the partial
destruction of the Pentagon, the complete eradication of the World Trade
Center, the death of all persons onboard the four planes, the death of an
untold number of workers from within the fallen buildings, and an the death
of an unconfirmed number of NYC firefighters and ambulance personnel. At
this point reports have been circulated that those operatives responsible
for the attacks held an extreme Muslim Fundamentalist ideology.



I, as an anti-imperialist revolutionary of a poor and working class
perspective, mourn the loss of those thousands of working class people who
were specifically aboard the aircrafts, as well as those custodians,
secretaries, maintenance personnel, bike couriers, firefighters, etc., who
perished with the collapse of the Twin Towers. These are losses whose true
magnitude can only be fathomed by those friends and loved ones who knew
them personally. To them I extend my sincere condolences.



Of course the great number of us in this country did not know any of those
lost. Even so, this tragedy has taken its psychological toll on most of us.
I recognize the fact that many working class persons throughout the United
States are now experiencing deep emotions of anger and fear. However, we
must understand that these are emotions that much of the “third world”
have been feeling for generations. Or more immediately, since the western
capitalist world has targeted foreign people and lands for exploitation.
These emotions here alluded to are just now striking the consciousness of
the people within the United States as the horrors of blood and bombs are
returning home to the very doorstep of imperialism. And here the emotions
seem intense and clear inasmuch as a “first” for everything always
bears an intensity not yet dulled by a dark regularity.



In a word, the intensity of this anger and fear is a symptom of our common
isolation as Americans; isolation from the daily horrors experienced by the
great multitude of laboring and unemployed persons in the Middle East, or
otherwise, who’s daily pallet of existence includes a continuing image of
the blood and rubbish we see spread across the streets of New York City
today. We, the working class and poor of the U.S. may suffer the
humiliation of a daily life of bosses, pay-cuts, bills and any number of
other slights, but one thing our generation has thus far been removed from
has been the deadly attacks of “suicide bombers”, the leveling of
cities, and the mass starvation of our children.



Here we must understand that while the while the acute motivations of those
responsible for these attacks may or may not stem from Islamic dogma, the
broader motivations clearly can be traced to the federal government’s
continuing campaigns of global imperialism. The guns that kill Palestinian
children are produced in American factories. The bombs which kill Iraqi
civilians are dropped from American planes. The massive poverty within the
poor and working class communities in the Middle East and the World over
stem directly from the capitalist policies of the North American ruling
class and their allies as facilitated by the World Trade Organization,
International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Group of Eight.



As this document is being written, the corporate media is repeatedly
portraying the above mentioned anti-democratic, fascist organizations as
defenders of “democracy.” The neo-capitalist powers that be are no more
the defenders of democracy than Islamic Fundamentalism is the defender of
personal freedom. In reality these two ideologies, capitalism and religious
fundamentalism of any stripe, represent different sides of the same coin;
God and State. Both necessitate the dichotomy of ruled and rulers; rich and
poor; master and slave. They both force organic reality to be experienced
through the perceptual grid of hierarchical abstractions.



The way to prevent such future horrific attacks is not through arbitrary
bombings of other countries or the assignation of individuals who may or
may not have been involved. Such actions will only guarantee an escalation
of carnage through retaliation and counter-retaliation. Nor will the
expansion of the domestic police state prove effective in providing
individual security. Israel, for example, is the personification of a
quasi-western police state –yet is bombed more frequently than nearly any
[other industrialized] nation on Earth. Rather, the way to avoid such
future attacks is to eliminate the role of the U.S. and its allies as
economic and military imperialists. It is the western nations which consume
the vast majority of the World’s resources. It is the capitalist ruling
class who reap the great wealth of the Earth through the exploitation of
all poor and working people. It is these contradictions, in conjunction
with the daily poverty and military oppression of the Middle Eastern people
which creates the fertile fields in which these acts of terror are rooted.



Therefore, North American working class revolutionaries like myself must
and will continue to struggle for a materially equitable society based on
direct participatory democracy; a society which does not seek the
homogenization of the World through imperialism, but rather the blooming of
creativity, plenty and liberation through international cooperation and
autonomy. It is only through the emergence of such a truly free society
that the proliferation of anti-social violence (be it U.S. bombs or
religious terror) can be expected to subside.



Here I expect the struggle to become more difficult as the police,
military, and intelligence agencies are given the green light by the
government to begin operating at unprecedented levels of authority. Already
Congress has agreed to provide these “security” agencies an additional
20 billion dollars to carry out undefined actions. Already right-wing
Republicans and liberal Democrats are calling on working people to
passively give up their nominal freedoms so that the state can more easily
manage those who would and do dissent. The illusion of national security is
gained at the expense of the illusion of our civil liberties. What lies
ahead is the police state of random checkpoints, wiretaps, surveillance,
political arrests, raids, assassinations, etc.. Of course this already
happens, and always has (where one finds a state on finds abuse). Only here
it will emerge as a daily reality common enough not to be mistaken as an
anomaly. There is also talk of detaining mass amounts of U.S. citizens of
Middle Eastern origin and/or requiring them to retain special identity
cards. Fascism –no more no less.



We all must be very clear about the fact that the degrading effects which
the rise of the fascist state will necessitate will not be limited to any
one isolated group. Nor will it pertain exclusively to any one ethnic
minority. It will directly affect us all. The strengthening of the police
state will not occur without the open attack of the state against those who
would oppose it. It is no mistake that with the U.S. entrance into World
War I the government rounded up and arrested thousands of working class
community and labor union organizers who correctly understood that it would
be the working class who would die for the benefit of the rich –and who
therefore opposed the war. And as history tends to tragically repeat
itself, I fully expect that it will be us who resist the rich man’s
paradigm of “democratic” exploitation that they will come for again. I
accept this challenge as inevitable, but still I will not fight in their
proposed war, and I will not tolerate the rise of fascism in the land that
I live. I will continue to organize and I will resist. As to the exact form
that my resistance will take –well every moment demands its own events
which in turn imply a relevant response. I will do what I have to, and I
hope you do the same.



No War



But



Class War.


[1] This article was first published anonymously in Barricada magazine,
2001.



     From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

Events :
----------------------------------

     One Worker’s Perspective on The September 11th 2001 Attacks --
Publication : November 30, 2000

     One Worker’s Perspective on The September 11th 2001 Attacks -- Added
: April 19, 2020

     One Worker’s Perspective on The September 11th 2001 Attacks --
Updated : January 03, 2022

About This Textfile :
----------------------------------

     Text file generated from : 
http://revoltlib.com/