Statement from Freedom Road Socialist Organization

The destruction of the World Trade Center, and the attack on the Pentagon, is being used to fan anti-Arab racism and a march to war. We call on all activists in the peace, justice, and anti-intervention movements to resist this reactionary tide.

We believe all progressive activists should consider the following points:

• Don’t believe everything you hear. Right now it is not known who is behind these events. We reject the assumption that it was carried out by Arab or Islamic forces. Media speculation that this or that country is responsible, is an attempt to build pro-war sentiment. Even when the U.S. does try to pin it on somebody, we know that there is a past track record of these accusations being false, for example the destruction of the pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. The road to every U.S. war in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, has been paved with lies.
• The U.S. government and reactionary forces will use this as a pretext to attack people abroad and at home. We need to plan now and unite the U.S. peace and justice movement, to oppose U.S. attacks anywhere in the world. We must also be prepared to oppose anti-Arab violence here in the U.S. given the media frenzy to blame Arab peoples for this attack.
• We share the grief of the relatives and friends of the victims and we convey our condolences to them. Also, we have to recognize that this is a case of the chicken’s coming home to roost. U.S. foreign policy around the world creates a climate that causes these events. Latin America is a checkerboard of U.S. supported death squads, especially Colombia, Israel is carrying out assassinations with U.S. backing and dollars, and one and a half million people have been killed by sanctions in Iraq.
• This is no time for the peace and justice movement to be laying low. We favor an active response to any measures taken by the U.S. government. The peace, justice, and anti-intervention movements are facing a great challenge. It is vital that we speak out against racism, national chauvinism, any repressive measures the U.S. government might undertake at home to undermine our right to organize, protest and struggle for justice, and all attacks against countries or forces outside of the U.S.

Over the past ten years many of us in the anti-intervention movement have stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of U.S. attacks and wars against Iraq, Sudan, Colombia, and Yugoslavia. The U.S. war machine is now going into hyper-drive. The tasks ahead of us are clear. The Bush administration is planning war. We must do everything in our power to stop them. We must make it clear that violence and harassment directed at the Arab and Moslem communities will not be tolerated. Everything possible must be done to beat back these attacks.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization
P.O. Box 582564
Minneapolis MN 55440
USA

www.frso.org
info@frso.org